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“Blooming” Spices

What does it mean to “bloom” spices and what is the benefit?

What does it mean to “bloom” spices and what is the benefit?

The theory goes that either dry-toasting or “blooming” spices (cooking them in fat) helps to release their volatile oils, which in turn intensifies flavor. Generally, dry-toasting is used for whole spices that are then ground into a fine powder, while blooming is used with commercially ground spices or spice mixtures. To understand the difference between dry-toasting ground spices and blooming them in oil, we made two batches each of the test kitchen’s recipes for Carne Adovada, a pork stew flavored with chili powder, and Chicken Paprikash. In one batch we dry-toasted the ground spices. In the second batch we bloomed the spices in oil according to the recipe instructions. Tasters noticed “more rounded” and “bolder” flavors in the batches that had the bloomed spices, while the batches made with the dry-toasted spices were dusty and had little spice flavor at all.

THE BOTTOM LINE   For the fullest spice flavor, bloom ground spices in oil or butter before adding liquid ingredients.

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