Dear The Kitchen,
What's the best way to store dried spices that maintains freshness but also makes it easy to work with them?
Spice racks drive me crazy. I haven't found one that is easy to use, clearly labeled, with containers that are large enough to store an entire bag of dried spices.
I've noticed how Alton Brown stores his spices in small tin cans with Velcro on the back, attached to strips of Velcro on the doors of his cupboard, but we don't have the room in our tiny kitchen for this system, sadly.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Neil
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Dear Neil,
We store our spices in 3oz glass bottles from the Container Store, with hand-written labels made from white tape (we gave up the label-maker the first time it ran out of tape). But this system might not be as "easy to work with" as you'd like. You also may be looking for something larger than 3oz (although if you have a tiny kitchen, you probably will have to give up keeping such bulk spices on hand!), and of course there are glass jars available in an array of sizes at stores like the Container Store, and often your local hardware store.
An alternative would be to install a metal strip on a wall in your kitchen for these Stainless Magnetic Spice Tins with Rotating Clear Top from Fantes.com (item #3515)
Perhaps some of our ingenious readers have some other creative ideas?
What I've done in my tiny kitchen is devoted a drawer just to spices. The labels are on top. Along one side I have slightly larger bottles. It works for me. I do have 2 small (6 bottle ea) racks on the counter, for frequently-used spices-one for hot/savoury, one for 'sweet'.
Also I try to keep whole spices because they last longer and of course taste better fresh ground: cumin, coriander,allspice,nutmeg,pepper. I use lots of cinammon so I have that + a few other spices ground & whole. Hope this helps.
neil
i made myself a spice rack with these pharmacy boxes from the container store
http://tinyurl.com/pnbyo
they're super cheap, and pretty airtight
i only bought the little ones so that my herbs wouldn't go stale, and i labeled them with pre-printed labels also from C.S.
and to keep all my little boxes in a row, i bought an aluminum silverware drawer organizer thingy that container store no longer carries, but here's some that they do
http://tinyurl.com/lqaah
sorry to sound like a C.S. commercial, but darn it, they're so handy, and my entire spice "rack" cost me all of $10 as opposed to $20-30 that a traditional spice rack would have cost!
I'm with Leeds. I couldn't find a spice rack that I liked so I have a drawer right next to the stove. I ordered jars like the ones Sara Kate linked to from the Container Store and used my trusty little label maker to label the tops of them.
I put my spices in the freezer and the herbs in the cupboard. That's more for freshness than organization, I guess, but it helps when it comes to tracking down what I need.
we have magnetic spice tins similar to the ones that are linked above - bed bath and beyond sells a set of 12 that isn't too expensive, and we just use our refridgerator as a spice rack, instead of the magnetic sheet that comes with the set.
The container store sells stainless looking little containers (fancy that!) with magnets on the bottom. The lids slide to either a pour spout or a sprinkle spout with 4 holes -- and there's a see-thru bit of plastic on the front of the lid. They're much like the jars that come with the magnetic mounting strip only there is no magnetic mounting strip. I mount them on the side of the fridge instead.
All total I've got maybe 25 of these (I like my spices). They're visible, accessible, and out of the way. I hand label them with some stick on labels I found in the scrapbooking section at target (a strange and somewhat frightening treasure wonderland).
Package of 3 of these containers is $5.
We use an old billy/benno cd tower from Ikea (http://tinyurl.com/p7w7d) for all spices, oils, and vinegars. It's narrow, and fits next to the baker's rack we have, and all the shelves are adjustable so it fits a lot of different sizes of items.
Lately, for bulk spices/herbs, we've gotten metal containers, similar to Alton Brown's, stuck a label on them and put them on the shelves. any leftover bulk spices are stored in the freezer, and we refill the containers as neccessary. They look nice, hold a lot, so we don't have to refill often, and are very easy to grab a pinch from, or to stick a measuring spoon in.
I buy in bulk spices from street fairs. This is the same size the restaurants use. The bigger containers have square sides, so I lay them on their side in the cabinet. I then take a black sharpie and write what the spice is on the cap. You can write a purchase date on the cap as well there as well if concerned about freshness.
ooo jayme
THX!
I've always coveted those magnetic containers but balked at the $100 they were going to cost . . .
I keep my spices in the little bags I buy them in, in a big tin shoe box, some organized by indian/italian, but mostly a jumble . . .
guido,
I too coveted the fancy pants $100 spice storage options until I realized that given the number of spices I have (lots) I could spend the money, get the fancy, and STILL not have enough storage. These aren't exactly identical. They are cheaper. The seal is not perfect -- but they work. And I can buy them in packs of 3 so that when I go on a spice buying-spree, I can expand as I go. The fridge is really convenient too. I use the side, not the front. It's not in direct sunlight and not near the stove.
I refill when I need to and keep leftovers in the freezer.
My name for the link to the container store's spice buckets.
cheers,
jayme
I'd get canning jars for the size and freshness. I'm unsure about prices, but they shouldn't be too expensive.
These are all really cheap and you can get a case of 12 often for 10-12 dollars depending on the size. The smaller ones are even cheaper. 12 1/2 pint wide mouth jars are $8.99. 12 quart-size jars are 12.99. Since they're used for the storing of food, freshness shouldn't be a problem.
http://www.canningpantry.com/canning-jars.html
You could always get these 8oz tin container and slap a magnet on the back in hopes it isn't too heavy for the fridge. They're much cheaper than ones from the container store.
http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=39
I've liked those containers before -- but they don't have sprinkle/pour options (must open lid all the way for spice access) and I haven't had good luck attaching magnets to things. Magnets of the appropriate strength are kind of expensive.
But it would still be worth a try if you found magnets and the cost of DIY didn't get out of hand (another perpetual problem of mine).