Milk Street: Garlic Confit
Coaxing out the rounded, complex flavor of garlic is an essential part of the cooking process, but what if you don’t have time? Pre-prepped grocery store jarred garlics are typically raw—so they won’t speed up the process much—and often taste bitter and harsh, or lack flavor altogether. We searched for a garlic that was pre-prepped (to avoid painstaking slicing and grating), shelf-stable and already cooked and flavored so it could be used straight from the jar. We didn’t see any products on the market that fit the bill. That’s why we developed our own. Enter: Milk Street Premium Essentials Garlic Confit, which features more than a whole head of garlic in every jar. To make it, we simmered delicate slivers of garlic with herbs and spices in a creamy blend of extra-virgin olive oil and buttery Indian ghee. First, you taste the rich, rounded garlic—slow-cooked and tender. Then, the bright tinge of lemon followed by the aromatics steeped in the confit’s silky oil: warming, earthy bay leaf and fruity Aleppo pepper with a hint of heat. This complex mélange of flavors is bold enough to stand alone, but it also easily blends into all kinds of savory dishes and cuisines.
Pimenta Baniwa Jiquitaia Pepper
Dozens of varieties of capsicum peppers are blended with a pinch of salt into a finely ground powder, full of intense heat, smoke and sweet notes of cocoa, molasses and coffee. The chiles are grown by the indigenous women of the Baniwa, who live in the rainforests on the borders of Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. And while the chili powder has not yet been judged on the Scoville scale, we recommend using it sparingly when making beans, chilies or any other dish. You can always add more if extra heat is needed!
Tartuflanghe Grey Salt Guérande with White Truffle
We’re sick of seeing truffle products plagued with bad-quality truffle flavoring—not using the real deal. This salt, however, only uses two ingredients: French Guérande salt and Italian white winter truffle. The result is an aromatic seasoning ideal for finishing all manner of savory dishes. The high quality of both ingredients truly comes through: the earthy, savory, delightfully musty taste of truffles and the delicate brine and minerality of the salt. And it’s incredibly aromatic to boot.
Casablanca Market Moroccan Saffron
Much of the world’s saffron is cultivated in the Middle East, but there’s something particularly special about this organic, single-source saffron grown in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. Each long orange-crimson thread is uniquely floral, with a honey-like complexity that toes the boundary between savory and sweet and a heady perfume that envelops you the second you uncap the jar. It’s remarkably strong and rich, even for saffron, which tends to be boldly fragrant. Each stage of gathering and processing this saffron is completed by hand by expert women producers, who rely on generations of skill and knowledge to tend to the fields of purple crocus flowers. The raw saffron can only be extracted one month per year in the late fall, but the wait is well worth it.
Burlap & Barrel Grenada Gold Nutmeg
Though nutmeg is found on spice-rich tropical islands across the world, we much prefer the nutmeg from Grenada, where it’s so synonymous with their culture that it’s depicted on their national flag. This one is grown on a fourth-generation family farm from old-growth trees (a rarity after Grenada lost much of it’s nutmeg trees in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan) and it’s truly the gold standard. The spice is slightly citrusy and floral, with a woodsy tropical warmth and eucalyptus-like freshness. Each jar holds 6-8 whole nutmeg pods.
Burlap & Barrel Purple Stripe Garlic Powder
Made from an heirloom variety of hard-neck garlic, which produces a more intense flavor than the typical white soft-neck bulbs you’ll find in grocery stores, this garlic powder has a way of kicking savory flavors up a notch. It’s grown by a farming collective in the northern Vietnam mountains before being hot air dried and ground into a fine powder. The garlic powder is much fresher than most others we’ve tried and along with that earthy allium flavor garlic is known for, there’s also a subtle sweetness, nuttiness and brown butter-like richness that truly makes it special.
Burlap & Barrel Cloud Forest Cardamom
The cloud forests of Guatemala create the ideal environment for cardamom to thrive—with plenty of rainfall, high altitude and a temperate climate—and this varietal shows how much of a difference that environment makes. It’s grown on one of Guatemala’s only single-estate farms up in the country’s mountainous area. The relatively low temperatures in the mountains during the three-month harvest season yield cardamom with higher levels of fragrant essential oils and, since these pods are allowed to ripen further than others, they produce a softer, sweeter, more nuanced taste. Encased in greenish yellow pods, this cardamom is sweet and tart, with the spice of ginger and fresh fruitiness of apricot. A touch of grassiness, pine and citrus yields a welcome freshness, while the intoxicating aroma shows just how much more complex and quality this cardamom is compared to those in grocery stores.
Olé Rico Dried Mexican Oregano
This fragrant, dried Mexican oregano is grown and hand-selected by independent farmers in Mexico. It has the herbal brightness of the Mediterranean oregano you might be familiar with, but with a softer more delicate taste; it won’t overpower your dish. A whisper of licorice comes through along with a slightly floral aroma and a pronounced waft of citrus freshness. The seasoning is a staple in the Mexican pantry and we love how this one’s medium-fine texture holds its integrity while blending seamlessly into any dish.
Terranean Herbs & Spices Za’atar Condiment
Here at Milk Street, we sprinkle za’atar on almost everything. That’s why we love this unique za’atar condiment, which combines the aromatic spice blend with silky Lebanese extra virgin olive oil to craft a condiment that can be drizzled on dishes or used as a dip—adding another layer to its versatility. Available in a classic blend and a spicy blend (which offers a mild kick with a dash of cayenne), the condiment is earthy and tangy with noticeable sumac and salt—peppered liberally with sesame. The za’atar herb itself is fragrant and sourced right from Lebanon along with the softly nuanced olive oil. Plus, the condiment comes in a gorgeous Italian glass jar that can be used and reused in your kitchen when you’re finished (trust us, you’ll get through the jar quickly).
Milk Street Garlic Confit
Coaxing out the rounded, complex flavor of garlic is an essential part of the cooking process, but what if you don’t have time? Pre-prepped grocery store jarred garlics are typically raw—so they won’t speed up the process much—and often taste bitter and harsh, or lack flavor altogether. We searched for a garlic that was pre-prepped (to avoid painstaking slicing and grating), shelf-stable and already cooked and flavored so it could be used straight from the jar. We didn’t see any products on the market that fit the bill. That’s why we developed our own. Enter: Milk Street Premium Essentials Garlic Confit, which features more than a whole head of garlic in every jar. To make it, we simmered delicate slivers of garlic with herbs and spices in a creamy blend of extra-virgin olive oil and buttery Indian ghee. First, you taste the rich, rounded garlic—slow-cooked and tender. Then, the bright tinge of lemon followed by the aromatics steeped in the confit’s silky oil: warming, earthy bay leaf and fruity Aleppo pepper with a hint of heat. This complex mélange of flavors is bold enough to stand alone, but it also easily blends into all kinds of savory dishes and cuisines.
Pure Indian Foods Best Hing Ever
An essential aromatic in southern Indian cuisine, hing is made from the dried resin of a giant fennel plant. It’s incredibly pungent and aromatic, but develops a mellowness and allium savoriness reminiscent of leeks or onions when bloomed in ghee, hot oil or butter. The cooking process completely transforms the hing into something garlicky and a little funky, with an almost meaty, soy-like savoriness that’s simply unmatched. The aroma is softly musky and the mouthfeel is silky smooth, since the hing incorporated into fat before it’s used. This spice is exactly what you’ve been missing when recreating South Indian dishes at home.
Burlap & Barrel Grains of Paradise
Known also in West Africa as Melegueta pepper, grains of paradise is a complexly flavorful spice widely popular across West Africa and Ethiopia. Each seed is about half the size of a black peppercorn, but packs double the flavor and fragrance. It has a numbing quality vs. the heat of black pepper, though there’s also a wonderfully fresh herbal quality and ginger-like warmth that’s almost reminiscent of cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom (a close relative of the spice). A citrusy brightness adds even more layers of flavor. These grains of paradise are sourced from a cooperative of farms in Bench, Maji, Ethiopia.
Gaec Haranea Organic Pimente d’Espellette Powder
Only sourced from the mountainous Espelette region of France, this chili pepper powder is brighter, fresher and fruiter than your typical paprika. It has a gentle warmth that won’t overwhelm the palate as well as a distinctive sweet, fruity taste—which sets it apart from the many chile peppers that lead with earthiness. The peppers grow from May to August before being harvested, separated and cleaned by hand. They are dried in the open air as it develops its wonderful flavor then gently crushed in the oven to a vibrant powder.
