Spices Racks

Posts Tagged ‘Know’

It?s no secret around my house, family and friends that I love to cook. When it comes to food, I can count on the fingers of my left hand the food items that I don?t like. This leaves me with a large selection of food items to cook.

For the longest time I lived with a kitchen that I thought was well organized. Little did I know that I was living in a kitchen with room for improvement. For a quite some time (a few years), I was doing something in my kitchen that I wasn?t aware of.

You know the story. Every time you go to cook something on the stove, you have to do the deep bends. Not only that, but there was also the rearranging duty involved in picking out the perfect size pots or pans to cook whatever you had in mind at the time. That?s right. You are guilty of pans in the lower kitchen cabinets! This problem exists in the kitchens of homes all over the world.

Not only is this bad for your lower back, to bend down into a cabinet every time you need a pot or pan, with all the stacking and unstacking of your pots and pans, your pots and pans are prone to unwanted wear and tear by scratching each other during the removal and the replacement into your lower kitchen cabinet. This is especially harmful to the non-stick surfaces on many pots and pans sold today.

any web site is fine my husband and i just moved to germany from the states and we are limited to the things we can buy we’re looking for a spice rack any web sites would be a great help

That includes the jars, but is NOT pre-filled with spices. I have a cupboard pack with jars and packages of spices, and it’s getting frustrating trying to find the bottle I want. I don’t need any more spices along with a spice rack, that will just add to my problem. I want something that will fit in the cuboard, I don’t have much counter space and I don’t like the look of the magnetic wall ones.

random I know, but I really want a good one.. do I buy everything seperate?

Years ago, I received a nice spice rack and 25 jars of herbs and spices for a wedding gift. I remember sitting there thinking to myself, how am I going to use these? Back then, I was not an educated cook!

Don’t get me wrong, I was appreciative of this great wedding gift. However, I lacked the knowledge that I needed to know about using them.

As a new cook, I thought herbs and spices were the same thing and quickly discovered that they are different. According to Wikipedia, spices are made from a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable substance and used to add flavor to a food dish or used as a preservative. An herb is made from leafy green plants and used for flavoring purposes.

Here are some great tips that I have learnt over the years.

Using a Mortar and Pestle: Dried herbs, aromatic seeds, garlic cloves and nuts will release more of their flavor when crushed with a mortar and pestle. The mortar is a deep bowl in which ingredients are placed. The tool used for crushing is the pestle. For a uniform grind, crush a small amount at a time. It is important to make sure your mortar bowl is completely clean and dry before using it.

Substitutions: To substitute fresh herbs for dried, use three times more of the fresh herb.

Freezing: You can freeze fresh herbs by washing young tender leaves in several changes of cool water. Pat the leaves dry with paper towels. Seal small amounts of the leaves into freezer bags, label and freeze.

Shelf Life For Spices

Ground Spices: 2-3 years
Whole Spices: 3-4 years
Seasoning Blends: 1-2 years
Herbs: 1-3 years
Extracts: 4 years, except pure vanilla, which lasts indefinitely

*tip* Here in Pennsylvania, we observe daylight savings time. Every season when we change our clocks, I will take the time out to go through my spice cabinet and remove any outdated products.

How To Properly Store Herbs and Spices

You will want to keep them in a cool, dry, and dark place. A good place would be inside your pantry closet or inside your kitchen cupboard. You never want to leave them out in sunlight or right near your stove where heat and moisture can destroy them.

When it comes to cooking with herbs and spices, you need to know the basics. Once you know the basics, you will feel more comfortable in using them. There are several good books out in the marketplace that you can purchase to use as a guide. The book I like to recommend is by Jill Norman. It’s called, Herbs and Spices, The Cook’s Reference.