A friend (Bruce) asked me one day to design a five spice blend for a piece of music he wanted to write.  Not Chinese five spice, but a completely different blend. The idea was that I would also assign an instrument to a particular spice. Well, it sounded like fun, and I though about it for a while.  I decided to call it BK five spice (the friends initials who commissioned it) and it ended up as tarragon, basil, fennel seed,  rosemary and lavender.  It’s a nice light pleasant blend that works well on lighter meats, especially whitefish and is enhanced nicely by lemon juice.

After days of pondering and tasting, I thought the resinous aspect of the rosemary reminded me of the resinous sound of a bow gliding across the strings of a cello.  Basil, the brash high notes of a trumpet.  Tarragon, a softer deeper licorice like taste similar to basil made a flugelhorn come to mind. Well, the flugelhorn didn’t sound great so we mixed an alto flute and trumpet to give a similar effect. Fennel seeds, with their nice sweetness called up a viola in my mind.  The flute was perfect for the floweresque character of the lavender. And lets not forget the lemon as an accent, while not technically in the blend, was much like an acoustic guitar to me.

And there it was.  Bruce ate his way through inspiration for a week and then sat down to men the spices onto a staff.  The result AND the recipe are here: