Seems like there’s plenty of space on the spice aisle - surely we can’t need 4 different brands of garlic!
Any of the grocery chains known to carry this?
I’ve only been able to find it in smaller, organic food stores. With all the ethnic food trends, you’d think that regular grocery stores would carry it! But I had to hunt all over for saffron, too, which puzzled me.
My Albertson’s sells it, but commercial garam masala is the dullest stuff on the planet. I started fresh grinding my own - there are lots of recipes out there. I can post mine later if anyone’s interested.
ETA: I buy my whole spices from either Penzey’s or their rival, The Spice House. Worth every cent.
Modern grocery store marketing is a billion dollar industry. The computer algorithms have deemed it not profitable enough to carry Garam Masala. In this particular case, I think the that the marketing drones are correct. IMHO, almost any town of significant size would have a store that would carry it. My local Rite Aid does not carry Pabst Blue Ribbon. This is madness.
Target sells it under the “Archer Farms” brand name.
I live in a neighborhood with a few different Indian markets, if you need me to pick you up some (for exact cost plus price of shipping).
Are you sure you looked? I shop at the most “bargain” grocery store in town, and they carry garam marsala. It’s in a little glass bottle right in there with all the other spices, alphabetized for your convenience.
It’s in every supermarket in Australia, though that won’t help you.
I just bought some at Giant - it was one of the ‘gourmet’ McCormick spices.
Does your grocery store have an “ethnic food” aisle. I can find normal spices in the spice aisle in little tiny jars for a zillion dollars, and bags of imported, cheap exotic spices in the ethnic foods aisle.
Thanks, Big Bad Voodoo Lou, you’re so kind – if I can’t do this on my own, I’ll check back w/you!
Target is a frequent outing for us – PlayDoh, underwear and bananas, all under one roof! I’ll check there, thanks!
And, just to show my appreciation to y’all, here’s a link to the Mulligatawny Soup I made for my husband the other day (I faked the garam masala, had everything but the cardamon pods on hand). Delicious and pretty easy to do.
Yep, Dangerosa that’s good advice. It’s the opposite for bacon bits, though - the cheap ones are in the bulk spice aisle. Umm yumm, loves me some bright orange artificially flavored crunchy chemicals!
Whole Foods carries it. And to the person looking for saffron, alot of stores put saffron behind the counter where you get smokes and lotto tickets to avoid its being stolen.
Seriously, y’all. Penzey’s will change your life. You didn’t know how crappy your spices were.
A-men, sistah!
AFAIK, “garam massala” just means “mixture of spices”. As Queen Bruin said, there are many recipies; as many as there are curries. And freshly ground, freshly baked and tailored to the recipy you’re making garam masala is the best there is.
I believe mainstream stores sell some dull form of garam massala under the name of “curry” or kerrie (not to be confused with “curry”-sauce). What most curry powders have in common is that they are brown/yellow powder, due to the yellowroot that is an important ingredient.
Assuming that fessie is in North America, I would not recommend curry powder as a good substitute for garam masala. The two blends tend to be very different as sold here in terms of both the component spices and the proportions, despite their common origin - the curry powder here has lots of turmeric which tends to make the whole dish turn bright yellow, whereas garam masala tends to be a murky brown and lends no colour to the dish.
I guess it’s a bonus of living in a city with a very large South Asian population, but I’ve always managed to find garam masala in most of our supermarkets (sometimes I even get lucky and find a whole aisle with Indian snack mixes, which I am a huge fan of). If you have no luck with the grocery stores in your area, I’d second the motion of checking specialty health food stores or a specialty retailer like Penzey’s.
Very interesting, thank you for all your replies and perspectives!
Just wanted to bump this to let people know that a new Penzey’s Spices is getting ready to open on the northeast side of Indianapolis, not far from Castleton Mall.
Exact location and map are on this list.
Tripped me out to drive by that “Coming Soon” sign the other day, I immediately thought of this thread.
Thirding this. You will find every kind of herb, spice, and spice mixture which exists on this planet, at a good competitive price, and fresher and better tasting than what a market would carry. In addition, they often tuck a “freebie” of some new seasoning mixture they’re promoting into my order.
I’ll fourth it. What other people haven’t said is, at least around here, their prices are similar to what I’d pay in the grocery store. Penzey’s can, however, ruin your life. You see, I’m now fully converted to fresh ground pepper. The stuff that’s already ground just doesn’t cut it. Their catalogs alone are wonderful!