What spices do you try to keep on hand?

[hondo]

I know that there are a lot of spices out there but I can't buy them all. What do you always try to have available? Here is what I have. The bigger jars are the most often called for and the small ones are rarely used or just really small quantities.

 

[SmokinAl]

That looks like a great assortment.
I think we all have our favorites & I tend to buy too large a container & I think it looses some of it's flavor before I can use it up. But you can get so much more for the same price, so if I have to throw away a little I'm still way ahead price wise.

Al

 

[noboundaries]

Great spice set up. My wife got sick of my spices all over the place. I got sick of her drawer full of plastic containers. Solved our issues by throwing away the old spices and keeping the good, then we put the spices I use most often in labeled plastic containers that stack nicely in our cabinet.

I've started buying spices in small quantities, like 4 oz or less from my favorite grocery store, Winco. They have an amazing bulk section of spices. Prices are SOOOO much cheaper than buying packaged spices. By buying less, I turn them over more quickly. Since I'm there 1-3 times a week anyway, I can always pick up anything I'm short on.

From your picture, I stock everything you show except white pepper, Accent, and pinto bean seasoning. Can't read the top except for the Coriander and the McCormicks, and I stock those too.

I also stock Italian seasoning, marjoram, cloves (ground and whole), fennel seed, anise seed, mustard (seeds and powder), saffron, Old Bay seasoning, Chinese Five Spice seasoning, Snider's Prime Rib seasoning, poultry seasoning, grains of paradise, dried parsley, Badia seasoning salt, turmeric (love it on eggs), curry powder, lemon pepper, orange pepper, rosemary, cream of tartar, bay leaves, dill weed, my pork seasoning, my taco seasoning, and more types of salt than I care to count (black lava, smoked, celery, Himalayan (fine and coarse), sea, kosher, table, etc).

 

[hondo]

The spice storage was pretty cheap (thanks for the compliment). The shelf I made from a1X4 and some paint.

The jars are from the "Dollar Tree" and are a dollar each. I bought a case from Dollartreedirect.com and shipped to my local store free. They did not have enough in the store so I ordered them. I printed the labels myself.

There are a lot of stuff in the small jars on top that were bought as a set with a little turntable to store them, junk basically, I found out after buying it. I'll dump out the stuff I will never use and use those jars for the small quantities of things I will be getting.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Wow! I wish I was that organized! My spice cabinet shelves are packed full of bottles plus another drawer full of plastic baggie spices from Winco. I'm always digging trying to find stuff. But I do use about everything that is there so it doesn't sit around too long. I've been meaning to do some organizing like that. I was thinking more along the lines of using Mason or Ball jars. I even have a vacuum sealer attachment for keeping them vac sealed too if desired. I like the 1x4 idea. I would have to make a couple racks and stack them and hinge them so it opens like a book or something like that. Thank you for the inspiration!

 

[uncle eddie]

Wow! I wish I was that organized! My spice cabinet shelves are packed full of bottles...

Preach!

But to answer the OP's question:

Salt - Pepper - Garlic Powder
I can do pretty much anything pork, beef, chicken, or turkey with these 3 spices.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Not sure what that's supposed to mean...

 

[tallbm]

Nice spice rack!

I always have a good number of spices on hand but the most important are the big 4. Salt, black Pepper, Onion (dehydrated or granulated), and Garlic (granulated).

After the big 4 of SPOG, I always have Ground Cumin, Chili Powder, Paprika, Oregano, Basil, Cayenne Pepper, Knorr brand Chicken Bullion, and Knorr brand Chicken Tomato Bullion. Oh and white Sugar and Brown Sugar. I don't think Flour counts but I have it too for soups and chili, its a thickener.

Honorable mentions that I usually have on hand are Bay Leaf, Thyme, and Sage. These are the chicken/turkey soup magic makers!

Oddballs that I love to keep on hand are dehydrated Cilantro, True Lime (real dehydrated and crystalized/granulated lime juice, a little goes a long way), and Tony Cacheres Creole seasoning (for corn meal fry breading and turkey deep frying).

I have more but they are for specific things like sausage making or the odd recipe that needs marjoram or mexican oregano vs regular oregano. You know stuff like that.

If I were to tell a person who is new to cooking to buy their first set of spices I would tell them to go SPOG then Ground Cumin, Chili Powder, and Paprika for making Mexican dishes and then Oregano and Basil for making Italian dishes, and Brown Sugar for anything tomato based to cut the acidity (chili, spaghetti sauce, tomato based soups, etc.). If they are a griller I would also tell them to buy some Cayenne pepper. With SPOG on both sides and then a couple of dashes of Cayenne on one side of a grilled steak, pork chop, or chicken it is a whole new ballgame of flavor without the heat!

That's my 2 cents :)

 

[3montes]

I have pretty much gone to using spice blends rather than individual spices. It saves time and space. I have gone from a cabinet full of bottles and bags to 6 to 8 different blends that will do anything I need. I buy all my blends through Oak Ridge BBQ or the Spice House. You never know how long those spices been sitting on the shelf at Wal Mart or Sam's Club or how long it took them to get there even. I know the spice blends I get from Oak Ridge or the Spice House are as fresh as they can get and it does make a huge difference.

 

[scjohn]

That's nice and organized. I have a whole cabinet full of spices and it kind of reminds me of the quarter game at the fair. Put in one jar and another one pops out somewhere else.

 

[johnmeyer]

Oddballs that I love to keep on hand are dehydrated Cilantro, ...

I recently found a Penzys spice store up in the SF Bay Area (Menlo Park) and in a manic shopping fit around the holidays, bought the place out. One thing I bought during this manic episode was dried Cilantro. We try to grow cilantro, but it bolts within days, and half the time we never use it before it goes to seed. The stuff we buy in the store turns to green slime faster than anything we've ever had in the fridge. So, when I saw this stuff, I thought, great, I can use this instead.

Except, I haven't figured out how and where to use it.

So, how do you use this stuff??

As for the OP's question, unlike previous posters, I try to avoid spice mixes, even though people give them to us every holiday. I'll be we have two dozen unopened spice mixtures lying around. My main ones for BBQ are whole pepper (I grind it in the spice grinder), paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, tumeric, chili powder, and cumin.

 

[indaswamp]

I do not use commercially made spice mixes of any kind. I like control over the amount of salt I use. I mix my own, including rubs and sausage seasonings. I keep 16oz. containers of Cracked Black pepper, Ground cayenne pepper, Red pepper flakes, granulated garlic, granulated onion, MSG, Paprika, Smoked paprika, Bay leaf, Chili powder, Cumin and Black peppercorns. I have smaller containers of just about everything else.
About 10 years ago, I started expanding my knowledge of spices, and to do so, I had to have them on hand. Now, I intuitively know just how much to use with a lot of them...and don't measure when cooking at home...

Savory was the biggest surprise for me. Such a complex spice that changes depending on how it is used.

 

[tallbm]

I recently found a Penzys spice store up in the SF Bay Area (Menlo Park) and in a manic shopping fit around the holidays, bought the place out. One thing I bought during this manic episode was dried Cilantro. We try to grow cilantro, but it bolts within days, and half the time we never use it before it goes to seed. The stuff we buy in the store turns to green slime faster than anything we've ever had in the fridge. So, when I saw this stuff, I thought, great, I can use this instead.

Except, I haven't figured out how and where to use it.

So, how do you use this stuff??

As for the OP's question, unlike previous posters, I try to avoid spice mixes, even though people give them to us every holiday. I'll be we have two dozen unopened spice mixtures lying around. My main ones for BBQ are whole pepper (I grind it in the spice grinder), paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, tumeric, chili powder, and cumin.

The dried Cilantro is always quite less potent than the fresh stuff but hey, who can always get to the store and/or keep cilantro on hand so having the dried version has some perks.

With that said and to answer your question, I use the dried cilantro when I don't have fresh and I'm making salsa, taco meat, a Mexican noodle/soup'ish dish called Sopa Fidello, and when making Mexican rice.

There are a couple of other Mexican soups I don't make as often that I throw some of it into if I don't have the fresh stuff.

The dried cilantro seems to have the best impact in my Mexican rice and taco meat dishes as I just make them on a whim and pour plenty of the dried stuff in there. Again nothing beats the actual fresh herb but I have to plan and go out of my way to get fresh cilantro and then use it up before it goes bad. So Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes on a whim often get the dried stuff :)

I hope this info helps :)

 

[johnmeyer]

Thanks for the dried cilantro tips. I'll try it in a salsa this weekend.

 

[chopsaw]

The dried Cilantro is always quite less potent than the fresh stuff

Just wanted to make sure this isn't a typo . Most recipes use dry at about 1/2 the amount of fresh .

 

[tallbm]

Just wanted to make sure this isn't a typo . Most recipes use dry at about 1/2 the amount of fresh .

You are correct. I have found that in the case of the dried cilantro I use it is way less flavorful than fresh cilantro. I won't make that claim for other herbs but I encourage anyone to experiment with dried cilantro from off the store shelf and see if they have the same findings as me.

One really neat bonus of using dried cilantro with salsa is that it helps to soak up any of the water that separates from tomatoes and other vegetables but it will not fix a watery salsa issue on it's own so don't think it is a cure all for that situation lol.