…Other than salt and pepper

For me it’s cumin. It’s one of the few spices I buy in bulk and actually use up my supply.

In the winter it may lean towards cardamom thanks to copious amounts of chia.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Garlic (usually the refrigerated kind from a jar) and cumin. Dried onion can be acceptable if you don’t have time to chop an onion. Coarse ground black pepper has a distinctly different flavor than the kind that goes on the table. Crushed red pepper flakes really help revive leftover Italian, Mexican, and Thai food. And it’s situational, but I am really starting to like Aleppo pepper quite a bit.

        • Decq@lemmy.world
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          12 days ago

          I use way too much garlic to bother with a press. Just chop it. It’s faster, easier to clean and you can more easily vary the size of the garlic bits.

        • memfree@piefed.social
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          12 days ago

          Don’t use a press – just smash with a big knife, pull off the paper, and chop a little. Jarred doesn’t taste the same. Jar-garlic is why I won’t buy Costco’s garlic ‘wings’ yet will buy the Rotisserie chicken right next to it: the ‘wings’ have an enormous excess of garlic, but it all tastes like ‘jar’ and only faintly like garlic.

          • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            Apparently my palate is not so refined. I can definitely tell that one is better than the other, but only slightly.

            • HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca
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              12 days ago

              I’ve heard this a lot actually. Maybe it’s like the cilantro thing. Some people taste it differently.

              It’s a huge difference for me. Night and day. Garlic and…sour memories of garlic.

              • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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                12 days ago

                Interesting. You might be right. The whole “does x taste the same to me as it does to you” question is fascinating, and I hadn’t thought about it here. For me, jarred garlic lacks a bit of the bite and spice of fresh garlic, and tends to be weaker after cooking, but I don’t associate it with any sour flavor. Basically, it’s “rounded-off” garlic to me.

                Now I’m curious how you experience powdered garlic. That tastes even less strong to me than jarred, and maybe slightly processed, but I wonder if that has a stronger effect on your palate.

          • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            Yeah, I’d definitely prefer to use fresh garlic, no doubt. But…take this morning. I put a pork shoulder in the crock pot for carnitas at dinner. I chopped the onion and the jalapeno. Chopping the garlic, too, would’ve practically doubled my prep time, because it needs so much of it, and I was already late for work as it was.