Lavender and catmint are drought-tolerant plants that look a lot alike. They both have purple blooms and are aromatic. If you are a gardener, lavender and catmint are great if you want to attract bees to your garden. Both of these flowering herbs have different applications in the kitchen, even …
Cloves and star anise are both pungent spices that sometimes get used in the same dishes. Both spices are essential for bakers and for home cooks who like to prepare Chinese food. Learn what makes these spices similar and how they differ in the SPICEography Showdown below. How does clove …
Caraway seeds and cumin seeds can easily be confused because of their very similar appearances. To make matters worse, caraway seeds are also called cumin in some places. The fact that the two spices resemble each other is not strange, since they both belong to the Apiaceae family, making them …
Clove and cinnamon are two staple spices that every home baker should keep on hand. They are versatile and key ingredients in many sweet and savory dishes. If you are trying to decide between them for a particular application, the questions below should provide information on each spice’s qualities. Let’s …
Galangal is a spice used heavily in Thai food and that belongs to the same family as ginger. Like ginger, galangal can be used in its dry and fresh forms. Dried galangal and fresh galangal share some qualities but also have very different properties. We will compare them in the …
Nutmeg and cloves are two widely available and heavily used spices that you will find in most cooks’ spice cabinets. They complement each other in many recipes but can you use one in place of the other? How different are they? Let’s take a look at nutmeg and cloves in …
Crushed bay leaf and whole bay leaf are two versions of the same herb. They will both give your dishes the bay leaf flavor, but that does not mean that they are always interchangeable. In the SPICEography Showdown below, we will look at what makes these spices similar and where …
Mace and allspice are a pair of relatively common spices that you may see in recipes for both savory and sweet dishes. Every so often both of them show up in the same dishes. The SPICEography Showdown below will go into the nature of each spice and the roles that …