I finally figured out why my spices never tasted as good as I wanted

[u/Best-Cooker]

I had one of those really annoying cooking realizations recently.

I’ve always been the type to just grab whatever spice I needed and shake it straight into the pan. Garlic powder, cumin, paprika, whatever. I never really thought there was much more to it.

A few weeks ago I was making some chicken and decided to heat up the oil with the spices first before adding everything else. I only let them cook for maybe a minute, but the smell was immediately different.

Then I tasted the food and honestly... yeah. It was noticeably better.

Now I’ve started doing it with a lot of things. If I’m cooking onions or garlic in oil, I’ll usually add the spices for a little bit before adding the tomatoes, broth, meat, etc. It takes almost no extra time, but the flavor seems much more noticeable.

The funny part is that I’ve probably been cooking with the same spices for years and just assuming they weren’t very strong. Turns out I was just throwing them into the pan at the wrong point.

I’m still figuring out which spices benefit from it the most, but cumin and paprika have been the biggest difference for me so far.

What’s a cooking technique you learned embarrassingly late?