 Yo mama's cinnamon is so old, its UPC code is "1." Yo mama's thyme is so old, they used it to season the Last Supper. Yo mama's cloves are so old, the bottle has a Brontosaurus steak recipe on the side. That doesn't render them harmful at all, but does increase the likelihood that your dishes will taste like the ghost of rosemary, bay or nutmeg past, rather than robustly of the spice itself. I mostly blame the manufacturers for packaging such ambitious quantities of spices that are meted out by the quarter teaspoon, pinch or dash, and often doing so in glass bottles. They're lovely to look at, but they let light in, and that's not at all nice for spice. There's also a human factor at play. If they're not arranged into a wall-mounted, light-sucking rack, spices are often tossed wherever they happen to fit - even if that's perilously close to a heat or moisture source. Both of those will sap spices of their full flavor, as does being jammed in the back of a cabinet behind the baking powder and cornstarch and forgotten. If you've never ended up with multiple tins of cinnamon because the several you had were out of sight, you are a better human than most of us.
So I'm declaring December to be National Update Your Parents' Spice Rack Month to ensure that they are living an optimally delicious life, and not just sitting on a Smithsonian-worthy heap of kitchen clutter. First, see and sniff the spices. If the color is faded or you have to work hard to catch a whiff when you rub a little into the palm of your hand, toss them out. The flavor diminishes along with those characteristics. Next, check the dates on the containers. Roughly speaking, ground spices are good for 2-3 years, whole spices for 3-4 years, blends for 1-2 years and dried, leafy herbs for 1-3 years and extracts (except for vanilla, which stays potent) for 4 years. If it's beyond that - or even undated and smell-free - your trash can will eat semi-deliciously today. Some major spice producers like McCormick, Durkee and Spice Island and Sauer's share brand-specific information about informational codes on their websites. Once the exorcism is complete and you're ready to restock, look for those sold on air-tight tins, or consider buying from bulk bins where you can buy only the amount needed for the recipe at hand. Keep a few empty food-grade small, lidded tins on hand, or wash, thoroughly dry and re-label newly-emptied tins to reflect the new contents and the date on which they were purchased. If you'd like, you can get all Pinteresty and cute about where and how to store them, but location is crucial. Avoid spots near the stove or radiator (too hot), in front of windows (too bright) and near sinks and dishwashers (too damp). This will ensure that holiday treats back home will taste like Christmas present and future - and not like old spice. See Eatocracy's board of cool spice storage solutions on Pinterest. *The picture at the top is my mother-in-law's spice carousel and the one in middle is of strays from the back. These were taken in 2011, not the mid-70s. **If this works out, we'll try for National Sharpen Your Parents' Knives Month and National Stay Calm While Your Dad Teaches You How to Load the Dishwasher Properly Day |
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Or move out of your parents' basement and buy your own spices.
I cook A LOT and really enjoy it... Herbs and spices are what make cooking an art, so I used them liberally... As a result I'm constantly buying more. There are only a couple things in my cabinet older than 4 years. Most are replaced every few months. AND I really enjoy growing my own. It's so easy. sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, parsley and chives.... so much better fresh.
"Your spices are old.. your spices are old." Perennial cry of the chef who's furnished a spice budget.
Spices are a cheap addition to a meal.
Let's say you go all out and spend $100 on spices in a year. That amounts to about 30 cents a day. Not enough to buy a cup of coffee at a fast food joint. Thirty cents a day is not a lot to make your food taste good, even if you're stuck with cheap food. Enduring lousy-tasting food (or spending more on better-tasting food) in order to save a few cents on spices is false economy. And that's toward the higher end; you can easily get by with less than half of that, and get a year's worth of spices for the price of a single tank of gas.
the only spice in her cabinet is labeled "rock"
LOL.
Funny
I know what they mean especially about older people hanging on to items. A college roommate and i found a box of Howdy Doody Pudding mix in her grandmothers pantry in 1974. I just cleared out my pantry and tossed spice , herbs and other packages that where questionable. Some old tins from years past and even overseas living adorn my "kitchen Christmas wreath".
I bought a container of salt a few days ago and this article prompted me to see if there's a date on it. There is, and it's five years in the future. I'd hate to open it in six years and be overcome by chlorine gas while the container catches fire from moisture in the air. :)
don't criticize your mother. If this is so important to you, buy her new ones.
Totally did this with my elderly mom's spice rack recently. There was a bottle of oregano in there that had the price ink stamped on the bottom. I'm guessing it was purchased in the late 1960s.
The amount o spice is always way more than I will use in a reasonable amount of thyme.
I think the oldest spice in my kitchen is older than me.
Calgary caterers
I edit my mom's spice rack every year. It is just that I like to cook so it is really a gift to me since she doesn't cook much anymore.
MORE IMPORTANT! Edit the pantry and get rid of the out of date food and bulging cans. Tasteless is one thing, spoiling and dangerous food is quite another.
I actually know an older woman who once opened a can of bulging corn, SCRAPED OFF A LAYER OF MOLD, and then proceeded to eat the contents. She was hospitalized for about a week, and she's still alive and kicking.
I've become convinced that she's immortal.
Lol! She must be a serious badass to even attempt such a thing. I would never eat her cooking though you would never know what she's thrown in there.
What, never heard of Huitlacoche? It's a delicacy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut
I could not agree more Kat, spices must remain fresh. Whole is better than ground because it will last longer. Better keep the spices away from light, in a wooden spice rack. Nice blog. Thank you, because that is very useful info.
I have to replace mine every year. I don't have central AC but live near the ocean and it gets very hot and humid in my house so my spices kinda meld into a solid chunk over the summer.
This advertisement brought to you by the Spice Producers of America.
Buy new spices! The more expensive, the better!
Y'know, a FOOD blog isn't likely to have posts like "just eat ramen noodles and canned tuna."
And while a lot of us can't afford some of the crazy ingredients for the recipes I've seen, decent spices are not only cheap per use, but they make cheap food taste better. You end up saving money. I know this from experience.
Um, yeah. It was really nice of Big Spice to sponsor that camera crew to go to my mother-in-law's kitchen and "stage" those shots.
How about bu[[ out, get a life and leave your parents alone month?!!
If that's how you feel, then by all means, leave your parents alone. No need to get all testes abou t!t.
I think I would be annoyed if anyone came in to my kitchen and threw stuff away because "they" thought it was appropriate.
How about talking with your cooking parent and let them make the decisions in their kitchens?
I recently bought hanging wall racks so I could get away from the problem of the deep narrow cabinet where herbs and spices languished, threw out all the older spices except the one or two which still have scent, and refurbished the collection where needed. Herbs and spices are a part of my life, and now I am glad I can at a glance see most of them! (A few larger containers are in the FRONT of the aforementioned cabinet, and I store the salts on top of the toaster oven - removing them when that appliance is in use.)
I thought as long as you could smell it, the spice was still good. Is this not true?
That's what I always go by.
Depends on what it is that you smell. I just tossed out a jar of dried parsley that smelled, all right, but it smelled like hay. All the volatiles that make it taste like parsley were long gone (yeah, it got pushed to the back!) and all that was left was generic dead-plant smell. Y'know, hay.
My favorite spice vender (Penzey's) sells bulk spices in heat-sealed mylar bags, and they seem to keep practically forever in those. I need to get some small ones and put part of a big jar of spices into each. (I happen to own a heat-sealer already, from a former business) Mylar bags hold spice volatiles better than glass jars, plastic containers, or just about anything else I've tried.
This article is timely because literally three days ago I went through and purge my spice rack. I had nothing older than 2008, but several containers had contents solidified from humidity and heat changes, and many were just expired. I replaced all of these with the nice, square, metal lidded glass jars from Target (I know, glass is bad, but they're kept in a dark cupboard) by Archer Farms. I love the jars because they're all a uniform size, and they look sort of old fashioned. Even though clear is bad, it allows me to see how much is left in each jar so that I don't run out at a bad time.
no one cares about this boring personal anecdote
I read it and I do care. So there.
I cared.
I do too... If you were bored, why read it? Please go to another site then.
Ah, the Grinch IS alive and well...
No need to be rude. I enjoyed the posting too. Mom always told me, "If you can't say something nice.....".
I Love old tins !!! I have a huge Calumet baking powder tin & try to rescue band – aid & spice tins :-)
i have a sibling who lives in a remote area and i send new spices every two years for christmas. mom's pretty good about hers, not so much with the lipsticks though. some of them are older than me!
A Sharpie pen is well needed in the kitchen. Date you spices and lable your leftovers!
Our summer cabin has a lovely old jar of MSG
This is PERFECT and so real. I had this conversation with my mom last night as my sister LOADED a piece of bread with what has to be 7 year old garlic powder. "Would you like some bread with your garlic, H?" my mom asks, jokingly. I guess it really is time we update our spice rack. I'm shamelessly passing this article along.
wow that was REALLY INTERESTING
Troll.
Oscar, please put your lid back on your can!
LMFAO!!! This sooooooooo needs to happen when I get home! There are BILLIONS of herbs and spices in my parent's pantry. I think my father believes he has run out of Thyme every evening (ha ha, oh the pun), so he runs to the store the following day to buy some. Really he hasn't though, he just has SO MANY other herbs and spices (including about 10 bottles of THYME) so it's hard to find anything. No spice/herb organizer can make a difference, no one will ever be able to know for sure if they have enough garlic powder, oregano or saffron in their pantry! LOL – Although, I do know they have about 6 cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice jars in there, so I am set for when I come home!
There are several hundred dollars worth of herbs in my pantry....and I sure hope the police don't find out
Ah ha ha ha ah! Well if you don't want them to find out, you shouldn't admit it on here! lol
just don't put poppy seeds in your muffins the day before a pee test.
A few years back, my mom realized she had some spices on her shelf that were in "Victory" boxes – cardboard containers made during WWII when metal was being used in the war effort. 65-year-old Allspice, anyone?
Oh Oh ! I'll take it!
Only because I'm a WW2 history nut, no way I would even consider using it!
What a hoot.
Make sure you've added turmeric powder to the spice rack! ! It's been found to clear infections, help heal wounds are help prevent many diseases – http://specertified.com/blog/view/the-benefits-of-turmeric-and-its-use-in-cooking
I have my grandmother's jar of allspice. I think I may have replaced the contents about 10 years ago, but the jar is priceless. Anyone remember when One-A-Day vitamins came in a round glass (yes, GLASS) bottle with a stopper top? That's what Grandma used for spice jars. The ancient, yellowing masking tape label with her handwriting is still on the jar. It's probably from the 1960s.
OT – I also have a small jar of Vaseline that I keep refilling. It's round, glass, about the size of a baby food jar – and has a price sticker on it that says 25 cents. Love it.
Noxema used to come in beautiful blue glass jars. I wish I had thought to keep one.
I remember those One-a-Day bottles. Wow!
Totally did this at my parent's house over Thanksgiving. There were some that were at least 20 years old from the looks of it!
Loved this story....
please step away from my spice rack....the bottles may be old but the spices are replenished with either stuff i grow or bulk from the store....looks can be deceiving but i like to reuse the bottles.
Me too!!! Don't touch my spices! You never know what is in them! I actually use small jelly jars, label the lids and put them in a drawer in my kitchen so that I can see what I have. I also grow my own herbs, dry them and grind them in an old fashion mortar. Love it!
My mom has that yellow rotating spice rack.
Mine did, too
lol, my mother had one too. She also seemed to think that spice rack were supposed to be solely decorative. I think besides salt, pepper, and cinnamon she would use sage at Thanksgiving and that was it.
We COULD have this problem ...except for the fact that we have a Penzys spice store around here. We are constantly using up our favorite herbs/spices, and after you get used to a certain quality you really don't ever want to go back to that wretched other stuff.
Well I dumped some oregano that had turned a lovely shade of pale, pale green and was completely odorless, but most of my spices get used fairly frequently and those I don't use frequently usually get the "sniff" test every couple months. Have to admit to the "round the world" spices though. I spent 12 years in and my husband retired from the Air Force after 23 years and I swear when we finally moved for the final time I dumped stuff that I had from our first house together! Really trying to do better!
Buy your spices from a company in Oregon called Mountain Rose Herbs. They are very inexpensive and very high quality. I'm a chef and appreciate the quality of their products sold at a very fair price.
Another good source is Atlantic Spice Co. in Truro, MA. They sell in bulk, for VERY good prices. If there's something you use a lot of, it's great. I have a favorite recipe that calls for 1/3 cup of paprika, so that would cost a fortune if I used those little jars from the store!
Thanks for the reference to the Atlantic Spice Company! The prices are amazing compared to what you find the the grocery store. They even sell plastic storage bottles in bulk if you are just starting your collection (like me).
World Spice in Seattle is also excellent.
am i just missing it? why can't i simply forward this to someone's email?
file.....email link...
The freezer is where we all keep our spices, our understanding is this will keep them fresh longer.
Be careful with that, I am not sure if it will dry out the natural oils?
I try to label the can/bottle when I purchased it (with a Sharpie, and a "P"), and when I opened it (with an "O"). That's not to say they don't get old anyway.... :S
My spices are so old that my salt and pepper shaker says 'Made in West Germany.'
How funny! My mother had an eyeliner that also said Made in West Germany. I finally convinced her to throw it away about 5 years ago!
"Yo mama's thyme is so old, they used it to season the Last Supper."
That made me laugh a lot harder than I expected. Still chuckling.
Fresh herbs are the way to go, but I can never use them all up before they go gross so I dry and store what I can't use. Luckily my grocery store has perhaps the most well-stocked bulk section on the West Coast and I'm able to buy the other stuff in more manageable portions.
I freeze small amounts of fresh herbs in either water, broth, or olive oil in ice cube trays. Pop the cubs out, and keep them in labeled baggies. Then, when you need some fresh herbs, just toss in a cube. Only a little flavor is lost in the freezing process.
Great article here-think some of mine may be in "antique mode" but am getting better.
Wish they all had exp. dates...but not so with spices it seems....
Judgeing by the poll, I'd say this article isn't spot on and yet not far off. Glad that I keep a good stock of fresher spices though. I lack most of my sense of smell and their for have to compensate a bit with the spices.... this also leads to a rather heavy grocery bill when my spices are involved.
I find the "average grocery store" spice is already too old to use. I buy mine bulk from (grocery store chain) and get more for much less price and it's way fresher and usually tastes much better. Store it in the freezer and it's golden for YEARS.
My mother has had the same wall-mounted spice rack for my entire like (I'm nearly 30). Seems she was doing something right, since it has a solid wooden door (interestingly, it's embellished with typographic art that tells which spices are good for chicken, which for pork, etc) and it's nowhere near the sink or stove but over the side counter. BUT I'm pretty sure some of those spices have been around at least a decade or two. You buy things like nutmeg that only get used during the holidays, but they come in such huge jars – that'll take 10 or more holiday seasons before it all gets used up! Next time I'm home I'm going to clean it out!
Spices are kept in the freezer; even vanilla extract, which won't freeze because of the alcohol content, but they'll all last until 2075 or so.
Super article-Probably could get collectors to buy some of mine (containers may be antiques)
But I am getting better at throwing out the "ancients"
Oh, I was thinking about this the other day, I have a Durkee tin of ground cayenne pepper that i have been working on since... I think since I moved out of the house when I was 19. (I'm 53 now) It has a price sticker of 43 cents on it. I also have a tin of Durkee's Pumpkin Pie Spice (that I don't know if I've ever used) that has a price stamped on it (remember the days of grocery stores stamping with inked price labelers?) The price was 53 cents. Still smells pretty good...!
Have a bottle extract since the 60s. Seems to get better and better the older it gets
that is vanilla extract
In 2002 or so, my husband was organizing our spice shelves. He found some tarragon that was obviously old, and we tried to figure out when it was acquired. I finally remembered that a former boyfriend bought it in the early 1970s, and I had carted it around the world (including a 4 1/2 year stint in Germany) for all that time! My husband asked why I kept it for so long, and I replied, "Well, I never liked tarragon, so it didn't get used up!" We put the tarragon in the compost, recycled the glass jar, and hence evermore my husband has been in charge of the spice shelves.
And besides being in charge of the spices, he's started a nice herb garden, so we almost always have basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, etc!
Susan,
Can I get my tarragon back? Thanks.
Mick Jagger
hahahahaha!
I've done this for both my mother and mother-in-law in the past two years... working on the knife situation now!
You are on the side of the angels. If I didn't fly in, I swear, I'd bring my own.
For knives, the best in the world are from Thiers Issard by Gilles Reynewaeter. I have a very extensive set with "guillochage" which is their term (or the French term, je ne sais pas) for various, hand-ground decorations along the non-cutting edge. The most stunning are my set of dinner knives and two custom-ordered 14" bread knives made of steel next to micarta (white linen strips infused with resin), next to blue-stained (one) and green-stained (two), resin-infused wood assembled with brass rivets. The bread knife has serrations which are actually very, very, very sharp scallops that come to a razor-sharp point all along the cutting edge. (You'll draw blood if your finger has the slightest touch to the points.) But for cutting bread - from a basic bun to a baguette to brioche to ??? - there is no equal. Maybe ~$550 ca. 1995 is a lot for a bread knife, but no rival can touch it's ability to slice any bread as easily and as thin as a wafer if you so desire. And if you do splurge to buy them, make sure you buy knife guards to wrap around the steel - or bloody fingers will be a constant.
"best in the world"? Trev, you really need to get out more often...
As a chef I always find people's knife fetishes amusing. Nobody needs a 550 dollar knife. Professional kitchens mostly use 3 kinds of knives: large, small and serrated. There are also specialty knives for specific foods or creating patterns etc. but they are rarely necessary, especially at home. Just make sure your knives are made of steel, and keep them sharp. A perfectly good sharpener can cost as little as 5 dollars, and excellent knives start at 15. Anything above 50 is a ridiculous fashion statement, nothing more.
I agree. The best quality of a knife is that it fits your hand. YOUR hand – not someone else's. I have a set of fairly cheap knives that I keep sharp, but they work for my little hands, and that is what matters most. I have had more expensive knives that I have abandoned because they make my hands ache.
I see those expensive knives at the kitchen supply store and am always wondering how they are more valuable than the less expensive ones
Ugh, I hear ya on mother-in-laws and knives. My family cooks stuff from scratch at every meal, so we always had decent knives to work with. My mother-in-law cooks less frequently and in smaller amounts, and for whatever reason she never bought or received a good chopping knife. Seriously, she chops vegetables with either an old paring knife, or an old steak knife. This means it's not slicing quickly and cleanly ("Chopchopchopchopchop...")...instead, I watch her push the knife down on the veggie until it finally breaks through and whacks the board, "...Whack!.....Whack!.....Whack!.....Whack!..." It takes forever and the sound of bad chopping is kind of irritating. So, I bought her a nice chopping knife made by Kuhn Rikon ($20 on Amazon) for Christmas. I decided against a chefs' knife, and instead bought a smallish santoku knife because the blunt tip and shorter blade is safer for an inexperienced cook. hopefully she likes it!