Can I pour spices into a meat-based soup if I want to be able to use them for dairy later?

I have a chicken soup that's cooking on the  stove that has steam coming up from it. Can   I take my spice container and pour it on top of  the soup directly from the spice container or will   that make the spices now fleishig? Can I still  then use it for a milchig soup? So the truth is   that, l'chatchila, meaning in the first instance,  it's best not to put the container into the area   where the steam is because then the hot steam will  get absorbed into the spices. If one did then,   b'dieved, after the fact we can assume that the  amount of steam that absorbed into the spices is   so negligible that it would be batul, that it  would be nullified in the spices and therefore   the spices can still be viewed as being pareve.  The proper way to do it is either to hold it   high enough above the steam will already have  dissipated and that would be fine. But again,   the best is just to use a cup or  a teaspoon and pour it from there.