Kitchen School

The flavor of most spices lives in aromatic, fat-soluble oils that stay locked inside until heat releases them. Add ground spices straight into a watery pot and you get a raw, dusty, muddy taste; give them a moment in heat first and they transform into something deep and fragrant. This is exactly why so many recipes from India to Mexico to Morocco cook the spices before any liquid goes in. The whole step takes under two minutes and is the difference between a curry or chili that tastes flat and one that fills the kitchen with aroma.

Whole spices such as cumin seeds, coriander, fennel, cardamom pods, cloves, and peppercorns can be toasted dry in a hot pan for a minute or two until they darken slightly and smell nutty and fragrant, shaking the pan constantly so they do not scorch. The moment they smell alive, tip them out of the hot pan so they stop cooking, then grind them in a spice grinder or mortar. Freshly toasted and ground spices are dramatically more aromatic than anything from a pre-ground jar, and doing it yourself for a special dish is one of the biggest, easiest upgrades in cooking.

Ground spices are usually bloomed in fat rather than toasted dry, because dry ground spice burns almost instantly. Once your onions and aromatics are soft, push them to the side, add the ground spices to the hot oil in the clear part of the pan, and stir constantly for thirty to sixty seconds until they smell fragrant, then immediately add tomato or liquid. Watch them like a hawk, because ground spices go from fragrant to bitter and burnt in seconds, and the smell is your timer: the instant they bloom, wet ingredients go in to stop the cooking.

Spices are dried plant material, and their aromatic oils fade with time, light, heat, and air, so the jar of paprika that has lived above your stove for three years is mostly color and dust. Buy spices in small amounts you will actually use within a few months, keep them in tightly closed jars in a cool, dark cupboard away from the heat of the stove, and whole spices keep their punch far longer than ground. If a spice barely smells of anything when you open the jar, it will do nothing for your food, so replace it.