When I first started cooking for Bob and me, I often overcompensated in the seasoning department. I grew up with a mother who only ever used salt and pepper to season food. Which is fine for some things, but usually results in a very bland dish. I wanted flavor in my food. Even if [at the time] it was mostly coming out of a box.
There were A LOT of severely over seasoned dinners in those early days.
I still get a little heavy handed on the seasoning every once in awhile. Usually when I’m experimenting with something new. There hasn’t been anything that’s been completely inedible, but there have been a few things that were close. Bob will still eat it though. He’s not very picky, he hates to waste food, and he’s just grateful I’m willing to do all the cooking because he doesn’t want to deal with it.
Anyway.
There was a recipe for…something with ground meat…that I wanted to try. The actual dish escapes me at this point. It called for steak seasoning to season the meat. I didn’t want to buy a big, over-priced container that was half salt of something I might only use once. So I went on a google search to find out what typically went into steak seasoning. There are a lot of variations out there in ratios but the spices are pretty similar across the board. I took multiple recipes and put them side by side and figured out the similarities and the variances and concocted my own combination of spices to throw together. I make a large batch and keep it with the rest of the spices and use it as needed in various ground meat recipes.
Despite its name, it’s not just for steaks.
Which is good. Because I have never actually cooked a steak, and it’s unlikely that I will anytime soon. I don’t eat it and Bob’s not a hardcore fan so…
Steak Seasoning
Ingredients…
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp mustard powder
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp dried dill
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugarDirections…
Mix spices together and store in an airtight container.Source: Internet Hodgepodge.
I use this to season pretty much any ground meat (usually turkey) recipe that doesn’t have another specific flavor to it. Depending on how dominant you want the flavor to be, I usually use 1/2 to a full tablespoon for a pound of meat. (Though the turkey and beef we buy comes in 20-oz packages, so I’d probably use less for less meat.)
It’s nice to have a combination of some basic spices already mixed together so I’m not grabbing half a dozen bottles out of the cupboard and dumping in way too much of something and ending up with way too strong of a flavor.
I rarely measure any seasoning while cooking. Eyeballing my amounts usually works fine, but I’m still learning the art of ratios.
A lot of trial.
A lot of error.
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Sinner Andy Grammer |