How to Spice Things Up

With all the spices we have access to, it is amazing how bland recipes have become. I have many cookbooks, some from great chefs, television personalities, and friends. What I am always surprised by is how bland the food has become.

People seem to think a bit of salt, pepper, maybe onions, and garlic provide the spices one needs. Perhaps it is because some associate spice with heat. Mostly because many have never experimented with some of those great warm spices available. A pinch of coriander, some freshly ground cumin, a little cardamom, or a touch of cinnamon can turn an ordinary dish into something remarkable. And the most astonishing part is that these spices financed voyages around the world, built cities, created fortunes, and caused people to kill one another.

Without the spice trade, it is safe to say that the United States, as we know it, would be vastly different from what it is now. The money loaned to the United States, when we were a fledgling country, came from the wealthy spice merchants from what was considered one of the great hyperempires of the world, based in Amsterdam.

But before we go to the birth of the United States, let me take you to the meatball.

Today’s Meatball is a bit boringWhen I went to the States for college, the meatballs in the continental US were boring. Many are just combinations of beef and pork, and often the meat is overcooked, leaving the meatball dry, although that is often hidden in the sauce (tomato sauce if you are making spaghetti, or a gravy sauce for others). One recipe had frozen meatballs from the grocery store placed into a crock pot with a vat of grape jelly (it wasn’t bad, it was ghastly).

Most meatballs are like having only the meat from a burger without the crunch and sourness of the pickle, the sweetness of the tomato, and that touch of bitterness from the onion. I didn’t understand why my grandmother’s and mom’s meatballs were so delicious, and these were so dull. Over time, I had received recipes from different people who made meatballs, and they were all versions of the same recipe until history showed me the ingredients I was missing.

In Search of the Mighty MeatballWhile there may have been other reasons to visit Turkey, Norway, Italy, and Sweden, there was always Project Meatball. Finding a meatball that tasted like my mom’s. I can’t ask mom about this; her dementia didn’t let me crack that code, so I had to travel the world to find the secret to unlock the flavors in her meatballs.

The Swe