common spices everyone owns

[thelife]

Hi all, im new to this forum (this is my first posting )Im trying to find out what food items are commonly found in the average kitchen, id like to know if anyone can help me out by telling me what spices/seasonings are "always" in the cubbards (excluding salt and pepper of course).

[Jafo232]

Hmm, it would probably be an emergency in my kitchen if I didn't have the following:

• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Cumin
• Chili powder
• Herbes de Provence
• Red pepper flakes
• Cayenne pepper
• Bay leaves

That is from the top of my head.

[KYHeirloomer]

Welcome to the forum.

Mine is probably not an average kitchen, given what, and the way, I cook. I have more than 70 herbs, spices, and spice blends, all of which are used on a more or less regular basis.

In general I think this is true, albeit on a smaller basis, for most people. What spices they use depends on what they cook. For instance, with her new-found facination with Morrocan food, Cathy has stocked up on herbs and spices she didn't use in the past.

One thing about spices: people do not replace them often enough. Once a spice has been converted from its original form (which primarily means grinding) it loses potency rather quickly.

Ground spices should be replace at least once a year.

It's also a good idea to invest in a spice grinder (or mortar & pestle if you're ambitious), then buy your spices whole and grind them fresh as needed.

[Mama Mangia]

My kitchen has a large cupboard designated to just spices, herbs and my own spice mixes. I keep nothing past a year - don't care what anyone says. Many don't last that long - they get used up.

I have large jars of my own dried herbs, good-sized jars of various mixes of my own, etc. So I actually have a double cabinet loaded and institutional size jars (for refilling) are in the pantry.

Just not enough room!

[KYHeirloomer]

"I keep nothing past a year - don't care what anyone says."

Mama, are you including whole spices in that? If so, what a waste! Instead of throwing out your whole spices send them to me. I'll happily use them.

Consider this: Spices have been in global trade for centuries. Countries have lived and died over them. Columbus sailed to a new world for them. Family fortunes were founded on them. Why? Precisely because they retain their characteristics for the next best thing to forever. Perfectly good spices have been found in the pyramids and other tombs.

On the overland spice routes it sometimes took two years or more just to move the spice from point A to point B (just how fast do you reckon a camel moves). Nor is this process necessarily speeded up in today's high-speed world.

How long, do you think, has it been since those cardamom pods you bought yesterday were picked? They had to be cleaned and sorted (all by hand, incidentally). Bagged. Send to a distributor in India, who sent them down the line, until they eventually reached a packager in America, who put them in those little jars. Then they sat in his warehouse until the central buyer for the supermarket ordered them. Then they sat in the supermarket's distribution warehouse for God-knows how long. And then they sat at least several weeks on the supermarket shelf until you bought 'em.

Then you got home, and happily added this "fresh" cardamom to a recipe.

The tube of saffron I bought in January says, "best before end 2013." They have to but a use-by date on it, by law. So, no doubt, somebody in Spain arbitrarily said, "six years sounds good."

Now saffron doesn't last long in this household. But if I misplaced the tube, and then found it way in the back of the cupboard come 2014, or 2015 or 2020 do you think, for a single moment, that I wouldn't use it. My God! It's the second most expensive spice in the world, and every tendril is worth it's weight in gold. No way it's being deep-sixed.

This international trade would not have existed if whole spices were as fragile as some people make out. For instance, do you think that peppercorns, or whole nutmegs, or cumin seeds ever go bad? If they did, civilization as we know it would be a vastly different thing.

It's only when spices have been processed---ground, or pulverized, or crushed---that they lose their potency.

What amuses me are the people who keep their powdered spices long past their prime and then "make up for it" by using more than is needed.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Hi TL,

We welcome you aboard and hope you will stay with us and enjoy this forum, it is a great place to get info. and post your own info. and share your favorite recipes and sometimes just visit and chat about Life - like your name

Cathy

[Mama Mangia]

My whole spices usually don't even make it a year here!

I don't trust any use-by dates - once opened - a year and that's it. I usually do it all during the fall of the year when my baking increases dramatically once the weather cools.

Early fall is when I like to make my spice mixes as well and my BBQ mixes I usually make more after Easter - but I use them all year anyway.

[jglass]

I have herbs I dried myself and more than one cabinet full of others.
I use alot of herbs in my cooking.