SpiceLines

“Could you PLEASE, PLEASE send me your bread-pudding recipe from your original book—my husband gave it to me years ago with a wonderful message comparing our marriage as a mixture of ‘spices.’”—Elaine Acosta, in an email to Paul Prudhomme, from “Comforting Food: Recapturing Recipes Katrina Took Away,” by Rick Brooks, The Wall Street Journal, August 26-27, 2006, p. A1.

Ian Hemphill's herb and spice "encyclopedia" lays out guidelines
for creating vibrant spice blends.

Like spouses in a good marriage, spices complement each other when they are properly combined. A sprinkle of hot, freshly ground black pepper perks up a blend of sweet spices—like cinnamon, allspice and vanilla—which might be otherwise be cloying. Tangy spices like sumac, with its bright acidic edge, give zest to the earthy flavors of the Middle Eastern mixture za’atar. And then there are mildly aromatic spices like coriander and fennel that pull diverse tastes together—acting as mediators, of a sort, to create a harmonious marriage of flavors.

In his superb reference book, The Spice and Herb Bible, Sydney-based spice merchant Ian Hemphill offers some useful rules for blending spices. The book embodies all that Hemphill has learned about his métier during a lifetime in the business: As a boy, he worked in his parents’ herb nursery, then ran a spice company in Singapore before returning to Australia to set up his own outfit, dubbed Herbie’s after a childhood nickname. The firm’s wide-ranging catalogue of 300 spices, herbs and flavorings--which includes tantalizing items like Australian wattle seed, brown cardamom from Bhutan and Egyptian rose petals—can be seen at www.herbies.com.au. The book devotes detailed chapters to nearly 100 herbs and spices: where they come from, how to use them (with recipes), how to buy and store them--and how to combine them.

Hemphill writes, “The art of making a good spice blend is to bring a range of different kinds of tastes and textures together so they create an ideal balance that tantalizes the taste buds.” As a starting point, he divides spices into five basic flavor categories and suggests relative quantities to use when creating a blend:

Sweet (2 teaspoons): allspice, aniseed, cassia, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla;

Pungent (1/2 teaspoon): ajowan, asafetida, bush tomato, calamus, caraway, cardamom, celery seed, cloves, cumin, dill seed, fenugreek seed, galangal, ginger, juniper, licorice, mace, nigella, orris root, star anise wattleseed, zedoary;

Tangy (1 teaspoon): amchur, barberry, black lime, caper, kokam, pomegranate, sumac, tamarind;

Hot (1/2 teaspoon): chilli, horseradish, mustard, pepper;

Amagamating (5 teaspoons): coriander seed, fennel seed, paprika, poppy seed, sesame seed, turmeric.

A few more ideas:

1. Consider the intensity of flavor and aroma of individual spices within each category and adjust accordingly when mixing. As Hemphill points out, “although pepper and chilli are both hot spices, the relative differences in their flavour and heat strength makes some variation in quantity appropriate.”
2. When measuring spices for blends, measure by weight or by volume, but do not mix the two methods.
3. Allow spice mixtures to mellow for 24 hours before using them, so that the ingredients can balance out.

And a final tip: Consider the suggested proportions a starting point. Your own taste buds will guide you to the right combination. In spice blending as in all cooking—and even in marriage--you must know the rules before you can bend them.

Herbie's Spice Blend for Steak
(from The Spice and Herb Bible by Ian Hemphill)

Hemphill created this spice blend for sprinkling on steak before grilling. It includes spices from all the flavor categories--sweet, pungent, sour, hot and amalgamating—in the recommended proportions, although he has slightly increased the quantity of black pepper for a spicier touch.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon amchur powder (see note)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground chilli (see note)
5 teaspoons ground sweet paprika

Method:

Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Allow the blend to mellow overnight before using. Rub on steaks or other meat 20-30 minutes before grilling.

Note: Amchur powder comes from the dried unripe fruit of the mango tree. It not only adds a pleasantly tangy note to the spice mix, but also serves as a meat tenderizer. It can be found in Indian food markets or ordered from www.herbies.com.au and as "amchoor powder" from www.kalustyans.com.

As for the chilli, you can experiment with any pure ground chili pepper. See Penzey’s website for mild ancho peppers (3,000 Scoville units), Turkish Aleppo peppers (10,000 units) or smoky chipotles (15,000 units).

In September 2006, the 2nd edition of The Herb and Spice Bible by Ian Hemphill will be available from www.amazon.com.