WWW spice pointers

Note:There are some more German-speaking links listed in the German version of this document.

As a net search easily shows, many spice companies and vendors have their own WEB pages. I have not included these in my list of WWW pointers, and the links given below are more informative than commercial; links to web sites of spice merchants can be found on my spice sources page.

Indian Cuisine
A large collection of pointers (some of which are outdated, though) to recipes demonstrating different Indian cooking styles.
Ammas Indian Recipes and Cooking Site
A collection of about 100 South Indian recipes, illustrating village cooking in Andhra Pradesh style. This is one of the few cooking sites about South Indian cookery.
Balinese Recipes
Heinz von Holzen, writer of a great book on Balinese cuisine, runs a restaurant and a cooking school in Bali. This site collects some of his best recipes.
rec.food.cooking FAQ and conversion file
A large list of well-researched facts about conversion of measures, ingredients and cooking techniques. This is particularly useful for European cooks following American recipes, or vice versa.
The African Cookbook
Recipes from ten African countries, ranging from Morocco to South Africa.
Colonel Ian Khuntilanont-Philpott’s Thai Recipes
A collection of recipes posted to usenet by the late Colonel. These are fun to read, easy to cook and taste absolutely authentic – in my eyes, the best Thai recipe collection in the Web (even in printed form, it is not easy to find recipes that work equally well for me)!
The Mole Page
Recipes and other information about México’s unique sauces.
Virtualitalia: Italian Food and Recipes
Run by an Italian living in the USA, this site gives, besides various other aspects of the Italian way of living, a large number of recipes from different regions of la bella Italia.
Sally’s Place: Focus on Ethnic Cuisine
A collection of well-written in-depth articles about selected ethnic cuisines from all over the world, including some typical recipes.
Jamaican Spices
A competent description of several spices grown in Jamaica, most notably ginger, allspice and chiles. Lots of historic and chemical information.
NewCROP Homepage
A collection of more or less detailed monographs and links regarding economically important cultigens.
Desireable Herb and Spice Varieties
A well-written guide about growing and using herbs and spices in temperate climate.
Essential oils of India
A couple of in-depth articles on aromatic Indian plants used for perfumery. The author is professionally involved in the essential oil business and describes the extraction and properties of the essential oils with knowledge and passion.
Flavors and Fragrances
A catalogue of flavour compounds, from the web site of a French chemistry company (Interchim).
TGSC Perfumery Raw Materials Information
Another catalog of aroma compounds, with olfactoric description.
Essential oils
A short discussion of a number of natural aroma sources plus their chemical constituents (with structural formulae). The site treats plants and a smaller number of animalic products that are used as spice, incence, vegetable or perfume. Much recommended.
Cross Country Photo Gallery
A photo gallery from a plant nursery specialized on growing chiles. The site shows beautiful photos of about 250 different chile cultivars.
Chiles in Stockholm: Pepper Galleries
This is the photo gallery of Mats Petterson, probably the most avid chile grower in Sweden. Lots of beautiful photos of comparatively rare varieties.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~thietavu/Chili/C_Info.htm
I don’t know the name of the page, nor that of the author, nor did I find some navigational structure nor can I read the text. But the photo galleries about Capsicum annuum, frutescens/chinense, pubescens and especially the numerous wild species are worth seeing. A translation of this page into English would be most welcome!
Spice Guide
A great collection of spicy information. About 60 different spices are presented by nice pictures and informative texts. Unfortunately, the reading is turned to a nightmare by a, hmm, very idiosyncratic navigation system.
Epicenter: Encyclopedia of Spices
The name of this website is not a reference to earthquakes, but a pun on the French term for spice, epice. The site presents accurate information about approximately 40 mostly tropicl spices. Several spices commonly less known are included.
Spice & Herb Encyclopedia at the Culinary Cafe
This resource discusses (pictures!) about 50 spices of importance in US American cookery.
Spice Board of India: Spice Catalogue
A short description of spices grown in India and their (Indian) trade grades.
The American Spice Trade Association
The ASTA’s web site features detailed information on the herbs and spices most important economically. There is also a section on the history of the spice trade.
Epicurious foodsite
Named for the well-known Greek philosopher, this site (the WEB edition of a commercial magazine) presents a lot of information about food and food ingredients. Informative glossary and lots of recipes.
Foodweb
A small encyclopedia on spices and food ingredients.
Chef2Chef
A Chef’s Practical Guide (and more).
Spice FAQ
Basic to intermediate information on some of the most common spices: Pepper, cinnamon, vanilla (very extensive) and saffron.
Culinary herbFAQ
Useful information on more than 20 culinary herbs (gardening, harvet, cooking). The texts were written by a large number of contributors.
A Guide to Common Vegetables in Singapore
Some vegetables and spices needed for Malay or Chinese cuisine are presented (pictures!) and shortly discussed.
Saffron and Vanilla Facts
This site tells (nearly) everything about how to judge quality of saffron and vanilla. Although by nature technical, explanations should be understandable by anyone interested in the matter.
David Dendy’s Spices
The author, personally interested in medieval cooking and lifestyle, sells (sometimes very exotic) spices, other medieval ingredients and literature by mail order. His site does not only list spices, their origin and usage, but also collects a few historic recipes with more unusual spices.
Penzey’s Spices
The largest spice vendor on the internet.
Creative Seasoning Network
This site offers articles on selected spices, gardening and recipes on a monthly schedule.
Toil'd'épices (French)
The author of this site seems to be somewhat inspired by mine, and discusses spices in a similar manner. The site includes what seems to me an excellent summary of chemical constituents of spices, with animated structural formulae (browser plugin required). Worth to visit for those who know French (I don’t).
Hot Spice Gewürzmuseum (partly in German)
Browsing their homepage is but a poor surrogate for visiting the only spice museum in the world!
It is located in a cargo hall directly in the harbour area of Hamburg (Germany) and features not only dried spices but also preparations (essential oils, oleoresins), packing machines and historical spice jars, furthermore pictures of spice gardens and photos describing the harvest and processing of spices. Most of the stuff shown may also be tried to eat. Lastly, spice publications (in German) are available.

To navigate through my spice collection, you may want to try one of the following indices: