This season’s MUST have seasonings!
Every girl probably owns a sexy black dress, form fitting black pants, a nice pair of jeans that make your butt look good, and a crisp white dress shirt. These are what we call the basics, because you can build a nice outfit with any of these items. They go well with everything.
Well cooking is no different. There are many ingredients that work well with many dishes, and if you were one of those few people that actually read my ingredients list (and not just scroll down to the picture), then you may have noticed that I use many of the same ingredients in my recipes.
Over the years, while I was learning the art of cooking, I slowly added new spices to my pantry. But nowadays, you can buy spice racks with about 20 different spices already in there, and those usually include all the basic spices.
But for those of you who decide to buy each spice separately (after all, these are rough economical times), then here is a list of spices I think every cook must have (from the obvious to the not so obvious):
a pre made spice rack that includes all the basic spices
- Salt
- Sugar (both white and dark brown)
- Black pepper
- White pepper
- Soy sauce
- Corn starch
- Worchestershire sauce
- Garlic salt
- Garlic powder
- Dried Parsley leaves
- Dried Thyme
- Dried Rosemary
- Lawry’s seasoning salt
- Lawry’s Lemon Pepper (actually any Lawry seasoning is pretty useful)
- Italian dressing
- Dried bread crumbs
- Lee Kum Kee Chicken Bouillon powder
- Curry Powder
Ok, this might seem like a long list, but trust me, you can make a whole lot of meals with all these spices. I actually put ingredients 1-10 in almost everything I cook, whether it is beef, chicken, or pork (well I choose one type of sugar, and one type of pepper, not both). And the good news is that spices do not spoil over time, but, the flavor of the spices may slowly diminish. But as long as you can still tell what that spice is when tasting it, then it is still good. This is an investment that you will reap the benefits for far into the future!
