British Expatriate Network

It was superbowl today, the most boring event of the season for me, so I decided to tidy some cupboards between adverts, we watch the ads not the game, and I found flour with a 2002 date, unused, and all kinds of spices, tumeric, cumin, coriander, which must have been in the cupboard a good few years, OK, 2002 sounds about right.
Now seeds, like cumin seeds, should keep, but the powders, my Hungarian neighbour tells me paprika should be used as quickly as possible to preserve it's taste, mind she has more kinds of paprika than I've had hot dinners.
So how long do you keep yours?
I have to tell you also, I don't buy brands, I go to Wholefoods or it's equivalent in Santa Cruz and buy 4oz or 8 oz( Indian spices don't last long in this house, I consider Indian cooking to be English cookery)at a time and store them in a dark cupboard in the jelly jars you buy for preserving. I'm not good at dried stuff, I tend to use fresh from the yard, but it's been a freezing winter and my tarragon, a French, not a Russian took a big hit, and will be difficult to replace. Russian is more earthy and easy to find, but does not have the fine taste for making vinegar and in my opinion, does not work as well with chicken, being earthy and overpowering, whereas the French is subtle and tasty.
Any guidance will be welcomed, thank you.

I dont know all i see is herbs and spices being discarded in the round file quite frequently

Fresh herbs won't last as long as the freeze dried ones you can buy in packets so we tend to buy as much as we need for the month or so and then just restock. Or grow our own in the summer. You need to clear our dried spices every six months cos it just turns to powder and avoid entirely buying ground nutmeg, its like ground cardboard.
I've yet to find large bags of Indian spices like you'd find in the UK and have started roasted and grinding my own now anyway, it gives such a great flavour that I'll only use packet stuff in a jam, or if we're trapped somewhere (Like now, at the in-laws and its below zero) so many people are of the opinion that herbs and spices last forever that I'm scared to look in cupboards sometimes.
Asked for curry leaf once and was handed a packet of weird green stuff, slightly resembling a crushed up stock cube. Same for Asafoetida, came in a little container mixed up with salt and turmeric! WTF?
Unfortunately, a few things slip through. Up here in the frigid north Cardamoms appear to be ridiculously expensive so they don't get thrown out. People often ask me what I miss about Blighty and I have to tell them its the variety in the grocery stores, and that International cuisine doesn't mean Taco kits. (Nevertheless,I was exedingly chuffed to discover that Mexican sardines are actually Pilchards! Put 'em on toast, in a butty, mmmmmmm)

Anybody ever found Allspice over here?

Hi Servalan, heres a page with a good substitution for allspice on it.
http//www.gourmetsleuth.com/sr_allspice.htm

They have allspice at the supermarket. I'd like to know of what the "mixed spices", used in British recipes, consists.

cinnamon, coriander, dill, ginger, cloves, nutmeg.

I plead the 5th in response to the question in the OP :oops: