I keep most things about a year, but I have a package of saffron that I bought around 2005 or so. I keep it wrapped tightly and stored in the little tin that it came in. An ounce of saffron goes a very long way a pinch at a time, and this has retained its potency all these years.
I have some bay leaves that are probably 4 years old. They still smell fine, and I use them, just not often enough to use them up (they’re a biggish bag from Penzey’s).
I was making bread at my mom’s house a while back, and needed yeast. She had a packet in her cabinet from the mid nineties…which she assured me would be fine. I assured her it would not. 
I’m pretty sure that some of the spices in my spice drawer came from my childhood home, so that would make them going on 40 years old or so. I have a small collection of Club House tins, still with their original contents in them. My nutmeg is in the red and white tin with a 58c price tag on it. French on one side, English on the other. The weight - 1 1/2 oz is imperial, so it predates the Canadian conversion to Metric. No bar code.
My cream of tarter is in the orange and brown club house tin, and has a barcode and tm date of 1981, so may only be 20-30 years old.
I have much fresher spices that I use all the time, but for some reason I like to hold on to these old ones, even though I will never use them. Well, I have used the cream of tarter a couple of times. Does it go bad?
We have a jar of mixed spices that are somewhere around 70 years old. No foolin’. My wife’s grandmother kept a jar of mixed spices, what was left of the spices they used to flavor the raw liquor they bought from bootleggers during Prohibition. When she died in 1960, her son (my wife’s father) brought that jar home; his wife (now my mother-in-law) thought they were spices from Havdalah (ceremony ending the Jewish sabbath) and so kept them. He never told her the true origin, but he did tell his daughter (my wife.) We’ve still got that jar.
I bet that wins a record. They’re kept in the pantry, but of course we’d never use 'em.
Yes, EXACTLY what I came in her to post (only it’s my wife’s mother). My wife said she remembered certain spices from her childhood, and yes, we noticed the pre-zip code containers.
I’m going back in 3 weeks and will be cleaning out the medicine cabinets. There are some tinctures in there that scare the bajeezus out of me. :eek:
Every January we throw out all the spices and replace them at Penzeys. We go through about $200 in spices/herbs a year. Flavor extracts stick around until they get used up. I think my peppermint is the oldest at 4 years. The vanilla extract is from this Jan, the fiore di sicili from King Arthur Flour is 2 years old but will probably get used up this year.
All mine have been purchased recently. For months now I have been throwing/giving away things bit by bit. Each category of things required a different approach but along with the unnecessary clothes, bedding, books, CDs, DVDs, tinned or bottled foodstuffs and kitchenware was a huge array of barely used spices. I guess some of the things that I use all the time may be a few months old but they all get used up regularly.
Generally speaking, our spices tend to get used up within a year or maybe 2 (in the case of whole spices) but there are a few obscure blends and remnants in the cabinet that are between 5 and 10 years old. We should probably throw them out… they’re 5-10 years old because we didn’t like them much at first, and they weren’t subsequently used.
I have 30-year-old saffron.
Of course I have ancient cream of tartar. /secret handshake
That’s really cool. Do they still smell spicey?
Since I moved into my place in 2007 and don’t recall bringing any spices from my former home, I’ll say there’s definitely nothing in my cabinet older than 5 years. However, a good bit of it probably is between 3-4 years old. The only things I can remember ever actually running out of and replacing are salt, peppercorns, and cinnamon.
We recently cleaned out the cupboards and threw out lots of stuff, something Mom might not have allowed while she was alive. Lots of oregano and paprika that was at least a year old, plus several little jars of spices bought at Big Lots over the years- yes, including cream of tartar. I think I still have a Tupperware container full of powdered cinnamon that I could swear is older than my toddler nephews.
I have a container of salt that’s at least 30 years old.
My wife went through her parents’ spices after her mother died in 1998 and found spices that predated the invention of zip codes.
We did that at my moms. My brother does deal with the getting of regular meals, but he like stuff like Stauffers Lasagne, and the nuke in the package veggies, stuff like that. mrAru and I are the ones that cook from scratch when we are there monthly so we threw away the contents of Mom’s spice cabinet [a classic 3 shelf 2 door cabinet. She used to cook eveything from scratch when she was healthy.] We took over about $70 in penzeys spices and spice blends that we use a lot and also replaced condiments [a1, soy, stuff like that] that were old, and also added stuff we like to use like EVOO, a selection of vinegars and other oils and suchlike. I think next visit we are going to do a small whole turkey with all the normal fixings. That way they have a good 4 or 5 meals for the two of them in the freezer, and I think we will make a batch of beef stew for the freezer as well.
I’ve never thought of cream of tartar as a spice. It’s more like a stabilizer or an additive that’s needed to stimulate certain chemical reactions.
I think I have some ten-year old cinnamon sticks that don’t even have a smell any more. I keep convincing myself that if I grate them, the flavor will magically return.
I don’t have anything more than three years old since my ex carried out the great spice purge of 2009. He found paprika from 1997.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never bought cream of tartar but I did persuade my mum to get some for one of my teenage cooking experiments (and I know it’s gone now). What do you guys think you (might) need it for.
Other than meringues, I would use cream of tartar in snickerdoodle cookies. That’s about all I can think of offhand.
There might be 1 or 2 spices from when my parents got married, so about 50 years.
We have spices that my husband brought when he moved in with me, so that’s going on four years. I should probably chuck 'em but they’ve got sentimental value now.
I have a jar of whole nutmeg that I know came from a big whole-spice order my mother and I made in 2001. It still smells good when I grate it, though, so I’m not worried.
Maybe 6 months old. When I got married the wife purged the pantry of all my ancient items, and has been zealous about keeping things in constant rotation. Anything that hits a year is either used at once or tossed. About the only exceptions are things that just plain don’t spoil, like salt.