Spices and salt: when to salt, how to bloom spices and how much dried herb to use

Salt doesn't just make food salty. It suppresses bitterness and boosts sweetness and aroma — which is why an unsalted dish tastes 'empty' even if it's full of spices.

Remember that different salts weigh differently. A teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about 6 g, while coarse or flaky salt is only 3–4 g. If a recipe is in grams and you have a different salt, weigh it rather than using spoons.

When you add salt changes the result as much as how much you add.

The popular advice to 'add a potato to the soup' barely works: the potato absorbs salty water along with the salt, so the concentration in the soup hardly changes.

What does work: dilute the dish with unsalted liquid (water, unsalted stock, cream) and increase the volume — add more vegetables, grain or pasta. A little acid (lemon juice, vinegar) and sweetness (a pinch of sugar) don't remove salt, but they make it taste less harsh.

Most of the aromas in spices dissolve in fat, not water. If you just tip ground paprika or curry powder into boiling stock, half the flavour stays locked in.

So spices are warmed in oil first: fry the onion, add the ground spices and cook for 30–60 seconds, stirring, until you smell a strong aroma. Add the liquid or tomatoes right after — otherwise the spices burn and turn bitter.

Whole spices (cumin, coriander, peppercorns, cloves) are best toasted in a dry pan for 1–2 minutes until fragrant, then ground. The difference in flavour is huge.

Dried herbs are more concentrated than fresh: 1 teaspoon of dried replaces about 1 tablespoon of fresh (a 1 to 3 ratio).

Dried herbs need time and fat to open up, so they go in early — into sauces, stews and marinades. Delicate fresh herbs — parsley, dill, coriander/cilantro, basil, chives — go in at the very end or straight onto the plate: long heat kills their aroma and darkens them.

The exception is 'woody' fresh herbs: rosemary, thyme and bay leaf. They can go in at the start and stand up to long cooking.

Garlic burns very quickly and turns bitter. Add it to the pan in the last 30–60 seconds of frying, or just before the liquid.

Grind black pepper right before using it: pre-ground pepper goes stale fast. Long cooking makes pepper hotter and less aromatic, so add some at the end.

Acid is the invisible spice. If a dish tastes flat and dull but is salty enough, add a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar — it brightens instantly. Lemon zest gives aroma without extra sourness.

The enemies of spices are heat, light and moisture. Don't keep them on a shelf above the hob: steam and heat kill the aroma in a couple of months. Closed jars in a dark cupboard are best.

Don't shake spices straight from the jar over a steaming pot — steam gets inside and the spices clump. Tip them into a spoon or your palm first.

What stops a dish from shining: