3 Keys to Making Your Own Signature House Seasoning

Developing a winning recipe for your own House Seasoning is easier than you think.

There are all kinds of seasonings out there. In fact, if you go to the grocery store you will find that just about every major company makes their own steak seasoning, chicken seasoning, BBQ Rub, etc. etc.

A few of them are great; most are okay… but none of them are yours.

Believe it or not, whether you’re a professional chef, serious home-cook, or just someone who enjoys making a good meal at home, you have a brand. There is a way that your food tastes, that makes it different from the way everyone else’s food tastes.

This is why we all (if we were lucky) have a special place in our hearts for Mom’s Apple Pie, Grandma’s Spaghetti Sauce, or Dad’s Meatloaf.

In this article, we will explore some keys to making a great house-seasoning that’s truly yours… and I’ll share mine with you.

Key #1: Don’t be afraid to experiment

This is why it’s called recipe development. Without getting into the details around iterative vs incremental development, let me just say this: It’s unlikely you will stumble upon the perfect recipe the first time. Likely, the first version won’t suck – but it won’t be amazing either. So, try something simple, see if you like it, think about what you would change, change it, try it again. Repeat.

On this note – you’re not really going to be able to see what it tastes like until you get it on something: a steak, a burger, a chicken breast, roasted veggies, etc. And you’re probably not going to brute-force this and cook up 10 burgers trying to figure it out. And if you did, you’d probably blow your pallet out in a few attempts and then confuse yourself. This is going to take a little time.

To that end…

Key # 2: Write It Down

Adam Savage of Mythbuster’s is famous for saying that the only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down. If you don’t write it down, you won’t remember what you did the last time.

I like this grid-leaf notebook from All Tree because it’s robust enough to handle a kitchen environment, is graph-paper rather than ruled, and is made entirely from recycled materials.

I’d recommend writing down the following:

1. The ingredients and their proportions (duh).
2. Anything special you did in the preparation. Did you toast the spices? Did you grind anything?
3. How well did you like it? Scale from 1 – 10.
4. What did you like?
5. What would you do differently next time? (i.e., more X, less Y, toast Z)

Key #3: Start with a few basic ingredients, add one thing, go from there

Here are a couple of places to start:

1. Basic Santa Maria Rub: 2 Parts (say tablespoons but use whatever measure you want) Granulated Garlic to 1 Part Coarse Black Pepper, to 1 Part Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
   
2. Basic BBQ Rub: 1 Part Each:
   
   • Seasoned Salt (I like Lawyry’s)
   • Celery Salt
   • Granulated Onion
   • Granulated Garlic

Then, add in an herb or spice that you like. Don’t add in too much too fast – play the long game here.

Here’s the current version of seasoning I’m using – but hey, it could change… it’s always in development:

This basically developed out of the Basic Santa Maria Rub referenced above, and then became influenced by Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ingredients. It’s spectacular on steak, burgers, tri-tip, lamb, chicken, and roasted veggies.

1. 2 Tablespoons Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
2. 2 Tablespoons Granulated Garlic
3. 1 Tablespoon Coarse Ground Black Pepper
4. 1 Tablespoon Aleppo Pepper
5. 1 Tablespoon MSG (the FDA recognizes it as safe, it won’t make you sick, don’t believe the lies)
6. 1 teaspoon sumac
7. 1 teaspoon onion powder
8. 1 teaspoon celery salt

Feel free to use the above as a jumping off point for your own experimentation as well.

Most of the time it will be pretty good! Sometimes it will be outstanding. It won’t be very often that it’s inedible. Whatever you do, have fun experimenting and coming up with your signature seasoning.

Happy Cooking!