How many spices do you have in your "rack?"

A year or two ago, at Christmas, I opened a package only to find a revolving spice rack complete with twenty different spices. Outwardly I smiled, but inwardly I groaned.

“Now we can throw out all those nasty old spices,” my better half said. She has never liked my motley collection of disorganized ground things, while I was quite satisfied with the system.

When the day of reckoning came, I tried to patiently explain to her, that sure, there are some spices that can be thrown out as old, but that no way was this rack going to contain all I need.

“You can’t be telling me you need more than twenty spices?”

“Yes, I can.”

Yes, there were some old spices that were thrown out and were duplicated by the new chrome wonder. There were some that were just plain old and not in the new rack. There were some that were just stupid – what was I doing with three containers of pumpkin pie spice? Yowsa!

Today, the shiny spinny spice rack sits lonely in the corner of the kitchen while the cupboard is still filled with all the other things I think I need, with overspill sitting on top of the breadbox. It is now time to go through these spices again. Here’s what I found, alphabetized for analysis:

5 spice powder
all spice
basil
bay leaves (crushed)
bay leaves (whole)
black peppercorns (whole)
caraway (whole)
Caribbean Jerk Seasoning
celery salt
celery seed
cinnamon (stick)
cinnamon (ground)
cloves (whole)
cloves (whole)
Coleman's dry English mustard
crushed red pepper
crushed red pepper
cumin
cumin
dill weed
Emeril's Essence
fennel
garlic salt
ginger (ground)
gumbo filè
hot Hungarian paprika
Italian seasoning
lemon grass powder
marjoram
mint (crushed)
Mrs Dash: tomato, basil, & garlic
nutmeg (mill)
oregano
parley (dried)
pickling spice
pickling spice
pizza seasoning
poppy seeds
Prudhomme's blackening spice
rosemary
saffron
sage
savory
Sazon Goya
seasoning salt
sweet Hungarian paprika
tarragon
thyme
turmeric
white pepper
white pepper


That’s a total of fifty-one. (And I’m leaving out all the dried chilies.) I’ll probably whittle this down by ten today. I’ll bet many of you have (too) many more (too)!

Don’t even get me started on condiments.

-ramon

I think I've got you beat. Also leaving out dried chiles, flavored oils, and the baking station stuff (extracts, rosewater, etc.). All this stuff is in one cabinet that also has oils, vinegars, sesame seeds, a small flour and sugar container, wine for cooking (the last unfinished bottle), bread crumbs and similar items -- the basics for cooking dinner:

First Drawer has two 15-bottle racks: (*=ancient dried stuff I should toss)
Allspice
Basil*
Cardamom seed
caraway*
cayenne
chili powder
cinnamon
cloves
cumin
coriander
curry powder
dill*
fennel seed*
garam masala
garlic powder
ginger
green peppercorns
marjoram
dry mustard
poppy seeds
oregano
dry parsley*
paprika
peppercorns
rosemary
empty -- how'd that happen?
tarragon*
thyme
turmeric

Second and third drawers are mostly backup bags, plus:
cardamom pods
a bag of hatch chile powder
herbes de provence
cumin seed
4 salts
whole coriander
mustard seed

The doors to the cabinet have:
5 spice powder*
wasabi powder
pickling spices
homemade bbq rub
old bay
hot chile powder (from an Indian spice kit)
more cumin
bay leaves
whole nutmeg
onion flakes
cheese powder
another cheese powder
still another cheese powder (got goofy at the Spice House)
another curry powder with bay leaves in the jar
saffron
herbes special for pizza
japanese curry powder
mace
white pepper
another cumin (I keep buying it thinking I'm out)

I get about 52, not counting multiple cumins and a couple curries

At my Mom's apartment in Baltimore for Passover, my wife had occasion to notice that in Mom's pantry were McCormick spices in metal tins. My wife said they must be from the seventies or eighties, because that was the last time McCormick packaged spices that way (instead of in glass). She turned some of them over and discovered the prices--one was 19¢, another was 23¢, etc. Scary!

72 of commercial origin in glass, plastic or metal containers. (Mostly Pennzey's.) Lots of others (maybe a dozen) in plastic bags; and probably half a dozen various chiles of my own provenance, packed in baby food jars.

And I'm pleased to say (= brag) that everything is new as of last Christmas!! Ah, discipline...

Geo

I like those old tins, if I could find a bunch I would repackage the new stuff into them.

I like my Spice House jars as well.

No count as I am at work and I know I did a big purge recently.

Three shelves in one cupboard, plus a spice rack on the counter, half a shelf in the fridge, and a large section of the freezer. I don't have time to count, but a lot of the stuff in the lists above looks familiar. One favorite I'd add that I don't see is gomashio. Mmm. And sumac and za'atar don't appear above, and I have those. And three bags of ras al hanout in the freezer.

Ramon wrote:A year or two ago, at Christmas, I opened a package only to find a revolving spice rack complete with twenty different spices. Outwardly I smiled, but inwardly I groaned.

“Now we can throw out all those nasty old spices,” my better half said. She has never liked my motley collection of disorganized ground things, while I was quite satisfied with the system.

When the day of reckoning came, I tried to patiently explain to her, that sure, there are some spices that can be thrown out as old, but that no way was this rack going to contain all I need.

“You can’t be telling me you need more than twenty spices?”

“Yes, I can.”

Yes, there were some old spices that were thrown out and were duplicated by the new chrome wonder. There were some that were just plain old and not in the new rack. There were some that were just stupid – what was I doing with three containers of pumpkin pie spice? Yowsa!

Today, the shiny spinny spice rack sits lonely in the corner of the kitchen while the cupboard is still filled with all the other things I think I need, with overspill sitting on top of the breadbox. It is now time to go through these spices again. Here’s what I found, alphabetized for analysis:

5 spice powder
all spice
basil
bay leaves (crushed)
bay leaves (whole)
black peppercorns (whole)
caraway (whole)
Caribbean Jerk Seasoning
celery salt
celery seed
cinnamon (stick)
cinnamon (ground)
cloves (whole)
cloves (whole)
Coleman's dry English mustard
crushed red pepper
crushed red pepper
cumin
cumin
dill weed
Emeril's Essence
fennel
garlic salt
ginger (ground)
gumbo filè
hot Hungarian paprika
Italian seasoning
lemon grass powder
marjoram
mint (crushed)
Mrs Dash: tomato, basil, & garlic
nutmeg (mill)
oregano
parley (dried)
pickling spice
pickling spice
pizza seasoning
poppy seeds
Prudhomme's blackening spice
rosemary
saffron
sage
savory
Sazon Goya
seasoning salt
sweet Hungarian paprika
tarragon
thyme
turmeric
white pepper
white pepper


That’s a total of fifty-one. (And I’m leaving out all the dried chilies.) I’ll probably whittle this down by ten today. I’ll bet many of you have (too) many more (too)!

Don’t even get me started on condiments.

-ramon

hola

I've totally got you beat:

I could list everything individually, but then I'd have to take my freezer packs out and chance condensation:

hmm...

...might be interesting, in fact, to quantify the depths of my mania:

I'll get back to this thread.

Oh, heh-heh, I forgot to mention the condiments, which ramon explicitly didn't refer to.

Well then.

Up here in Quebec, just about everyone who has a basement/cellar has a "beer fridge" therein. My landlord supplied me with one, nicely enough. Now that fridge doesn't have any beer in it (well, at the moment anyway), but what it DOES have is a full complement of jars: jars from China, jars from Vietnam and Thailand, jars from Serbia, jars from the US of A; dang, I got jars from EVERYwhere...

And in them jars is just about anything a body might possibly want to cook with. So I'm willin' to match my condiments with any of yinz (as we say in Pittsburgh)!

Geo

HI,

My Father's reaction to all the condiments in the refrigerator, "How can a refrigerator this full having nothing to eat?"

Regards,

One of my favorite lines by Marge Simpson, when admiring a spice rack, is: "FIVE SPICES?! There must be a repeat in here somwhere!"



That being said, I have 40, after a recent purge and rearrange.

messycook wrote:One of my favorite lines by Marge Simpson, when admiring a spice rack, is: "FIVE SPICES?! There must be a repeat in here somwhere!"

"Oh-re-GAH-no?! What the heck!?"

Seems like I in great company with others who have an abundance of spices. One project I need to complete is organizing my spices in an effective way because right now, my spices are everywhere... cupboard, cabinets, drawers, etc

Spice rack? Ours is really more of a spice cart. For perspective, the top rack is full of typical size spice jars -- it's full 3 deep. The lower ones are mostly the large bottles one gets at Stanley's, Costco, etc. Including the smaller spice rack we also have, there are about 100 jars, containers, baggies, etc. of spices. There are some repeats, though...

It's nice being in a community that appreciates a bit of variety!

Spice Rant
Whole spices vs. ground?
I'm more interested in what spices folks buy whole. In my drawer right now I have whole cumin seed, fennel seeds, cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns, cardamom pods, brown mustard seed, caraway seed, kalonji seeds, and dried chile peppers.
Why do some dried herbs work, while others are useless?
Dried thyme, oregano, epazote, bay leaf, yes--but dried parsley? Dehydrated cilantro?
Under what circumstances is it ok to buy spices in bulk proportions?
Aren't all pre-ground spices useless after six months?
Why are some flavored salts accepted and others bawked at?
In: Morton's hot salt / Out: Onion salt
Why does every spice cabinet in America contain a box of Coleman’s Dry English mustard? What do you use it for other than deviled eggs?
Don't say to make your own Chinese Hot Mustard Sauce.
Pre-mixed commercial spice blends?*
Boo, right? Celebrity chefs marketing their own secret blend of salt and pepper. Every time Rachel Ray covers her porterhouse in “grill seasoning” and uses "poultry seasoning” to give her stewp that ®eal Thanksgiving flavor, a crocus flower loses it's stamen.
LemonPepperGarlicParmeseanBasilBlend?*
When did we decide that it was ok to call cheese a spice?


*Ok, I know I'm taking potshots at easy targets, and that really what I'm railing against is more of a quality issue than anything else, but still amazes me that pre-ground black pepper still has a market. So, there's nothing wrong with going to the Spice House and buying a small bag of Pullman Pork Chop spice or Greektown Billygoat Seasoning because the spices are high quality and freshly ground? I'm asking because I really don't know. Perhaps a blind tasting is in order?

::

I looked in my spice drawer this morning, and found three commercial brand spice blends that I use and love. Are these pre-ground, pre-mixed commercial spice blends really any better than buying a jar of Emeril's Essence?

S&B Nanami Togarashi (3 chili peppers, orange peel, sesame seed (black and white), ginger, seaweed)

I stand by this. With ingredients like Sansho chili and dried orange peel, the degree of difficulty in making your own makes buying small bottles of the stuff a smart decision.

Bolst’s Hot Curry Powder (coriander, tumeric, chili, mustard, ginger, cumin, fenugreek)

I love Bolst’s Hot Curry Powder. I don’t know what someone who is better versed in Indian food would say about it, but I very much enjoy it. The thing is, I have all of the ingredients listed above. One small can of Bolst’s might sit in my spice drawer for six months. Am I being ridiculous in purchasing this product, instead of just mixing my own blend when the need arises? Am I being naïve to think I could just whip up my own blend?

Old Bay Seasoning (celery salt, pepper, bay, ginger, clove, allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, paprika)

This is a McCormick product now, but originally it was an independent company conceived and started by Gustav Brunn, a Jew who escaped Nazi Germany and settled in Baltimore. Old Bay has seeped into our collective cabinet, and has earned a seat to the right of Coleman’s English Mustard. Why?? It’s glorified celery salt. You know what I use Old Bay for? Popcorn. That’s it. I just convinced myself never to buy Old Bay again.

Interesting topic. I'm way too lazy to list all my spices and powders, but I do have a couple thoughts to share.

trixie-pea wrote:Whole spices vs. ground?

Whole spices all the way, i'm with you on this, trix. This falls in with the general rule of "try to buy things as close to their original form as possible".

trixie-pea wrote:Why does every spice cabinet in America contain a box of Coleman’s Dry English mustard? What do you use it for other than deviled eggs?

I differ with you here. I love dry english mustard and find it very useful for marinades, rubs, sauces, and dressings when I want the heat of this mustard but not the tang (or the wetness) of real mustard. There are a lot of simple little recipes that are improved with a teaspoon of dry mustard.

--One thing that CG and Cynthia mentioned is the freezer, which is my primary spice storage location. Seeds, powders, spices, leaves, and nuts get double-bagged in freezer bags, removed of as much air as possible, and labeled. I try my best to keep a written inventory so I don't have to dig through things to see what I have.

--About bay leaves: I personally avoid the California leaves at all costs.

Best,
Michael

OK trixie-pea, here's a couple for you. The first is a puzzler:

Consider THIS one, is it a blend?



Of course, but could we construct it ourselves? Maybe not...


But here's a second one, one that you and everybody else will hiss and hoot at me for:



Yup, McCormick's All Purpose no-salt. Basically garlic powder and a few dried green bits. But I'm addicted to the stuff. Like, it's great on oatmeal and in my orange juice. (Not really, but maybe almost...)


Anyway, my point is that all of us have our secret pleasures of this sort. Maybe they're not ALL bad, eh?

Geo

We all seem to be in good company here! We have one cabinet of 3 shelves totally deicated to spices. On the counter below is a basket that holds a number of zip bagged Penzey spices that we use pretty much daily. Below that is a cabinet with part of one shelf devoted to oils and vinegars. In the pantry there are a few back up spices and the freezer holds 2 bags of Chimayo chile powder from my friend's farm in New Mexico. Oops, our fridge is condiment strewn, 3 shelves in the door not to mention a variety of olives or pickled veggies on other shelves. Did I mention that there are just 2 of us!

eatchicago wrote:

trixie-pea wrote:Why does every spice cabinet in America contain a box of Coleman’s Dry English mustard? What do you use it for other than deviled eggs?

I differ with you here. I love dry english mustard and find it very useful for marinades, rubs, sauces, and dressings when I want the heat of this mustard but not the tang (or the wetness) of real mustard. There are a lot of simple little recipes that are improved with a teaspoon of dry mustard.

My standard vinaigrette is olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper, and some dry mustard. If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll add a bit of honey and/or minced garlic. But my Coleman's (now in a plastic "tin") is one spice I would definitely miss. (I also use it to make a dry rub for ribs.)
Otherwise, I agree, always buy whole spices when available (and toast before grinding, directly before use).

Kristen

I run in the opposite direction, mostly from fear...

I have about seven or eight spices in my cabinet in any kind of bulk. I have a few empty tiny plastic containers from The Container Store. When I need something other than those for a recipe, I go to Whole Foods and buy three recipe's worth, or a quarter's worth, whichever is more.

Why? Well, I'm always afraid that I will keep the spices too long.

Now condiments and marinades... that's a completely different story. When I am being healthy, I will cook 10-11 pounds of chicken pieces one weekend a month and freeze it for flavored lunch meat - so I'm always buying something new to try.

My freezer spices are mostly Indian. A big bag for whole(or...surplus...what I don't have out in jars), a ziploc of masalas(mainly homemade from my friend's mother and aunts), chile powders...etc. Then there's my Thai herb/rhizome bag...but, that's all fresh.

I never "froze" my spices until I saw that that's exactly what this one friend does...and I thought if she does it maybe I should as well.

I have read that there is a danger of condensation and hydroscopic clumping in the back n forth between freezer and room temp. However, if you package them well enough(squeezing out the air as much as possible as mentioned above) and don't just leave previously-frozen stuff laying about there shouldn't be a problem. At least I haven't encountered one...knock on wood.

trixie-pea wrote:Spice Rant
Whole spices vs. ground?

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy that's why.
Cayenne pepper, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, in particular are hard to grind up. (and yes, I use fresh ginger much more often than dried, the dried stuff has its uses, though, especially baked goods).
Cardamom I mostly use whole, the powder is occasionally useful, though. Last time I needed it though, I spent an hour decorticating pods.
Cumin I use in large quantities, I have little fear of it fading out.
Peppercorns, nutmeg

Why do some dried herbs work, while others are useless?

Preaching to the choir here. I have a jar of dried parsley that has to have been there for 20 years. I haven't replaced it because I never use it. Probably should use it for something else. Couldn't live without dried thyme, but basil and oregano I'd use fresh whenever available (for most things, at least -- can't sprinkle fresh oregano on a pizza)

Under what circumstances is it ok to buy spices in bulk proportions?

Idiocy coupled with economy. I KNOW I won't use eight ounces of powdered turmeric, but when it costs the same as a 2oz McCormick bottle, and The Spice House or Home Economist are a half-hour drive, I'll grab the bulk bags or containers from a local ethnic grocer.

Why are some flavored salts accepted and others bawked at?

Sorry, I don't use any of them, unless you count the flavors of Utah mountains or Hawaiian beaches.

Why does every spice cabinet in America contain a box of Coleman’s Dry English mustard? What do you use it for other than deviled eggs?

I'll put a pinch in eggs for omelets, MrsF's used it in pork chop breading, I think I've put it into a vinagrette or two

Pre-mixed commercial spice blends?*

I used to have a Paul Prudhomme meat seasoning blend, I can't say I use much of these things anymore.

LemonPepperGarlicParmeseanBasilBlend?*
When did we decide that it was ok to call cheese a spice?

When it's a condiment, like I use cayenne on mac'n'cheese, or crushed pepper on pizza. In this case it's usually popcorn.

HI,

Dried parsley or dill is a mystery. Why buy when it is so easily acquired fresh?

Dried herbs I always measure into my hands, then rub them between my hands to release their essential oils. I made pickling spice recently when making corned beef. The recipe called for 24 bay leaves broken up. The bay leaves fresh from the cellophane package didn't leave a very strong impression. However once they were broken up and their oils released to the air, the bay leaves made a much more powerful aromatic impression.

I buy whole whenever possible, then use my coffee grinder to reduce them to powder. To clean the coffee grinder later, I use the Cook's Illustrated tip of grinding dried rice.

In Spices, Salts and Aromatics in the English Kitchen by Elizabeth David, she had quite a discussion on curry powder. If I recall correctly, she commented it was foreign to Indians to use curry powder. Indians would mix spices relative to the dish they intended to prepare. Whereas curry powder was really a convenience to non-Indian populations. I remember strongly her comments if Indians indeed used curry power, then there would be a sameness to all their dishes, which we know is simply not the case. In fact, she encouraged people to created their own personal curry powders to their tastes and whims.

While I don't cotton to most celebrity spice mixtures. I do enjoy knowing people who have conjured up their own spice mixtures. Gwiv regularly mixes his own chili oils and BBQ rubs to his personal taste. A few years ago, Erik M made a Thai curry around the holidays. I received a gift of a salt and seasoning preparation following a prescription by Louis Szathmary of The Bakery. I have a tin of homemade Khmeli Suneli, a Georgian spice mixture, made long ago by a friend who is long gone. I wouldn't dream of using it now, though I keep it all the same.

Bay's Seasoning on popcorn? A new use, thanks!

Regards,

This is why I love LTH!

This thread reminds me of a line from Friends when Monica said:

"You said you'd love me in sickness and in health. This is my sickness!"

I can relate to all of this! I have two entire cabinet 24" wide shelves full of spices. I just bought 14 new ones at Penzeys a couple months ago! I have an entire shelf in the fridge with short condiments and most of the tall ones are in the door and/or spill over to the back of the tall shelf in the main part of the fridge. There is room for one gallon of milk in the door and the rest are pretty much condiments! My chef cousin who happens to have a chef wife, commented for her to come see my condiment collection because I had more than they did!!

Funny how in sync we are - over Spring Break, I'd resolved to clean out my cabinets - thank you for holding me to it, Ramon! My frightening number is 51 - but there are at least 10 spice mixes that can be pitched outright. I was shocked to find I had only one dupe: basil (which I rarely use because I tend to buy it fresh these days...)

Plan for today is to find a source for the medium-size square-sided plastic bottles like they use at Marketplace on Oakton and repackage them all so they fit...

This thread inspired me to clean out my cabinet. I counted a modest 33 and about half could be tossed because of age. Of the remaining, I probably use a third regularly in cooking. They're the usual suspects--cumin, coriander, chili powder, bay leaves, allspice, cinnamon... I also use a lot of dry dill because there's no way I could keep enough fresh on hand for how often I make the Enchanted Broccoli Forest's cottage cheese dill bread.The rest are for my latest though so far demoralizing hobby of making tea (I have yet to concoct something that tastes good).

Four drawers, 70 total, not counting anything that comes in a bottle (extract, hot sauce, etc). And there may be one or two duplicates, but not more, since I sorted pretty carefully when I moved recently.

Coleman's mustard makes a terrific Ukrainian mustard sauce for your Easter ham. You start with a whole jar of apple butter and a whole can of Coleman's mustard. But at the moment I don't have any. I use a course Dijon from my refrigerator for my salad dressings.

I have one drawer of the big jars with bulk spices from Caputos and elsewhere. Marjoram, oregano, crushed red peppers, whole black pepper, bay leaves, etc. I won't go through a whole jar in six months, but they probably won't last a year.

For today's, must-be-perfect deviled eggs, while they were plated on a bed of fresh parsely, contained, by preference, actual dried parsley.

But I can't think of any other reason for its existence.

-ramon

Why, indeed, would anyone not grind their own pepper fresh? Maybe they are really pressed for time, maybe they can't afford a peppermill, or maybe (like myself) their husband yells at them any time they buy a gadget that takes up space in a small loft! Of all gadgets shelf worthy, a peppermill is one. Mine has a combination of Tellicherry black peppercorns and Grains of Paradise. Really great flavor.

I confess to keeping ground white pepper around. The coffee grinder I once bought to grind spices has appropriate for the purpose of, um, grinding coffee beans. I wouldn't have though to do peppercorns in the coffee grinder in any case, and I use it so rarely it seems hardly worth having another pepper mill.

A curious point: I was looking in Maria Kijac's South American Table for a chimichurri recipe the other night. Turns out it called for dried parsley (half cup). She says it's for convenience. I was quite surprised, to say the least. I didn't try it, but I'm curious if there's really little drop-off in quality.