I'm looking for an extender/filler for my spice mix
I mix up a red pepper and salt blend (along with a few other ingredients) and put it in a coffee grinder to powder it.
The blend that I have come up with has just the right flavor for my family's taste, but it is too intense. We use this spice mix to coat deep-fried tater-tots in a pretty fair imitation of the potato ole's from Taco John's. When coating the tater tots, it takes a certain minimum amount of the spice to get decent coverage. But, that makes the flavor too strong.
What can I use as a filler or extender to dilute the strength of my spice mix, so I can use enough to get a good distribution of the spices and not have the flavor so strong. Any suggestions for something flavorless that can be added and blended with the mixture?
Best Answer
The professional (read: industrial) solution would be maltodextrin powder. It is rather tasteless, has good solubility in liquids, and doesn't change much texturewise.
In homemade spice mixes, the popular filler solution are dried breadcrumbs of a very small size (like breadcrumbs for schnitzel breading). They are noticeable, because the mix gets gritty, but the consensus among those who do it is that this is a feature, not a bug. They could also slightly thicken a wet dish (soup, stew), but present no problem when strewn over dry food.
You can also use a nut flour made of nuts without much of an own taste, like apricot kernels or low quality overdried almonds. Again, this will be somewhat gritty, but not as hard as the breadcrumn solution.
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What fillers are used in spices?
Some of these fillers can include flour, salts, corn starch and in some cases even saw dust. Products like Turmeric, Paprika and Ginger are often embellished with toxic or potentially harmful dyes to hide the ageing of the product or the presence of fillers themselves.Can you bake spices?
Whole spices are preferred over ground spices for roasting. That's because whole spices better retain their oils and so contain more flavor to release when they're heated or ground. You can certainly roast ground spices \u2014 just keep in mind that it will take only seconds before they're done.Can you cook seasoning?
You're not letting the spices cook. Zuccarello says that "blooming" spices in a fat source (like oil, butter, or ghee) or toasting them in a dry skillet will better release their flavors. So when you can, be sure to cook the spices before anything else.Kendrick Lamar - i (Official Video)
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Answer 2
Flour, cornstarch, or cornmeal should work well. They'll also help your spice mix stick to the food. Very fine breadcrumbs could work as well, as long as they are not too large to pass through the holes of a shaker.
Answer 3
Why not dilute it in several liquids that will match the dishes you prepare.
Spiced oils and vinegars are very conventional. Spiced neutral alcohols can be nice - especially when cooking in a sauce or over a fry pan at higher heats.
For the tots, it looks like oil is the way to go.
Answer 4
The best filler is maltodextrin. You could also use milk powder.
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