5 Tips to Store Your Seasonings
A well-prepared dish’s secret lies in its perfect blend of seasonings. A measured balance of ingredients in a carefully observed recipe can make your culinary creations truly come alive.
Fresh and flavorful spices add authenticity to your seasoning preparation. However, more often than not, spices go stale, resulting in bland and dispirited dishes. Here are five tips for store your seasonings and marinades for extended periods:
Use the right containers
Storing your herbs and spices in beautiful earthen and china pots is a fine aesthetic choice, but they don’t help you preserve the spices’ flavor or aroma. To store your dry herbs and spices, always use an opaque and air-tight container with a tightly-fitting lid.
Choose the right storage area
Simply putting the spices in an air-tight container isn’t enough. To keep them fresh, you need to place those containers in a cold and dark place like a pantry Sunlight, heat, and steam can shorten the life of your seasonings very quickly.
Track down the age of your spices
There are no universal standards to measure the shelf life of seasonings. However, as per Clemson Cooperative Extension, you can store ground spices and herbs for up to three years and whole spices for up to five years. Note the purchase time of your dry herbs and spices on the boxes. It will help you replace them as soon as they move past their expiry dates.
Purchase realistically
Just a pinch of spice can pack a lot of flavors, as excessive use of seasoning can spoil the whole dish. Therefore, you don’t need to overstock your herbs and spices. Buy them in limited quantities so you can consume them within one or two years.
Check on your spices frequently
Despite all the precautions, low-quality herbs and spices may lose their flavor quickly. You don’t want to find it out in the middle of cooking your Thanksgiving dinner. Therefore, you should check your spices a few times a year to make sure they haven’t gone stale. You can test their intensity by grinding them into a powder. If they have the same aroma and flavor, you have nothing to worry about.
Pro tip: Never use a wet spoon to take dry spices from a container. The spoon’s humidity can ruin them. Some herbs and spices can suffer a mold build-up when brought in contact with a wet spoon.