Instructions: Is there a difference? Oh Yes! Seasoning is what you do to enhance the real flavor of the food you are eating. When you put salt on a steak or grilled asparagus you are seasoning the food without masking its basic flavor.

Flavoring a food means you are changing its basic true flavor. When you coat a piece of fish with Cajun spices and blacken it a searing hot pan, you have definitely flavored the fish! Same with ground beef for Tacos or Chili. Do you see the difference? Its pretty simple, but it can be a little confusing too.

While salt may be your basic and most common Seasoning, what happens when it is used in beef jerky or popcorn? Oops, now its a Flavoring! So like I said earlier, just use common sense.

Basic Rules:
Just remember that for the most part your main ingredient, the meat, starch or vegetable are your primary flavor. Your goal is to cook them properly and enhance their original flavors to make them more pleasing to your palate.

Dumping in a whole can of your favorite spice cant save poorly prepared food!

The best time to season your food is towards the end of the cooking time.

That is the time when you decide if you have acquired the flavor you were looking for. This is very true especially with liquids. Soups and Sauces that have too much seasoning (like salt) in the beginning of a recipe will reduce during the cooking period and have too strong of a flavor. Fine-tune it at the end.

Flavoring foods can take place throughout the cooking time, as most flavorings require heat to bring out the flavor. Some flavorings like fresh herbs, flamed wines, prepared mustards, cracked peppercorns can be added at the end as they will add instant flavor. Remember whole spices take longer to add flavor than ground spices.

On the other side of the coin, some flavors can be lost or diminished during cooking through evaporation. Thats why your house smells so good when you are making your favorite spaghetti sauce. Dont overcook!

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