Storing kitchen ingredients

boxman2000

boxman2000

boxman2000

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After picking up a couple of kilner jars in Waitrose a few weeks ago I quite like the look of having regularly used ingredients on display. My kitchen has a farmhouse feel (solid pine) so seriously considering buying more of these in various sizes.

So I was wondering what everyone uses for storage of ingredients and spices, whether it just sits in the packet or something else?

I know there are some good cooks on here so perhaps for you seeing ingredients on display inspires you to experiment more?
 
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I threw out my spice rack after i realised it was better to use jars in a drawer.
The spices are kept in airtight and dark conditions, the jars are of any size (width/height) i choose (selected for the particular spice/nut etc), the jars are labelled on the top with the name and expiry date so i can see at a glance what i am after as i open the drawer and valuable countertop space is not taken up.
 
f00b4r said:
I threw out my spice rack after i realised it was better to use jars in a drawer.
The spices are kept in airtight and dark conditions, the jars are of any size (width/height) i choose (selected for the particular spice/nut etc), the jars are labelled on the top with the name and expiry date so i can see at a glance what i am after as i open the drawer and valuable countertop space is not taken up.
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Never thought about putting my spices in a drawer. I have over 40 spices at the moment and they're currently in little clip lock tubs on a shelf, looking untidy. I was going to get 3 x 16 jar spice carousels but your jars in a drawer idea sounds like a much neater solution.

I have quite a few things stored in kilner jars - they're great for storing dry ingredients. I would love to have them on display but my kitchen is miniscule and I can't afford the worktop space sadly :(
 
I'm planning to buy a cheap spice rack and screw it into the inside of the kitchen cupboard where the plates are kept. It will be higher than the plates, so will just be filling dead space.
 
bledd. said:
I'm planning to buy a cheap spice rack and screw it into the inside of the kitchen cupboard where the plates are kept. It will be higher than the plates, so will just be filling dead space.
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I thought about that but I don't have a lot of dead space in my cupboards due to the aforementioned minusculeness of the kitchen - certainly not enough to house racks for 40+ spices.

Been having a look and I've found some mini kilner jars on Amazon @ £16.64 for a dozen - 4 packs of those should do the trick (might get 5 packs to have plenty spares).
 
I ordered a 2 litre original Kilner jar yesterday for strong bread flour as we are always baking our own bread and it's a hassle to have to always open a new packet - £6.59 delivered from ebay. Trying one to see if it's genuine and how it survives the Channel crossing!

I have seen you can get kilner-style spice jars but would be interesting to know if they fit in a spice rack. I have a mini rack that holds 10 and then a larger rack (from amazon) that holds 42 and would love to replace them.

What size jars do you use f00b4r?

After comparing the proper kilner jars to the copies such as Waitrose ones the originals are definitely nicer IMO and the seals seem better quality. Also the metal clips seem a bit more robust on the originals.
 
I use all sorts of sizes depending on what is in them. A lot of them are just reused jam jars, spice jars and salad dressing jars (great for storing pumpkin/sunflower/sesame seeds etc) so i can have small ones for e.g sumac and large/tall ones for my more commonly used spices.
I use white labels and a sharpie so its really easy to see from above when you open the drawer.
 
We've got a few kilner jars out on the side - plain flour, sugar, 2x tea, oats and coffee. Love the look of them :).

They were actually from TK Maxx too. Places like that and Home Sense tend to have packs of 3/4 for relatively little.
 
my kitchen is almost like my section at work.

got my tub of salt, squeezy bottle of oil everything else is kept in the larder, only take out what im going to use.
 
Got my little Kilner spice jars today. A vast improvement over the clip lock tubs I was using :cool:

41w5Fqb.jpg
 
Facing a similar dilemma myself at the moment, collection has grown quite rapidly the last few months as i have been cooking a lot more and i currently have a mess of spice jars that need sorting.
 
Btw Sainsburys, John Lewis and Wilkinsons all stock Kilner jars for those having trouble finding them.

I tend to use the preserving ones for cooking stuff in a pressure cooker (garlic confit, caramelised onions, rendering fat etc...) or making limoncello...hmm I sense a couple of threads coming up now that I have some more time on my hands.
 
Kanifee said:
Whats the general price on these? need a few so this could get expensive.
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The ones I got were £16.49 for a dozen from Amazon, which seems like a decent price until you realise you have to buy 4 dozen of the things and it costs you £66 :( Plus £2.49 for the printable round labels for the tops.

Still, I'm glad I got them. It'll be so much easier to keep them organised now and the jars look so much nicer than the plastic tubs I was using before.
 
Those look great Stan. We have our spices/herbs in a big double sized drawer under the hob and its a nightmare trying to find what you want when all you see when you look down are black lids!

A couple of our tubs have the name on top but sadly not enough of them!

Might check out those Kilner jars, as you say they're expensive all in one go but its not like they'll ever need replacing!
 
arknor said:
is it best to keep spices etc out of direct sunlight? might not be a great idea to have them on display ?
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That's good advice :)
I can assure you that if direct sunlight gets to those jars it means half my flat has collapsed :p I took the photo yesterday afternoon when the sun was out and I still had to use the flash.
 
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