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Herbs and spices can help turn a good meal into a great one. See more pictures of spices.
Take a look at the section of your local grocery store where you find the spices and herbs. While you might think you're just doing some shopping, you're really gazing at history. Herbs and spices are more than just aromatic, flavorful accents to dishes. They are symbols of economic trade, ancient cultures and political power.
Civilizations traded in spices more than 4,000 years ago. Five hundred years ago in what was known as the Age of Exploration, explorers sailed the seas in the hopes of finding the fastest trade route from Europe to Asia. Europeans had become enchanted with the exotic seasonings from the Far East.
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Today, the shipping industry makes it much easier -- if less romantic -- for the average consumer to access spices and herbs. As a result, even the most novice home cook can experiment with ingredients that just a few centuries earlier were worth more than their weight in gold. The variety of herbs and spices is enormous -- however, we'll focus on five seasonings, listed in no particular order, that are useful to the typical American cook.
You may notice that we've left salt off of our list. That's because herbs and spices are aromatic vegetable products we use to flavor foods. Salt, while important to our diets and cooking techniques, is a mineral.
