I was just wondering what was used to make food taste (apart from salt of course) before the advent of maggi and other western spices.

they had local spices and stuff, some really natural stuff,and the food tasted nice, there are some local creme restaurants in naija, where they only use local spices to cook their meals.

Iru, ogiri, dawadawa and other things. Maggi actually incorporates some of the essence of iru.

Thanks guys, it seem most women now dnt use local spicing but prefer maggi, curry, thyme, cinammon exc

theres somethingcalled ehuru in Igbo, nice also in stews,

Quick question, in market 2 types of iru, a light version and 1darker version, can someone explain when and how to use them?, do u blend or just throw into the soup?

what is iru?

pocketndry:

what is iru?

Iru are fermented locust beans.

Inked_Nerd:


What do you mean by local creme restaurants?

At my house, we still use those spices. In fact, we have special area in the house were we keep them .

Will this iru and dawadawa be in african stores? I know there is ogiri there.

pocketndry:


Will this iru and dawadawa be in african stores? I know there is ogiri there.

Ogiri is the same thing as dawadawa and Iru, I think Ogiri is the Ibo name, Iru - Yoruba and Dawadawa - Hausa

dawadawa is more drier than the rest. ogiri and iru is delish delight in okro soup.

iru,ogiri,,

i jst kno of ogiri, and of cos salt.

we had and still have ogi and ugbore. They make soup taste great with sweet aroma.Is usually stored above the fire place. My mum will always say any woman who can not cook a sweet pot of soup without maggi and it likes,is not well trianed and not a good cook.But
these days our young women and gurls have refused to learn from their mothers. They abuse ur soup and stew with many cubes of maggi, knoor,royco etc to make it sweet by force. They end up making soup and stew with sharp salty taste and ofcourse running stomach.Lol!

Ogiri can smell!!!!

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They produce Ogiri in my neighboring town in Ijebu Imushin, Ogun State, even if you go to Imushin Market at Idin eshin in Ijebu Imushin you will find Ogiri. Ogiri is a flavoring made of fermented oil seeds, such as sesame seeds or egusi seeds. The process and product are similar to iru or douchi, but Ogiri is the best of them all.

They are very good better than Maggi.

for me i think is

ONIONS

H&L broker:you are dem rite.ogiriis wat i grew up to know as theideal flavouring .iru is also good but betta when blended.those are natural spices and have no chemical wahala.they are stil much available now and pple who know better stil use them.

only 4 thoz who knw. I think diz wuld be a gud help 2 erring 2be wives WHO WANT 2 LEARN.

there is also ISIGUN which is normally harvested from the soil.they normally ground it like pepper and it tastes nice

Curry leaf, nchanwu or scent leaf, ede ori , opei, ogiri(just so u ll know yoruba ogiri is very different from the igbos), plus some other local spices i can't readily remember their names right now.

SLIGHT:

Thanks guys, it seem most women now dnt use local spicing but prefer maggi, curry, thyme, cinammon exc  

Cooking is an art and the best of cooking artists use a variety of herbs and spices. The bolded aren't bad to use and you'd be amazed at the the result when western/asian spices are properly combined with our local herbs and spices.

Sugar,

iru(locust beans) kaun(pottash) not a very good cook though  

Our local spices are still the best and taste better

ogiri is a delight especially in bitter leaf soup.but if you add it too much u are likely to pass heavy gas out from ur backyard

nellaluv:

Curry leaf, nchanwu or scent leaf, ede ori , opei, ogiri(just so u ll know yoruba ogiri is very different from the igbos), plus some other local spices i can't readily remember their names right now.

i used to remeber that okpei, very black with a wicked aroma , but the soup sure tastes nice those days and it does things to ones tummy and at the end wicked gases ejected from the backside.

Surprisingly, am yet to see it in any friends kitchen in lasgidi