Teaching Herbs and Spices

I've heard sometimes that flavor is important in cooking...I completely agree. Teaching young minds how to make food flavorful is an adventure! For my upperclassmen's Foods and Nutrition class, I want to make the lesson (just like all my other lessons) as engaging as possible.

I start my herbs and spices lesson with a discussion about what they already know- salt, pepper, garlic, etc.

Next, I bring out 3 mystery jars and some blank paper. Each jar has a common item that involves spices or herbs and can be made from scratch but is often just store-bought. I like to use "Lawreys" season salt, Taco seasoning, and Ranch dressing. (I use carrots or cucumbers with the ranch so they can actually taste it) I pass each around from group to group and have them use their senses of smell and sight and taste in the case of the ranch dressing to figure out what is in each. I instruct them to work with their groups while I teach and write a recipe for each one on the blank paper (the closest answers win a prize at the end of the hour).

Mystery Jars

Answers to Recipes

While they are doing this I start my lecture on herbs and spices. I use a simple power point that starts with the difference between an herb and a spice, then I go through about 15 popular herbs followed by about 15 popular spices. For each one, I first show a picture and ask them to guess what they think it is then I add the name and some common uses. When that information comes up for each one I also pass around that herb/spice for them to smell and see. *I did not create the ppt - just found it online and edited it for my use!!

While all this is happening I have them also keep track of what herbs/spices they like best. This information is used the next day for application. My lab for this lesson is titled "fancy grilled cheese" I give each student a paper with the basic instructions of a grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of butter, however, they will need a custard cup of 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. To make the grilled cheese fancy they must add at least 2 herbs or spices to the oil before they spread it onto their bread with a pastry brush. This is a good time to teach portions of herbs and spices- too much will burn, and too little will have no flavor.

Overall this lesson is a lot of fun, I love their reactions to the ingredients in Lawrey's, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing. It's also fun to hear how much they like the flavors (and sometimes hate) of their grilled cheese, I often hear they want to make these at home!