Take the 2-minute tour ×  I cooked up some good-quality minced
beef yesterday with salt, onion, and breadcrumbs. (I wrapped it
around hardboiled eggs and baked it.) I didn't use any pepper
because I have allergies, and I didn't like the way it came out
- it was bland and had a faint meaty "off" taste even though I
knew it was fresh enough.  I don't insist on it being hot and
spicy, but what could I use to give it flavour? What is a good
replacement that will flavor meat the way pepper would? Or at
the very least, what spice or combination of spices would cover
up the faint off taste? I know that medieval cooks used to use
spices to cover "off" flavours in meat, but I think they were
ones we use in sweet dishes now.  Tomato is not an option for me
sadly but onion and garlic are fine.  I hope you can help, I'm
finding this really intriguing. I'm learning a lot about what
pepper does just by going without.  share|improve this question
Mustard, horseradish, wasabi, and ginger are all standard things
to combine wi