Monday, August 17, 2009

AIR FULL OF SPICES

I love spices. I love the scents of them, the tastes and just the IDEA of them, those far-traveled flavors of cinnamon and fennel and caraway, the allspice berries and the exotic cloves, with their little nail-shaped, round-headed selves, all nippy and fragrant with a thousand miles of the Spice Road in their wake.

I use cloves in several pickles, especially the Lime Sweets and the quick-make “Cheater Pickles” which can be made up in ten minutes. We use them to make Christmas-scented pomander balls, studding fat oranges with hundreds of the little knobby-headed fellows, and scatter a handful into a big glass candle-chimney, along with anise stars and a few little logs of cinnamon stick. The fat holiday candles’ heat causes the aromas of all the lovely spices to perfume the air in a most enticing way.

I bit a clove once, by accident, in my Mammaw’s Sweet Pickled Peaches; those were the roundest, most beautiful things in the Fruit House, and the dozen or so carefully-hoarded jars were saved for very special occasions. The big globes of golden-orange peach had been slip-skinned into smooth round perfection, and chosen each-of-a-size to match each other in the wide-mouth Masons. The deep-sweet syrup with just a tiny tang of vinegar was completed by a clove or two as garnish in each jar.

And in my zeal to enjoy each and every drop of the wonderful peach spooned up neatly from the small cut-glass bowls, I accidentally crunched down on an errant clove, numbing my tongue and gums and causing great laughter at the table as I grimaced away the odd feeling and flavor. I didn’t want to do THAT again. Ever. And to this day, I cannot stand even the scent of Dentyne gum.

At first our kitchen shelves boasted only salt, pepper, cinnamon for cinnamon toast and baked apples, and a can of sage or “Poultry Seasoning,” like a hundred redolent dust-bunnies crammed into that tiny white can. Mixed pickling spice was a given, so important with its allspice, bay leaf, tiny crusty circles of sliced dried red pepper---those were tied into a small square of white cloth and immersed into the great white pots of “chillie sauce” and spiced tomato sauce and chow-chow before they were canned.

Slowly, the number of spices increased, as we added nutmeg, celery seeds for slaw and potato salad, mustard seeds for squash pickles and Bread & Butters, turmeric for the “yellow rice” which accompanied shrimp and other fish dishes. Spices were bought for a one-of-a-kind recipe passed on under the hair-dryer, or clipped out of Farm Journal, and when a new faddish recipe surfaced amongst the Church Supper set, like as not another new spice or herb was added to every cook’s arsenal, whether she liked the flavor or not.

And now, with trips to Penzey’s and World Market and Trader Joe’s---the spice shelves are laden with things too irrestible to pass up---some used often, and some which grow dry and flavorless with old age, their scent and savor whispered away unsung in the dark of the cupboard.

And the heady scent of that rattly whole nutmeg calls me to open the bottle and sniff even when I’m not going to use any. But I think our tiny grater’s perhaps tossed in a drawer, far from the spice rack. A friend mentioned a while back that she kept her grater clear across the kitchen from the spices, and wondered why she did that, when it caused more steps from drawer to nutmeg.

And in a burst of silliness, I wrote back:

Believe me, that little grater is unendingly grateful to be far away from those pesky rough hooligans. Nutmegs are the schoolyard bullies, the Lollipop Guild of the spice world. They sneak out past curfew, they gossip and lie, and they just can't. be. trusted.

Quite a few spoilages, over-seasonings and boilovers in a quite normal kitchen can be traced to those lurky, tricksy nutmegs. They sit there, giggling behind their hands, as we spill, drop, pour laboriously-made stock right down the drain, and have unspeakable encounters with blistering pothandles and razor-blade mandolines.
Keep that little grater safely away from those jinxes. And don't turn your b
ack.

6 comments:

  1. Isn't Penzey's the most wonderful place? I can stay there for more than an hour just wandering around sniffing all the goodies. Most of my friends can shop for hours for clothes and shoes. Me---I'd rather be in the spice store any day.

    Speaking of spices, I used two that I loved in our meal last night---saffron went into the Jamaica rum sauce and seeds from one of those delightful vanilla beans was simmered with the cream for panna cotta.

    The vanilla bean reminded me of your "perfume" story and I thought of you while scrapping the little seeds from the pod.

    Love you as bright as the noonday sun
    Maggie

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  2. Wow, Cousin!!!

    I'm impressed---you made panna cotta after work? Now that's a dedicated cook.

    I keep a bean in each kind of sugar cannister, and love opening the lids to that rich perfume. But it makes me cringe when someone so good a cook as even Miss Ina just scrapes the beans out, scrapes the knife along the pan rim, and lets the little clot just drop in.

    I have to get all that clump of richness separated and whisked into a little bit of the liquid, or finger-thumb the seeds into the sugar, like cutting butter into the flour for biscuits. Just seems like if you don't, just one person would get a huge mouth-burst of overwhelming flavor all at once.

    And vanilla should be SHARED all around!

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  3. Hi Racheld, I just love your post. I too love the smell of spices of all kinds. Just makes the house feel like home.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog, I just add the spices to the mix.
    Have a great day.
    Molly

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  4. I can't help but be jealous that you visit an actual Penzeys store. I can't even imagine how wonderfully it must smell in there!

    I make do with a catalog. Sigh.

    Cloves. I once bit into one, too, and remember it to this day.

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  5. I love to hear from everyone!!

    Keetha:

    Y'all take I-55 to Sikeston, I-57 to Effingham, and I-70 straight to my house.

    We'll go to every Penzey's in town. And wherever else you'd like.

    PS Bring The Child---Zoo. Museums. Racetrack. Fairgrounds. Cookies.

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