Was making a marinade for some chicken this afternoon. The recipe called for some rosemary. After adding some to the marinade, I noticed the use by date on the container was March of 2014. Went through all the spices and such in my kitchen. 26 confirmed items expired including a tin of Crown Colony pumpkin pie spice with a sell by date of September 20, 1986. Also have 24 containers of stuff with no dates but all are likely 5 to 15 years old. Ended up with a total of 11 items that have not reached the sell or use by date. 4 of those are dated for this year. Time for a visit to My Spice Sage, been a while since I bought anything from them.
I don’t really cook so I don’t have many spices. Mainly just salt and pepper.
Have a few that are past their sell by date. Some may have lost some flavor or the flavor may have changed slightly, but if I don’t notice or it can be remedied by adding moar they stay in the spice drawer.
I have at least 20 spices that are intended solely for Indian cuisine, although many can be used for other dishes. Then there are all the work-a-day spices like thyme, oregano, cinnamon, dill, etc., and the rarely used things like saffron (which luckily has a very long shelf life as long as you keep it properly). There are also the various dried red peppers for things like carne adobada, which actually do go bad if kept too long. I do go through them all periodically and purge those that have given up their potency.
I remember looking at my son’s counter spice carousel with spices that were a uniform tan color. He said they got them as a wedding present ten years earlier. I opened one and turned it upside down and nothing came out. He had the decency to look sheepish.
I have many, many spices. Some are a couple of months old, some are years old. Grind old spices in a mortar and most are fine. I used spices my parents received as a wedding gift until after I was married.
I use spices because my recipes call for them. However, I have no sense of smell and consequently, not the ordinary sense of taste. Truthfully I don’t know what the fuck I’m eating.
I’ve lost control of my spice rack to Miss Roomie. When they moved in I had onr each of the usual stuff salt, pepper, oregano etc, none out of date. Now I have at least three of everything and more of some things, and a few multiples of things only she uses (italian spice?) She doesn’t seem to be a very well organised cook.
The same can be said for the liquids such as the various oils, extracts and vinegars one might expect to find in a moderately well stocked kitchen
I have a mixed of expired spices and extracts, plus duplicates of the things I use the most, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, as I bake a lot.
Ever so often I do a deep clean and throw out anything with an expiration date more than 1-2 years in the past.
Which reminds me. I need to put ground allspice on the grocery list.
Ground spices (like cumin or turmeric) last longer than dried-herb “spices” (which I don’t consider spices, but people keep them together, so (shrug)). So I grow my own culinary herbs, and buy only true spices in the jars. I also have whole-seed spices, like cumin and fennel, which I toast and grind myself when the dish calls for real punch.
I used to store all my spices in the freezer to extend their shelf life. For convenience, I now keep smallish amounts of all the spices I use fairly often at room temperature, but the large supplies stay frozen until I need to refill my daily use supplies.
I am always monitoring the quality of what I’m using. When it loses potency, I throw it out. But I don’t have to throw much out due to being careful about storage.
I just recently used up the last of a box of kosher salt that I purchased in 2005 or so.
When we bought this house in 2004, the previous owners left behind a lot of stuff - some useful, like furniture and some dishes, much awful, like 7-year-old Coors Light, a big drawer full of take-out condiments, and and assortment of dusty seasoning jars in the back of a cabinet. I just tossed them all - it felt safer.
I don’t know what the current state of my spice shelf is. I have 4 containers of some fancy stuff that I got as a gift some years back, and I never opened them. I have containers stacked on each other that fall out far to often. It’s probably time for a clean and purge… well, after we get back from our trek to help the inlaws next week. I’m already prepared to be embarrassed and mortified by what I find.
Eh, salt doesn’t count. Regardless of when you bought it, it’s probably a few hundred million years old.
In my cupboard, the spices I use most often are cumin, rosemary, and oregano. The only date on the cumin is in 2024. The rosemary says best before April 2023. The oregano says April 2021, but that’s mostly because I got some fresh home-grown oregano right at the tail end of tomato season last year (i.e., when I use the most oregano), and I’ve been using it instead.
Among spices I don’t use as much, the sage says 2023, the paprika 2021, and the parsley flakes just say “April 15”, without anything that looks like it could be a year.
I also have some dried powdered habaneros that I made myself from peppers grown either last year or the year before. I’m running low; I’ll need to make some more once habs show up at the farmer’s market. They’ve lost about half their potency, which just means I add two shakes instead of one.
This pretty much describes me too. The dried herb spices I use most often I go through quickly enough that I don’t have to worry about them being past their use-by date. Especially thyme and oregano. There are probably a couple in my spice collection that are too old and should be thrown out— like marjoram. What do you even use marjoram for? I don’t even know why I own it. I may have inherited it in the marriage to Mrs. solost.
Any spices that can be bought whole I buy whole. They keep a LOT longer that way. They’re also easier to toast in a pan when they’re whole (although someone in a curry thread said they took an Indian cooking class and was taught to grind the spices first, and then toast them in powder form. Been meaning to try that sometime). I have a blade-style coffee grinder reserved for spice grinding.
Local shortage (Middle Tennessee) of Caraway Seeds.
I cannot fathom why.
At our old place we would occasionally go to an international market that sold large amounts of spices very cheaply. So, things tended to get a little … historical.
For our move, things were gone thru and tossed. Some restocking but since there’s no comparable store around here things are much $$$.
Now it’s been getting close-ish to two years. History, as usual, will repeat itself.
That’s interesting. I pretty much always see it the other way around.
It’s so funny I see vintage spice tins for sale on eBay. Come on! That’s crazy!
I coulda made a killing last time I purged the spice cupboard!
When I went overseas to live for the first time, I ordered dried herbs from the (then) new Penzeys operation, and wanted to get enough to last awhile. Do you have any idea how much oregano is in a 16 oz bag?