6 ms·

Lessons from growing up in the spice trade

47 points by Vigier 10y ago

Pica_soO 10y ago
>Spices don’t go bad Some spices contain oils and fats. Those substances go rancid with age like any other substance. And there are fungi.
conorcleary 10y ago
Couple things: salt grinders are an alternative to putting rice in your shaker to prevent clumping. If it's already clumped, grind it. Also - sea salt marketed as sea salt tastes different from iodized table salt. That's what people want, the different taste. It may have come from the same general place (...sea), but it still tastes different. Just like McDo's fries vs. Wendy's.... I prefer the salt that McDo's uses.
- NikolaeVarius 10y ago
  It tastes different because, to the best of my knowledge, sea salt is flaky versus the beads of "normal" salt. They dissolve on your tongue differently causing a different amount of salt taste. They aren't different in any other way. Also the lack of any Dune references was disappointing.
  - nyolfen 10y ago
    seriously, it drives me crazy that people think there's any meaningful difference between salts besides marketing. it's NaCl, sometimes with iodine or small impurities. people buy himalayan salt because it sounds exotic, but it's just salt.
    - draw_down 10y ago
      To me this is like saying "what's the big difference between water and ice? It's all H2O". As it turns out, the arrangement of the molecules has some importance. If you put iodized table salt on top of a brownie instead of something flaky like Maldon, you're going to have a bad time.
davidw 10y ago
I'm kind of disappointed this wasn't along the lines of "Watch out for those giant sandworms", but it was pretty interesting just the same.
- nickpeterson 10y ago
  Hire mentat to be your 10x data scientists...
- cjslep 10y ago
  Pretty sure the first lesson is "Fear is the mind-killer".
  - navbaker 10y ago
    False. The first lesson is "the spice must flow".
shalmanese 10y ago
I religiously order from The Spice House and the quality is noticeably better than Penzey's and local spice merchants. Their Szechuan Peppercorn in particular, is as good as what you can get in Szechuan which is rare.
- mturmon 10y ago
  Big agree. Their site has a depth of information and it has caused me to try new things, like fennel pollen, different cinnamon types, and aji amarillo. You can tell it originated with enthusiasts.
jarboot 10y ago
Its nice to read an article like this and realize the shop in mention is a short walk away! Such a small world.
tedmiston 10y ago
That MSG has been used as a scapegoat and isn't actually bad was new to me.
- Pyxl101 10y ago
  Yep. There was a bunch of unfounded hysteria around it. It has long been classified by the FDA as among the safest of food additives, "generally recognized as safe". https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm328728.htm https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodad... MSG is simply the sodium salt of glutamate aka glutamic acid, a common amino acid. Glutamate is naturally contained in a lot of foods like cheese and tomatoes, and is responsible for a taste of umami (the flavor of savory foods). Parmesan cheese in particular has a lot of glutamate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami MSG is an isolation of this naturally occurring substance. No research that I'm aware of has found that anyone is "sensitive" to it or that there's anything bad about it when consumed in normal amounts. (I mean, if you tried to consume an entire salt shaker worth of table salt, or an entire bottle of Tabasco sauce, you might have a bad day. Same might be true for MSG, but a dash of all of these is safe.)
- xbmcuser 10y ago
  Funnily enough this hysteria has spread all over the world even in Singapore ethnic chinese country you will find eateries with no msg advertised as a selling point.
gommm 10y ago
> My mom theorizes that lots of MSG was used to cover up the fact that, say, shrimp was a day past its prime, and that the sick feeling was due to the food but got blamed on the MSG. There’s never been a scientifically rigorous study that’s linked MSG with any negative effects. Totally agree with this. MSG can really bring out flavor and doesn't deserve the bad reputation it has. I do think that a lot of American Chinese restaurant put way too much of the stuff to cover cheap bad tasting ingredients but used lightly when cooking good food, it's amazing. Apart from that, I disagree with his notion that spices don't go bad. It depends on the weather, you can get fungi in humid weather and the oils can go rancid causing the flavor to not just be lessened but to also be bad. That said, in places with a temperate climate and without high levels of humidity a lot of the spices can last for years.
HugoDaniel 10y ago
Not all salt is sea salt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halite In most places salt from precipitation (salt mines) is cheaper and more common than sea salt (from evaporation) due to it being more concentrated (~5x to ~10x in comparison to sea salt). And then there is fleur de sel which has much higher levels of iodine than normal salt and is typically hand harvested by scraping only the top layer of salt.
- mastax 10y ago
  > Halite occurs in vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals that result from the drying up of enclosed lakes, playas, and seas. Sounds like sea salt to me. (or at least I think this is what the author was arguing)
  - HugoDaniel 10y ago
    In a way we all come from the sea :) Lets not be pedantic, sea salt is refering to the way that the salt is being extracted, if it is extracted from the sea or not (from the rock).
mcphage 10y ago
Grinding the salt might not accomplish much, but... I still enjoy doing it. I don't think I'm going to stop.

47 points by Vigier 10y ago

>Spices don’t go bad Some spices contain oils and fats. Those substances go rancid with age like any other substance. And there are fungi.

conorcleary 10y ago

Couple things: salt grinders are an alternative to putting rice in your shaker to prevent clumping. If it's already clumped, grind it. Also - sea salt marketed as sea salt tastes different from iodized table salt. That's what people want, the different taste. It may have come from the same general place (...sea), but it still tastes different. Just like McDo's fries vs. Wendy's.... I prefer the salt that McDo's uses.

NikolaeVarius 10y ago
It tastes different because, to the best of my knowledge, sea salt is flaky versus the beads of "normal" salt. They dissolve on your tongue differently causing a different amount of salt taste. They aren't different in any other way. Also the lack of any Dune references was disappointing.
- nyolfen 10y ago
  seriously, it drives me crazy that people think there's any meaningful difference between salts besides marketing. it's NaCl, sometimes with iodine or small impurities. people buy himalayan salt because it sounds exotic, but it's just salt.
  - draw_down 10y ago
    To me this is like saying "what's the big difference between water and ice? It's all H2O". As it turns out, the arrangement of the molecules has some importance. If you put iodized table salt on top of a brownie instead of something flaky like Maldon, you're going to have a bad time.

davidw 10y ago

I'm kind of disappointed this wasn't along the lines of "Watch out for those giant sandworms", but it was pretty interesting just the same.

nickpeterson 10y ago
Hire mentat to be your 10x data scientists...
cjslep 10y ago
Pretty sure the first lesson is "Fear is the mind-killer".
- navbaker 10y ago
  False. The first lesson is "the spice must flow".

shalmanese 10y ago

I religiously order from The Spice House and the quality is noticeably better than Penzey's and local spice merchants. Their Szechuan Peppercorn in particular, is as good as what you can get in Szechuan which is rare.

mturmon 10y ago
Big agree. Their site has a depth of information and it has caused me to try new things, like fennel pollen, different cinnamon types, and aji amarillo. You can tell it originated with enthusiasts.

jarboot 10y ago

Its nice to read an article like this and realize the shop in mention is a short walk away! Such a small world.

tedmiston 10y ago

That MSG has been used as a scapegoat and isn't actually bad was new to me.

Pyxl101 10y ago
Yep. There was a bunch of unfounded hysteria around it. It has long been classified by the FDA as among the safest of food additives, "generally recognized as safe". https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm328728.htm https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodad... MSG is simply the sodium salt of glutamate aka glutamic acid, a common amino acid. Glutamate is naturally contained in a lot of foods like cheese and tomatoes, and is responsible for a taste of umami (the flavor of savory foods). Parmesan cheese in particular has a lot of glutamate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami MSG is an isolation of this naturally occurring substance. No research that I'm aware of has found that anyone is "sensitive" to it or that there's anything bad about it when consumed in normal amounts. (I mean, if you tried to consume an entire salt shaker worth of table salt, or an entire bottle of Tabasco sauce, you might have a bad day. Same might be true for MSG, but a dash of all of these is safe.)
xbmcuser 10y ago
Funnily enough this hysteria has spread all over the world even in Singapore ethnic chinese country you will find eateries with no msg advertised as a selling point.

gommm 10y ago

> My mom theorizes that lots of MSG was used to cover up the fact that, say, shrimp was a day past its prime, and that the sick feeling was due to the food but got blamed on the MSG. There’s never been a scientifically rigorous study that’s linked MSG with any negative effects. Totally agree with this. MSG can really bring out flavor and doesn't deserve the bad reputation it has. I do think that a lot of American Chinese restaurant put way too much of the stuff to cover cheap bad tasting ingredients but used lightly when cooking good food, it's amazing. Apart from that, I disagree with his notion that spices don't go bad. It depends on the weather, you can get fungi in humid weather and the oils can go rancid causing the flavor to not just be lessened but to also be bad. That said, in places with a temperate climate and without high levels of humidity a lot of the spices can last for years.

HugoDaniel 10y ago

Not all salt is sea salt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halite In most places salt from precipitation (salt mines) is cheaper and more common than sea salt (from evaporation) due to it being more concentrated (~5x to ~10x in comparison to sea salt). And then there is fleur de sel which has much higher levels of iodine than normal salt and is typically hand harvested by scraping only the top layer of salt.

mastax 10y ago
> Halite occurs in vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals that result from the drying up of enclosed lakes, playas, and seas. Sounds like sea salt to me. (or at least I think this is what the author was arguing)
- HugoDaniel 10y ago
  In a way we all come from the sea :) Lets not be pedantic, sea salt is refering to the way that the salt is being extracted, if it is extracted from the sea or not (from the rock).

mcphage 10y ago

Grinding the salt might not accomplish much, but... I still enjoy doing it. I don't think I'm going to stop.