So I thought just in case anyone else would like to do an herb and spice “holiday check-up” of their collection, I’d offer some suggestions to help anyone do just that to make the most of any holiday cooking and baking efforts. Time to especially use your senses of sight, smell and taste!
Remember that whole spices and herbs ALWAYS keep better and last longer than ground versions do.
On the other hand, when you want a fine dispersal of flavor elements into a food, there is nothing like crushing or grinding a spice or herb to maximize the surface area and release the volatile oils, thus increasing the potential for evenly seasoning dishes more rapidly and allowing for instant aromatic qualities to flood any room.
Years ago, a mortar and pestle was used for breaking down some herbs and even spices, but grinders and specialty fine graters have grown in popularity in more recent times. You just might want to invest in a spice grinder for smaller spices and appropriate graters designed for handling slightly larger spices. Spices come from the bark, root, buds, seeds, berry or fruit of tropical trees and plants.
All of the major spice distributors agree on the following general guidelines for preserving the longest possible “shelf life” of spices and herbs under OPTIMAL storage conditions, which would include keeping them away from heat, direct sunlight, moisture and air. Always store any herbs or spices in any form in tightly covered jars.
The time frame that extracts, herbs, seasoning blends, and spices maintain their optimal quality is approximately:
- Extracts 4 years
- Ground Spices 2-3 years
- Whole Spices 3-4 years
- Herbs 1-3 years
- Seasoning Blends 1-2 years
Some spices, such as those from the red pepper family, will retain their fresh, pleasing color, and remain highly potent longer if stored under refrigeration (chili powder and paprika, for example).
Spices in good condition will typically be more vibrant in the yellow, orange or red families of color, rather than being an off-color (more reddish color spices tend to turn brown when they are past their prime).
Dried herbs similarly when still in their prime will seem a nice brighter dark green color, not a faded pastel one.
Check the pungency of any herb or spice by either crushing or rubbing it in your hand and immediately sniffing it–unless the aroma is quite pungent and strong, it is probably time to replace it.
As a general rule of thumb, ~1 Tbsp. of freshly minced herbs = 1/2 – 1 tsp of dried (not crushed) or 1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground herbs depending upon the age of the dried herbs–older herbs will have lost some of their pungency and it will take more of them as a result to reach the same intensity of flavor input into a recipe. Herbs are the leaves of low growing shrubs. It can be fun to grow some herbs indoors in the winter time, so consider doing that this winter.
Although it can be tempting to sometimes purchase larger size containers of spices and herbs as the apparent price per unit seems more desirable at first blush, consider if you will actually use up the large quantity of spice or herb before its potency would start to decline. It just might turn out that smaller size containers better suit your spice and herb frequency of use. Spices and herbs that are past their prime may have off flavors or odors, and powdered spices, if exposed to excess moisture, may cake up.
Of course, we’d love to encourage you to explore opportunities for maximizing the potential of your food preparation at home by looking for ways to better utilize spices and herbs in your cooking and baking.
Some of the most popular seasoning blends or pleasing mixtures of herbs and spices might include varieties of the following examples:
- Chili powder (red chili pepper, cumin, oregano, salt, and garlic powder).
- Curry powder (coriander, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek seed, white pepper, allspice, yellow mustard, red pepper, and ginger, and “more individual spices”).
- Poultry seasoning (white pepper, salt, sage, thyme, marjoram, savory, rosemary).
- Pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves).
Here’s hoping you include a variety of flavorful herbs and spices in your various holiday cooking and baking adventures–I think you’ll be glad you did!
For more details on extracts, herbs, seasoning blends and spices, visit your choice of any of the following examples of some* well-known herb +/or spice websites:
*No listing here can be all encompassing. Note that no endorsement of any specific website is being made, merely some well-known websites are being mentioned purely for example purposes. Other websites exist on the www and you are welcome to visit them as well!
What about if moving? Are there are tips for keeping spices & herbs as happy as possible when moving across the country? (for those of us who are frequent movers)
Moving is always a challenge, that’s for sure!
Depending upon what time of year you’ll be moving and how much room you have in your own vehicle vs. in any moving truck, etc., I would suggest bringing your spices and herbs with you, if at all possible.
As always, you’ll want to avoid exposing them to direct sunlight, heat, moisture and air.
If you’ll be traveling during any days when a greenhouse effect might exist and sunlight could come in through the windows of the car, which is being air conditioned for your comfort (the herbs and spices will do better in a/c cooling of the car interior), that might mean keeping them packed in a bag or box to keep sunlight out. If you had room in an ice chest to transport them with cold blue ice packs, so much the better.
If you’ll be traveling in colder, darker months, then temporary storage in a sealed, waterproof carry bag in the trunk might work just fine as then it would be cooler, rather than warmer in the trunk (while the car interior would be being heated for your comfort).
Although many spices today are packed in some sort of plastic container, some still are sold in glass containers, so do be sure if traveling with any glass containers that you wrap each one in bubble wrap or at least several layers of a protective tissue or a layer of some thin type of foam to prevent them from hitting one another and then potentially breaking.
Years ago, many spices were sold in metal tins, so then the concern back then was in also preventing denting of the tins, so folks would stack the spices accordingly with larger, heavier containers towards the bottom and lighter ones towards the top of any bag or box, stuffing crushed unprinted or even printed newspaper as they went along into any nooks and crannies in the bag or box. That approach is still a basic good rule of thumb when packing most items today.
Here’s hoping any future moves go smoothly!