Taste the World: Five-Spice

Introducing the Taste the World Club, a collaboration between the Scarsdale Public Library and Apiary at the Library.  

Each month we will provide a small amount of a different spice or spice blend from a different part of the world.  

Cook with the spice and join us for a Zoom discussion of what we each made.  Participants will share tips, recipes and opinions of how their sampling the spices went.  

For September we will be cooking with Chinese five-spice.  Although the exact origins of five-spice powder are lost to history, there is some thought that the Chinese were attempting to produce a "wonder powder" encompassing all of the five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These elements are represented by the five flavors sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty. In Chinese cuisine, it is most often used to flavor braised or roasted meat, fish, and poultry dishes, and may be included in marinades and rubs.

Here are sites where you can find suggestions for how to use it:

Ways to use five-spice powder

The Woks of Life - five-spice powder

Five ways to use five-spice