Seasonings & Seasoning Mixes

• Table Salts - including finishing salts, etc.
• Commercial Seasonings
• Spice and Herb Mixes

Table Salts

Sodium Chloride Salt is the most important of all seasonings. It is essential to flavor and essential to life itself. It can also be dangerous. Just how dangerous and how much of it is dangerous is very much a matter of controversy today. For its importance as a seasoning and for its effects on health we have given salt two pages of its own.   Photo © i0050.
    Salt - Varieties and Uses.
    Salt & Health.

Commercial Products

Listed here are common and useful commercial products which you are quite unlikely to try to mix up yourself, with a few exceptions.

Beef Bouillon Powder

[Beef flavored broth mix]

This is the same as Bouillon Cubes, so you could use the same amount of crushed cubes. Bouillon mixes of this sort are much used in regions of the world that have inadequate refrigeration to hold stocks beyond the day made. A home made beef stock is always the best substitute.   -   1 teaspoon = 1 Bouillon Cube.   Details and Cooking.

Chicken Bouillon Powder

[Chicken flavored broth mix]

This is the same as Bouillon Cubes, so you could use the same amount of crushed cubes. East and Southeast Asian recipes depend a lot of chicken stock being continuously available, but that isn't always practical in this day when servants and stay at home cooks are increasingly scarce. This is particularly so for Southeast Asians now living in North America. This has made Chicken Powder an essential ingredient for cobbling up small amounts of stock quickly. Due to it's common availability it has also found use as a general seasoning.   -   1 teaspoon = 1 Bouillon Cube.

Some of the Asian brands are entirely artificial, completely unrelated to actual chickens, so might be of more interest to vegetarians. It is a good idea to read the ingredients list before purchasing.   Details and Cooking.

Maggi® Seasoning

This important seasoning was originally manufactured in Switzerland. It has found a worldwide market. and you will find it called for in many recipes, especially from Southeast Asia, where it is also a table condiment. Its bottle and trade dress are widely imitated by Asian knock-offs. It is also very popular in Central Europe and Mexico.

Maggi is similar to soy sauce, but formulated to be more of a meat broth analog. It is used in soups, stews and sauces, but also in salad dressings and vegetable dressings. The brand is now owned by Nestlé, and is distributed in North America by Nestlé USA.   Details and Cooking.

Maggi® Cubes - African

You will find Maggi Cubes called for in almost every West African recipe composed in recent times. These cubes are used incessantly in both restaurants and homes - except in regions too poor to afford them. They have almost completely replaced the traditional flavorings of Ogeri (fermented sesame seeds) and Sumbala / Dawadawa (fermented locust bean seeds). While convenience is a major issue here, another major issue is the increasing difficulty of obtaining the locust bean seeds needed for Sumbala, and their ever increasing cost. Additionally, there is Nestlé's ubiquitous and brightly colored advertising of the product.   Details and Cooking.

Vegeta

This is the best known and most widely distributed Vegetable Seasoning, It is marketed as an "All Purpose Seasoning", useful as a rub for all meats, fish, and poultry, but also for soups, stews, stir fries, casseroles and vegetable dishes. It is particularly useful to non-vegetarians when they have to produce a vegetarian soup or stew, don't have vegetable stock on hand and are pressed for time.   Details and Cooking.

Spice & Herb Mixes

Listed here are mixes important in North America and of particular interest for other cuisines. For a much more comprehensive list see Spice Mixes, Pastes & Seasonings.

Banga Soup Seasoning

While this seasoning is necessary to make a traditional version of the famous Banga Soup (Palm Fruit Soup) of the Nigerian Delta region, it is all but impossible to make authentically in North America, so commercially available mixes may have to be resorted to.   Banga Soup Seasoning.

Curry Powders

There are no "official" recipes, and different regions have their own preferences. Here we have recipes of examples typical to several regions:

Garam Masala

This seasoning used in India, and places with large Indian communities, is actually ground and mixed ahead, but it's not commercial - every household has its own formula. Unlike curry spices, Garam Masala is seldom a base seasoning, but more of an aromatic finish applied in the last stages of cooking. It varies considerably from one region of India to another. Here we have example recipes typical to several regions: