European Spices Category

These are widely used in Eastern Europe, especially for flavoring rye bread, cheeses, and sauerkraut. Toast them first over low heat in a frying pan for a few minutes to bring out the aroma.

Celery seed is used to impart a celery flavor to stews, pickles, and other dishes. Use it sparingly--a little goes a long way. Ground celery seed is sometimes called celery powder.

Recipes for baked goods often call for ground ginger. Don't confuse this with fresh ginger root, which is used mostly in Asian dishes.

This dark blue spice is used to make gin, and to flavor game and sauerkraut. Crush the berries before using.

Freshly grated whole nutmeg tastes far better than packaged ground nutmeg, and has a much longer shelf life.

Paprika is made from special kinds of sweet red peppers, which are dried and ground. Varieties include the highly regarded and sweet Hungarian paprika = rose paprika = sweet paprika = Hungarian pepper and the cheaper and more pungent Spanish paprika = Spanish pepper = pimentón = pimenton. Cookbooks that call for paprika are usually referring to Hungarian paprika.

This is a dried ground chili pepper used in Turkey on meat dishes. It is medium spicy and has a smoky flavor.