Fresh spices vs Dried spices
I am new to this community and I have a question in mind.
Spices like garlic , cinnamon etc after drying lose the volatile oil content in them. [HERE, HERE]
Though We see fresh garlic in market being sold but that is not the case of other spices like cinnamon , black pepper, cloves etc.
Why don't people prefer them fresh? After all if there was a demand, there would have been supply.
Best Answer
Spices are generally comprised of bark, buds, fruit, seeds or stems of plants. They are almost always dried. Garlic is not a spice, rather, it is a vegetable, like onions or shallots. You can, of course, get dried garlic, onions, or shallot. But the drying process does not make it a spice. While spices have a fairly long shelf life, they should be used when fresh. Purchasing whole spices and grinding them yourself increases the shelf life, as ground spices, with more surface area, lose freshness more quickly.
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Quick Answer about "Fresh spices vs Dried spices"
Dried herbs tend to have a deeper, spicier flavor than fresh herbs. For that reason, you can usually add less dry herbs than you would fresh herbs. That way, those strong flavors won't overpower your dish. A good ratio is 1 to 3.Are fresh spices better than dried?
Certain herbs are always better fresh and lose their distinctive flavor when dried. Delicate, leafy herbs like parsley, tarragon, and chives are always superior when fresh, and should typically be avoided when dried since they don't add much flavor to a dish. They're also best when raw or cooked for just a few minutes.Do fresh spices make a difference?
Better Flavor If you were to compare a pre-ground spice to a freshly ground spice, you would immediately be able to tell the difference. A freshly ground spice has a deeper and richer flavor and aroma. Whole spices also contain oils that help make them taste amazing.What is the equivalent of dried spices to fresh spices?
Dried herbs can be more potent than fresh herbs (unless they've been sitting in your spice drawer for 5 years). This means you need fewer dried herbs than fresh when substituting one for the other. A good rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon dried herbs.Can you use dried spices instead of fresh?
If a recipe calls for fresh herbs, but you only have dried herbs on hand (or you don't want to spring for fresh), replace the fresh herbs in your recipe with one-third as much of the dried equivalent. The flavor is much more concentrated in dried herbs, so less is required.Fresh vs Dried Herbs
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Answer 2
Many popular spices, such as cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper, can only be grown in tropical countries, but are consumed all over the world. Even if those spices were useful fresh, you can't practically transport them that way; fresh nutmeg berries, for example, would need to be air-shipped from Indonesia to other continents, making them astronomically expensive.
This brings up the second reason, which is that some spices are very strongly flavored and are most useful dried and ground. This includes cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, cloves, etc. Nutmeg requires separation of several layers which is only possible when dried.
Finally, in the places where these spices are grown, they are consumed fresh some of the time. In Southeast Asia, people cook with green peppercorns. Indians cook with fresh green cardamom pods. As far as I know, Indonesians make things with fresh cinnamon bark, but I don't know enough of that cuisine to cite anything.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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