Baharat — Arabic for "spices" — is the defining spice blend of Palestinian, Lebanese, and broader Arab cooking, as fundamental to the region as garam masala to India or five-spice to China. The proportions vary by family and region, but the architecture is consistent: warm spices (allspice, cinnamon, cloves) providing the base note, black pepper providing heat, and optional additions (nutmeg, cardamom, coriander) providing regional character.
A pre-ground spice blend used as a marinade component, a seasoning for meat and rice, and a finishing spice for soups and stews. Unlike many spice blends, baharat is almost always used with fat — rubbed into meat with oil, bloomed in butter before rice, or stirred into the fat of a braise.
Baharat is the smell of a Palestinian kitchen — warm, complex, sweet-savoury. It is not aggressive; it is background depth that makes everything it touches taste more fully realised. On lamb it is canonical. On roasted cauliflower it is revelatory.
- Grind from whole spices immediately before use for maximum volatile compound retention - Toast whole spices briefly in a dry pan before grinding — this activates the aromatic oils - The blend is warm and sweet-savoury, not hot — heat comes from black pepper, not chilli - Use as a rub 30–60 minutes before cooking to allow penetration into the protein surface
OTTOLENGHI JERUSALEM — Technique Entries OT-01 through OT-25