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Good Eats: Spice Capades
Spices evoke memories and sensations of far off places when combined in the right way. Alton visits a spice merchant where he explains the difference between spices and herbs, and shows some of the parts of plants where spices come from, demonstrating in Fruit Compote an application for whole spices. At a cook’s warehouse he selects the right kind of mortar and pestle for those who prefer that approach, but then explains how an ordinary coffee grinder may be a better choice. Spices, he continues, work best when properly grouped with similar flavors. That leads him to a recipe for Curried Vegetables. Fats are the best extractors of spice flavor, as Alton demonstrates when he makes Broiled Salmon with a Spice Pomade. Finally, he offers tips on preparing your own spice combinations – his example is a Curry Powder.
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 7x14 Production Number: EA1G20 Airdate: Wednesday January 14th, 2004 Writer: Alton Brown
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Recap
Alton explains that spices define the world’s great cuisines. Knowing how to select them, store them, and use them correctly is essential to eating well. So Alton sets out to teach us about spices and their contributions to... Good Eats...Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- Many culinary spices, like cinnamon and vanilla, were originally used in making perfumes.
- The original compotes were referred to as compostes, describing a dish made of stewed fruits.
- Allspice is the dried unripe berry of a tree native to Jamaica.
- The word curry derives from the Indian word kari, meaning sauce.
- When invading Rome in 408 AD, the Goths demanded a ransom of 3000 peppercorns.
Locations: World Spice Merchants (Seattle, Washington); Cook’s Warehouse (Atlanta, Georgia)
Episode Quotes
Alton: Join us, won’t you, as we do a little bit of exploring ourselves into the dark, mysterious, complex, sensual, non-caloric world that is spices, which are most definitely... (Good Eats theme plays)
Alton: The first step in learning how to cook with spices is learning where to find spices.
Alton: What’s the difference between an herb and a spice? I’m glad you asked. Both herbs and spices contain volatile, essential, flavorful oils. Now, if those oils are expressed in the leaves of the plant, then it’s an herb, okay? Basil, tarragon, dill – all herbs. If those oils appear, however, in other botanical parts, then we’re talking about spices.
Alton: Now, there are essentially two ways to deal with spices: whole and ground. In the case of whole, the goal is to use heat and a solvent to extract flavor from the spices, which you’ll then fish out and dispose of later. Fruit compote is an excellent example of this kind of dish.
Alton: (after grinding his own cinnamon) Ahh, there you have about a teaspoon and a half of amazingly aromatic cinnamon. Now doesn’t that just beat the pants off of what would come in one of these containers (Alton pulls out a large, warehouse club style jar), pre ground and smelling and tasting of absolute nothing. Don’t even know why I have this – it’s horrible!
Alton: Most of the spices that are consumed on this planet are consumed along with other spices. And there’s a really good reason for that. You see, by itself a single spice tastes rather unidimensional, rather... (plucking a single guitar string) ...nice, but monotonous. However, if you use several spices together that share a similar chemical structure, they support each other so you get something more like... (strumming a chord) ... a harmony. They support each other.
Alton: The problem with commercial spice rubs is that they contain mostly salt. Every one of these contains (Alton inspects several commercial spice rubs.) salt as the leading ingredient. Why do that? Well, salt takes up a lot of space, it’s cheap and it lasts forever. The problem is if you like your food really spicy, and I sometimes do, you shake on more of this stuff, and that means you’re just adding more and more salt to your food. Now, the way I see it is that seasoning or salting food should be done completing separately from spicing it. They’re two completely different activities.
Alton: Why do this in a blender instead of our grinder? Back in the fifteenth century, French perfume makers learned that they could extract the essential oils from flowers by soaking them in cold fat. The result was called pomade. And basically what we’re going to do is make a culinary version of pomade by soaking these spices in canola oil.
Alton: I sure hope we’ve inspired you to set up a little spice trade of your own. Just remember, purchase whole spices whenever you can from a reliable purveyor – Internet or mail order are fine, and store those spices in a cool, dry, dark, airtight place. And don’t keep them around too long – two years tops for whole spaces and no more than six months for ground. When cooking with spices remember to introduce them to the party – get them into the cooking as early as possible so the flavors will have time to bloom and meld. And remember, fats are the best carriers of spice flavor.
Cultural References
The episode title, Spice Capades is a pronunciation pun on Ice Capades, the name of a popular and long running show featuring costumed skaters.
Alton places a dried vanilla pod under his nose and suggests that it makes a great Salvador Dalí mustachio. Dalí, who lived from 1904 to 1989, was a Spanish impressionist painter whose signature work is probably “The Persistence of Memory,” with its “melted” clocks. Most people have seen at least a print of this surreal landscape, which is owned by the Museum of Modern Art. Dalí sported a thin mustachio for most of his adult life; Alton simulates this with a vanilla pod.
Busted like Benjamin Bunny – a Beatrix Potter character who snuck away to raid McGregor’s garden. A cat cornered him under a basket for hours; finally, his father freed him and then gave him a switching as punishment.
Episode References
Alton, extracting a half sheet pan from his cabinet, gestures to the salmon on his cutting board and explains that he can't grill on a wooden plank. Then he corrects himself, but says that would be another show. In four more years, he'll make that show: season eleven's Fishing Whole covers this topic (among others).
Analysis
This episode covers a lot of ground and would benefit from a sequel, but it nicely frames the use of spices in several kinds of food: fruits, vegetables, and fish. It also provides a well-rounded discussion of spices starting with what they are and moving through how to buy them, store them, and how long to keep them. Since spices are so important to so much of cooking, this show has something to benefit every cook.
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