Homemade Taco Seasoning

The love of good food runs deep in our family.  All of our kids including those marrying into the family a very accomplished home cooks with the same philosophy of cooking from scratch.  They are now teaching their love of food to the grandchildren who love to help in the kitchen.  Two of them have taken culinary courses in knife handling and one would dearly love to give up her current career in favour of becoming a chef.  She even took a part time position in a higher end restaurant that also does catering during the summer just for the experience. 

Cooking from scratch is not always about saving money.  That's just a pleasant bonus.  Cooking from scratch is about controlling the quality of the ingredients to get the best flavour possible while avoiding the unnecessary food additives.  The spice aisles are filled with a multitude of seasoning blends including taco seasoning.  The problem with many commercially prepared seasoning blends is they contain MSG, anti-caking agents, as well as other additives some artificial.  The best policy is to make your own seasoning blends tailored to your tastes.

Tone's taco seasoning doen't contain MSG but it does have flour, sugars, disodium inosinate (flavour enhancer), salts, and silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent).  A 23 oz containers costs about $4 at Sam's Club, considerably less expensive than the envelope packets at the grocery store.  Our daughter shared her recipe for taco seasoning that avoids the use of any additives.  I doubled the recipe.  Compared to Tone's the homemade taco seasoning is richly coloured with an amazing flavour.  I definitely will not be buying taco seasoning again!  Of note, you can easily make your own garlic, onion and cayenne powders by dehydrating then powdering much the same way I make tomato powder. 

I love tacos and taco salad!  Flavour is always the key so I tinker with the ingredients to get just the right blend.  This taco salad was made with extra lean ground beef seasoned with the homemade taco seasoning.  It was topped with homemade salsa (hot), organic hydroponically grown and still living Boston lettuce, black olives, organic locally grown tomatoes, onions, sour cream and a blend of shredded cheeses.  The salad was delicious with the meat seasoned to perfection!

Of note is the Boston lettuce, an herbicide/pesticide free product of Canada.  It comes in a plastic clam shell container with the roots still attached.  I watered it when I was unpacking the groceries.  It cost $1.97 for the head of lettuce which is comparable to other heads of lettuce at the moment.  The difference is it will stay fresh and green, continuing to flourish as long as it is watered.  Some fresh herbs come with the roots attached as well.  You can pot them up and with a little TLC you can enjoy fresh clippings year round from that one purchase.  Now this is the way to buy produce!   

TPC Sesame Garlic Spaghetti

Despite the fact that I make a wide range of homemade seasoning blends, I still like to buy interesting seasoning blends that I come across.  So it was during our recent vacation when I bought three varieties of The Pantry Club seasoning packets (6 packets total) as part of our foodie finds.  A recipe sheet was included with the seasoning blends.  I used half of one packet of the sesame garlic seasoning blend to make a chip dip.  It was quite yummy!

We love our pasta so it is always fun coming up with a different sauce.  I used one full packet of the sesame garlic seasoning blend to make the TPC Sesame Garlic Spaghetti on the recipe sheet.  I served the pasta with pan fried garlic pepper chicken and sautèed whole mushrooms.

The sesame garlic sauce got two thumbs up from my husband.  It was rich and creamy with a nice flavour.  I definitely would buy this blend again and will be working on a clone recipe for it.  I was surprised at some of the ingredients especially the jalapeno powder so it will be interesting to see what I come up with.


TPC Sesame Garlic Spaghetti
source:  The Pantry Club

2 c heavy whipping cream
1 packet sesame garlic seasoning

Whisk seasoning mix into the whipping cream.  Simmer on low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and let stand to thicken.  Serve over a bed of noodles.

How Its Made - Liquid Smoke

While we were on vacation we enjoyed some excellent "Q", barbeque that is!  The flavour of the Q comes from long, slow cooking in a smoker using the pitmaster's wood of choice, usually a hard wood like hickory.  The home cook has a lot of choices with respect to setting up a smoker but if you only want that smoky flavour for one or two dishes a year then one alternative is to use liquid smoke.  Liquid smoke is available in 150 ml bottles in the same aisle as other seasonings and spices.  I've only seen natural hickory liquid smoke but other flavours may be available.  Be warned, a little liquid smoke goes a long way!  If adding to a dish like baked beans always add a drop at a time then stir well and taste after each addition until you get the degree of smokiness you want.  Here is a short video on how liquid smoke is made.  Enjoy!

Kitchen Quick Tips - When to Add Garlic

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light garlic taste and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger garlic taste.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Making Your Own Seasoning Blends

Seasoning blends are often used in place of measuring out individual portions of herbs and spices.  This saves a bit of time in the kitchen.  The food industry would have us believe that the only way to get these seasoning blends is to buy their expensive packets and fancy glass bottles.  They use terms like secret blend of herbs and spices and on the actual ingredient list will list as spices rather than identify what herbs and spices are in the blend.  Restaurants often refer to seasoning blends as their house blend.  The reality is the seasoning blends were made by someone at some time.  The blend became popular so to market the blend it suddenly became secret.  Quite often the secret ingredient is sugar.  This week's Frugal Kitchens 101 discusses how you can make your own seasoning blends and save money too!

A few things to consider:

• Store bought seasoning blends are expensive.  Consider poultry seasoning and New Beau Monde seasoning.  The fancy glass bottles of each will cost somewhere in the $3 range.  A packet of poultry seasoning that you can pour into your own container will cost about $2.   The homemade blend of New Beau Monde seasoning costs about 20¢ while the poultry seasoning costs about 10¢ using home dried herbs and 40¢ using dried herbs bought in bulk.  Clearly there is a substantial savings in making your own seasoning blends.
• Many store bought seasoning blends contain additives and preservatives.  Common additives are monosodium glutamate (MSG), silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), modified corn starch, citric acid and sulphites.
• Store bought basic salt blends are expensive.  These include onion, garlic and celery.  Each will cost in the $3 range for a small 3 oz bottle yet can easily be made for about 30¢ per 8 oz at home.
• Making your own seasoning blends is not time consuming.  In most cases seasoning blends can be made in 5 minutes or less depending on the number of ingredients used.
• Find seasoning blend recipes is quite easy.  You can bet if the seasoning blend exists so too does a clone recipe.  Some Chefs even include their house blends in their cookbooks.  The nice thing about this is you can tweak the recipe to your tastes.

Here are the basics you will need to make a wide variety of seasonings.  While the list looks lengthy and expensive it isn't.   Most of the herbs mentioned as well as the vegetables can be grown at home then dried to use as needed.  If you need to purchase them the best prices for dried herbs, spices, seeds and salts can be found a bulk food stores.  The prices are quite inexpensive when purchased this way.  For example I recently paid 14¢ for enough bay leaves to fill a 500 ml (pint) mason jar, 30¢ for dill seed (filled 4 oz spice bottle) and 27¢ for fennel seed (filled 4 oz spice bottle) at the bulk food store.  This is the number one place to buy dried herbs and spices because you buy the amount you need not the size the food industry packages them in.  The second cheapes way to buy dried herbs and spices is online through sites like www.bulkfoods.com.  You will pay shipping but will still save money.  The third cheapest is buying herbs and spices in packets that can be poured into your own container.  Grocery stores have a limited selection of these and places like World Market have a wider selection quite reasonably priced.  Vegetable powders are quite easily made at home by drying the desired vegetable purée then powdering it in the blender.

• basic herbs - parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bayleaf (whole, powdered), garlic, savory, cumin, lavender, dill (seeds, weed), fennel (seeds), basil
• basic spices - pepper (white, ground, peppercorns), cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, mace, allspice, cloves, cardamon
• basic seeds - mustard (whole, ground), poppy, celery
• basic salts - sea (Mediterrean, Himilyan, Alaea Hawaiian), Kosher, pickling, iodized (not recommended)
• basic powdered/dehydrated fruits/vegetables - chili, onion, tomato, carrot, mushroom, zucchini, cayenne, Spanish paprika, lime, lemon, celery

New Beau Monde Vegetable Dip

Yesterday I wrote about two very different beau monde seasonings.  The first is a rich, warm, spicy and aromatic blend originally made by Old World Seasonings.  It is no longer being made.  The clone recipe is Old Beau Monde Seasoning.  The second is a lightly seasoned blend known as New Beau Monde seasoning.  It is a clone of the Spice Islands Beau Monde seasoning blend.  These beau monde blends are not interchangeable.

Homemade dips are very easy to make and they are less expensive than store bought.  You can  create unique dips that you can't buy too.  The base ingredients I use for dips include cream or cottage chees, sour cream and mayonnaise or MiracleWhip® salad dressing.

I used the mason jar blender method to make New Beau Monde Dip.  This dip has a light, creamy flavour that pairs nicely with crudites.  It would also be a good dip for chips. I would be tempted to stir in a tablespoon of finely chopped red or yellow sweet peppers as well.

New Beau Monde Dip

½ c cottage cheese
½ c sour cream
⅓ c MiracleWhip® salad dressing
1 tbsp minced red onion
½ tbsp dried parsley
½ tsp new beau monde seasoning

Place all the ingredients except onion and parsley into blender.  Blend well.  Stir in parsley and onion.  Chill 30 minutes before serving. 

Beau Monde Seasoning Mixes

I make a lot of my own spice and herb blends which means not only am I on the lookout for common blends I'm also looking for those that aren't quite so common.  One day I was looking for recipes and came across a recipe calling for Beau Monde Seasoning blend.  Beau Monde is French for Beautiful World.  Now with a name like that how could I not try this seasoning blend?  A bit of research found that there are actually two versions of this seasoning blends and they are not interchangeable!  Most newer recipes calling for Beau Monde seasoning don't take into account there are two versions of this seasoning blend so unless specified use the New Beau Monde seasoning blend.  I decided to make a batch of each so will post recipes using each as I use them. 

Old Beau Monde Seasoning Blend is a spicy, warm blend suitable for poultry, beef, fish, vegetables, sauces and dips.  It was originally made by Old World Seasonings but is no longer available.   It smelled wonderful making the blend!  This blend adds a warm, spicy, aromatic, bolder note than the new beau monde version that follows below.  I also think it would be a bit overpowering for fish and dips so use sparingly to get the flavour you want. 

Old Beau Monde Seasoning Blend
source: unknown

1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground bay leaf
1 tbsp ground allspice
 2 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground mace
1 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp ground white pepper

Combine the ingredients and mix well. Pour into a container to use as desired.

New Beau Monde Seasoning differs radically from Old Beau Monde Seasoning.  This is the beau monde seasoning that was originally put out by Spice Islands and used mainly for dips and sauces.  It is light enough to be used for some fishes as well.

New Beau Monde Seaoning
source: Garden Gnome

1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp organic sugar

Mix the ingredients together.  Pour into spice jar to use as desired.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Salt/Pepper

Make an all-in-one salt and pepper shaker by placing 1 part pepper to 6 parts salt in an old spice bottle shaker.  Shake well before using.

Homemade Poultry Seasoning

Herb and spice blends are a must in any kitchen and there are many commercially prepared blends available. Some of these blends are trade secrets (eg. Montreal Steak Seasoning) so actual recipes do not exist. Others are regional blends that were created based on available herbs and spices so vary from brand to brand. A good example of this is Herbs de Provence. Anyone who cooks will want to have a good variety of these types of blends on hand. In many cases there are clone recipes that come very close to the propriety blend and in some cases are a better blend. In most cases the homemade blends are cheaper than store bought.

One reason for making your own herb blends is to use the bounty from your garden. I had 40 different varieties of herbs growing in my last garden and while I very much prefer fresh herbs to dry herbs, I found it necessary to dry for use during the winter months. Once dried the herbs can be flaked or powdered to make herb blends.

Poultry Seasoning

I think most cooks at one time or another have been in the midst of making a dish only to realize that they don't have a certain ingredient. Quite often that ingredient will be an herb, spice or blend. Friday morning I was preparing the stuffing for the turkey being served for our dinner party that night. It dawned on me that I hadn't shared some of the herb blends I make and take for granted. Making your own blends takes one more thing off your grocery list allowing you to focus on the basic herbs and seasonings for the ones you buy. This way you can combine both in various combinations to make several different kinds of blends. At the same time making your own allows you to use any herbs you grow and as you know, growing your own herbs is a sure fire way to save money.

Poultry seasoning is a must for homemade stuffing. It is one of the key ingredients! Commercial blends are generally quite expensive per once because they come packaged in small glass bottles. There are three problems with this. First and most important is clear glass caused herbs to quickly lose their flavour due to light damage so you are paying for an inferior product from the get go. Second you are paying for the packaging aka glass bottle. Finally you will often find yourself out of an herb blend when you least expect it so being able to make your own from what's on hand is a real plus. The first four herbs are essentials in your garden. All are perennials that are fairly problem free.

Poultry Seasoning

4 tbsp ground sage
2½ tbsp ground thyme
1½ tbsp ground marjoram
1½ tbsp ground rosemary
3 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tsp ground black pepper

Grind each herb separately using the grind setting on a food blender or use a dedicated coffee grinder. Measure out the ingredients and combine. Place the ingredients into food blender. Grind 1 minute to well distribute. Use a funnel to pour into spice bottles or spoon into a 125 ml mason jar. Seal. Store in a dark, cool area. Use as you would commercial blends.

Yield: 6 ounces