What's your pantry stocked with?

[petra]

Not just "What's in your fridge?" but "What's in your emergency supplies?"

Comments

[mesotablar]

I always wondered about the shelf life of spices. The weather where I am is mostly quite dry and spices that are 5 years old are just a bit dull and need a bit of a fry to bring the flavour back. My gran had some spices that were 30+ years old (she used them for decoration) and they were certainly stale. Where is the point of no return in that gap of time? spice storage just confuses me

[petra]

I'd bet that the point of no return varies both by spice and by eater. I'm not sure what fresh celery seed would even taste like, for example, but I'm pretty sure I've had recently-ground cumin.

[via_ostiense]

Where is the point of no return in that gap of time

Accepted wisdom is 1 year, but spices are expensive, so I tend to use the sniff test. If they still smell fragrant, or can be made fragrant by toasting or blooming in oil, then go ahead! If they're a little faint, just use extra! If they have no smell, or the smell is off, then it's probably time to replace them.

[mesotablar]

1 year?! wow that is short. I have a terrible sense of smell so sniff test isn't really within my realm most of the time, though some of the 30+ year old spices I sniffed were SOUR.

[via_ostiense]

Right? It's what every food magazine/news article about spices says, but I find that most of my spice cabinet is still fine after a year, and depending on what it is, even two or three years.

[mesotablar]

I try and get as much air as possible out so they are as vacuum sealed as I can get (little baggies of spice for me! no air filled spice jars ...well except for the turmeric, but that is my own fault for accidently buying 2 kilos last time) I tend to have whole spices rather than powders as well so everything still seems fine 5 years on for some things

[via_ostiense]

What do you like to use turmeric for?

[mesotablar]

I like to fry my eggs in oil and turmeric. They go all orange and crunchy on the bottom. The turmeric changes flavour quite a lot when it is cooked like this. Half a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per fried egg does use the turmeric pretty fast.

I also cook variations of these fairly regularly, I've changed the recipes for my own taste (more turmeric less coconut!) but these are the originals:
http://greatcurryrecipes.net/2010/10/07/broccoli-curry-my-favourite-vegetarian-meal/
https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2016/02/04/sri-lankan-chicken-curry-black-pepper/

I used to use turmeric quite a lot when I made honey mustard sauces, but I've found a beekeeper who sells turmeric infused honey so I tend to use that now.

[via_ostiense]

Those all sound so good - I'll have to give the eggs a try tomorrow morning.

[minoanmiss]

Considering Turmeric's healthy qualities you're probably going to live into triple digits, cooking awesomely luminous eggs the whole way. notes this recipe down