Your First Spice Cupboard: The 10 Spices to Buy First

A spice shelf is the kitchen's colour palette. But you do not need to buy every jar in the supermarket to fill it. With a small number of well-chosen, fresh spices you can comfortably cook most of Turkish cuisine and a good part of the world's kitchens too.

The first 10 spices and dried herbs

1. Black pepper: Buy whole peppercorns if you can and grind them in a mill. Freshly ground pepper smells nothing like the pre-ground kind.
2. Pul biber (Turkish chilli flakes): Essential in Turkish cooking. Sizzled in butter and drizzled over mantı, soups and eggs. Mild Aleppo-style flakes are a good substitute.
3. Sweet paprika: Adds colour and gentle sweetness. If you like heat, add a hot chilli powder later.
4. Cumin: The secret of köfte, Turkish white bean stew and lentil soup, and widely used in Indian and Mexican cooking too.
5. Dried mint: For yoghurt soup, ezogelin soup, cacık and yoghurt dishes. Rub it between your palms as you add it to release the aroma.
6. Dried oregano (kekik): For grilled meat, chicken, tomato-based dishes and salads. A key herb in Italian and Mediterranean cooking.
7. Sumac: Brings a sour, fruity note. Used on onion salads, alongside kebabs, on lahmacun and in salads such as fattoush.
8. Cinnamon: Not only for desserts like rice pudding and semolina halva; in Turkish cooking it also goes into iç pilav and stuffed vegetables, and in Moroccan and Middle Eastern cooking into meat dishes.
9. Bay leaves: Added during long cooking to beans, boiled meat, soups and sauces, and removed before serving.
10. Turmeric or a curry powder blend: A good start if you want to explore world cuisines. Turmeric adds an earthy taste and bright yellow colour; pairing it with black pepper is a classic combination.

If you like, extend the list with allspice (for dolma and köfte), coriander seeds and isot (Urfa chilli).

Buy small, refresh often

Ground spices lose their aroma over time. They do not go off, but their flavour fades until they add almost nothing to a dish.

• Try to use ground spices within roughly 6 months to a year.
• Whole spices (peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds) stay lively much longer.
• To check freshness, rub a pinch between your palms and smell it. If the scent is weak, it is time to replace it.
• Big bags are tempting, but buy small ones. Buying by weight from a spice shop (aktar), just as much as you need, is ideal.

Storing spices properly

Spices have three enemies: light, heat and moisture.

• Use tightly sealed jars, ideally dark ones or ones kept inside a cupboard.
• Do not keep spices right above the hob or next to the oven. It may look nice, but heat drives off the aroma quickly.
• Never shake spices straight from the jar over a steaming pot; steam gets inside and the spice clumps. Tip it into a spoon or your palm first.
• Write the purchase date on the jar.
• Oily chilli flakes such as pul biber and isot keep their freshness better in the fridge during hot weather.

Blooming spices in fat

Many of the aroma and flavour compounds in spices dissolve in fat. Holding spices briefly in hot fat spreads their aroma through the whole dish. Turkish sizzled butter and the Indian "tadka" rest on exactly the same idea.

How to do it:

1. Heat butter or oil in a small pan over medium heat.
2. Add whole spices (cumin seeds, mustard seeds) first; within 20-30 seconds they become fragrant and start to crackle gently.
3. Add ground spices last and stir for only 10-20 seconds. Powders burn very fast.
4. Take the pan off the heat straight away and pour the fat over the dish or stir it into the sauce.

Example: For a lentil soup topping, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, and once it foams add 1 dessert spoon (about 2 teaspoons) of pul biber. After a few seconds, take it off the heat and drizzle over the soup.

Watch out for:

• Chilli flakes and paprika turn bitter and dark when burnt. If the fat is very hot, take the pan off the heat before adding them.
• Keep dried mint in hot fat for just a few seconds.
• As a general rule, add dried herbs (oregano, mint) early in cooking and fresh herbs (parsley, dill) at the end.

A final word

In your first month, try to get to know these ten spices. Use each one on its own in a dish and taste it; over time your palate will tell you what goes with what.