This Chowhound thread is really making me feel better about myself. In it, Chowhound users are confessing to their sins in the kitchen. A quick survey shows that a lot of users are bad about replacing their spices after 6-12 months. This may be the most common "sin," and I think it bears examination. Who are the people insisting that we buy all new spices once a year? Have they ever priced spices? Come on, that stuff is expensive! And when you are talking about dried spices, is it really that big a deal?
Now granted, I know a friend who had a container of pumpkin pie spice that was about 20 years old. She had "inherited" it from the family when she moved out of the house. It had almost no smell or taste to them, but she faithfully continued to use them ever year until it was all used up. The year she bought a new container of spices, she was startled at how flavorful her pumpkin pie was.
Clearly there is a limit to the age of spices. They do lose potency. But I truly think that the industry standard is way too aggressive. I would say… maybe more like five years. Taste it. Does it taste okay? Maybe use a little more of it to compensate. Then you'll use it up faster!
My own personal flaw as a home cook is that I dread prep work. If something has to be sliced and diced, I lose interest fast. I am the queen of making food with too-big chunks because I couldn't be bothered to stand there and mince things as finely as I should have. There are recipes that I have skipped entirely, just because they involved too much chopping and I didn't want to do it.
How about you? Confession is good for the soul, and I promise not to tell!
Image courtesy Flickr/427
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