Holiday baking leads many of us to reach for spices that have spent most of the year far, far away in the dark corners of the cupboard. Others of us are stocking up on spices that we don't normally use, like mace and anise.
Are you wondering if the old spices from your cupboard or even the new ones from the store that you want to use in your gingerbread are still fresh? Old, musty spices will be noticeably weaker and less flavorful, even in baked goods.
Reader Shawnna tells us that spice manufacturer Spice Islands offers a free spice registration tool on their website. If you have any Spice Islands brand spices in your cupboard, you can check their age and freshness by entering the product code through the website.
Click to see it in action...
McCormick's site also has a feature that let's you check the expiration of your spices, fyi.
view mh330's profile
I often wonder about expiration dates. One tends to find them more and more on things that don't really expire. I wonder if manufacturers aren't counting on us throwing things out so we can make new purchases and increase their revenue. Or have I become too cynical.
It seems to me a more green solution than tracking and replacing spices that have been sitting around for a while, would be to add a bit more of it to the stew? I rarely measure spices anyway, I add to taste.
view smile's profile
I always put labels on top of my spice jar lids. It makes them easier to find because I store my spices in a lower cupboard. Plus, I can add little notes such as where and when I bought the spices.
view quercus's profile
Consumerist (I believe) ran an article with this recently. A reader found that quite a few of the spices sold at a newly opened grocery store near their home were already expired according to the website. I'm not sure how much I trust the website, as it seems likely that the company would want to tell you that something was expired to get a higher turnover of product. I usually trust my own experience with spices as an indicator of how fresh they are and tend to use whole spices that I grind myself.
view wesaturtle's profile
Mc Cormick has that too
http://209.196.5.169/
view A Lady In Red's profile
penzey's has a spice guide in their catalog-
basically, ground spices last one year, whole spices 2.
you should store spices in a dark, cool place (i store most of mine in the fridge)
when I buy big bags of spices, I keep most of them in the fridge with a small jar of them in my spice cabinet.
I mark all my spices with when I bought them, and reorder them twice a year, but then I cook a lot.
I also almost always buy the smallest amount possible except for a few spices- oregano, cinnamin, basil, cumin, pepper.
penzey's has better spices then at grocery stores, as well.
(www.penzeys.com)
view jillrenee from boston's profile