I was cooking the other night and I was trying to get the correct amount of Garlic powder and Black Pepper in my meal. Every time I tried to get the 'level spoonful' of either I would accidentally tap the edge of the container and mess up my amounts and have to start over again. For some reason I got to thinking about my medicine cabinet and how I have some vitamins in gel capsule form. Then that got me to thinking about having spices in the pill instead, and all I would have to do to spice up my meal would be to throw a couple of pills into the boiling water and viola! For the pills to be a tablespoon's worth of spice it would have to be fairly big, so instead, a standardized incrementing could be done and 4 pills could equal a tablespoon instead or something.
-- barnzenen, Aug 28 2001

A good idea! The grocery store shelf spice industry needs something new anyway.

Implementation is easy. There are rotary tabletting presses that can take any powdered material and consolidate it into a pellet of any size you desire. These are used heavily by pharmaceutical industry, and also used by explosive industry. Also, life savers and certs are made with them.

In a way, this is already baked with, for example: sugar cubes, salt blocks, boullion cubes.
-- quarterbaker, Aug 28 2001


The smallest imperial measuring spoon is the quarter teaspoon, so that would probably make a good pellet size for things like salt and pepper.
-- sneed, Aug 28 2001


Would work a treat for soups and such, but what about sprinkling spices over a slab of pork or a dish of scalloped potatoes? Well I guess you'd use a premeasured spice packet or something.
-- Dog Ed, Aug 28 2001


Will it turn my eyes blue and will i have to fight a galactic war over it? But seriously, that just seems a tad lazy, but then again I am someone who cooks on a regular basis. I'll leave my pills to my Aspirin.

"He who controls the spice, controls the galaxy!" -DUNE
-- Tain, Aug 28 2001


The irony being that ginger is actually supposed to help settle your stomach...
-- -alx, Aug 29 2001


Just make sure you don't mix up your spice pills and your medication, especially if you need suppositories.
-- nick_n_uit, Aug 29 2001


I've never seen a recipe that fails if you don't have the precise spice amount. I just toss in what looks about right and no-one complains. If it was that important we'd better start work on eggs that are all *exactly* the same size. Pre-measured spice portions most likely won't come in the exact amounts you need (there will always be half a pack of something left over) and it would just create more waste to dispose of.
-- sirrobin, Aug 29 2001



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