{"id":513,"date":"2011-03-01T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/2011\/03\/01\/organize-2011-your-spice-cabinet\/"},"modified":"2011-03-01T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T19:15:00","slug":"organize-2011-your-spice-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/?p=513","title":{"rendered":"Organize 2011&#8230;Your Spice Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Organize 2011<\/span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Your Spices and Herbs <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/-keuc44dfrqc\/TW1FXtkt2mI\/AAAAAAAABsY\/xnlrL1syktQ\/s1600\/spicecabinet.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/spicecabinet.jpg\" width=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Girls, it&#8217;s time to clean out your spice cabinet.&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Whether you keep your spices in a cupboard, a lazy susan, or a drawer, roll up your sleeves and clean it out. <\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Get rid of spices you don&#8217;t use anymore and clean off each spice and herb container and the shelves, before putting it back. <\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">I found this on <a href=\"http:\/\/ochef.com\/\">Ochef.com&#8230;&nbsp;<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\">Great information on how to care for our spices and herbs.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>How long can bottled spices be kept; what is the shelf life?   <\/p>\n<div style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"21\" src=\"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/A.gif\" width=\"20\" \/>&nbsp;The  good news is, spices do not spoil. The bad news is, they lose their  strength. What is interesting is that a lot of cookbook writers tell you  to purge your pantry once an herb or spice is about 6 months old. But  the spice companies \u2014 among them behemoth McCormick and specialty spicer  Penzeys \u2014 are not so reckless. They tell you to keep and use the spices  as long as they appear to have flavor \u2014 <i>and they trust you to be able to tell!<\/i>   <\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin: 5px;\"> <noscript>&lt;a href=&#8217;http:\/\/ochef.com\/ads\/adclick.php?n=a1f1ac58&#8242; target=&#8217;_blank&#8217;&gt;&lt;img src=&#8217;http:\/\/ochef.com\/ads\/adview.php?what=zone:6&amp;amp;n=a1f1ac58&#8242; border=&#8217;0&#8242; alt=&#8221;&gt;&lt;\/a&gt;<\/noscript><\/div>\n<div style=\"line-height: 150%;\">Stored in an airtight container, in a  cool, dry place, spices retain their potency longer than you&#8217;d think \u2014  as long as 4 years for whole spices, 2 to 3 years for ground spices, and  1 to 3 years for leafy herbs, depending on the herb. Whole <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000GPHIO0\/ochefcom-20\">peppercorns<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000GXDIQO\/ochefcom-20\">nutmegs<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000N36U3A\/ochefcom-20\">cinnamon sticks<\/a> hold on to their flavor for ages. Particularly potent whole spices, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00017P2LE\/ochefcom-20\">cloves<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000JMBECW\/ochefcom-20\">cumin<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000N3BVV6\/ochefcom-20\">cardamom<\/a> will also last for a long, long time.  <\/div>\n<div style=\"line-height: 150%;\">Herbs lose their flavor faster than  spices. Dried herbs that have no color and no or very little smell when  crumbled in the palm of your hand are probably too old for practical  use. Yet even if they don&#8217;t look all that green anymore, but still have  some oomph when crumbled in your hand, use them freely.  <\/div>\n<div style=\"line-height: 150%;\">For ground spices, shake the jar, let  it settle, and give a sniff. If there&#8217;s essentially no smell, it should  be tossed out. If the spices have a bit of fragrance left but are not as  potent as you remember or think they should be, just use more in the  recipe. Then you&#8217;ll run out sooner and have a reason to start fresh with  a new batch.  <\/div>\n<p>Of paramount importance in getting the  most flavor and value out of your herbs and spices is to store them  well \u2014 nowhere near the heat of the stove, nowhere near the humidity of  the stove or dishwasher, nowhere bright and sunny. But don&#8217;t get the  idea that putting them in the freezer is ideal, either. Condensation  will be a problem each time the bottle comes out of the freezer and is  likely to introduce moisture in the spices. Similarly, don&#8217;t ever shake  herbs or spices out of the bottle directly into something you&#8217;re cooking  \u2014 that&#8217;s the quickest way possible to steam and despoil your spices.  <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Organize 2011Your Spices and Herbs Girls, it&#8217;s time to clean out your spice cabinet.&nbsp; Whether you keep your spices in a cupboard, a lazy susan, or a drawer, roll up your sleeves and clean it out. Get rid of spices you don&#8217;t use anymore and clean off each spice and herb container and the shelves, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[651,745,829],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-getting-organized","7":"category-organize-2011","8":"category-organizing-your-spices-and-herb-cabinet","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail","11":"one-third"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/plannerperfect.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}