You always hear TV cooks talking about the life of spices. At what point do they lose their spice-nature and need to be replaced? Well unknown to myself I have been conducting an experiment of that nature.
While messing around with boxes in storage I found an old styrofoam cooler I didn’t recognise. Upon opening I was gifted with a smell of spice. After digging in my mind I recollected that it must from an apartment I had quickly packed and left about 5 years ago. Scientific curiosity being a noble goal, I brought it back and checked them out.
My findings.
(All were previously opened, but were closed in a normal way. Stored styrofoam cooler in metal outdoor storage shed through all weather, -20 below to 125 above for 5 years.
Spice;Estimation of original power left in spice smell; taste
- Cinammon* 95% 95%
- garlic powder; 40% 50%
- Minced dry garlic** 60% 40%
- Juniper berries****** 70% 75%
- Whole pepper in wooden mill 15% 25%
6 . Whole pepper in jar 30% 30% - little cardboard ground pepper thingy 5% 10%
- Cayenne pepper. 40% 40%
- salt; Iodized,sea, rock,kosher 100% 100% ( Duh,It’s a freakin rock)
- Red pepper flakes 10% 20%
- Oregano. 80% 20%
- Onion Powder 60% 60%
- Ginger**** 0% 5%
- Random Spice mix***** ? ?
- Szechwan Seasoning*** 80% 90%
- Chinese mustard powder. 75% 70%
17.Smoked Paprika******* 70% 70%
*. I don’t really like cinammon for much but it seemed damn near what the new stuff is
** Everything else in the cooler had a bit of garlic essence from this I think.
*** No new sample to compare too. estimate from memory. Szechwan seasoning may not be in same balance of ingrediants as orginal. Had soy sauce as ingrediant, so much more moist than most.
**** Ginger was dead dead dead. No smell and I need to eat 1/8 tsp to even get the idea it had been ginger at one point.
***** can’t identify what the hell it had been supposed to be, but tastes like medium strong ass and fairground now.
****** No new juniper berries to compare, not something I have a huge memory for, pretty much a guess.
*******. I never noticed much of anything in smoked paprika to begin with, so hard to estimate change.
In addition some other blends were present.
Regular Chili powder. Almost all heat gone, but other flavors seem more concentrated. Tastes more like Dark chili powder, but 15% of original heat.
Lemon pepper. Lemon is 70% 70%, pepper is 15% 15%
Chipotle salt. Very smoky and yummy 150% of original smokyness smell and taste, heat is 25% 25%(I actually buy Chipotle salt, open and ignore for 3 years on purpose. Great seasoning for steak, where you don’t want to cover taste with hot, but increased smoky flavor without cooking steak long enough to wreck rareness)