Spices to complement pork | LovePork (2024)

You’ll see it in cooking guides everywhere. They’ll tell you to “season” pork and rub it into the meat before cooking, but what seasoning is the best to go for and why? Seasoning is the heart of all cooking. If you know how to season, you can cook tasty, moreish food that pops with flavour.

Discover the best spices which complement pork and some general pork seasoning advice below.

Chinese five spice

Pork and Chinese five spice were made for each other. Chinese five spice is known for blending five distinct tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. This comes from the five ingredients in Five Spice, namely star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and Sichuan peppercorns.

The mix of flavours binds to pork well. Pork has a distinct taste, but it really works well as a blank canvas for the spices to do their thing. As a result, Chinese five spice can be used in almost all pork recipes, from marinades and broths to stir-fries and wraps.

To use Chinese five spice in a basic way, just rub it into pork before cooking. Mix with salt and pepper and you’ll have a tasty meal in no time. While the seasoning is a favourite in marinades, you can make it quickly too, such as in ourSpeedy Five-Spice Pork with Noodles.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon – perhaps one of the most-used spices in the world – is an amazing tool to enhance other flavours. When mixed with other spices and meat like pork, it can add new depths to a dish.

You may see cinnamon as a strange pairing for pork but, especially when slow-cooked, it produces a mouth-watering blend of sweet and savoury.

For a recipe that brings out the full flavour of cinnamon, we recommend ourPulled Pork with Cinnamon and Ginger. When slow-cooked, cinnamon and pork feel like a match made in gourmet heaven.

Cumin

Cumin is a favourite in curries, but it also works incredibly well with pork. It is a go-to savoury spice for a reason: its distinct, earthy flavour.

You wouldn’t necessarily just season pork with cumin, but mixing it with other seasonings like ginger and lime can enhance the flavour significantly.

We’d recommend using ground cumin in recipes like our, where the cumin can bring out the citrus and pork flavours well.

Chilli

At Love Pork, we, well, love pork, but if there’s one thing wereallylove, it’s spicy pork. Dried chilli synthesises with all types of pork cooking, making it ideal for curries, spicy stir-fries and everything in between.

To use dried chilli flakes, rub it into the pork well before cooking. Alternatively, put it in a marinade with ground dried chillies or chilli flakes for more flavour.

You may have eaten Piri-Piri chicken a fair few times, but try ourPiri-Piri Style Pork recipeto bring out all that dried chilli goodness.

Garlic

People cook with garlic all the time. It’s amazing how such a small vegetable is central to numerous dishes – we couldn’t imagine cooking without it sometimes!

When it comes to pork, the rich umami flavour of garlic works very well. You can use fresh garlic, garlic flakes or garlic powder, depending on the recipe.

A no-nonsense seasoning requires a no-nonsense recipe, so, if you’re fancying garlic and pork, try ourMexican Pork With Garlic And Kidney Beans.