Why a Single Spice Blend Takes Us Two to Three Months to Get Right
Mac normally does two to three months of testing on a single spice blend. That can sound like a long time for something that ends up in a pouch, so here is what we are actually trying to do, what makes it difficult, and what we hope you do with it once it is in your kitchen.
What are we trying to do with a blend?
Every blend starts with a flavour profile. The aim is to get as close to that taste as you can with a dry blend, so that you can cook with it and get near the real thing without having to add a million and one different ingredients.
That is the target, and it is a harder one than it sounds.
Why does it take two to three months?
What often goes wrong along the way is the flavour profile itself. You are trying to build a particular taste, and a dry blend has to carry all of it. Getting there is why Mac normally spends two to three months testing a blend before we are happy with it.
Why are lemon and lime so tricky?
Citrus is a good example of difficult. When you want an extra punch of lemon or lime, it is quite difficult to get it without using additives that are flavour enhancers. Our target is to avoid that and keep the blend simple.
Several of our blends have citrus in them, and the ingredients are plain:
- Chipotle & Lime uses lime leaves and lemon peel, with chipotle chilli powder and smoked paprika.
- Chermoula uses lemon peel.
- Paella Blend uses lemon peel.
- Piri Piri Spice uses kaffir lime.
We are happy with where they have got to. You get pretty close to the taste you are after.
What do we hope you do with a blend?
The point of a blend is to simplify cooking. If a blend does the hard work of building the flavour, you can cook more things, and you are more likely to enjoy trying them. What we hope is that people find a love for cooking real food, rather than cooking just out of a jar.
What to add next
Once the blend feels easy, we hope you start to experiment and build a bigger flavour profile. Watching our videio and understanding how to cook not just follow our recipes. It might go somthting like this:
- Start with the blend. Use it as it is, with the dish it was made for.
- Add a few ingredients such as fresh garlic and ginger alongside the blend. That takes the dish to the next level.
- Finish with a squeeze of lime juice, or a little vinegar. This is where the citrus punch adds a new dimension.
That is what we are trying to teach through the video recipes we make online. You will find them on our Recipes section. If you have ever bought a spice for one dish and never used it again, our post Do You Really Need That Jar of Fenugreek? is about why we make blends in the first place.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to develop a spice blend?
For our blends, Mac normally does two to three months of testing.
Can a spice blend taste exactly like fresh ingredients?
Not exactly. Our target is to get as near as you can without adding a long list of ingredients, and we see it as a steppping stone to you getting pretty close to the taste. We then make videos to help you understand how to cook better not jusyt follow.
Why is lemon and lime flavour hard to put in a blend?
In our experience, it is quite difficult to get an extra punch of citrus without using additives that are flavour enhancers, and we want to avoid those. A squeeze of fresh lime juice, or a little vinegar, at the end of cooking is what a jar tries to do with artifical enhancers.
