We have some dry BBQ rub in a closed container, last used about a year ago. I’m grilling ribs this weekend. A difference of opinion has arisen regarding how good the rub should be after this much time in the cabinet. Do I need to get a fresh container, or should we figure that it hasn’t degraded all that much - if at all?
I give them up to two years, but try to use within 6 months. You’ll be fine.
I think it’s a scam by Big Spice.
I just tossed some 15 year old bottle, I don’t think it went bad, but, yes I replaced it nevertheless.
It varies, something like a commercial BBQ rub is certain to be easily 40-50% sugar and salt which don’t go bad themselves. They also keep it dry in there and mold & weevils out. But on the downside, they’re likely to have garlic and onion and chile powder which DO taste funny over time. A lot of other spices like pepper and cinnamon just lose potency.
Stored indoors, 2 years no problem.
Use it and enjoy. If it was 5 years old…
They don’t so much spoil as they lose the aromatic chemical compounds that make them tasty.
Spices and herbs definitely vary in their tolerance to being dried and stored though. Some, like parsley lose most of their unique flavor by being dried at all. Others like cinnamon take a really long time to lose potency.
Six months is fine for reuse of BBQ rub though.
Mostly this. Seriously, a LOT of commercial spices (esp. BBQ blends) are mostly salt and sugar, and if that’s what you’re looking for, you’re going to be fine for years.
For more delicate flavors, especially ones with aromatic oils:
And of course, the more subtle a flavor is, the more easily even a minor loss of scent and flavor is noticed.
The answer depends on a lot of factors.
As noted upthread, some spices are more delicate than others and will lose potency faster under identical conditions. Whole spices generally have a longer shelf life than anything pre-ground.
Storage conditions matter a lot: unless it is specially designed for spice storage, like the Penzey’s bags, plastic is a terrible choice because the essential oils will be absorbed into the plastic. Glass bottles are better.
Humidity is a real potency killer too, as is heat. If you live in a hot, humid climate, you may want to store bulk spices in the freezer and only leave small amounts out that you know you will use up quickly.
Anyway, you can easily tell if you want to use something that’s been sitting around for a while, or not. If it smells aromatic, is not discolored, and hasn’t clumped together in an unusable mass (this happens to me with things like garlic powder and onion powder, as they are hydrophilic and I live in a very moist climate), you’re good to go.
@CairoCarol makes a really good point that I tend to take for granted, because here in Colorado my humidity is rarely above 20%, and often in the single digits. Unless really well sealed, humidity is going to probably cause bigger issues with freshness and utility long before age. I remember aeons ago spending a summer in Winston-Salem, and my mother wanting to cook a dish only to find out the garlic powder had evolved into a new creature, despite only being only 2-3 months old.
I exaggerate, but it had clumped up and showed signs of mold, so she tossed it.
Now if it was garlic salt (boooo, hissss) it might still have clumped up but the salt may have prevented molding!
Probably not by very much.
I limit the amounts I leave out, but still sometimes find I have to toss stuff after a short period. I had never seen mold until recently, but to my surprise, the other day I went to use my sumac, a small amount of which I had left in the spice rack, and it was growing mold! Ugh.