Several of the year's most celebrated cookbooks include Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook and The Mediterranean Herb Cookbook by the prolific Georgeanne Brennan. During the last part of the twentieth century, Americans could not get enough of the robust, complex favor of ethnic dishes. The American Spice Trade Association reports that spice consumption in the U.S. is skyrocketing. In the first half of the 1990s, we used a whopping 45 percent more spices than in the first half of the 1980s. Cooking with herbs and spices has also taken on a new importance due to our awareness of healthy eating.
Herbs are full of vitamins and minerals.
One cup of green leafy herbs gives you the same amount of vitamins as a cup of green leafy vegetables. And both herbs and spices can add interesting flavors to foods when salt and fat are eliminated. Yet many perfectly competent cooks also find that they use a particular herb or spice only in designated recipes, then let it languish among the half-empty jars of herbs and spices shoved in the far recesses of the kitchen cabinet. Like friends, some seasonings mingle well, while others are best enjoyed separately. Before you can become confident in the use of herbs and spices, it is helpful to understand just what is a spice, what is an herb, and how they can affect a food's flavor.