Organising spices

Sudden

Sudden

Sudden

Soldato
Joined
15 Nov 2005
Posts
2,955
Location
London
So what do most people do here? I have a bunch of spices which don't come in the prepackaged bottles etc so have separate spice jars for them. A few of them are quite similar though, so sometimes get confused. Planning to buy some labels shortly rather than playing guessing games each time, but was curious what others did here to keep everything organised.

I use spices in most of my cooking, so have a small 'masaladan' (spice box essentially) next to the hob which has 6 of my most used spices, and then separate jars for everything else. Refills for the spice box are just kept in bigger jars/ziplock bags.
 
I have enough pre-packaged bottles from over the years, to re-purpose them for decanting, newer, bagged, web spice purchases, and a black marker pen, for label.
... and keep them in a wooden wine box , low cupboard, clustered for sweet / savourey,
mostly select them from above, picking, remembering pot colours , but it would be nice if the pots had identification on the top of the caps, to avoid guessing
 
Got a shoebox full of packets of spices, and then decant them into the little spice jars from Tesco when they are running low. Spice jars are stored on a rack beside my cooker.
 
where do you all buy your spices from? the english ones in supermarkets "italian herbs" "herbs de province" etc that I've tried have been terrible.

no where close to the quality of the herbs I was used to in switzerland, they smell much more intense there.. (marks and spencers italian herbs was pretty close though)
or do you guys grow your own then dry it?
 
Interesting :) The labels bit is where I'm struggling at the moment - but more due to my indecisiveness on what to buy than anything, lol.

Won't help you much arknor, but I tend to get my spices from home in India. Either bring some over when I travel, or my parents bring them when they come to visit. They're either bought in shops in there, or some like a red chilli powder (ground at home, but the red chillies are bought) or garam masala is made at home. Lockdown has meant though that I'm starting to run low so need to figure out more local sources. Just bought some cumin powder from a big Sainsburys near me, but bought an Indian brand one rather than the Sainsburys/Barts type one. Haven't tried it out yet, but was planning to buy those when I run out.
 
Sudden said:
The labels bit is where I'm struggling at the moment
Click to expand...

I'm prepared to write the labels myself , with a cd indelible pen, but can't see any that have some plastic/flexible aspect, to make them enduring/wipeable
need modern version of dynotape - was it ?
 
jpaul said:
I'm prepared to write the labels myself , with a cd indelible pen, but can't see any that have some plastic/flexible aspect, to make them enduring/wipeable
need modern version of dynotape - was it ?
Click to expand...

Ah not heard of that, but I didn't grow up here, so maybe because of that!

Was speaking to someone who suggested quite a low tech solution which might work if there's only a couple of the spices where there's uncertainty - a small piece of paper in the spice jar itself :) Haven't got around to doing it yet, but could do the job! Not easy to figure out externally, but help using the wrong thing, which sometimes I'm in danger of, lol.
 
Sudden said:
So what do most people do here? I have a bunch of spices which don't come in the prepackaged bottles etc so have separate spice jars for them. A few of them are quite similar though, so sometimes get confused. Planning to buy some labels shortly rather than playing guessing games each time, but was curious what others did here to keep everything organised.

I use spices in most of my cooking, so have a small 'masaladan' (spice box essentially) next to the hob which has 6 of my most used spices, and then separate jars for everything else. Refills for the spice box are just kept in bigger jars/ziplock bags.
Click to expand...

Ikea sell spice jars. I write on the glass jar with a pen what is inside it.
 
I just have them randomly placed in amongst tins and jars in a cupboard, I've been meaning to set up a some kind of organisation for them mainly because I reguarly knock them over when reaching for something else. Considering most are made out of glass I'm suprised I haven't broken any of them.
 
My wife has devised a pretty good system. We have our eight most used spices out on the kitchen counter. The rest of them are divided into 2 plastic baskets from Ikea and they live in an overhead cupboard. Each basket has a label ('Spice up your life' and 'All things spice'), then there's an inventory sheet on the inside of the cupboard door listing what's in each basket. Makes it easy to find that one spice you only use every 18 months.
 
Most of my spices are stored in lock and lock containers 350ml of I remember rightly as that holds a good amount.
Then I print labels or right on in marker pen.
 
I have around 50 different herbs and spices in a mix of jars and the plastic sachets they come in (all clipped to keep them fresh). I re-use existing spice jars, but for my own blends have gravitated to Sistema screw-top containers. They waste space in the cupboard as they're round and the sides slope out, but the wide neck makes them easy to use without spilling, and they're airtight.

I store the jars in IKEA cardboard boxes https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/smarassel-box-with-lid-white-20300007/ which are tall enough for the jars to stand up. This would be okay, except while cooking I mess up which box things are in and every time have to sort through all boxes to find the one I want.

Planning to build a large spice rack and mount it on the wall. I thought I could use L shaped wood mouldings from Wickes but they aren't deep enough for the jars, so it wasn't as quick a job as I expected.
 
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