Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How to stock a spice rack

I told you here how I organized my spice rack. I still love it. The only change I think I will make is moving the spices up a drawer, since you know it kills me to bend down the extra 8 inches. Other than my lazy ass, I love my spice drawer.

Now that you know how to organize your spices, you should have a list of what spices you need. I find this is a good general list. There are spices that I have that are more exotic - garam marsala, thai chillies - but those are cook specific, meaning if you don't like those flavors you shouldn't keep them stocked.

~ All-purpose seasoning

~ Allspice, ground

~ Basil

~ Bay leaf

~ Candied citrus peel – orange, lemon

~ Cayenne pepper

~ Celery flakes

~ Celery seed

~ Chili flakes

~ Chili powder

~ Chili seasoning

~ Cinnamon – ground, whole sticks

~ Clove – ground, whole

~ Coriander seed

~ Cream of tartar

~ Crystallized ginger

~ Cumin, ground

~ Dill weed

~ Fennel seed

~ Garlic powder

~ Garlic salt

~ Ginger

~ Grill seasoning

~ Herbs de Provence

~ Italian seasoning

~ Mustard, dried

~ Nutmeg – whole, ground

~ Onion flakes

~ Onion powder

~ Onion salt

~ Oregano

~ Paprika

~ Parsley

~ Pepper

~ Peppercorns, whole – black, white, green, red

~ Poultry seasoning

~ Red pepper flakes

~ Rosemary

~ Rubbed sage leaves

~ Saffron threads

~ Season salt

~ Seeds – poppy, sesame

~ Taco seasoning

~ Tarragon

~ Thyme

~ Vanilla beans

~ Vanilla extract

~ Yeast

~ Yellow mustard seed

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I'm trying to figure out if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I have every one of those spices except saffron and candied citrus.

The Good Wife said...

It's a good thing. ;)

Stephanie said...

It helps to put a sticker on the bottom of the spice jar with the date of the last fill-up. Old spices get replaced. Spices you don't actually use become apparent. For instance, I found that I used maybe 2 teaspoons of fennel, garlic powder or garlic salt over a 1.5 year period. I no longer stock them. I ended up eliminating a third of the bottles because of that. That leaves space for other spices that I do use.