Let's look in your spice cabinet. Do you have a spice cabinet? Or a spice rack? Or are your little jars of spices jumbled on a shelf over the stove? Do you remember when you bought that jar of thyme?
One of the key requirements for serenity in the kitchen is having what you need, when you need it and where you can find it. A second requirement is confidence in the quality of your ingredients. The spice jumble is the place where most kitchens fall down, but the situation can be rectified easily. If you're in despair over the state of your kitchen, here's a place to start.
There are a myriad of ways of attacking the organization of your spices, but I want to highlight one in particular: test tubes. Test tubes are inexpensive and take up very little space. Even a rack of 30 or 40 tubes takes up very little counterspace. (The ideal situation would be a test tube rack that mounts on the wall, but the only version of that I've found so far is rather expensive.) And one of the best things about test tubes is that they don't hold very much. That's great, because spices are packaged in quantitites that are just too large. Unless you cook for the 101st Airborne, by the time you get two thirds of the way through the jar of sage, it has all the flavor of the dust behind the refrigerator. And nothing is as annoying as having to buy a huge bottle of a spice when you need a teaspoonful for a recipe you may never make again.
So, how do you buy small enough quantities? And how do you know they're fresh when you get them? Well, first, avoid buying in supermarkets. It is impossible to know how long those bottles have been sitting on the shelf. Second, except for the McCormick's tiny bottles, you will never use all of the stuff in the bottles while they have any value. There are a number of places where you can buy small quantities of individual spices. If you're in New York City, Adriana's Caravan is a top choice. And if you don/t live in Metro NYC, Adriana's Caravan is still a top choice. The list of available spices is mind-boggling, and most can be ordered in amounts as small as 1 ounce. You can buy online at the website (the catalog is also available as a PDF file.) And Rochelle Zabarkes, the owner of Adriana's Caravan has even written a book that has a wealth of information and ideas, available on the site.
There are lots of other online spice sellers, but having access to Adriana's I haven't tried them. Look for a willingness to guarantee freshness, a good selection, online information about the products (I think sellers have an obligation to educate their customers), and the ability to purchase in small quantities. Then buy small quantities of one or two items and test the freshness for yourself.
Now, about those test tubes. Science supply houses are the obvious source. One with a nice array of choices is Indigo Instruments which actually has sets that are intended for use as spice racks. Check them out.
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