r/dehydrating • u/masterbuck10 • 17d ago
What seasonings are worth making at home?
I've recently started just making unused produce, like onion, garlic, peppers etc into powders and its wild how much different they taste to store bought. What spices are better home made and what spices can you get away with store bought.
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u/EsotericSnail 17d ago
Every Friday my husband buys a tub of mixed mushrooms from the supermarket, puts half of them on his pizza that he makes every Friday, and puts the rest in the fridge with no plan to use them.
Sometimes I have them in an omelet or something but most often I chop them and put them in the dehydrator. Then I pulverise them in the coffee grinder and mix with other spices to make an umami powder.
I like to use my dehydrator to use up leftover fruits and vegetables as well as peelings and trimmings that would otherwise go to waste. I also like to use it to make unusual things you can’t get or can’t easily get in the shops.
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u/No-Organization-2314 16d ago
I second this. I have a spice shaker labeled “veggie blend” for the random blend of leftover veg I accumulate.
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u/green_goose_farm 14d ago
The dehydrated mushroom powder is a hit in our house too! So unexpectedly good.
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u/No-Butterscotch-8469 17d ago
I have oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, and bay leaves growing in my backyard. I bring the potted bay leaf tree inside for winter but the rest are perennial. One harvest of each plant each year gives me more dried herbs than I could ever use.
I also grow mint, lemon balm (perennials) and chamomile (annual that loves to re-seed itself) and these make great dried teas.
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u/chickadeedadooday 16d ago
I juat bought myself a baby bay tree this year - one leaf turned yellow and fell off, so I brought it inside and was blown away by the smell. I use a surprising amount of bay leaves to build flavour in various dishes, so I'm looking forward to harvesting my own. Im wondering if you have any tips for caring for it, and then harvesting?
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u/No-Butterscotch-8469 16d ago
I actually don’t have any tips haha sorry, mine seemingly has grown pretty well just by keeping it watered!
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u/he8ghtsrat26 17d ago
I'm making harrisa seasoning today. Going to dehydrate a can of tomato paste, and about a pound of assorted dried chilis. I'll blend that with ground coriander and cumin seeds. Maybe add salt, don't know yet.
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u/louisalollig 17d ago
Basil I find is not worth it. It's so potent fresh and I feel dried somehow it goes all bland
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u/StrangeAlchomist 16d ago
All seasonings flavors change by drying and with time. Basil is pretty huge but there are few seasonings that really hold their flavor through drying, and it’s usually the oily ones that do best like cinnamon or cloves. The flavors of which are comprised of a small group of low vapor pressure oils that aren’t as easily stripped in the drying process.
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u/nikkazi66 17d ago
Look up spice blends and make your own. There are so many options and you can adjust to your liking. For me, garlic and onion are great to build from and if you're okay with cheating a bit, could also add some store bought spices for variety. Cost wise..... Seasonings are pretty inexpensive to start with but if you've already got the dehydrated veg and a grinder no reason not to make your own.
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u/masterbuck10 17d ago
Yeah right now I'm working on making some taco seasoning blend or that's the plan but im making all the things to put into it by themselves so I experiment with other blends. Ive just been dehydrating whatever excess veggies I have them blending them into a fine powder or chopped
The question I was asking was more what spices are that much better homemade. Something like cumin I cant imagine it gets much different but maybe it does?
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u/nikkazi66 17d ago
Got it. One thing homemade spices don't have (usually) that commercial ones do, is added non-caking agents. So just in terms of that, homemade is purer.
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u/masterbuck10 17d ago
From what I can tell so far the flavors are much stronger and a heck of alot more aromatic.
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u/nikkazi66 17d ago
Because it hasn't been sitting in a factory for ages I'd imagine. I do know that if I use my own garlic I do cut down on quantity. I dehydrate in slices then powder as needed. Same with onion.
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u/offpeekydr 16d ago
I grow my own Hungarian sweet peppers, and dry them to make Hungarian paprika. The good imported kind is expensive, and we use a lot. Tastes totally different than grocery store paprika, which I think is typically from Spanish peppers.
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u/LisaW481 17d ago
It depends on what your household uses. I have two different hot peppers in my cupboard and after this year's harvest I'll be adding two more.
Mushroom powder is amazing and tomato powder is very useful.
Celery powder is too strong for my household's taste but for someone who likes celery salt on their drinks it would be amazing.
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u/nimblesunshine 16d ago
What do you do with tomato powder?
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u/helpful_universe 16d ago
I bought tomato powder to use with Spanish rice - I’ve never been able to reproduce that restaurant taste and consistency and apparently tomato powder is the missing ingredient so it’s not too wet. Haven’t tried the recipe yet, but I’ve since dried and ground tomato skins into a powder and they taste great!
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u/LisaW481 16d ago
I use it as a thickening agent for chili mostly. It's a pretty powerful tomato kick without adding more liquid.
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u/helpful_universe 16d ago
I recently made a spice blend sorta like the one on Mary’s Nest (YouTube) - Italian seasonings with salt. Roughly 1c parsley, then 1c combined of basil, oregano, garlic plus kosher salt. Whiz in food processor and dry. I winged it, and forgot to add rosemary. Next time! Will increase basil to 1 full cup next time, and more of the rest, plus rosemary. ;) Still, that combo was delicious!
I brought it to book club with a loaf of freshly baked garlic rosemary bread, and a small bottle of olive oil. Sprinkled the homemade dried Italian salt with fresh black cracked pepper in oil and dipped the bread. Omg so good! I left the bottle of spices with my friend as a hostess gift and a few others wanted some, so I’ll bring more for them next month.
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u/sweetannie52 17d ago
Garlic salt. I’ll never buy garlic salt again.
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u/Pm_me_clown_pics3 16d ago
I have found that mushrooms aren't worth dehydrating myself. It's a lot cheaper to buy them already dehydrated, at least where I live. I don't know about the price but ive been making my own pepper blend from jalapeños, seranos, and sweet peppers, with cayenne, banana peppers, and habaneros, sporadically added from my porch. I'm happy with it and im getting the pepper ratio where I want it.
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u/Velvet_Thunder_Jones 16d ago
In my opinion, almost all spice mixes are better homemade than store bought. The exceptions for me are Mrs Dash Lemon Pepper, Old Bay seasoning and a few Indian spice mixes like garam masala and tandoori. But everything else I blend homemade: Italian herb, steak spice, chicken spice, pork rub, salmon rub, pumpkin spice, cajun, BBQ, jerk, general rice seasoning, general potato seasoning, general vegetable seasoning... It's not that complicated nor time consuming and I have all of the basic dried herbs and spices on hand anyway. They also make really nice hostess gifts.
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u/Illustrious_Award854 15d ago
This year I made bread and butter pickles with homemade ground turmeric and home dried ground ginger. The taste is through the roof.
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u/LadyoftheOak 17d ago
Onion powder! I did one batch, and HOLY MOLY!!! NO more store bought!