Spices, Herbs, Essences and Salts

In our summer home, I counted 112 different spices, herbs, essences, and salts. I noticed we have 8 different salts, 12 different essences, and the rest is split about equal between herbs and spices. I'm sure if I had someone check our other abode the count could reach easily over 200 items. Some are exotic but most are just everyday items we use in the different cooking methods we enjoy. You like blackened fish or shrimp, we have our own mix of 8 ingredients. Like BBQ, we use 15 different items to make the rub and the sauce. Like roasted chicken, we have 9 ingredients we use to make lemon garlic chicken in the old Sicilian recipe. Yes, spices, herbs, essences and salts are important to us but more of a fact is that they are important to the world. Wars have been fought over them. Whole civilizations have depended on them. Our daily life and even our health is dependent upon these necessary ingredients we add to our foods for flavor, preservation and variety.

Spices

Although the terms spice and herb are used interchangeably in cookbooks, the difference between spices and herbs is that spices are berries, roots, seeds, flower buds, and flower stigma. Spices are typically dried and can be harvested from any part of a plant. When we think of berry spices most would say peppercorn; roots would be ginger; seeds would be sesame seeds; flower buds would be cloves even though most would not know they are flower buds; and flower stigma would be saffron one of the most expensive spices in the world per pound.

Herbs are the leafy portions of a plant and may be fresh, freeze dried, or air dried. Herbs are probably better understood than spices because herbs are used almost everyday at every meal everywhere in the world. World favorite herbs like basil, bay leaf, cilantro, parsley, rosemary and thyme are easily recognized by everyone. More exotic herbs, although heard of but not used very often, include herbs like chives, dill weed, marjoram, oregano, sage, and tarragon. Some herbs have become associated with certain foods like basil and pizza; rosemary and lamb; and dill weed and fish. Herbs may be combined to make blends such as Italian Tabletop spices (actually herbs); Fajitas Seasoning (can have herbs and spices); and Lemon & Herb Seasoning (has herbs, spices, and essence). Some items that may be classified as herb but are vegetable-like exceptions are items like chives, garlic, and onion.

An essence better known as an extract is a substance made from spices, herbs, flowers, fruits, and nuts. The essence may be extracted using either a solvent of ethanol or water. These extracts are often sold as Vanilla Extract, Almond Extract, Coconut Extract, Run Extract, Banana Extract, Cherry Extract, Anise Extract, Mint Extract, Peppermint Extract, Orange Extract, and Lemon Extract. There are other aromatic extracts like rose and violet that may be found in your local shops for special uses. To obtain the distinctive flavors of fruits, it is necessary to concentrate the flavor into an extract known as "pure" extract. Pure extracts of fruits that lend themselves to this process are fruits like orange, lemons and vanilla beans. Most essences are achieved from natural products, but concentrated fruit flavors like banana, cherry, currant, peach, pineapple, raspberry and strawberry are produced by chemical processes which involve various esters and oils to achieve the concentrated flavor. These chemically produced extract usually have "artificial" as part of their name and are colored by chemical dyes. These artificial extracts do not possess the quality of a natural extract and often times are cheaper to purchase. Bakeries and restaurants often use artificial extracts in their food preparations to help lower the cost of an item.

Salts

Salt is chloride and sodium ions that we humans must consume to regulate the water in our body. Too little salt and we dehydrate; too much salt, we get high blood pressure. We walk a narrow sharp edge of too little and too much. There are many different types of salts, but we humans need edible salt. In its crystallized form, salt may be white, pink or grey depending on the minerals contained within the salt. The color does not make a difference as long as it is edible. Salt is one of humans basic tastes and without salt foods and food products seem to lack taste. Salt is an important dietary mineral for life and a necessity for the enjoyment of life. Salt is also an important preservative and without the discovery of the ability of salt to preserve humans may not have made it into the modern era that we enjoy today.

There are various kinds of salts on the market today such as table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, flavored salt and lite salt (iodized salt and potassium chloride). All table salts are derived by evaporation from a brine of salt and water that leaves salt "cube-like" crystals. Kosher salt also is made by evaporation but during the drying process the salt brine is raked continually to produce a light flaky texture salt. Sea salt is made from sea water thus trace amounts of minerals from the area where the brine was taken will remain in the salt. Flavored salt is the new fad, and you get any number of flavors like butter and pepper salts.

In the United States and some other countries, salt is required to have iodine added to it. Iodine was discovered in the 1920's to prevent thyroid disease known as "goiter". There are areas in the United States from the Great Lakes and into the Northwestern parts of the United States where goiters are caused by the lack of iodine in the diet. The soils in these areas had been depleted of iodine resulting in an increase of the thyroid disease. Ever since this discovery, the U.S. Government has mandated that iodine be added to all table salts. We are truly "the salt of the earth."

Research From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice
http://www.shop.zachspice.com/category.sc;jsessionid=DB269806AA8906B8F20A6BAD3D341959.q...
http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm
http://www.spiceislands.com/KnowYourSpice.aspx
http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=7058
http://www.spicehunter.com/products.asp
http://www.spicehunter.com/products.asp?id=1
http://www.spicehunter.com/faqs/product.asp#kosher
http://www.foodsubs.com/Extracts.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extract
http://www.yp.com.hk/fisher/
http://www.alibaba.com/catalogs/1602/Herb_Medicine.html
http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/100648991/Essence_Liquid_Extraction_Machine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt
http://www.saltworks.us/salt_info/si_gourmet_reference.asp
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/saltguide.htm

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