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There are many types of seasonings for your kitchen - from various types of salt and pepper to very exotic cultural blends. If you learn how to use them properly, you can really add a great deal of flavor and variety to your everyday cooking. Some of the basic seasoning groups are detailed below and how to best use them for your foods. Salt and pepper are the most basic and most used spices in the world. Of course, when you talk about salt and pepper, people just think of granulated salt and black pepper that is already ground. These are just very basic examples of the salt and pepper that is out there. For example, rock salt is a great variation of salt. It has much larger crystals and has a stronger flavor. Sea salt is loved by many chefs and is thought of as a more natural tasting salt for the kitchen. You also can buy kosher salt, iodized salt and black salt, believe it or not. The sorts of pepper you can buy is also vast, including chili pepper, jalapeno pepper, cayenne pepper, white pepper and so many others. Each has its own level of spiciness and its own unique flavor notes. The next type of seasoning is herbs and spices. An herb is usually fresh or dry leaves from the tender parts of plants. They are usually ground up and put in jars to be used as seasoning. Spices are usually the seasoning that is made from any other part of the plant other than the leaves. This would include the root, stem, bark, fruit or buds. These terms are not totally definitive. Chefs around the world tend to use the terms herbs and spices to mean different things. But generally, we find that herbs will usually have a more mild sort of flavor. Spices will usually have a stronger taste. Some of the more common herbs used in cooking include basil, parsley, thyme, dill and rosemary. Spices that are very popular in the kitchen include paprika, ginger, saffron and cumin. Garlic is also a very popular spice. Interestingly, some herbs and spices come from the different parts of one plant. These include dill seed and dill weed. Two herbs called cilantro and coriander also come from the identical plant. But they are harvested at different points in the growth cycle of the plant. There also are many herbs and spices that come from slightly different varieties of the same plant. There are, for example, many different sorts of basil: Thai, lemon, royal and more. Also, remember that basil is simply a type of mint, and there are many varieties of mint as well. Another type of seasoning that is very common is the very many types of seasoning blends. Some of the most common seasoning blends in the supermarket today are Cajun, creole, Italian and others. Some of these blends are made to complement some types of food, such as poultry, fish or beef. There also are seasoning blends that are made for grilling. You can get a seasoning blend that is either wet or dry. Dry types will only have herbs and spices that are blended. One of the most common is garlic salt. Onion salt is another popular variety. A wet blend of seasoning blend is a liquid that has seasonings that were mixed together with oil or vinegar. The most common wet seasonings in America are ketchup and mustard. Some others are soy sauce, Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce. One of the most common Indian spice blends is curry. Curry is not a single spice from one plant. It actually comes from several different plants. Lawrence Reaves writes for Hamilton Beach, a kitchen appliance company that offers a selection of products ranging froms slow cookers to toasters. For more information about these products please visit the site here.
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