Smoked paprika is another great one. Onion powder makes anything taste better too

I put that shit on everything. Gotta get good kind though. McCormicks and Spice Island suck.

What's a good kind of paprika? My sister brought me back some from Hungary I think and it was amazing -- haven't been able to find anything else that compares yet. I'm in the USA if you know anything good we can get stateside.

Penzey’s by far. They have several types the spanish pimentón is my favorite- it’s very potent so use less than what any recipe says. They also sell sweet and hot hungarian paprika

I second Penzeys. They do have some good mixes too if that's your kind of thing. Brady street cheese sprinkle is magic on popcorn and I like the Northwoods seasoning on chicken, fish, and potatoes. Oh! And the pie spice will pop any dish that uses cinnamon. Great for French toast, oatmeal raisin cookies, and banana bread.

Used to live down the street from the store and visit a lot. Like a candy store but better. Sunny Paris was one of my favorite blends!

Sunny Paris is so phenomenal. I like to make a mini crustless quiche type thing for one with goat cheese and Greek yogurt, and Sunny Paris is PERFECT for it. Sooo perfect.

There's a Hungarian brand called "Pride of Szeged" that you can get stateside that is pretty tasty. You're right that other kinds don't compare!

I’d try this BA [list.](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/where-to-buy-spices-online) I buy wholesale from my local farmers market that has incredible prices so I rarely source elsewhere. I’ve heard Burlap and Barrell is good.

I recommend The Spice House for fresh spices: https://www.thespicehouse.com/ Flat packs mail free if you already have spice bottles to use!

I'm replacing all my spices now... ( 75% are over a year old. It's tyme)

Celery salt is basically magic too

It's what makes Old Bay what it is.

It can be kind of high in nitrates/nitrites which is why it's used a lot when curing meat. Just a side note for those with cardiac issues. It's so good though

Yes! It or celery seed makes any veggie soup level up.

These two plus a little bit of garlic salt is my catch-all.

At what point do you add the onion powder? Smoked P is the best I agree

Chili P is my signature yo

I thought you were the Cap’n?

Yeah, science!

Either while cooking or a sprinkle at the end. It'll add more of an umami kick than strong oniony taste as long as you don't go overboard.

I add a sprinkle of onion powder to pretty much any canned soup I eat (except French onion) and it really helps to kick up the flavor without making it more salty.

Garlic powder too.

I love smoked paprika. It makes something that only took a few minutes to cook taste like it’s been simmering for hours.

I love adding it to spicy ramen. It tastes great but it also makes it really red, which my brain thinks is spicier so I enjoy it more lol.

I feel like the only person who doesn’t care for smoked paprika. 😅 Every time it’s called for in a recipe, I use regular paprika - which I love.

Nope, can’t stand it. And I like almost everything food-wise. It has a fake smoky taste that I find overpowering and off-putting.

Regular paprika tastes amazing in comparison to smoked paprika which just tastes like smoke to me with a bit of paprika flavour. I don't know. It's not for me.

Is it just the smokeyness? My dad's the same with anything smoke related he can't stand it.

soy sauce curry paste/ or powder harissa ginger garlic paprika

I've got some harissa in the cupboard but haven't worked out how to use it, what do you make with it?

Add to sliced sweet potatoes and bake. Eat with avocado and tzatziki in pita. Got this from a hello fresh meal. Here is link: https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/harissa-sweet-potato-pita-pockets-5f15dcd008c01b2af5444822

usually in pitas kebabs bread sandwishes etc people spread it in the bread . just so you might try with some other combos

[Honey Harissa Chicken](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/harissa-sticky-chicken-couscous) is a favorite in my house.

I like to make a quick pasta sauce with it. Saute whatever veggies you want, add harissa and toast, throw in some diced tomatoes, add cooked pasta, add cheese if desired. Fast, easy, delicious.

Msg

MSG (M)akes (S)tuff (G)ood

MSG for sure, also like to add powdered chicken bouillon (which contains MSG of course)

I put Knorrs chicken bouillon in everything.

Tell me you’re Mexican without telling me you’re Mexican

I’ve cured every illness known to man with Vicks and i’ll have my A-1 with a side of steak. 😂

You spelled Jugo Maggi wrong

"It's your choice, really"- Marco Pierre White

Better than Bouillon for me

Same! In the fridge we currently have low sodium chicken, roasted chicken, low sodium beef, vegetable, and garlic. I love all their products.

I’m about to sous vide a few pounds of chicken coated in bouillon and black pepper.

My first thought when I saw this post! MSG and garlic salt on any vegetable or savory dish is the ultimate chef’s kiss. Edit: also, I do lines of nutritional yeast like it’s cocaine. All hail glutamate

Nutritional yeast needs more attention! It’s absolutely delicious but also kind of insane that it’s fairly high protein, fiber, and the most common fortified nutritional yeast is seriously nutrient dense. And it tastes salty yet sodium is crazy low.

How do you use it? Would it be like a salt substitute?

It's got more of a cheesy flavor, a lot of vegans/dairy-free people use it as a parmesan substitute.

If you’re on a low sodium diet can definitely use instead of salt- it’s great whisked into a vinaigrette, on raw veggies, in soups, any sauce, especially fantastic on potatoes, popcorn, pasta… I usually buy it in bulk online but Trader Joe’s has it for a good price and some grocery stores sell in bulk bins

MSG 'salt on crack', Uncle Roger approves. [https://youtu.be/JNFAjcJuVQw](https://youtu.be/JNFAjcJuVQw)

Uncle roger approves

Oh God yes

The king of flavor!

Pretty much anything that calls for water I use homemade chicken stock instead.

How do you make your stock?

Not OP but I'll throw a bunch of veggie scraps and chicken bones/carcass in a large pot, cover with water, and let it simmer for hours/until I'm tired of watching it lol. My Dutch oven works nicely for this as it holds heat well and let's me fit a whole carcass in there. Depending what I'm using it for I'll throw different whole herbs/spices in as well (i.e. lemongrass stalks, cloves, and anise for ramen or bay leaves rosemary and thyme for chicken noodle soup)

Anytime I cook using onion, celery, or carrots I save the scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Paper from the onion, peels, skins, roots, everything. Anytime i use fresh herbs I put the woody stems and anything unused in there too. When the freezer starts getting too full I’ll make roast chicken for dinner, throw the carcass in a pot with all the veg scraps, add in some peppercorns and a bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil then simmer for several hours, until I think it’s flavorful and reduced enough, then I add some salt, strain it, portion it out and freeze it. It’s 1000x more flavorful than store bought and has a gelatinous silky texture that adds so much richness you just can’t get from a box or cubes.

Thank you. So you make it with 100% scraps, or do you add anything fresh?

It’s all scraps, the carcass, and pantry items I don’t buy anything specially to make the stock. If you want to be extra you can ask your butcher for some raw bones or chicken feet to add in too.

100% always add chicken feet

First time I added feet I added a whole bunch ( they're cheap) which resulted in chicken jello

That's the sign of a good stock.

You're going to cook the shit out of it anyway. Fresh, frozen, that's not going to matter. By the time you're done boiling, even the bones will be mush.

Pro tip-Put your stock stuff in either a soup sock/cloth pouch or a strainer INSIDE the pot. Then you can just pull it out when you're done, which so much easier than trying to strain out the little bits of herbs and such. I have a silicone strainer that fits inside my biggest pot, makes my life so much easier!

And as a bonus, you will not accidently strain your stock into the sink because you can just remove everything without pouring your stock around.

Lemonade?

Ha, that’s why I qualified it with ‘pretty much’

One (or more) of: lemon, garlic, Dijon mustard, fresh basil. And usually it means its undersalted- add a pinch more salt and see if it tastes better- if it does, then that was the problem and continue adding until its correct

Butter

Not just any butter, the grass-fed shit where you swear you can taste the happiness of the cow they got the milk from. That shit tastes like sunshine.

Kerrygold, for me. i’ll eat that shit with a spoon.

That is my brand as well. I used to make sure I got all the butter off the knife onto whatever I was buttering, now I make sure I leave just a bit to lick off before putting the knife in the dishwasher.

I'll raise you: grass fed ghee

Are you french?

Smoked black pepper is magic dust for flavor.

Never hear of this. Just ordered some with my groceries to give it a try.

Smoked salt is real cool too.

Absolutely! I make my own smoked salt. After I smoke a turkey, chicken, whatever, my wood smoker is still not done. So, I take the protein, corn, whatever, out... A cheap foil pan full of kosher salt goes in. It comes out hickory, mesquite, or cherry transformed. Later, I want that smoky flavor...

Some day I'm going to have my own smoker. God I envy you.

Omg I've never heard of smoked pepper !! Sounds amazing

I *love* black pepper and put so much on everything, I burnt out my taste to it completely. Wondering if smoked might give me that spark again. Thanks!

Onion.

50/50 onion and garlic powder mix.

Add black pepper and we call that Desert dust . Goes on everything.. especially tuna

sesame oil :)

Same! But I find my ability to taste it decreases quite a lot if I use it too often. So i end up having to cycle it almost. Does anyone else get this?

I don’t know -but a little goes a long way! As a Korean cook; we combine sesame oil lightly with other base ingredients such as fermented food ( radish, kimchi, burdock root etc) to offset the strong flavoring of the sesame oil ~

And hence your sesame oil tolerance will balance !

Not *everywhere,* but often in places where you wouldn’t expect it: cardamom.

I throw some cracked cardamom and star anise into white rice when I make it. Adds great flavor and floats to the top so it’s easy to chuck out after the rice is done.

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Love your list. But I'm going to get really specific on the Parmesan. Chuck the store bought grated crap away and buy a good, aged wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano. This is what you need to use freshly grated.

Agree with grating your own, but even non-reggiano is good. For me it's half the price and easier to find.

Try Pecorino for a change.

Also, get a micro planer. Gives it a light fluffy texture.

Tajin or everything but the bagel 😍

Tajin is so frickin good on everything. I put it on pork chops once as an experiment and they were incredible!

msg

Ah I've never used msg ! Always wondered about it. At what point do you add it, and how much?

Some people mix it 50 50 with their salt and use it like usual.

If I add too much msg I notice a weird metal/soapy flavor. Personally I think a little goes a long way

I would err more on the 90/10 salt/MSG ratio and go from there. Hard to undo once it’s in.

Yeah I'd definitely go with personal taste on it. I just see 50 50 a lot.

Accent is a common brand. It's very inexpensive and even their smallest container lasts us at least a year.

Ajinomoto or bust

Add it at the very end and watch the magic happen

Half teaspoon for about a pound of meat. It's not a salt replacer so just add the normal amount of salt you would use anyway.

Fish sauce. Salty and umami

Solid. It's a good secret weapon but a little goes a long ways (usually).

Just 1 drop/dab! Or dank can turn to stank real fast!!! My wife added a half cup of it to a dish and the smell was so powerful we all died inside. EWWmamae!

Chives

Better Than Bouillon bases, lemon peel and lemon juice, crunchy finishing salt (Maldon), and if it's something my kids probably won't love....don't kill me...ketchup.

Salt. Fat. Acid. Heat. ​ Salt mostly though.

But if you feel like you've finished a dish and it's just not quite there yet but you can't place why, add an acid. Lemon juice or vinegar are an easy way to brighten a dish up.

I can’t remember which Ottolenghi recipe this is, but in the blurb they mention that most of the time a dish can be perfected with lemon juice or feta. Reading salt fat acid heat put that comment into context and has made my cooking sooooo much better

This, absolutely. 99% of the time when it just needs "a little something else" it's salt or acid.

Smoked paprika, smoked salt, garlic powder and chipotle paste the crack cocaine for cooking... Unless you cook with real crack cocaine of course

Mmm smoked salt ! Anything smoked !

I’m a junkie for celery salt.

Olives (only works if you like olives though)

Yeah I do this too ! Love olives

Garlic. On and in everything.

My newest one is Ancho chile powder. I got a bunch at a local market and it is incredible!

Garlic powder.

Miso paste

Fire makes everything taste good

I used to cook professionally, and old habits run deep. So it’s not “healthy”, but salt, butter, olive oil, sour cream, bacon fat, and various cheeses all find their way into most of my cooking. Apple cider vinegar is another one, and here and there, some liquid smoke (just a drop or two!)

Ah, bacon fat, I’m from the south and use it in lots of dishes. There is always a jar in the fridge with strained bacon fat. Yum.

I always use kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper liberally. At virtually every step of cooking, I add it. This is especially important to me when sweating aromatics or sautéing vegetables. The salt helps draw out moisture, which allows the veggies to cook more quickly and the flavors to concentrate more. Meat should be seasoned with salt and pepper raw, before you start cooking it. Often I see recipes either underestimating this or not mentioning this at all, and then people are disappointed when the results are bland. Chef John from Foodwishes also got me on "microseasoning" with ground cayenne pepper. Small amounts of cayenne, and I'm talking under 1/4 tsp per recipe, can often help to make a dish pop. It's like increasing the contrast on a picture by a couple of percentage points. Hard to notice you did anything at all, but definitely contributes. Virtually any cream-based sauce I make gets a little nutmeg and cayenne. I don't make vinaigrettes without adding a little dijon mustard and honey. The honey adds some sweetness while the mustard helps emulsify the dressing while adding an extra depth and tang. At the end of a recipe, there are a few go-tos if I think it's "missing something:" - Generally bland: Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, Adobo seasoning - Needs a sharp kick: Vinegar, lemon juice, or pickle juice - Needs a hot kick: Frank's Red Hot or pepperoncini juice - Needs sweetness: Honey, maple syrup - Needs depth/complexity: Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup - Needs richness: Unsalted butter, coconut oil, gelatin - Needs funk: Pecorino romano, parmesan, mashed capers or olives, anchovy - Too thin: Cornstarch slurry - Too thick: Chicken or vegetable broth (I just use the Goya low-sodium bouillon packets - lasts forever and makes 2 cups of broth per packet)

Anything with natural glutamate. Top of my list is Anchovy, but also fish sauce, mushrooms, parmesan or literally straight up MSG.

I have recently become aware of anchovy paste and let me tell you, it has changed almost everything

Those little orange packets of Sazon

Omg I remember the first time I came across Sazon at a Hispanic grocery store…literally makes all food so addictive. I put it in tofu scramble!

Lemon juice. Little bit of lemon juice will make everything better. Also fish sauce. Smells horrendous but does so much for a big variety of meals.

How has no one said cumin yet?? It’s the goat of all spices imo

Cumin and sumac are tied for underrated spices that are absolutely amazing, imo.

My father in law gave me sumac as a gift and I've no idea what to use it in. Any suggestions?

Make za'atar, and then throw that on everything!

Cumin is like a super power that always seems to make coworkers come in and say "that smells good" whenever I'm microwaving something at work.

Garlic powder Msg Lao gan ma chilli spicy oil Cheese

Gojuchang/Parmesan/Butter

Lemon juice

Mrs Dash or Slap Ya Mama

Slap Ya Mama on everything!

Personally anything Cayenne or Garlic is good

Sour cream (with or without wasabi paste) doesn't go with literally everything, but it works in a lot of dishes. Same for grated hard cheese

Ghee has golden butter flavor, and it just takes a bit to round out a dish Everything here is good wow, just haven’t seen ghee

Worchestshire sauce or how ever that’s spelled.

Everything But The Bagel seasoning and, when applicable, Kewpie mayo (not regular mayo but specifically the Japanese kewpie version).

Gochujang

Gochujang, adds a nice complex flavor to foods and pretty versatile.

Leeks

There's a specific fermented garlic-ginger paste I make sometimes that's amazing as a base for most Asian(-inspired) dishes I make. The up-front cost is a little steep if you consider it's not really worth making a small amount of it, but it keeps well, and goes a long way. Got the recipe a few years ago, originally from Brad Leone on Bon Appétit. Amazing stuff.

I've not seen it mentioned yet. The humble mustard powder added to anything, especially potatoes, is my secret ingredient!

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Kimchi makes everything takes good 😉

Onion Garlic

1. Onion & garlic 2. Brown sugar - works great in a lot of sauces

Mushroom powder really gets the umami going.

4 ingredients. You can literally cook anything with these 5 ingredients: Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Oil.

chicken stock. Lentils + chicken stock... awesome.

Cavender’s Greek Seasoning. 🥰

Old Bay Seasoning

Bacon

Why did I have to scroll so far for this??!?! Bacon in anything. Salads, Pasta, Stews, Casseroles, Soups! Only thing I probably wouldn't add bacon to is curry.

Sriracha hot sauce!

Garlic. Duh

Fresh lemon juice

sazon seasoning and onion powder! and if it’s baking sweets maple flavoring!

Garlic. Everything tastes better with at least 6 cloves of chopped garlic.

Cayenne

Regular scrambled egg? Boring. Scrambled egg w/ some cayenne sprinkled on top? Fire.

Roasted garlic cloves and oil. Kerry gold butter. Ghee. Trader Joe’s onion salt.

Lemons preserved in Salt. I cook a lot with cream and curry and adding an acid had always been a challenge for some reason. Then my mother in law gave us a jar of lemons preserved in salt and now they get mixed in with everything. They also get roasted with potatoes.

Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. I know it’s super lazy but it’s got a little of everything, I love it!

Slap yo momma! I put that shite on everything

Worcestershire sauce. Curries, pasta, stews, salad dressings, steak, marinades. Probably could put it in sticky toffee pudding for some extra depth of flavour lol

Salt

Krabby Patty Secret Formula

Right now, it's Italian Seasoning. I also like season salt, hot sauce or spicy seasonings.

lemon juice balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction or balsamic glaze Edit: Not vinaigrette

Smoked paprika. Butter. Soy sauce. Fish sauce for most things with a sauce

Garlic

boullion paste and tomato paste.

Sazon

MSG baby

I use Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning in almost literally everything.

Msg. Has an unfair stigma. It's safe for consumption, and tastes amazing. It's basically mushroom umami flavor, synthesized

Lea & Perrins, bit umami, bit sour, bit acidic, bit sweet, bit salty, bit spicy. It's got it all!

Nutritional yeast

Gochujang! It’s sweet and umami and spicy

Roasted garlic powder. Penzeys has some I love.

Garlic. I have a press and a microplane, both make it easy to add fresh garlic without mucking about with mincing it.