Spice blends- Do you use? How often? Favorites?

All -

Was in Spice House over the weekend picking up some fresh goods and started thinking about their abundance of pre-made blends. I have bought some in the past but never use much of any of them. I am curious how people use the pre-made blends. Like, how many do you have and how often do you use them. Do you make your own? Any favorites you would only buy instead of making?

Just trying to understand if I am not using them correctly because I have not experimented enough or if I am just not the right person for them.

I keep accumulating them (some mixed myself, some gifts, some bought from Spice House thinking I would use them all the darn time)... and very few get much use.

GWiv's BBQ Rub is useful, nicely balanced and hot as heck (makes a great popcorn topping).
Having some garam masala, berbere, and ras el hanout are all useful... but I don't use them as often as weekly.
Over the years I've gotten a number of steak rubs as gifts, they either end up on popcorn, or occasionally to make a cheesesteak sandwich (typically as a quick crisp of leftover roast)

Sweet Baboo likes Montreal steak seasoning, so we always keep that on hand. Guess I could figure out how to mix that up myself. I use Emeril's (Essence) seasoning mix routinely in cooking (most recently in jambalaya this past weekend), and have mixed up my own batches of that; the recipe's not a secret. A family member who used to live in Kansas City gave us a variety of BBQ rubs and sauces that we enjoyed working our way through. Which is to say, I'm always happy to use a spice mix or rub that falls into my hands, but there aren't many I make a point to keep on hand.

The homemade spice blend project that I have in mind right now is herbes de Provence, which can be a little hard to find in stores and expensive. The hardest ingredient to find is lavender--I've struck out finding that even at the Spice House in Milwaukee. I did find some recently at the Savory Spice Shop in downtown Libertyville (528 N. Milwaukee Avenue), so I'm ready now to make some for myself and to give as gifts. I use it primarily on roast chicken.

It occurs to me that spice blends are well suited for use by people who don't feel very confident ad libbing individual spice choices and quantities for specific "genres" such as grilled meat, chili, chicken, Indian, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, etc. (and sometimes I am one of those people) and/or are tight on kitchen space and/or would rather not bother to keep a lot of individual spices on hand. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those reasons.

I have a can of Szejed's chicken rub that I haven't used yet. Just wondering, how do other people like it?

Certain blends might come in handy if you're making a bbq rub or need Cajun seasoning mix, you'll require several different dried herbs/spices but not that much of any one of them, and you probably won't use the herbs/spices again (or use enough of them). In that case, it makes a lot of sense to buy a prepackaged blend. Or maybe you know one (like gwiv's) that you like a lot and don't want to screw around with your own formula. Personally, I like making my own but I know a lot of people who don't like to screw around with that.

I like their version of Old Bay, which they call Chesapeake Bay, or something similar. Based on this Fine Cooking recipe, I now put it in many of my mayo-yogurt type dipping sauces or salad dressings:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/cris ... aioli.aspx

My husband loves their jerk seasoning on his pizza.

Jen

Old Bay,
Penzys sweet curry,
Famous Dave's country roast chicken rub,
Lawrey's seasoned salt with black pepper,
S&B Nanami Togarashi,

I've yet to find a chili powder I really like...

I standardized on YourPalWill's chili recipe which calls for three Spicehouse chili powder blends.
I've bought their Vulcan Fire Salt a few times, too.
A friend let me try the Greektown Billygoat seasoning and it was quite tasty. Lemon and oregano, right in your face.

I use Standard Market's Steak Dust when I cook burgers or steak. Really gives the meat some extra oomph. I will tell you that if you pour too much on while standing over the meat, you will erupt in a momentary coughing fit.

Owner of The Spice House here. I think the people on this forum into all aspects of cooking, and consequently don't need to use premade blends. Others are just happy to use our mixes, fast and easy. That said, we do look at our analytics from time to time. At number one of the 550 plus items we sell, for the last year is Chili powder. Also in the top five are Back of the Yards Garlic Pepper, Butchers' Rub. Garlic powder, cumin and vanilla extract round out that top five. In the top 25 we add only Lake Shore Drive and Vulcan's Fire Salt to the list as blends, everything else on the list is a single straight spice. I once tried to talk my husband into having one night a month where people could create their own concoctions, we would just give them teaspoon sets and they could mix to their hearts desire and we would just charge, say two dollars per ounce for the finished product. He was convinced that would bring the weirdos out of the woodwork, but I always wanted to give it a shot. My favorite all purpose seasoning is basic lemon-pepper, a throwback to the fifties, but still does the trick. Pepper, salt, lemon, onion, garlic, and yes, horrors, MSG! Curry powder is another blend that we sell to many top chefs in the city. Julia Child was on that list when she was alive, which lets us know that it is okay to buy blends too.

The Jerk blend, Back of the Yards, Bronzeville Rib Rub and Gwiv Rub are all standards in my house.

Love the "mix your own" night idea! And my 2nd favorite food growing up was my mom's lemon pepper grilled chicken...I need to come in for some of your blend--it sounds great.

I have to have Spice House's Chesapeake Bay seasoning in the house - I used to swear by Old Bay but always prefer to buy fresh from Spice House instead. I use it on any beef I cook - just the perfect blend of everything good for a quickly grilled steak.

Both of my kids - one a chef, one a good cook - swear by Vulcan Fire Salt and my sister-in-law bought the most humongous bag of the Butcher's Rub when she was last in town - all delicious.

And I would so sign up for a mix your own night!

California Seasoned Pepper blend is my salt free go to.

We love the Bicentennial Seasoning from The Spice House on chicken, turkey and pork chops. Actually, come to think of it, I can't recall the last time we cooked a turkey without it.

While (literally) sniffing around the Spice House while some pepper was being weighed out, I came across their Sunny Greek Islands blend, which I bought and have been using on grilled fish. I really like this aptly named blend.

My two most used blends, both from Spice House, are GWivs rub and the Sunny Spain seasoning, which to me is a great, salt free, lemon pepper substitute (and more finely ground). Probably the single spice I use most is their roasted garlic powder.

-Will

I keep a bottle of Penzey's Northwoods Fire Seasoning on hand. It is great sprinkled on pretty much everything. I'm also a fan of the Spice House Jamaican Jerk seasoning. We have some Vulcan Fire Salt that we've used to rim Bloody Mary glasses.

I got a gift set of various Spice House blends once, and it took us quite a while to get through it because we generally prefer to custom-mix or cook from recipes. But I did find them handy for those nights where you just have, say, a bunch of pork chops and just want them to be yummy and are too tired to think about how to season them. I do have various other spice blends around now and again - I almost always have herbes de Provence, though I seem to have gotten out of the habit of using it (though I did just pick up a big jar at Costco for maybe $5). We may have around at any given moment some version or another of baharat, and for a while we had a huge jar of what was advertised at Costco as "salmon rub," but which was a great quickie chicken marinade when mixed with lemon, olive oil, and garlic. And I have a jar of advieh in the pantry that I mixed up myself.

I think we tend to use things like mole or curry pastes more often than dry spice mixes, though we do use both from time to time. More often they are used on weeknights when we don't want to deal with complicated prep.

I forgot to mention za'atar-- on hummus or bread-- we are nuts for za'atar. When I bought my first bag, I thought, how am I going to use all of this-- then my husband and daughter started dusting it on grilled flatbreads, etc.

I think the most useful one is adobo. I put it in everything.

Pie-love wrote:I forgot to mention za'atar-- on hummus or bread-- we are nuts for za'atar. When I bought my first bag, I thought, how am I going to use all of this-- then my husband and daughter started dusting it on grilled flatbreads, etc.

I also love Za'atar with roasted chickpeas and olive oil.... awesome dish!

Another spice I love (not from spice house) is Jane's Krazy Mixed-up Original Salt put on tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, etc.. is great

"Pride of Szeged" Chicken Rub is the go to shortcut for grilling . Works great on pork too. It is a decent approximation of the rub used by my long deceased Magyar nagymama.

http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Rub-Seasoning-szeged-198g/product-reviews/B000LRIL3U

The hubster likes to use Montreal Steak Seasoning on his steaks - the fishing buddies love it. I don't shop Spice House as there isn't one conveniently located to me, but like to use the Apple Pie Spice in my oatmeal. Two of my favorite Penzey blends are Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave Chicken and Fish Seasoning, a mix of salt, black pepper, garlic, lemon peel and onion. My other is Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade, coarse flake salt, lemon peel, garlic, cloves and ginger powder. I do make my own BBQ Rub and will season on my own, but sometimes it's just easier to grab one thing and move on.

As far as Cinnamon Girl's comment, "I think the people on this forum into all aspects of cooking, and consequently don't need to use premade blends," not all of us are foodies or as accomplished in various cuisines as many on the boards. As I've stated before, one of the things I like about LTH is the educational value. I'm always looking to experience and learn more about food.

I used to do the Spice House / Penzeys blends, but I buy them more as gifts than for personal use these days. I still do enjoy Bronzeville Rib Rub, and the Wiviott bbq rub a LOT. A WHOLE lot. I usually try to keep both of those on hand for the "grill a meat, make a frozen tj side bag, and steam some broccoli" nights during the week which happen more and more frequently.

I have a few that I really like, one is Montreal Steak, another is Emeril's, but I tend to blend up my own because I want to control how much salt is in it.

Another recent favorite is a mix of coffee, ancho chile, salt and brown sugar that I read about in Sunset (see recipe here http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/ancho-c ... 000133215/ ) They put it on steak, but I've used it on chicken and salmon and it's just wonderful.

leek wrote:Another recent favorite is a mix of coffee, ancho chile, salt and brown sugar that I read about in Sunset (see recipe here http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/ancho-c ... 000133215/ ) They put it on steak, but I've used it on chicken and salmon and it's just wonderful.

That looks good! Thanks, leek.