Separated all the chilis/pepper varieties onto the top, and moved all the salts to the cupboard to the right, since those two categories took too much space. Final count was 109. Phew.
I think you may in fact have more spices than I do, which I never thought I’d get to say! That is quite the impressive collection. What made you start collecting spices? Are they all individual spices or do you have blends in there as well? How do you handle one-off spices that you got that you just wanted to try out or that you needed for a particular recipe? Do you separate out any of your other spices (grill seasonings, baking spices, etc)? I have so many questions. :)
It’s been years now, but especially started ramping up once I bought a house and had the cellar space to expand- my little appartmemt wasn’t ready to handle the collection before that. I had a bad habit of going to my local international foods markets, seeing a spice I didn’t recognize, and bringing it home to research later. Even the weird one-offs get a jar, a label, a kiss, and a place on the shelf.
Almost all are individual spices, but I do have a handful of blends. Except for one that was a gift, they’re all homemade blends, though (taco seasoning, Donair spice, chaat masala, garam masala, lemon pepper, Japanese curry powder…).
All my baking stuff is left in the pantry (cocoa powder, cream of tartar, BP, BS…) So they aren’t counted in with the spices. I tend to just throw together my own grill seasonings in the moment.
Honestly, I love my collection. Aside from the fresh ing. I would need, it makes me feel like I’m capable of making literally any dish I can think of. A million flavour combinations and opportunities to be creative.
Yes, this has been a recurring debate in my kitchen, too. I try to organize alphabetically to help my partner find the right ones when I send him out to the cellar to gather spices, but it’s also a contentious issue that I tend to ignore the adjectives (like “green cardamom” and "black cardamom are both in the “c” area, not g and b) when organizing.
Good job. But if you are like me they will be disordered in a week. It’s hard to keep entropy out of your life. Also, the oregano and cumin bottles are always empty.
This is an overwhelming but marvelous collection of spices. Do you get them in bulk, at the grocery store then relocate them to jars, or are they from all over and the jars keep everything generally uniform?
They’re from all over- for years I kept and reused all my old pickle, sauce, and jam jars to accommodate the collection as it grew (in addition to a bunch of thrifted mason jars). Glass feels easier to keep tidy and to find what I need.
There are still a handful I’ve never tried (hwentia, dundicut, black lemons, pomegranate peels, sorowisa…) but I like to experiment whenever I can. Some of my favorite foods to make are Indian dishes like chicken korma or goan-style pork vindaloo, which both use many spices.
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