— Patricia Louis

So there's actually a great book called the flavor Bible and there's one called the vegetarian flavor Bible as well. But that actually gives you a wonderful like what? Flavors match with other flavors, which is a great place to kind of start and it really helps on narrowing into what area of cooking you want to go into as well. So, you know some simple flavor combinations, you know, like for Indian cooking for like a curry like I was talking about before like a human, you know a turmeric You know paprika kind of mixture into those things always wonderful herbs to be able to go together. If you're doing something more Italian, it might be something like oregano and it might be basil and parsley, you know, those mixes go really well together, you know, if you're doing something more like I don't know like a roast like you're doing like I know like a lentil loaf or something like that like Sage is actually a wonderful thing to be able to put into that with some time. So those are kind of like what people a lot of times associate with fall flavors. So fantastic way to be able to you know, kind of bring some of those flavor profiles out as well. But you know, like he maybe like Jamaican it might be something like Cayenne or something like in this the spicier profile a little bit of garlic, you know, black pepper, you know, nice flavor combinations there too. But there's so many different flavor profiles to be able to create out of these spice Blends. So what I would probably do is look through, you know, a well-known spice provider to be able to look at one. I have one here in Madison called Penzeys Spices. That's a actually deliver spices in a nationwide level too. But there are a lot of different spice companies out there. I'm not saying to go right to Penzeys that just came to mind right away. But look at some of the spice Blends that they have themselves and then break them down to see what it is and a lot of times people will call them generic FL. You know like Italian good there's Italian seasoning. It's a very popular thing. You can find it almost every grocery store. And that's just that same, you know combination of herbs. I was talking about earlier. Curry is very different. Depending on where you are in the world an America Curry is like this, you know yellow tumeric-ish looking powder. But in India Curry is like every spice right? It's not just one particular blend of spice. It's a lot of different kinds of things. So, um take a look at some spice Blends that are already out there and that might help you in some flavor profiles you might like and be able to blend it home too. One of my favorites I use a lot too is a Chinese five spice which is, you know, a great one same with Karma Masala kind of the outskirts of some of these flavor Blends too. So, um definitely take a look at some of those and look at the ingredient labels to see what's in those because that might help you on your adventure and spices because it's a wonderful world and the more you can get the, you know, the whole spices and then grind them yourself the more flavor. You're going to get out of them, too. It's just a fantastic way of cooking you can use a mortar and pedestal you can use a you know, a lot of people use coffee grinders that are just specifically for their spices don't put coffee in it as well because it'll make everything taste like coffee. But yeah, so a great really wonderful way to open up into the world of spices. Just check that out. Maybe the flavor Bible as well.