Fresh Ginger Will Curdle Your Milk If You Time It Wrong
Ginger carries a protein-cutting enzyme, and dropping it into hot milk is a reliable way to break a pan.
Spices
What each spice does, when to add it, and how to tell good from tired.
13 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Green Cardamom Loses Its Point Within Weeks of Grinding
The compounds that make cardamom worth using are volatile, and pre-ground pods have already lost most of them.
More in Spices
Cloves Are the Spice Most Likely to Ruin Your Masala
Eugenol is powerful enough to numb the tongue, and two cloves too many will silence everything else in the blend.
Almost Every Cinnamon Stick Sold as Cinnamon Is Cassia
The two barks sit side by side on a shelf, behave differently in a pan and are not interchangeable by weight.
Black Pepper Does Something in Chai That Ginger Cannot
Piperine bites at the back of the throat rather than the front of the tongue, and that changes how a cup ends.
Fennel Makes Chai Taste Sweeter Without Any Sugar Going In
Anethole registers as sweetness on the tongue while contributing nothing that a sugar-reduction plan would object to.
Star Anise Takes Over a Pot in About Ninety Seconds
One point of one star is a dose, and most people find that out by ruining a pan they had already sweetened.
Nutmeg and Mace Come From One Fruit and Behave Like Two Spices
The seed and the lacy red covering around it taste noticeably different, and only one of them belongs in most pans.
Tulsi Should Go In After the Heat Is Off, Not Before
Holy basil is a leaf herb, and treating it like a dried bark destroys most of what you added it for.
Lemongrass Needs Bruising Rather Than Chopping
The oil sits in the fibrous lower stem, and a knife that cuts across it releases far less than one that crushes it.
Saffron Only Works in Chai If You Bloom It First
Dropping dry threads into a pan wastes most of an expensive spice, because the colour and flavour need liquid time.
Indian Bay Leaf Is Not the Bay Leaf in Your Cupboard
Tej patta and Mediterranean laurel come from different trees, smell nothing alike and do not substitute cleanly.