penzeys-spices-on-westport-aveThe recipe calls for a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, which seems pretty straightforward – unless you’re shopping at Penzeys Spices on Westport Ave. There they have five different types: each with a subtle difference, each bound to be someone’s favorite, each just the right accent for a particular recipe.

In November and December we’re cooking like crazy! Holiday celebrations and entertaining are packed into these months like no other.  It’s the time for traditional menus and seasonal favorites. When you peek behind the curtain of gift giving, entertaining, and religious celebration, you’ll find that food is at the center of the hubbub.  

Holiday recipes demand the best possible ingredients.  From our collective heritage – traditional favorites or recent innovations of cross-cultural creativity – food is prepared with extra care. More than any other time of year, that means spices, too.

Cinnamon bark to be ground into powder

Cinnamon bark

Don’t you love to walk into a house during holiday baking?  The air is filled with the fragrant combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in pumpkin pies,  Pumpkin Bread, and muffins.  Called pumpkin pie spice, this aromatic blend has moved into the larger world, flavoring our coffee, beer, donuts, and even candles.  

Ginger is popular for cookies, spice cakes, and Gingerbread. Exotic cardamom and star anise are great for poaching fruit.  Nutmeg (Connecticut is the nutmeg state, after all) adds creamy warmth to cakes, custards, and soups like Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque.  Mix up your favorite spice blend for mulling cider or wine.   

chili-choicesSage is an all-important flavor for turkey stuffing. Cracked peppercorns season the crust of a holiday roast. Chili peppers add zing, mysterious heat, or incendiary fire to a wide range of holiday dishes.  It’s tough to find a slow simmered recipe without bay leaves.

I’m sure I’ve missed some favorite holiday flavors, but you get the idea.

Penzeys has what you need to stock up for the holidays.  Fresh is best, and that goes for spices, too.  Traditionally spices were dried so they would travel well and keep for the long journey over the Silk Road by caravan or around the Horn on sailing ships.  Because flavor is at its peak when packaged and slowly fades over time, Penzeys recommends refreshing your supplies after about a year.  

If, like me, you’ve got a few spice containers in the cupboard of uncertain vintage, ditch them and start over.  I aspire to live in a place with a rosemary bush by the front door and a bay tree shading the patio.  In the meantime, store-bought will be just fine.  

The variety on the shelves at Penzeys is mind-boggling. Fortunately, the knowledgeable staff is eager to help – explaining the differences and suggesting choices based on your planned use. Cinnamon, ground from tree barks with subtle differences, comes from four countries: China, Indonesia, Ceylon, and Vietnam.  There’s also Penzeys popular blend of all four to cover general use.

Pepper, too, comes in a surprising array of shades and flavors: Black (Tellicherry or Malabar), White (Sarawak or Muntok), Green, and Pink. Penzeys also mixes them and adds other seasonings for ready-to-use blends.  

Useful ginger comes in six different preparations: minced, powdered, bits, crystallized, sliced, and cracked – each with a particular purpose.

At Penzeys, you can adventure far into the world of spice and discover new flavors, get ideas for new ways to add spice, and understand the nuance, subtlety, and differences of unfamiliar varieties.  I learn something every time I go in.

By the way, they have gift boxes of selected spices, perfect for hostess gifts, stocking stuffers, or under the tree.  Can’t get to the store?  Visit Penzeys.com.  

If you want to go even further along the spice road, check out these two new books published by New York City spice purveyors. “The Spice Companion” by Lior Lev Sercarz of La Boîte is a glossy, beautifully photographed book with recipes, spicing ideas, and spice lore. “The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs” by Padma Lakshmi and Kalustyan’s Specialty Food Store covers the world of spices from A to Z. Either book is a great reference or a welcome gift.

the-silk-roadThe spices that are all important to our holiday season have been prized throughout history.  The Silk Road was also the Spice Road, a long and arduous path from the far east to the Mediterranean connecting Europe to China, India, and the island nations of the Indian Ocean.  

European seafaring nations searched for an ocean route to bring the highly desired peppercorns, cinnamon bark, ginger, and nutmeg home. Along the way, they created empires, got rich, and brought home the exotic flavors that spiced up the cooking of their world.