MSG
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
38 points (97.5% liked)
Casual Conversation
3296 readers
172 users here now
Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.
RULES (updated 01/22/25)
- Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling. To be concise, disrespect is defined by escalation.
- Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible. You won't be punished for trying.
- Avoid controversial topics (politics or societal debates come to mind, though we are not saying not to talk about anything that resembles these). There's a guide in the protocol book offered as a mod model that can be used for that; it's vague until you realize it was made for things like the rule in question. At least four purple answers must apply to a "controversial" message for it to be allowed.
- Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate. A rule of thumb is if a recording of a conversation put on another platform would get someone a COPPA violation response, that exact exchange should be avoided when possible.
- No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc. The chart redirected to above applies to spam material as well, which is one of the reasons its wording is vague, as it applies to a few things. Again, a "spammy" message must be applicable to four purple answers before it's allowed.
- Respect privacy as well as truth: Don’t ask for or share any personal information or slander anyone. A rule of thumb is if something is enough info to go by that it "would be a copyright violation if the info was art" as another group put it, or that it alone can be used to narrow someone down to 150 physical humans (Dunbar's Number) or less, it's considered an excess breach of privacy. Slander is defined by intentional utilitarian misguidance at the expense (positive or negative) of a sentient entity. This often links back to or mixes with rule one, which implies, for example, that even something that is true can still amount to what slander is trying to achieve, and that will be looked down upon.
Casual conversation communities:
Related discussion-focused communities
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
- !askmenover30@lemm.ee
- !dads@feddit.uk
- !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk
- !movies@lemm.ee
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Okay so who here toasts their spices?
Black cumin and rosemary, sometimes habareno pepper
What do you think habanero goes well with? My father had no taste buds and could really only detect oil, salt, fat, and heat. Naturally this lead to him overloading in one area or another, because that's all he wanted to taste. One time he served me pizza with crushed habanero and the floral perfuminess bowled me over. I've never really used them since, but I remember loving them before that incident!!
Summer savory!
Salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika.
old bay
Thyme.
Yes actually you win. I had fresh for the first time last year and it destroyed my mind.
Hungarian paprika is awesome, I like to mix the sweet and hot varieties 50-50, and often use smoked paprika on top of that. I like paprika
I'm British
So ketchup on everything?
Salt, maybe
beige is not a spice
Smoked paprika ‼
Smoked paprika. It just adds so much depth to anything that I add it to! I'm also a big fan of cumin and turmeric.
The only 5 spices you'll ever need:
-
Salt
-
Pepper
-
Onion powder
-
Garlic powder
-
MSG
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that doesn't benefit from these 5. You can always add other spices, too, but these are the baseline for every single dish that isn't meant to be sweet. And even on some sweet stuff, it's pretty good. I tried it on waffles once and it was amazing.
I agree with the first two and sometimes the last (though I tend to go for stocks instead to get the umami). I'm really not a fan of the onion and garlic powder, though. If I need onion and garlic I get onion and garlic. Don't like the powder forms.
Garlic salt is what I use on anything when I don't wanna think about it but want it to be delicious. Black pepper to finish most things.
Bay leaves in savory dishes
Nutmeg on/in sweet things
Nutmeg also rocks in mashed potatoes and cheese sauces!
I consume both those things frequently, I’ll have to try it! I switched to freshly grinding my nutmeg earlier this year and will take any excuse to try it in different things.
I bought five nutmeg nuts two years ago... I'm halfway through my third one lol
Doesn't take much hey
Oooh that's a good price for 12 lb of nutmeg
See, now you have something useful to leave for the next generation
Salt, Pepper, Cumin and nutmeg
Cinnamon. Love it to bits.
Could you guide me on where to get some from a reputable, honest seller? There is none and I mean none in my city and I have looooooked and looked. I detest A-Z, too much tomfoolery and fake stuff.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Bebir (Aleppo pepper) - it's a very mild red smoked chili that has incredible earthiness, and only a soupçon of warmth. I put this in everything, even dishes that are supposed to taste bright
Espresso - I make lazy pot espresso and save the dregs. I put the coffee in so many dishes. Sometimes where the base ingredients are too acidic or sweet. But I will also add it in gravy, sauces, stews, braise my meat with it. A couple tablespoons in a pot of spicy soup. It's so versatile and deep
Cane sugars - raw, turbinado, or demerara - minimally processed where the molasses remains in the crystals. I know sugar has a bad reputation in our insane twisted diet lifestyle, but it's fine for a cooking, and it's amazing to caramelize things when frying or to take the edge off acidity. You need the tiniest amount. I will also pulverize it in a mortar and pestle... A teaspoon sprinkled on kettle corn is ludicrously delicious
Does cooking with espresso mean all your food is caffeinated? Or does it cook out eventually like alcohol?
That's a good question.
I don't know if the molecule is destroyed or transformed.
But I use so little that it wouldn't affect anybody anyways... I don't even think a child who is naive to the molecule would feel a thing
Edit... My curiosity got the best of me, I wasn't able to Google the answer directly, but I found articles asking if reheating coffee destroys the molecule. Apparently an organic chemist got involved and stated that the molecules pretty stable, it will only break down around 350 F. So that would mean most of my food probably has the full effect of whatever caffeine was there.
I accidentally poisoned a love interest when I made her lasagna with espresso in the sauce. Turned out she was allergic to coffee, not caffeine. I didn't know... but whoops a daisy lol
Caffeine is very stable, yes. But you're not adding much if you're adding just the dregs post-brew. Most of the caffeine is gone by the end of a normal brew. (This is quite unlike tea where you need several brews to get all the caffeine, so despite teas having more caffeine by weight than coffees most of the time, brewed tea has less.)
You sound confident, like you know things!
I feel like the espresso I brew isn't really that potent? I get a 330ml mug of espresso out of 10g coffee grounds. And then it's not even real espresso, it's just crummy stove top pot "espresso". I started drinking it that way because I was poor and it was a great way to get a lot of flavor for a little coffee grounds. Which I'd also occasionally recycle haha. But I'd be curious to know how actually potent it becomes. How would a person measure such a thing?
I use paprika in pretty much everything I cook
Salt, garlic, ancho chili powder, marjoram
Thai 🌶️ If the food doesn't make you sweat, it isn't any good.
I'm with you there. I used sliced and dried finger peppers in my breakfasts.
Garlic, Onion, Paprika, Lemon Pepper, Gochugaru.
“All the spices!” lol I really enjoy Tarragon and Black Garlic. Not necessarily together.
Parsley, if that counts. I don't really enjoy spicy food 😄
I wanna say cilantro, but...
Can't go wrong with a combination of garlic, ginger, and chili pepper.
Smoked paprika, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, cardamon
There are so many more, but these are probably my most frequent flyers
Black pepper and chili flake are my go-to. Chipotle powder too. I'm also a sucker for za'atar, which is amazing on roasted potatoes.
Based on frequency/amount of use, cumin.
Based on my favorite flavors, mustard seed, oregano, smoked paprika, lemon thyme, dill.
(The above excludes the obvious salt and pepper, as well as onion and garlic since I use those in enough quantity to be considered full-blown veggies, not spices.)
Smoked paprika, turmeric, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon
And salt/pepper
view more: next ›