Spices for dinner
The main meal of the evening: curries, roasts, braises and grills.
Dinner is the main gathering meal in much of the world, and often where the full range of a cuisine's spices is shown, from slow-cooked stews to roasts and curries.
Slow-cooked dishes
Stews and braises use whole and ground spices cooked for hours. Moroccan tagines, Indian curries, Mexican moles, Persian khoresh and Hungarian goulash each use a different spice set, giving each its character.
Roasts and grills
Spice rubs and marinades, such as jerk, tandoori, suya, shawarma and barbecue rubs, flavour meat before cooking over fire. Pepper, paprika, cumin, coriander and garlic are common across them.
Table spices
Beyond the cooking, many tables carry their own seasonings, such as pepper mills in Europe, pepper sauce in the Caribbean, chilli oil in China and shichimi in Japan.
Dinner on EveryMasala
The spices written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreLemongrasssereh; tanglad; takhrai; sera
A tropical grass with citrus-scented stalks used in Asian soups and herbal teasLeaf · Citrus and bright · Sweet and mellow
🇰🇷 South Korea and 5 moreKorean mint배초향
An anise-scented Asian mint leaf used in Korean stews and herbal traditionsLeaf · Anise and liquorice · Herbal and green
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 4 moreClove
The dried flower bud of a tropical tree, prized for its intense warmth and numbing bite.Flower · Sharp and pungent · Warm and sweet-spiced
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreGarlic chives韭菜
A flat-leaved Allium with a garlic scent, used across Asia as a herb and vegetable.Leaf · Sweet and mellow
🇭🇺 HungaryCherry peppercseresznyepaprika
A small Capsicum annuum cultivar from Hungary, used for paprika and preserves.Chilli · Hot and fiery · Sweet and mellow
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreChenpi陳皮
Sun-dried mandarin orange peel aged for use in Chinese cooking and medicineFruit · Sweet and mellow · Sharp and pungent
🇬🇭 Ghana and 5 morePrekeseprɛkɛsɛ
The scented pod of a West African tree, used to perfume soups.Fruit · Sweet and mellow
🇦🇺 Australia and 1 moreMountain pepper
The dried berry of an Australian shrub, used as a peppery condiment and wasabi substitute.Fruit · Hot and fiery · Sweet and mellow
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Clove: Bayu Nugroho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cherry pepper: James Lee, CC BY 2.0, source
- Mountain pepper: Melburnian, CC BY 3.0, source
- Chenpi: Dboxes, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Lemongrass: Unknown author, CC BY 2.0, source
- Korean mint: Dalgial, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Prekese: NMNH, CC0, source
- Garlic chives: Kurt Stüber [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, source