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Definition of spice
Any natural or artificial and synthetic
matter, in gas, powder, steam and other form, which can stimulate
the organ of smell and taste and cause pleasant sensation
in the atmosphere of normal temperature, is called spice;
or any spice content possessed by the animals and vegetables
themselves, which can be provided to season the medical material
or food as the cooking material, is called spice. The fragrance
of the spice, which can be divided into slight fragrance,
faint fragrance, sharp fragrance, sweet fragrance, acid fragrance,
etc. is mostly very strong.
The spice is divided into natural and artificial spice of
vegetable and animal. The common food cooking always uses
the aromatic genus of vegetable spices, which have various
kinds, but there are fewer kinds of animal spices. The vegetable
spices include the aromatic oil, balsam, and aromatic vegetable.
The aromatic oil is the primary component of vegetable spice
(It has no pollution of the microbe and no natural antioxidant,
the quality is relative stable, but it cannot provide complete
fragrance. Therefore, the volatile component is easy to scatter).
Most are liquid in normal temperature, but some are semisolid
or solid. Some aromatic oils exit in each part of the vegetables,
some only in special part. There are five methods to extract
the aromatic oil from vegetables; they are squeezing, distillation,
maceration, absorption, and lixiviation.
Classification of spice
There are about 250 kinds of vegetables
that can be used as the spice in horticulture. It can be classified
by the parts in the vegetable, the flavor and the cooking
purpose, as follows:
| 1. |
The perfuming
spice: |
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The first function discovered by the human is perfuming,
the various spices have particular fragrant essential
oil components, which mainly provide the food with agreeable
fragrance. Such aromatic spices include sweet pepper,
aniseed, basil, cherry bay leaf, caper, caraway, cardamom,
celery seed, Ceylon cinnamon, clove, caraway, common fennel,
dill, fennel, garlic, ginger, cardamom skin, mint, nutmeg,
onion, coriander, rosemary, sage, wormwood, thyme, turmeric,
vanilla.
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| 2. |
The odor
restraining spice: |
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If the spice is added to the food, it can restrain the
fishy smell or disgusting smell of the food. Such spices
include the sweet pepper, cherry bay leaf, caraway, clove,
caraway seed, fennel, garlic, ginger, cardamom skin, nutmeg,
onion, oregano, pepper, rosemary, sage, anisetree, thyme.
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| 3. |
The pungent
spice: |
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The pungent spice has the orectic effect. Such pungent
spices include bell pepper, capsicum powder, cayenne pepper,
ginger, cardamom skin, mustard seed, nutmeg, onion, Hungarian
pepper, curcuma, pepertree, horseradish.
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| 4. |
The coloring
spice: |
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The natural coloring matter of the spice is put on the
food as special coloring spice in local dishes or for
providing pleasing color to the food. Such coloring spices
include the annatto, caraway, cayenne pepper, fir, ginger,
mustard, Hungarian pepper, perilla frutescens crispa,
mawseed (oil), crocus, curcuma.
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| 5. |
The secretion
of male animal scent glands: |
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Civet.
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| 6. |
The dried
powder of castor glandular sac: |
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Castor.
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| 7. |
Liquid
Spiced: |
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Also called extraction spice. It includes the Oleoresin,
Essential Oil, Steam Volatile Oil-the same as essential
oil, also called the volatile oil, essential oil or aromatic
oil.
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（1）Oleoresin:
It is the natural resin that can dissolve or mix in
the essential oil. It is the matter secreted from the
vegetables, and has special fragrance. That contains
more essential oil is fluid; that contains less essential
oil content is thick. In order to separate the essential
oil from it, it should be distilled by water vapor.
Otherwise, it can be extracted by dissolvent and concentrated
for getting rid of the solvent, the obtained resin dope
is the fragrant matter extracted from the vegetables.
Therefore, besides the essential oil component, it contains
the other organic compounds in the vegetables, it is
also liquid and the fragrance is closer to the natural
spice than that of the essential oil. Such matter is
usually not easy to adhere to the foods directly; therefore,
it should be diluted by the solvent before it is used.
The spice vegetables that belong to Oleoresin include
galbanum vegetables (i.e. Sandarac), winter calamint
(Savory, Winter), etc.
（2）Essential oil:
It is the oleaginous matter obtained from the vegetables
(The essential oil generally contains the fragrance
of vegetable material). The essential oil is widely
different from the Volatile Oil and common Vegetable
Oil or Fixed Oil. The essential oil is the liquid extracted
from the volatile organic compound in the vegetables,
such as Alcohol, Aldehydes, Ethers, Ester, Hydrocarbon,
Ketones, Lactones, Phenols, and Phenol Ethers, etc.,
by different means, especially water vapor distillation.
They all have special fragrant components.
In general, the fragrance of essential oil is relative
stable, but not complete; since the antioxidants of
itself are got ride of during distillation, it is easy
to be oxidized and the fragrance is easy to lose. However,
some large food factories still use the essential oil
mostly, and consider it most convenient. The various
essential oils that can be regarded as the food spices
include French Cognac Oil, mint oil, Yagara bulrush
oil, bitter apricot kernel oil, orange oil, ginger oil,
etc.
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Usage
of spice
The spice has extensive usages, including food spice, beverage
spice, flavoring spice, cosmic spice, industrial spice, etc.
The final spice products are even too numerous to mention
one by one; there are various food, drink, tissue, insecticide,
incense, etc.
The food spice can add special fragrance to the dessert,
candy, fermented dairy products, and other foods. The beverage
spice can make the alcohol, carbonated drinks, coke, etc.,
more tasty and refreshing.
The flavoring spice is the appendant of food, most have low
nutritive values, but they are appetitive and can enhance
the flavor of the food. The most common flavoring spices in
daily life include the aniseed, pepper, capsicum, pepertree,
ginger, cinnamon, etc.
Attention of purchasing spice
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Attention
of purchasing spice
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| 1. |
The consumer should know the characteristics of the spice
thoroughly and purchase those can provide the food with
special flavor for sure, so as to avoid affecting the
quality of the food.
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| 2. |
Choose brand with good credit (including the seller with
outstanding credit), mark the name (Chinese, English or
other language), component content (if the mixture consists
of over two components, the percentage should be marked),
weight, capacity or number; merchant address, manufacturing
date, storage life (safe period) on the package.
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| 3. |
The vanillas usually contain less volatile essential oil
than the spice, but their fragrances are lucid, and have
obvious fragrant characteristics (The fragrance of fresh
vegetables are better than that of the dried ones). Therefore,
our province had better choose the native vanillas vegetables
as the cooking material, and the imports had better be
the dried granules or blocks.
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| 4. |
The mixed spice, such as curry powder, cannot show better
flavor and effect until three months or a year later.
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| 5. |
The powder or granule spice should be stored hermetically
by brown bottles, so that it can avoid the refraction
and oxidation of the light, and guarantee the fragrant
component.
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| 6. |
If the powder spice held in the packing vessel loosens
or slides freely after upturn, it is the fresh dried product.
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| 7. |
Since the flavoring spices all have strong pungent, they
should be purchased deliberately and should not be excessive,
so as to prevent the fragrance from escaping after stored
for a long time.
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| 8. |
The granule spices cannot be rubbed until cooking, or
it should be packed appropriately after braising to keep
the complete original flavor.
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| 9. |
Pay attention to the whether the spice in bulk has foreign
matter, impurity (i.e. insert, sand, branch) and other
pollutants.
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| 10. |
The good spices all have strong fragrant pungent and purity,
therefore, the fresh strong fragrant can be smelt when
the container is opened.
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| 11. |
If the spice has toxic components, it should not be used
at will. For example, the sassafras contains the safrole,
which is harmful to the human body. Therefore, the domestic
foods should be certified by the food sanitation unit;
and the American foods should be purchased according to
the regulation of FAD.
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| 12. |
Among the packaging materials of spice, the brown bottle
generally is the best, the paper box takes the second
place and the metal box is next to it; the granule spice
can best keep the original flavor; the finer the powder
is, the more possible it is to become damp, go moldy and
cake, so it is not easy to preserve and the fragrant components
are easy to be lost.
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| 13. |
The imported spice should accord with the quality check
standard drawn up by American Spice Association (has the
highest authorization at present) or the local exporter
passing customs check standard, including the lowest water
content, ash content, volatile oil content, coarse fiber
content, amylum content, the hydrochloric acid insoluble
ash content, the fixed aether extraction, the number of
mould and bacteria, etc.
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| 14. |
After purchasing, the spice should be stored far away
from the light, humidity, heat and other bad environ
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