Spiced: Unlock the Power of Spices to Transform Your Cooking

by America's Test Kitchen (Editor)

Overview

Harness the power of spices to take your dishes from simple to spectacular with 139 exciting recipes, plus find 47 easy spice blends and condiments you can use many ways.

Spices: You probably have a cabinet full of them, but do you know how to make the most of them? Spiced opens up the world of possibility hidden in your own pantry, with six chapters, each of which shares a way to use spices to amp up the flavor of your cooking, along with foolproof recipes that put these simple techniques to work. Sprinkle a finishing salt you make from sea salt and herbs on seared white fish fillets to make them special. Make a different roast chicken every week by applying a different rub. Learn the best spices to use in curries—and when to add them for fragrant (not dusty) results. Add flavor—and texture—with homemade blends (you'll eat your spinach when it's topped with pistachio dukkah). Infuse condiments with spices (try chipotle ketchup on a burger). With the following six simple techniques, plus vibrant recipes, you'll find yourself not only spooning chili powder into the chili pot but making the chili powder yourself, or flavoring desserts with saffron or cardamom rather than just cinnamon.

#1: Season smarter with salt and pepper. You'll learn about brining, using peppercorns of all colors, and making finishers like sriracha salt.
#2: Give meat and vegetables a rub. We'll provide blends that you can put to use in our recipes (try juniper and fennel on salmon) or your own.
#3: Bloom and toast. Bring out ground spices' complexity by cooking them in oil; unlock dried chiles' fruity or nutty flavors by toasting them.
#4: Finish foods with flair. Spice-and-nut/seed blends likes shichimi togarashi (a mix of spices, orange zest, and sesame seeds) add texture, too.
#5: Let spices steep. Infuse spices into condiments like pickled fennel that punches up chicken salad or rosemary oil to drizzle over bruschetta.
#6: Bake with spices. Go beyond vanilla by rolling doughnuts in strawberry-black pepper sugar. Make your own rose water and add it to pistachio baklava.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945256776
Publisher:	America's Test Kitchen
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	177,442
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

America’s Test Kitchen is well-known for its top-rated television shows with more than 4 million weekly public television viewers, bestselling cookbooks, magazines, websites, and cooking school. The highly reputable and recognizable brands of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, and Cook’s Country are the work of over 60 passionate chefs based in Boston, Massachusetts, who put ingredients, cookware, equipment, and recipes through objective, rigorous testing to identify the very best. Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!

Table of Contents

Spice your way to flavor

Season smarter: Getting more out of salt and pepper

Give it a rub: Robust coatings for meat and more

Toast and bloom: Maximizing flavor in braises, curries, chilis, and more

Finish with flair: Making food livelier with just a sprinkle or drizzle

Let it steep: Spice-infused oils, pickles, and preserves

Go beyond vanilla: Bringing sophisticated flavor to baked goods and desserts

Nutritional information for our recipes

Conversions and equivalents

Taking the temperature of meat and poultry

Index

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2019

In another excellent offering, the team at America’s Test Kitchen provides practices for enhancing the flavor of snacks, entrees, and desserts through spices. They create 47 blends, dry mixes, spreads, and infusions, and sprinkle, rub, or drizzle them across more than 125 dishes. Each entry begins with a summary of “why this recipe works” that explains the balance of tastes, textures, and fragrances. The first chapter is devoted to pepper: unripened peppercorns are used in seared duck breasts with green peppercorn sauce (“the slightly gamy flavor of the duck... tames the pungency” of the peppercorns); while pink peppercorns, which are actually berries, add a hint of fruit to pan-seared steaks with brandy-pink peppercorn sauce. Rubs for meat, fish, and poultry fill the second chapter, while the third is an exploration of the hot and smoky flavors found in chilis and curries. Wasabi tuna salad, balanced with pickled ginger, is a highlight of a section centered around spiced sauces and finishing blends. For dessert, there is the familiar, such as pumpkin spice muffins (with allspice, ground ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon), and the daring, as in a ginger-tumeric frozen yogurt. Home cooks wanting a deeper appreciation of the contents of their spice cabinets will gain it from this unique collection. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"After a pleasantly textbook-ish introduction that includes a spice glossary and a whole chapter devoted to seasoning with salt and pepper, subsequent recipes are grouped by method, like coating foods with spice rubs, toasting and blooming spices to intensify their flavor, or finishing foods with a sprinkling of spice or a sauce. A handy reference also lists the book's globally influenced dishes (nearly 150 in total) by course and spice."
—Booklist Review

"In another excellent offering, the team at America’s Test Kitchen provides practices for enhancing the flavor of snacks, entrees, and desserts through spices...Home cooks wanting a deeper appreciation of the contents of their spice cabinets will gain it from this unique collection."
—Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher