Herbs, Spices, and Seeds...

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My kid is taking over our spice rack with his artwork. :)

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This is going to sound autistic, but I have my jars of spices and herbs organized alphabetically. Really cuts down on the time wasted on digging through stuff. Actually have them standing on top of the cupboards because I'm pretty tall.
As to what I have.. a bit of everything, mostly 'the usual stuff'. I actually use a good amount of dried herbs too. IMO while there are a lot of crappy dried herbs around, they don't have to be crap. If you find some that are good and don't have them sitting for ages they're quite fine, and for stuff like sauces I have to say that the taste difference with the usual storebought fresh herbs here was actually surprisingly marginal. I don't have a garden or even a balcony so growing my own is out of the picture; putting pots of fresh herbs around here just always led to dead herbs.
 
Jovidah said:
This is going to sound autistic, but I have my jars of spices and herbs organized alphabetically.
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My wife keeps telling me to do this, but I stubbornly like my “organization by use” system better. Pepper of various sorts at the top, then other stuff of a certain type, then other stuff. There’s totally a system. You just have to intuit it. 😁
 
You could compromise by sorting all the peppers under 'Pepper, specific type'. They'd still line up in a row. ;)
 
@Lars if a drawer is all you're stuck with, it may be worth considering investing in a bunch of cheap jars that you can label on the top. Can usually provide at least a significant efficiency boost for both storage and usability.
Look on the bright side though; I don't even have a drawer because all I have is 2 drawers in my entire kitchen. I got plenty of shelving though, but that's not ideal for small stuff like spice and herb jars.
 
Fenugreek whole seeds are almost bomb proof....not sure how people manage to create anything other than course sand out of it so I'm using pre ground powder and stock up on fresh leaves whenever I find them (rarely sad enough), they keep reasonably well in the freezer.

Forgot some, thinking about the large freezer basket filled with 'fresh' herbs;
Peteh beans (nicknamed 'stinky beans', next day you know why)
lemon grass
Daun Salam, (Indonesian)
fresh curry leaves
Pandan leaves
green pepper
emergency stock (sauces etc) of ;
green chilli(rawit)
red chilli (rawit)
taragon
dill
coriander leave
parsly
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
Fenugreek users: Do you usually just get the ground stuff or prefer getting the whole seed and grinding as you need it?
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I usually use ground for curry powder blends and the dry leaves you crumble up to finish dishes like butter chicken. There's no flavor or aroma loss from using the ground vs the seeds. Fenugreek has a very strong aroma and a little bit is all you need.
 
All this spice talk sent me searching and damn if there isn't a real nice spice store here in town! They clearly have a commercial focus and they specialize in all aspects of sausage making (they don't sell sausage but all the gear, teach classes, etc.) but they have a really well stocked and nice kinda country store-esque area of small volume stuff for walk-ins like me. To say it's off the beaten path is a bit of an understatement and it's in an area of town you should understand before venturing there and you'd never know what it was from the outside, but it's been there since the 40's so they're doing something right!

Mom and pop place with super nice people and I will definitely be going back! They also carry a local hot sauce brand I like so that's another plus.

Super excited! And I freaking bought vinegar powder! 🕺

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Does anyone use Grains of Paradise? If so, how/where? I think I've only knowingly encountered it in Belgian beers.
Jaggery/gur as a sub for other sugars with some compensation for the higher moisture content?
 
Have a lot of different whole spices that I toast up and grind my self just before application. The most special ones are maybe black cardemom pods, nutmeg mace, a tree of kaffir lime (for the leaves), a bush with fresh laurel leaves, asafoetida and curry leaves. Have around 15 different herbes in the garden in the summertime.

Today I bought this. Never seen such a big one in scandinavia before:

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I have an allotment, a herb garden out front and still have a whopping cupboard full of dried spices. One level of the overstacked carousel shown below, along with my allotted space for the most used stones


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I guess this is one area where us Londoners have got it easy - there‘s a huge variety of cheap and wonderful spices avaiable in many an ‘ethnic‘ grocer around here. Not to say that they\re not threatened by the march of gentrification and supermarket dominance, but they’re still hanging on and prospering at times,.

FWIW, here’s my local favourite shop in Brixton market - a barn of a place stocked with a dizzying variety of produce, a rallying point for much of the caribbean community and beyond for years. This film was an appeal to save the place after it was threatened by closure by a new landlord (Brixton market is mainly gentrified food stands now). Heartwarmingly it succeeded, but I suspect the threat will return again soon enough

 
for 1200 euro it darn well should!

And I was thinking espresso grinders were the extravaganza of kitchen tools
 
MarcelNL said:
for 1200 euro it darn well should!

And I was thinking espresso grinders were the extravaganza of kitchen tools
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Haha, my Mahlkönig K30 was hella more expensive than that..
 
where do you guys buy your peppercorn (P. nigrum)?

i've been buying tellicherry from costco but want to try something new. maybe some kind of kampot. can anyone recommend good sources?

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IME Spice House is a good source but I haven't really compared prices, quality, and freshness relative to Kalustyan's or Penzey's in any really systematic manner. My local Indian grocery and my local food co-op get large chunks of my hebs and spices purchases as well.
 
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HumbleHomeCook said:
For an herb, hands down mine would be sage. Love the stuff.
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Agree; but I think the edge goes to rosemary in this household.
Also use a ton of cilantro as a result of cooking lots of Mexican, Indian and Thai dishes.

HumbleHomeCook said:
For a spice, cumin and smoked paprika would be in close contest.
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Also agree. I think the edge goes to smoked paprika here. My family thinks that's just the way food tastes because its in everything I make.

I've gotten ground dried red chile variety called Lemitar from a friend in New Mexico the past couple of years. It's not smoked but has an incredible aroma and flavor, even compared to other dried NM varieties.
 
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