Easy Herb Spice Blends You Can Make at Home From Your Own Garden
Do you want to get more out of the herbs and spices in your garden? If so, why not try making your own herb spice blends? Blending herbs and spices allows you to create flavors that are unique to your tastes, and it’s a great way to use any herbs and spices that may be left over from your garden.
Creating custom herb and spice blends at home adds extra flavor complexity to your food. Home cooks can eliminate additives and gain complete control over their ingredients with the right equipment and knowledge. Making an herb and spice blend at home can save you money compared to buying a commercially-produced blend. This blog post will explore the benefits of making herb and spice blends from home, the equipment needed to get started, tips for choosing herbs, creating spice blends, and storing your creations.
The Benefits of Making Spice Blends at Home
Making your herb and spice blends gives you access to more complex flavors that are tailored to your individual preferences. Having complete control over the ingredients that go into your blends means you can make them as complex or as simple as desired. You can also choose which herbs and spices to include in your blends, depending on how you plan on using them later. Finally, creating custom blends at home is usually much more cost-effective than buying pre-made products from the store.
Equipment Needed
If you plan on making custom herb and spice blends from home, there is some basic equipment you will need. Grinders are one of the most important tools for fragmentation, which helps release the flavor compounds stored inside each blend component. Manual grinders work great for herbs and spices, though electric versions better suited for larger quantities are also available. Other helpful tools include mortars and pestles, coffee grinders, blenders, food processors, or a blender stick with a glass container instead of a regular blender base. Once you’ve ground the herbs and spices, it’s important to store them in properly sealed containers to keep them fresh and flavorful.
Choosing Herbs To Create Spice Blends
When selecting herbs for your custom blended spices, it’s important to consider their flavor profiles; an in-depth understanding of this subject is crucial in creating successful recipes. Common herbs such as sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and basil bring distinct flavor notes to any blend. If you enjoy gardening or have a raised garden bed at home, you can easily grow your herbs during any season for all kinds of recipes.
Creating Spice Blends
Once all of your ingredients have been selected and ground, assemble them into a unique blend. Roasting various components together helps create unique seasoning combinations. When selecting each ingredient for a blend, think about how they will complement each other in terms of flavor intensity. When done correctly, these combinations create versatile seasoning blends that can be used for different dishes like meats, salads, or even soups.
Storing and Using Spice Blends
Once your blends are completed, they should be stored in airtight containers away from heat or light sources, as these things will affect their flavor profiles negatively. Spices stored this way usually keep their properties and flavors for nearly half a year after they were created, so they pay off in terms of savings compared to buying commercial products. When using spices, always remember less is more, so start small when adding seasoning components until you reach the desired flavor effect.
Conclusion
Making herb and spice blends at home is an easy, cost-effective way to customize meals with intense flavor combinations that reflect your preferences. With basic equipment and knowledge about common herbs and their flavor profiles, it’s easy to start making great-tasting seasonal blends from your garden.