The Foodie Club with Kerry Stessel. Reviews Penzey's Spices and a few helpful cooking tips.

who loves spices hey guys today i've got a treat for you guys and uh we're going to talk about spices and apparently i didn't realize that i had such a collection of spices from this company but i pulled about everything and pretty much everything i think there's a couple of other jars in my in my pantry that i didn't get to i've pulled out just about everything that i had that i've purchased from a company called pensies so today we're going to talk about pension spices and uh i don't know if it's an obsession or i just enjoy variety like most of you guys do but we're going to talk about pensey spices so my name is carrie stessel this is the foodie club channel appreciate you guys tuning in checking it out i hope you enjoy the videos if you do hit that like button hit that notification bell and uh please subscribe also and i'll keep making videos for you guys so uh just doing some product reviews lately um figured it'd be a good time to do that while uh not getting out so much and everybody's social distancing so here we go so pensies if you haven't heard of them it's p e n z e y s uh pensies dot com so p e n z e y s dot com they do have a store in houston on 19th street and they also have some other uh locations around the united states but you can order online um pretty cool company um we've been buying from them for i don't know probably 20 years at least i know they've been around a long time but their stores are really fun it's kind of like uh you know a foodie mecca sort of place to go to if you like spices and seasonings and all kinds of different uh products so how many different ways can you make chicken that's the uh that's the mystery question right or shrimp if you're if you're a bubba but you know we all look for different types of foods and dishes and recipes and a lot of times we go to the grocery store and we buy the you know similar vegetables that we like we buy you know the same types of proteins that we like and then you get home and it's like well how am i going to make chicken so i actually think i asked this one time on my foodie club page the woodland spring texas foodie club page if you're not on there feel free to check that out on facebook it's a really great group and i think i asked it was either chicken how should i prepare my chicken or i think it was hamburger meat one of the two but it was like how should i prepare this tonight and i was just you know kind of out of out of uh tired of making it all the usual ways that i usually make you know chicken and i think uh because the page has right now i believe like right at 43 000 people so it's a pretty good big group it's nice size group and i believe uh i had somewhere around five four five hundred i'm not sure um i'd have to go back and look but there's a while back but about four or five hundred people commented on uh how to cook my my chicken so definitely appreciated the feedback it was a hard decision to figure out which one i wanted to go with but definitely a lot of choices so i'm just going to give you guys kind of the rundown of penzi seasonings the one thing that i like about them is you can order online and usually if it's above a certain dollar amount they give you free shipping if you go and register at their website they do have like special offers and coupons and stuff like that and they'll throw in some little jars once in a while for free if you order over a certain amount i've gotten stickers from them i got a pretty cool little pensies coffee mug that they sent me one time as a gift in the with my order so you never know and when you go to the stores too if you get their catalog if you subscribe they will give you like a free product or two usually when when you're in the store shopping and buying something too so pretty cool company but all the products that i've seen that i've used like as like i said over like the last 20 or something years really good quality and that's what i really like about pensies is they really do seriously seek out to find like the best of the best and really good quality you know some of their products are more common i guess quality than others maybe um the garlic powder is good um i don't think there's anything phenomenal about it i don't really know personally if there's anything special about where it's grown where it's come from where it comes from but over overall the quality of all the products i like are very good and if you saw my other video on seasonings that i did a while back on heaven made products one of the things that i touched on that i prefer when i'm purchasing seasonings and spices is to buy products that don't have salt so i can control my own salt when i add it to whatever i'm seasoning or cooking or something that has a less salt in it i'm not not that i'm salt sensitive or anything like that which i know some people are some people love salt whatever your preference is but i just like to be able to control the amount of salt level because salt can have a big impact on how much a dish pops or how flat it can be so salt is something that you definitely want to make sure that you're controlling for example if you had two different seasoning blends and you wanted to use both of them on whatever you're seasoning and one's high in salt and the other one's high in salt you could literally over salt whatever it is you're cooking and i don't know if you've ever taken baked chicken or something out of the oven that you seasoned and it's over salted because you might have used multiple seasoning blends with excessive amounts of salt in there and you almost want to wash it off under the faucet just to get some of that i don't know if that's ever happened to you or just me but let's just say that if you washed it off it probably tastes better so don't let that happen to you plus one of the things with seasoning blends also quickly is that you're paying for you know a quality product and salt is cheap so these companies if they load it with salt and less of the other ingredients that are in there it cuts their costs down saves them money they make more profit so with that being said i'm just going to kind of run down the product line i'm going to try not to go into too much detail and make this thing kind of light and just kind of an overview of of all the stuff that i have here and then i'm going to touch on some of the ones that i specifically love that i that are staples in my house you probably guess uh which ones are staples by this the size of the the jar there but i'm just going to run down so this one right here is a buttermilk ranch if you can see that which is kind of cool good all-around product yeah you can use it as a salad dressing or dip if you mix it with sour cream or something like that or if you just want a little bit more depth of flavor on something this is a really neat product good i like it this one was actually a product that i gotten free i think on my last order and i did get a chance to open it up and try it never tried it before but it's called justice so justice is served so put that on whatever you want to serve justice to i guess uh interesting names got a little peace symbol there but this one here has shallots garlic onion green peppercorns chives and green onion so it's got that that green sort of flavor if you will with the chives and the the green onion uh really good i i like it it's it's nice it's not overbearing it's not real heavy as far as the seasoning goes so it's a nice light seasoning i guess i would say this one right here is one of my faves along with this one here so i'll show you this one this one is air dried shallots and i don't know if i can get the shot in there or not but if you can see that those are air dried shallots and it smells wonderful it really good so soup stews anything that's going to cook with a liquid to kind of rehydrate these since they are air dried it's nothing that you would typically sprinkle like on a burger because i wouldn't get enough moisture to reconstitute it but soups and stews something like that works really good with rice dishes paella sort of dishes um um risotto works really well with the risotto and this is basically the same thing this is this granulated air dried now they do have some different shallots they have a different one that's not an air dried and i think it's just a dehydrated but you can if you go into the stores i'm not positive if they're open right now because of the virus the covid but um if you go in there they do have sample jars that you can't open them and you can like sample and smell and stuff like that i doubt they're doing that right now so that's kind of why i thought this would be a good review for anybody that's interested in ordering the seasoning so hopefully i can convey you know enough information on these products to help you make a decision if you're interested in buying one before you order it feel free to comment below in the video if you have any questions specifically about these or the uses what kind of dishes comment below on the video i'll try to get back to you i'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have or if you've used any of the pensies products to let me know which ones are your favorites and what prop you know what kind of dishes and how you use them but the air dried shallots is one of my favorites i really really enjoy that one it's really good uh this one i i wasn't sure originally when i bought this the first time and this one's called bavarian and so bavarian for me it works really good on pork chops so if you want to bake pork chops and you're not going to do the the shake thing you know um which is another store in itself but this one's really good i like it it's got bavarian style crush brown mustard so it's got that mustardy flavor obviously along with that it's got rosemary garlic thyme bay leaves and sage so it's a really really nice aromatic i like it you can see i'm almost out i need to probably order some more of that on my next order and you can get you know the smaller jars or the medium jars or the larger jars and then some of the products you can also get in bags which i i purchased these for different reasons and refill shakers if you have a shaker or you can buy just you know new genetic generic shakers if you want to buy the bags and fill those up or however i wouldn't use a seasoning into a shaker that was from something else because the aroma unless you wash it and clean it really really well i mean if it's glass if it's plastic i wouldn't reuse it you don't want to mix get the herbs and the scents from the previous herbs and spices into the the new spices and seasoning so just be careful with that if you're going to reuse or repurpose a shaker so that's the the bavarian so that one i like on pork chops uh northwood seasoning is pretty good that's that one there i use it once in a while um hungarian sweet paprika telecherry black peppers thyme cracked rosemary granule granulated garlic and chipotle so that's the north woods a little bit of a smoky you know the chipotle is the last ingredient so it's not a lot of it it's not real spicy sort of you do get a little bit of the smokiness out of it which is good so this is i would have to say my staple my favorite pensies product out of all of them um along with the telecherry black pepper is my other favorite so this is called mural of flavor and it is a mural of flavor so this one here i'm gonna read the ingredients and it spices which they don't tell you what the spices are so legally they can say that and get away with it so there must be some sort of secret blend in those spices that they just don't want you to know but it's got spices got shallots so there again shallots onion garlic lemon peel citric acid chives and orange peel so what do i use this on um pretty much just about anything i've tried it on everything where i use it the most and where i enjoy it the most the mural of flavor is on eggs like scrambled eggs or omelets and vegetables any kind of vegetable if you're going to roast them you know bake them grill them any way you're gonna prepare the vegetables i like to season it with this now if you heard what i read on the ingredients the one thing that it does not have is salt and yes it is salt free now i believe they make a version of this with salt i don't remember exactly if they do or they don't either way this is a salt free product so add your own sea salt or salt whatever kind of salt you're going to use with that and it's a really wonderful product but yeah any kind of vegetable i love using this on um asparagus any any vegetable at all um mushrooms if you're sauteing mushrooms and and eggs or omelets those in any kind of egg dishes is really good so that's that's mural of flavor that that's my favorite i like that one i could put that on everything literally um that's just a small shaker of that that i bought and this right here so this is interesting and i'm gonna jump into the peppercorns i try to categorize these a little bit so they stayed in similar categories as i went down the line so this is from india and this is a special extra bold peppercorns and they're they're black peppercorns but they're really really pungent hence the special extra bold so these cost a little bit more that's the label right there if you guys can see that these cost a little bit more than some of the other peppercorns black peppercorns that they sell i thought i'd try it out i didn't see a big difference to be honest with you they're good don't get me wrong they're very pungent that's good um however i i still like nutella cherry so the indian telecherry these are my favorites i've been buying them for years i put them in my peppermill fresh cracked black pepper so on any of my posts when you see that i mentioned tell a cherry black pepper this is what i'm using and pensions is where i get it from and that is from india and it's telecherry and from what i can tell you i'm not a peppercorn expert but i can tell you from all the peppercorns that i've tried over the years this is my favorite it's very very peppery it's the best term that i can use to describe pepper it's very peppery it's very pungent it's very it's very good crack them you know of course fine however you're gonna grind them up and i buy the the peppercorns because they they stay you know more pungent i guess uh intact and then when you grind them obviously but steaks hamburgers anything that i'm gonna use pepper on finishing off you know nice you know alfredo pasta dish something like that and you want some black pepper on top uh very good quality very good quality but that's that's also one of my favorites right there so tell the cherry black peppercorns i do recommend those in the mural flavor so we got that um this one here moving on is a poultry seasoning i just got this one recently and uh i thought i'd try this out you know i use this on poultry as well the mural of flavor and it's good and i've used some other poultry seasonings from other companies and other brands and lemon peppers i've got probably four or five six different brands of lemon peppers that i've experimented and tried and bought over the years that uh that i've tried and this one's really good for just a for your i guess your classic like roasted chicken if you imagine those savory flavors that you would normally use you know parsley sage was very time just like the song goes those are the four you know classic i guess herbs for a chicken so this has sage has white pepper which is um white pepper is actually like an old family ingredient for from my family that we used on poultry going back to my grandfather maybe my great-grandfather for some reason i don't know where it originated from in my family but they always my family's always tended to use some sort of like white pepper in the seasoning when roasting or baking a chicken so that's actually in here so that was interesting to me which is one of the reasons that i bought this it's got bell pepper it's got lemon peel so a little bit of acidity it's got savory rosemary dill weed allspice thyme marjoram and ginger so real interesting blend smells like a classic poultry seasoning it's good i've used it i'm gonna use more of it this one here is a pork chop seasoning so i thought i'd try this one out i like it it's pretty good this one has salt garlic so it does have salt first ingredient garlic white pepper onion ginger natural hickory smoked flavoring and the pork chop it's it's all right i really like the bavarian better between the two to be honest with you but you might try that give it a try if you're not sure what to season your pork chops with that's what it's geared towards this is southwest seasoning so that's that one right there southwest so this one has salt ancho pepper onion garlic black pepper mexican oregano cayenne pepper cumin chipotle and cilantro so it's got the whole mix and it smells like a like a chili seasoning almost so southwest uh you could probably put it on uh i think i use this on like hamburger meat for like you know tacos with the crunchy taco shells that you make at home i think i use it on that i think i've used it on grilled chicken before it was pretty good but it gives it a nice little southwest flavor this is mitchell street so this one here i also like looking for good steak seasonings i hope you guys can see those labels but if not comment below i'll be happy to uh respond to any of your questions about any of these seasonings and spices and my experiences with them so mitchell street is a steak seasoning um i look for certain things in steak seasonings this one has a couple of items that i like and a couple of items that i probably wouldn't use independently on steaks but if you're looking for something a little bit different and you just want to all you know good all around steak seasoning this one's pretty good and this is called florida and i like florida i really enjoy it um i mentioned earlier you know i have about five or six different lemon pepper brands that i use that i've tried to see which one i like best and florida it's a seasoned pepper has a really really nice pleasant very nice pleasant aroma so what's in this is black pepper has citric acid so it's got that acidity lemon peel acidity garlic orange peel little acidity and onion so it's a really nice balance too it's not over acidic but it does have a really nice brightness to it um great on obviously seafood if you're gonna saute some scallops or grill some fish or bake fish i would definitely recommend this i like it it's a good all-around seafood seasoning and i like the acidity you might add a little bit of your you know extra seasonings to this if you wanted to add a little bit more garlic like who can not say you don't need more garlic so you can always add more garlic but that's a good one i like that one i do recommend it moving on so this is a shrimp and crab boil seasoning in case you want to boil shrimp or crab you know in comparison to some of the other crab boils on the market and then of course you get into the cajun category of boils which is a whole whole different flavor profile than like your traditional old bay seasoning style this is closer to like an old bay seasoning it's good um i've used it a few times you can see i'm getting low on it and it's got yellow and brown mustard allspice coriander cloves bay leaf necessity obviously ginger tell the cherry peppercorns chili pepper dill seed and caraway and that's their shrimp and crab oil so that one's worth trying um and i'm gonna save these for the end so we talked about the peppercorns and the telecherry which i like i also purchased some uh mustard powder uh which is from canada a so uh all my canadian friends up there this is from your your land you mustered people up there uh but i like mustard powder um i don't know if you guys have had much experience using mustard powder or like what do you use it for do you mix it with something and make mustard i guess you could make like a mustard paste or something like that out of it i actually love it on grilled lamb chops or grilled lamb mustard powder has a really really good flavor i wouldn't use like straight mustard because of the vinegar in it i think we'd give it too much bite although you probably could use yellow mustard or brown mustard but mustard powder doesn't have that vinegar so remember it's not mustard like the condiment it's it's in a powder form so you get the the flavor profile of the mustard seeds uh now this isn't real real strong like like a brown mustard or some of the like german mustard seeds that like are almost like horseradishy where you smell it and it's out your nostrils and um very very potent so this is a milder uh mustard and and i like it it's really good but yeah i i like to coat um like lamb chops and season them and coat it with this and then grill them is really really good it's also good on pork chops you could put it on a steak if you wanted to and play around give it a little bit more depth of flavor but that's what i use that for bay leaves which aka laurel tree leaves uh if you've ever been to california they got laurel trees growing out there that's what bay leaves look like they're just basically dried out big leaves um so these are from turkey is where they get these from and uh they're really good real pungent love bay leaves uh i use them in soups and stews um other dishes like sauces i'll throw some in there um i believe uh barbacoa is very common to use bay leaves in barbacoa but i use those you can grind them up it's also one of the ingredients in new orleans style barbecued shrimp which has nothing to do with barbecue by the way or barbecue sauce or barbecuing this is called barbecued shrimp but that's one actually the one of the one of the ingredients the recipe that my wife has is really really good and you actually grind those up and that's incorporated into the the butter broth that the shrimp are cooked into and if you've never had uh new orleans style barbecue shrimp you haven't lived my gosh so good here's another one of my favorites and this is a greek and it's a greek seasoning i love this stuff it's really good i've been using it for years obviously i buy it in the big bags because i use quite a bit of it really good on lamb also along with the mustard powder makes a great combination i make my famous grilled chicken that's a rosemary greek lemon garlic chicken that i love to make and i can eat it for days hot or cold but i take this seasoning right here i take the chicken breast i slice the chicken breast in half lengthwise so they cook evenly because you have the thick part and the thing thin part so a little pro tip on cooking boneless skinless chicken breasts for you guys you slice it thin down the middle and some of them you can actually slice like three into three slices if they're real real big but i sliced it down the middle put it in a ziploc bag put some of the greek seasoning in there some olive oil a bunch of lemon juice some garlic powder garlic cloves if you want diced or chopped garlic in there you can do that and marinate it overnight it's got rosemary in it but you can um no it doesn't have rosemary i'm sorry so i do add rosemary to this as well if you have some fresh sprigs at home from a rosemary plant just peel them off dice them up throw them in the bag or just throw the whole stems in there if you want either way marinate it overnight throw it on the grill and it's amazing so greek seasoning garlic cloves lemon juice and some rosemary and you'll be really enjoying that you can grill it eat it with whatever side dishes you want you can also cold and i mentioned i will eat it hot or cold for days if you slice it up it's perfect it's the perfect grilled chicken for salads so to put on top of salads is really good of course you can repurpose chicken into about anything you want so that's another one of my favorites is the greek seasoning if you're greek and you approve of that comment below let me know because i would love to know if that's like an authentic greek seasoning for you or not but i like it and moving on so my wife bakes i don't bake i like to cook she likes to bake she's good at baking i i'm not so much good at baking and so they do have a really nice line of vanillas they got bourbon vanilla they got vanilla beans they got vanilla sugar which is right here which is a real interesting item vanilla flavored sugar which is great for sprinkling on top of something but they have a really nice selection of vanillas [Music] and different spices and that's a pure vanilla extract it's a single strength they have a double strength i don't know if they have a triple strength they got the bourbon they got tahitian vanilla beans so they really have a nice variety of vanilla so if you're into vanilla's or baking you definitely got to go check out pansy's website or go to one of their stores and check out their their vanilla products it's really quite impressive um you know versus going to the grocery store and you have you know maybe a couple of different options as far as vanilla or vanilla extracts and then this is a cinnamon this is uh from vietnam vietnamese and this is an extra fancy cinnamon it's really good there is actually and i couldn't tell you to be honest because i didn't think about looking this up before making this video for you guys but there's actually cinnamon that's fake cinnamon i don't know it comes from a bark of a different tree and it's not technically cinnamon so it tastes like cinnamon looks like cinnamon but it's not actually cinnamon but they call it cinnamon i don't know something like that you guys can google it figure it out but this is actually extra fancy cinnamon so um but really good if you want to make cinnamon toast or anything like that it's it's really good it's flavorful it's it's it's cinnamon me send them in the name don't ask me how to spell that but that's what it tastes like so it's good i'll never be able to repeat that again so you guys that's it that's the pensies line i appreciate you guys watching i hope i hope you guys learned some stuff today i hope that i gave you guys some helpful information as far as cooking and how to prepare your chicken you've got i don't know about 20 something different ways of preparing your chicken now so i hope that helped so my name is carrie stessel this is the foodie club channel i appreciate you guys watching hit the like button hit the subscribe button share the video hit the notification bell i'll keep making these videos for you guys and until then we'll see you on the next one eat well