What do you consider a well stocked spice cabinet?

[casdave]

Allspice - part of a base for Oriental style, or for baking
Almond extract
Basil - if you can get it fresh its just so much better
Bay Leaves - totally essential
Black Pepper - essential
Caraway Seeds - yes, most folk really don’t know how to use
Cardamom - essential, both green and black
Celery Seed - essential
Chili Powder - essential
Chinese Five Spice - maybe,but I would not worry about not having it,
Chives - get this fresh if you can, you can use onion leaves too
Cilantro - Is this Oregano, if so, its essential
Cinnamon - yes but not essential
Cinnamon-sugar - Nope
Cloves - yes, especially if you like your ham, and of course you need honey
Coriander - yes
Cumin - essential
Curry powder - Nope
Dill - its ok for fish, but its just something there to try out occasionally
Garam Masala - maybe use as a base and add others, but I find it can get a little bit bitter, prefer to mix my own
Garlic - essential, always use fresh, and sauté it first
Ginger - yes, for that really deceptive curry
Herbs De Provence - No point, you may as well mix your own
Liquid smoke - what? No thanks
Italian Seasoning - nope, mix your own, and experiment a bit
Jerk Seasoning - nope, don’t like
Lemon Pepper - yes, for all sorts, also soak in olive oil for salad oils
Mace - not really used it
Marjoram - essential
Meat Tenderizer - nope, mix your own and experiment
Mint - yes, nut only occasionally
Mustard powder - no, prefer to get fresh
Nutmeg - yes, great in hot chocolate drinks especially
Old Bay Seasoning - dunno what that is
Onion (Minced) - nope, always use real onions or shallots
Onion Powder - nope, as above
Oregano - essential
Paprika - yes, use in combination to make rub in seasonings
Parsley - yes, but always use fresh
Poultry Seasoning - mix your own, experiment, usually works, sometimes it doesnt
Poppy Seeds - not really that important
Pumpkin Pie Spice - dunno what this is
Red Pepper Flakes - never seen these before
Rosemary - essential
Sage - essential
Saffron - this is so expensive, has to be used wisely to get the most from it
Salt - not a spice, but yes, pretty essential
Savory - dunno what this would be, I expect savory may mean different things to different countries
Seasoning Salt - oddly enough, yes, its ok on things like open top sandwiches
Sesame Seeds - we don’t use this much in UK
Sriracha - dunno what this is
Steak Seasoning - nope, steak really only needs good pepper
Tarragon - its not really a flavour I am keen on but I can see why you’d stock it
Thyme - essential
Tumeric - yes
Vanilla extract - more for baking
White Pepper - essential
I think you really need to add a couple of good balsamic vinegars, infused vinegars as well, try raspberry infused - you may be surprised to find out how well it goes in an ice cream glaze - trust me on this

you really must have sun dried tomatoes, real meat stock(not cubes) - keep some frozen and use it when needed.

Capers - worth having for some things, brings an unusual twang that most folk enjoy but cannot identify

You also need a couple of very good olive oils

Fenugreek has already been mentioned

Whatever herb you use, its always always better to use fresh

You have not mentioned something like Encona hot sauce or Tabasco, pretty important in my book

[pulykamell]

@casdave

Whatever herb you use, its always always better to use fresh

I disagree. For example, I prefer dried oregano to fresh oregano for most of the typical things I make. It’s got a deeper, earthier flavor that I prefer to the fresher, “green” flavor of fresh oregano. Same with marjoram. Sage I can go either way on. The ones that are always better fresh are the “delicate” herbs, like tarragon, cilantro, parsley, chervil, basil. The “woody” herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, etc., I can go either way on and can prefer the dried version depending on the application.

[Peremensoe]

@casdave

Herbs De Provence - No point, you may as well mix your own

Without knowing what savory is?

[Sangahyando]

Late to the party – but: OP (with some guessed-equivalent trade-offs – I’m in the UK, you’re presumably in the USA) – commodities in your list which I haven’t got, are:

Almond extract
Basil
Cinnamon-sugar
Herbes de Provence
Jerk seasoning
Lemon pepper*
Meat tenderizer
Old Bay seasoning*
Pumpkin pie spice*
Rosemary
Seasoning salt
Sriracha
Steak seasoning
Vanilla extract

(*: things presumably US-specific, whose names mean nothing to me)
Things not in your list, which I have;

Amchoor (mango powder)
Asafoetida
Cayenne pepper
Chervil
Coriander seed (as distinct from powder)
Cumin seed (as distinct from powder)
Curry leaves
Fennel seed
Fenugreek seed
Fenugreek powder
Juniper berries
Kaffir lime leaves
Mustard seed
Nigella seed
Star anise

(pulykamell mentions in post #5, his having quite a number of the above)

(I have various curry powders, in various strengths)

@pulykamell

In terms of paprika, I’m particularly picky: My basic paprika must be Hungarian paprika, preferably from Kolocsa. Must be sweet, preferably különleges or édesnemes (there’s like eight or so different types of Hungarian paprika.) After that, I like to have a smoked Spanish paprika around, and I do like some of the paprikas I’ve had from California via Penzey’s.

pulykamell, I suspect you’d consider me pretty much a barbarian paprika-wise: I have three jars: ordinary paprika, smoked paprika, and hot paprika.

@casdave

Savory - dunno what this would be, I expect savory may mean different things to different countries

Not very long ago, there was a thread on SDMB in which savory (among many other things) was discussed – I tried to find that thread to link to it, but I suck at computer-type searching. One gathers that savory is a herb which is more like oregano than anything else – seemingly, it’s particularly big in the cuisine of Bulgaria. (I got some, dried, from a local Polish shop.)

[pulykamell]

@Sangahyando

pulykamell, I suspect you’d consider me pretty much a barbarian paprika-wise: I have three jars: ordinary paprika, smoked paprika, and hot paprika.

That’s two more than I have right now. I cook a lot of Hungarian food (more in the colder seasons), so the quality of the paprika is important to me. All I really need is one decent sweet paprika in the spice cabinet. It’s gotta have a bright red color and smell clearly of dried red peppers.

[Moonlitherial]

I’ve recently found a line of freeze dried herbs that has improved my non fresh stocks dramatically.

The basic list of herbs and spices I keep on hand is well represented so far, the only thing I would add is lemon balm which I have grown to love more than is reasonable and a variety of flavoured salts. Basics for me are smoked salt, citrus salt and maple salt. I also have an entire shelf of infused olive oils and flavoured balsamic vinegars.

[pulykamell]

@Moonlitherial

I’ve recently found a line of freeze dried herbs that has improved my non fresh stocks dramatically.

The basic list of herbs and spices I keep on hand is well represented so far, the only thing I would add is lemon balm which I have grown to love more than is reasonable and a variety of flavoured salts. Basics for me are smoked salt, citrus salt and maple salt. I also have an entire shelf of infused olive oils and flavoured balsamic vinegars.

What do you use the lemon balm for? I grew it a number of years ago, and it’s an extremely prolific herb along the lines of mint (looking online, it apparently is a type of mint, so that explains that), but I couldn’t figure out enough uses for it.

[Sangahyando]

@Sangahyando

pulykamell, I suspect you’d consider me pretty much a barbarian paprika-wise: I have three jars: ordinary paprika, smoked paprika, and hot paprika.

@pulykamell

That’s two more than I have right now. I cook a lot of Hungarian food (more in the colder seasons), so the quality of the paprika is important to me. All I really need is one decent sweet paprika in the spice cabinet. It’s gotta have a bright red color and smell clearly of dried red peppers.

I’d see us as working out as about equal, then !

[12mgdaily]

My list is much like everyone else’s. There are several additional ingredients I always keep on hand to season the dishes I prepare. Some of these are liquid form (but I see extracts listed which are liquid). Some need storage in the refrigerator after opened.

soy sauce
sesame seed oil
mirin
brown sugar
worcestershire sauce
molasses
honey
wine (cooking wine)
fish sauce
hoisin sauce
oyster sauce
horseradish
bouillon cubes (chicken, beef, ham and fish)
old bay seasoning
Adobo
achiote (annato seeds)
sazon
dried culantro leaves (not to be confused with cilantro)

[Jackmannii]

It is not enough to have “basil”. You need to have multiple bottles (or preferably, a source of the fresh herb) for all your Italian cooking needs.

[Eva_Luna]

@pulykamell

Garlic powder/dried garlic I can deal with for certain applications–more than I’d like to admit to, to be honest. The rest, I agree–especially the Liquid Smoke.

It was nice to have mint in the freezer for certain applications over the winter, though. Better than dried for some things (dried mint in a mojito? Eeeew!), and I hate paying grocery store prices for most fresh herbs when I just need a little bit of something.

[Moonlitherial]

@pulykamell

What do you use the lemon balm for? I grew it a number of years ago, and it’s an extremely prolific herb along the lines of mint (looking online, it apparently is a type of mint, so that explains that), but I couldn’t figure out enough uses for it.

I use it mainly on potatoes, chicken and various kinds of fish. I tend to mix it with oregano, salt and pepper, although for salmon I use a combination of lemon balm, dill, maple salt and maple pepper (planked on maple if I can find it or cedar if I can’t)

It’s just a lovely light flavour that freshens up any herb blend you’re putting together.

[bump]

@12mgdaily

My list is much like everyone else’s. There are several additional ingredients I always keep on hand to season the dishes I prepare. Some of these are liquid form (but I see extracts listed which are liquid). Some need storage in the refrigerator after opened.

soy sauce
sesame seed oil
mirin
brown sugar
worcestershire sauce
molasses
honey
wine (cooking wine)
fish sauce
hoisin sauce
oyster sauce
horseradish
bouillon cubes (chicken, beef, ham and fish)
old bay seasoning
Adobo
achiote (annato seeds)
sazon
dried culantro leaves (not to be confused with cilantro)

Yeah, we have all that, save the culantro, cooking wine and horseradish. My wife doesn’t like horseradish, and we typically just use whatever regular wine we have in the pantry, rather than buy special extra-salty cheap wine for cooking. Don’t know about culantro; so far, every recipe we’ve used calls for cilantro or possibly epazote, both of which we buy fresh.

Here’s a good article on which herbs are better fresh vs. dried, just for what it’s worth.

[janis_and_c0]

What is culantro?

[pulykamell]

@janis_and_c0

What is culantro?

It’s also known as racao and “long coriander.” (I only know the latter name from looking it up way back when–around here, it’s culantro or recao.) It’s an herb that kind of sort of looks like a dandelion leaf with the spiky edges, but not quite as deep and more regular. See here. It tastes somewhat of cilantro, but a bit more intense and bitter. It’s used in Puerto Rican cuisine (and other cuisines in the Caribbean), as well as some Southeast Asian cuisines. I’ve never seen the dried version myself, only the fresh one.

[romansperson]

@pulykamell

What do you use the lemon balm for? I grew it a number of years ago, and it’s an extremely prolific herb along the lines of mint (looking online, it apparently is a type of mint, so that explains that), but I couldn’t figure out enough uses for it.

I use it in sun tea - I coarsely chop a handful, wrap it in cheesecloth and let it steep in the tea for about an hour.

[kanicbird]

Truffle salt needed.

[Sangahyando]

@janis_and_c0

What is culantro?

@pulykamell

It’s also known as racao and “long coriander.” (I only know the latter name from looking it up way back when–around here, it’s culantro or recao.) It’s an herb that kind of sort of looks like a dandelion leaf with the spiky edges, but not quite as deep and more regular. See here. It tastes somewhat of cilantro, but a bit more intense and bitter. It’s used in Puerto Rican cuisine (and other cuisines in the Caribbean), as well as some Southeast Asian cuisines. I’ve never seen the dried version myself, only the fresh one.

You learn something new every day ! So far as I know, this herb is (not suprisingly) pretty well unknown in the UK. Can’t wait to impress my brother with this one – he being an impassioned foodie and accomplished cook (a lot better than me).

[Common_Tater]

Maybe this is a good place to bring this up - Mexican Oregeno is definitely a lot different than the regular Oregeno. So I had an ancient bottle, that was bright green and almost as fine as flour. Very strong and flavorful. Well it ran out. Have ordered replacements from the usual suspects - and it’s nothing at all like the good stuff, it’s just the equivalent of ditchweed. Who makes the good stuff?