The Beginner's Guide to Cooking with Spices (with Testing)

When making a recipe, we are constantly told to do any number of techniques, but often not told why we even do them. And today, I wanted to explore the question of applying heat to spices, because learning how spices work is one of the most powerful lessons that you can learn as a home cook. For example, does it actually do anything when I toast whole spices and grind them up before adding them to sauce, or can I just use some pre-ground ones? Or optionally, should I bloom my spices in oil first, or can I just add them to the sauce at the end? And if these do do something, the real question is, how much of a difference does it actually make? Is this something that I should be incorporating all the time, or is it more like, yeah, if I've got the time, go for it, but if not, probably not a big deal. So what better way to practice than with a chicken curry, where I ran four different experiments with the help of another legendary food YouTuber and willing taste tester to see what we can learn. Oh, this is cool, because this is helpful for me. Yeah, and again, like, once- That right there just kind of blew my mind. Yeah. Back to back. Yeah. Everything's changed. And again, like- Now, before we get to the experiments, we need to do a quick primer on aroma molecules, because the whole point of cooking with herbs and spices is to liberate the aroma molecules in these spices and deliver them to their dish, which then get to our nose. And it's a concept that's both really simple and quite complex at the same time. So let's break it down. Let's start with a 10-second experiment to showcase why spices' main role is to provide aromas. So you can take anything edible you happen to have on hand, could be some spices, or here I've just got some blueberry seltzer. No surprise there. We would probably say this tastes like blueberries. But what if I told you it actually doesn't taste like blueberries? It actually smells like blueberries. And how do I know this? Well, I'm gonna plug my nose and take another sip. With my nose closed, I can't smell anything, and it just tastes like plain water. But as soon as I let my nose back open, I can immediately tell that this was blueberry-flavored. So why is this little experiment important? Well, flavor is equal to aroma plus taste. But remember, there are only five tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. On the other hand, as noted in the flavor equation by Nick Sharma, our nose has over 400 odor receptors that can perceive more than one trillion types of aromas at extremely low quantities. Also, if you are wondering how that number is so big, it's like that permutation formula that we learned back for standardized testing back in the day. It's like one aroma molecule can attach to one or more odor receptors, and one odor receptor can also attach to one or more single aroma molecules. Not really the important part. What is the important part to take away is that aromas are everything, and applying aroma molecules to food is what creates this massively complex and deep and intoxicating world of food that we get to live in every day. Aromas are why some people love cilantro and some people hate it. It's also why plugging your nose is actually a useful way to eat something that you don't like. So you may be wondering, what exactly are these aroma molecules? You know, is there a blueberry aroma molecule and no, there isn't. It's a little bit more complex than that. So we tend to think that a particular herb or spice has a distinctive and singular aroma. You know, cumin smells like cumin, rosemary smells like rosemary, vanilla smells like vanilla, but each of these is actually a mixture of several different aroma molecules that create a composite smell that our nose identifies as a particular herb or spice. Now, this chart from On Food and Cooking can show you the specific aroma molecules that make up the smell. We identify with specific spices, but that's a little bit beyond the scope of this video. If you guys do want a deeper dive video, I can do that at some point. So the big thing to know with spices is that they're gonna have a variety of these aroma molecules, and these can be categorized into three broad categories as noted in the flavor equation. First, you have your top or head notes, and these are the first aromas you detect and also the ones that fade away immediately. Second, you have your middle or heart notes, and these are the main aromas you detect after the top notes. And then finally, you have your bottom or base notes, and these are the notes that you detect for a long time. Now, building on this, it is also noted by Nick Sharma that aroma molecules have three characteristics. One, they are small and light in weight. Two, they are volatile at room temperature so they can travel through the air to the nose. And three, they can talk with odor receptors. From this information is how we can conclude that aroma molecules in spices react with light, air, and heat, which are all present while cooking because we can decide how to deliver those aroma molecules. For example, fresh basil's top notes are absolutely intoxicating, but when we dry basil, it actually loses all of the top notes. I mean, could you imagine making pesto with dried basil? Probably would not be great. Now, this whole concept of aroma molecules may still be a little abstract at this point, but we're gonna move into the practice portion of the video with the experiments, and they'll start to make it a lot more concrete because as we'll see, even making tiny little changes with when or how we're using these spices can make massive differences in the final dish. Experiment number one is simple. What's the difference between toasted and untoasted whole spices? So, roasting spices is pretty interesting because there are several possible outcomes. Remember from earlier, aroma molecules are light and volatile so they're gonna react and change when exposed to air, light, and heat. So first, I'm gonna be altering the aroma molecules by adding heat, which is likely gonna drive those top notes off and mellow out the spices. Secondly, I'm creating new aromas through the browning process itself, and then third, I'm gonna extract those aroma molecules when I actually grind them all up together, creating a whole new aromatic profile for my garam masala. Now, this is all good in theory, but how different are these two things gonna smell? Well, instead of me telling you I had a willing blind taste tester share his experience. All right, everybody, so now it's time to put the theory to the test, which is my actual favorite part. I brought Mike from Pro Home Cooks, so he's gonna actually go through all the tests. I'll be there with him, but he has no idea which one is which, and we're gonna first start with the smell test. So I have two containers here. You guys will know which one is which, but I'll let Mike go first. Just sniff them and just kinda tell me your thoughts. Sniffing salts, ooh, that's a nice scent just in general. That could be a candle. Very earthy and floral. I think those two sniffs are coming in strong. Yeah, it's interesting when you've got nothing to kind of go off of, but it smells good. Totally different. I mean, floral again, but completely mellowed out or like muted. This one hits you hard, and again, it's like you know if you lit that candle, like it would smell up your whole house real nice. It doesn't smell like a bunch of spices. Like you're not picking up like those intense, earthy spice tones. So if you had to guess, which one would you say is toasted and which one is not toasted? I'll say this straight up. They're completely different. It's like it couldn't be more different, which is crazy. I think the, my guess is that the more subtle one is toasted, like the flavor's kind of mellowed out a bit compared to the pungent one. Yeah, that's exactly right. So and that's kinda what I was noticing right after I blended them. Like with the untoasted one, I feel like you get the top end like, it's more like bright and floral, whereas this one. The pepper that like you taste and like boom. Yeah, whereas like this one, you get the earthy, nutty like roastiness, and it is like completely different, which like completely as expected, right? Like roasting changes. Yeah, it makes me very excited for the taste. Exactly. You can see how much smells and tastes are you know, completely different playing fields. Yep, so we're gonna move to experiment number two, and this really is, so obviously there's a big difference here in the smell, but what I wanted to test is if we actually put these on something to cook with them, are we still able to pick up on as much difference as we're smelling right here? Now for experiment number two, this just builds on the first. Does the toasted garam masala make a difference once it's actually cooked with as part of a dish? So for this one, I created identical marinades for some chopped chicken thighs by adding salt and lemon juice and just letting that sit. Then I created a yogurt marinade with a bunch of ginger and garlic, some ground cumin, ground paprika, and mixed that together. I poured the marinades over the chicken, and then the only difference between these two batches is one spoonful of the untoasted garam masala and one spoonful of the toasted garam masala. So each batch was marked and then left to marinate for one hour. After that, I broiled them under the oven until they were brown and cooked through before setting them on separate plates to give them a taste test. Now I will say I was supremely skeptical that there really would be a difference here, but let's see what Mike has to say. Okay, so we've got test number two now. Now we're actually gonna eat. So I've prepared some chicken, one with the toasted garam masala, one was used untoasted garam masala. And there are some other spices in there that weren't a part of this spice mix. So it's one of many ingredients actually, which is like, you know, it's a fairly simple use case of how we cook. So that's what I'm interested to see now is like, if it's just one component that's untoasted, toasted, how are we able to still perceive it as different? And then you're getting, but either way, you're toasting these ingredients to some degree, right? When they cook, yeah. So it's almost like maybe a little double toast and then a mild toast. Yep, yep. Is this all I'm eating? Oh, we'll have a whole meal at the end with both. Yeah, yeah, don't worry, don't worry. Okay, so taste test. Never taste test, so like it's funny to like think about flavors. A good experiment. Yeah, I love doing side-by-side things because like you never try it and then once you do, you're like, oh. And it's only like you can hear a bunch of bullshit on the internet, but what I found is the only way to know if something's real when it comes to cooking and technique or whatever is to do this. Yeah, you gotta try it. You know, there could be misinformation for hundreds of years until like you do it and you're like, actually. Okay, so that was good. The flavors popped. The spice definitely, it hit pretty hard. Almost like the untoasted one, I feel like. That would be my thought straight up before tasting this. Yeah, I think that is more pleasant. You're smiling, I feel like I'm on the right track. That tastes more like that toned down, the flavors meld together, they work together and it's a little more, it's not, I wouldn't say more enjoyable. I'm enjoying it more because the flavors just mend and it's smooth, it's like a glass of whiskey that's smooth versus like, oh ----, that hit me hard. So I would say this is the toasted. Yeah, no, you're right on the ball again. Oh, this is cool because this is helpful for me. Yeah, and again, like once- That right there just kind of blew my mind. Yeah. Back to back, everything's changed. And again, literally the only difference in this one was just a half teaspoon of the toasted versus the untoasted garam masala. So when I was tasting these two, I picked up on the same thing, they're very different. This one, it hits you hard and you get different notes kind of like the top end floral ones. That's why Indian cuisine, you toast, you also add raw spice, like you can mix these things and make them work together, but overall this is so much more pleasant. Yeah. Like just straight up, you might like that, you might be into that and there's a place for the intensity, but that just works well. It's just smooth. Yeah, I think that's like the big takeaway, at least for this specific test is it's just like more cohesive and like blends well together. We're like, this is kind of more in your face, top end like brightness floral from like no toasting or anything. It's just like the easiest way to explain it is it's just a nicer experience. Yeah. A nicer taste. Okay, so experiment number two is done. Now we're gonna move to experiment number three, which is actually tasting the sauces. I'm not gonna explain it now. I'm gonna let you taste first and tell you what I did differently after you taste both of them. Experiment number three is a little bit different than the first two. What is the difference between bloom spices that are cooked in the sauce versus unbloomed spices that are added right at the end? So blooming is a process where spices are cooked in the oil, usually along with some aromatics. And so again, I would expect this to alter the aroma molecules and create new ones with the cooking. But additionally, fat is interesting because a lot of aroma molecules are fat soluble. So it's actually going to hold onto those flavors and deliver them throughout the sauce compared to the second one where I literally just tossed all the spices in right at the end of cooking. Again, these are two identical batches of sauce other than the timing of the spices. Let's see what Mike thinks. All right, experiment number three. So this is just the sauce and I tweaked like two things. I'm just gonna let you taste them and then you can taste both and then give me kind of what you're thinking or as you go through each one. Definitely seems pretty pungent, tasty. There's a coarseness to things. I don't know if that, we'll see textural. Texture-wise, we'll see how those compare. Yeah, I'm getting a little spice on the back end. Yeah. Similar texture. I can definitely like pick out the spice in that. Like, oh my God, that's cumin in there. Yep. It hits you more. So my initial thought would be that that is untoasted, unbloomed, right? Yep, yep. Yeah, again, this is more, now that I'm going back to this, this one feels again, more refined, more blended, more subtle. Yeah, that one is like boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, and that was kind of my big takeaway too is like the cohesiveness of the dish. Like this like fits nicely together. Like one thing's not trying to overpower it. Whereas like this one, for me it tastes, since I added the spices way at the end, they didn't go through like 30 minutes of cooking. It tastes very tomatoey. It tastes very spicy. It tastes disjointed rather than where this one's much more cohesive and together. Yeah, it's smooth. And yeah, that's like kind of, I hope the big takeaway is it's like, one's not inherently better. You may like this one more, but just changing up the timing of when we're doing, changing, toasting your spices before you grind them up after is making very noticeable differences in our final product. So last thing, we're just gonna make a nice dish with each of the untoasted, kind of the suboptimal one versus the optimal one. And just kind of go through a whole dish and see kind of how they taste together. Yeah, now we can fully eat, yeah. Now, lastly, for experiment number four, we just had to make a whole dish of each. And basically I made an optimized and an unoptimized version so added some rice to a plate, then come in with a garam masala, the toasted, the bloomed and the untoasted and the unbloomed sauce to see how much of a difference these are going to make in the final dish. All right, so not as much as a final test, but more just wanted to see what they're like when they're completely together. So this is gonna be the untoasted garam masala on the chicken and with the unbloomed spices. This one is with the toasted garam masala and the bloomed spices, so. Are these peppercorns toasted for the pickled onions? Those are not. Those are just put in there. Those untoasted spices. Just not about them. Holy ----. I don't know what that, that might have been what it was. Yeah, it just, I think it's like the biggest thing is just like, it's so much more cohesive and like smooth. I think like that is the biggest kind of takeaway that I take from this is that it kind of rounds out everything. It makes it just as you're not constantly getting hit. All right, everyone. So I think at the conclusion, obviously toasting spices does change the dish quite a bit. We tested each component down through the line. We're able to clearly pick up on a lot of the differences. And then in the final dish, it's going to make a huge difference too. And it's just from toasting spice ahead of time, or maybe changing the timing of when you're adding it. You can take our word for it, or if you want to try it for yourselves, like absolutely do, but. I think moral of the story is once you do these A-B tests, it, your confidence levels in the kitchen go up so much. Cause you know, you know, you can take our word, but like once you know, then it's over. Yeah, yeah. And exactly. All right, everybody. So hopefully you have enjoyed the video and learned a little something along the way. And now that we have gone through the experiment side, maybe go back and watch that science-based upfront piece. I know it was probably a lot of information in the beginning, but should more make more sense with the context of the experiments. And these experiments were just a couple of techniques on how to use spices. Really, there's so many different ways you could use them. But again, the main goal is just to liberate the aroma molecules that we want from the spices, deliver them to the food, which then when we eat them hits those odor receptors. And that along with the five tastes is what's going to make delicious tasting and flavorful food. So let me know down in the comments too, if you guys have feedback on these types of videos. They're definitely harder for me to put together and kind of conceptualize. So I'm always looking for feedback on how I can make it maybe a little bit quicker or just more enjoyable or more valuable. But hopefully you guys have enjoyed. I will catch you all in the next one. Peace, y'all.