A non-exhaustive tour of my spice cabinet

Everything bagel everything.

Not to be a bitch, but I hate the look of matching spice jars. Maybe it’s the cheap acrylic Amazonification of every corner of our feeds and homes, or the memory of those sad, spinning sets from Marshalls—the no-name Italian seasoning and paprika so divorced from their lives as living foods, you’d wish you hadn’t seasoned your meal at all.

This is not to say I don’t decant. Much to the chagrin of my husband, nary a peanut butter jar can enter our home and not live a long, second life as a jar for dried herbs or, perhaps, as a toothbrush holder. Tidy-ish rows of glass jars—some matching, most not—of beans, flour, nuts, seeds, teas and spices line our shelves. Unlike the peculiar trend of decanting packaged goods into…more plastic packaging…our pantry decanting is needed. We shop as much as we can packaging-free; the flax seeds and coffee beans must be stored, air-tight, in something, so I can return their glass packaging for reuse or compost their temporary paper bags. (This has an additional practical effect: When our pantry is in glass and right in front of me, I actually use it. No more half-used couscous bags going stale in the back of a cabinet.) 

What was I talking about again? Spices.  

I buy spices and seasonings from a variety of places. I favor small businesses with single-origin sourcing, not just for the ethics and, quite frankly, safety, but also for the taste. The taste! A turmeric or garlic powder, properly bloomed and used within a reasonable amount of time, is one of the best ways to make a simple meal sing. 

For these reasons, I shop from Burlap and Barrel and Diaspora Co. In New York, SOS Chefs and Kalustyans are must-visits, and I am always happy to pick up something interesting from a local specialty food shop. 

(As you can see, much of our cabinet is Burlap and Barrel, mostly because I’ve been a member of their spice club for the past year, but they also carry some of our most-used spices and seasonings and I find their quality to be unmatched.)    

For the most part, I keep new spices in their original glass or tin containers. For herbs and spices from my garden, spices I grind at home, or ones that come packaged in plastic or baggies, I decant into old, reused jars. A 12-hour soak in hot, vinegary water, Goo-Gone, elbow grease, a run through the dishwasher, and my label-maker are all that I need to have a charming, sorta-matching spice cabinet.    

I recently re-organized our spice shelves by type (before it was kind of by brand? with most used chaotically left in front?), sort of like the not-quite-rainbow-order I organize my closet by—it is not scientific, just what makes sense to me. I grouped ground chilis, warming spices, herbs, flavorful seeds, baking, umami, and daily-use spices into clusters on bamboo shelf-risers. This method of organization is working for us and has created far less rummaging-about and do-we-have inquiries. 

Here’s a non-exhaustive peek into some of my favorite dried spices and seasonings.

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The dailies 

As in most households, our most commonly used spice is black pepper. I buy the bulk container from Burlap and Barrel—their Zanzibar black pepper is fruity and fresh. It seems a bit silly, but I decant the pepper from the large plastic container into a reused soy sauce bottle before it makes it to the mill. The fluted neck makes pouring into the mouth of our Unicorn Magnum pepper mill snappy. (I’ve been very happy with that pepper mill! Going strong on five years of use.) I also love the black pepper from Diaspora Co., but switched to B&B due to stocking issues. 

The red pepper flake by family-owned Italian brand Al Frantoio di Aldo Armato is unrivaled. I think I found this one at Sqirl’s market the last time I was in Los Angeles. I am not having much luck finding it in stock online, but when you see it, buy it.  

Not a spice, of course, but salt, the most important seasoning of all. We cook primarily with Diamond Crystal kosher salt since it’s so ubiquitous in modern recipes, but I’ve been using Redmond Real fine sea salt for bread baking and am considering swapping to their larger, flakier kosher salt for our daily cooking, particularly after reading

Alicia Kennedy

’s great piece on Diamond Crystal’s agribusiness origins. As a finishing salt, I keep Maldon on hand. 

We also often use ground black lime on rice and soups to add a shelf-stable acidic taste. It’s also great in a yogurt-based dip! 

Blends

I love everything bagel seasoning on cottage cheese, tomato sandwiches, fried eggs, or a savory yogurt situation. I usually have Greenpoint Trading Company’s, but I made an everything bagel sourdough fougasse a few weeks ago and put together my own blend from a recipe in Flour Power (adding in caraway seeds!). To make the blend, I used minced, dried onion and garlic from SOS Chefs, along with raw sesame seeds, Maldon salt, and poppy seeds from Kalustyans. 

I like to make my own garam masala too. I follow a recipe from London restaurant Dishoom’s cookbook, From Bombay with Love (using the pan method)—the inclusion of rose petals pushes its depth of flavor over the edge. 

Za’atar is another blend sublime on fried eggs, cottage cheese, flatbreads, and dips. I love this one by Z&Z. 

Seeds

Cumin should probably be in the dailies section. I love Burlap and Barrel’s Wild Mountain Cumin—its seeds are smaller than the cumin you’re probably used to, and they are truly splendid left whole. Sprinkle them in Indian dishes, of course, but I also love cumin on practically any roasted vegetable. This Melissa Clark broccoli pasta recipe was in heavy rotation for many years. I do on occasion want ground cumin and for that I grind small portions at home in a cheap electric grinder and decant into an old jar.  

Coriander, the star of my tomato soup, is another spice I reach for in seasoning vegetables. I like both Diaspora and Burlap and Barrel’s.  

As mentioned above, B&B’s caraway and fennel seeds are lovely. I’ve been including toasted fennel as an inclusion in an occasional sourdough loaf and in Alison Roman’s fennel lemon cake. 

Aromatics 

I swore off garlic powder for many years, regarding it as a poor substitute for fresh garlic. I think of it now as a separate ingredient. I like it in scrambled eggs and creamy salad dressings (the dip possibilities!), and in soup bases. B&B’s Purple Stripe Garlic is unreal. No more granulated, dust-tasting garlic powder. The toasted onion and shallot powders are nice, too, and perfect in dips. 

Chiles 

One of the best chile powders you can buy is Diaspora Co’s Sunnam Chili. I use this when a Western recipe calls for chile powder. And I often reach for gochugaru, the mild Korean pepper flake, too. I like to season my Tofu Rice Bowl with it, and of course, for kimchi. (This one is from H-Mart, I no longer have the packaging and am unsure of the brand.)

I keep whole dried peppers on hand to season dried beans, although I store them separately from the rest of our spices and seasonings. I have a variety from Rancho Gordo and picked up a large bag of Thai chilis at Bangkok Center Grocery. 

Herbs

I grow oregano and sage in my garden (I have plans to 10x my production this year!). I don’t use a dehydrator as I prefer to air-dry. I keep the leaves as intact as possible and crush them before use.  Even if you buy fresh sage, thyme, or rosemary from the grocery store, drying it is a great way to keep it from going to waste. 

My bay leaf tree died (please let me know how you’ve had success keeping yours alive in a growing zone similar to mine), but I use bay leaves (these from Daphnis and Chloe) in vegetable stock and every pot of beans I make. 

Warming spices

Diaspora Co. has wonderful warming spices. The ground ginger and cinnamon get a workout. And B&B’s nutmeg, freshly microplaned, is wonderful in macaroni and cheese. We have star anise and cloves on hand too. 

As part of my Rancho Gordo Bean Club order last year, I got hooked on Canela cinnamon. It’s remarkable stewed in a red sauce with white beans. 

Umami 

I feel like I haven’t come close to cracking the potential of mushroom powder, but SOS Chefs has a nice selection that I’ve been experimenting with in soups and tofu marinades. I’ve also been playing around with tomato powder in places I might use tomato paste. 

I have MSG from Ajinomoto that I mostly bought for the cute (panda!) bottle.

It wouldn’t be a vegetarian’s seasoning guide, if not to name nutritional yeast. I buy Braggs usually, I think, and use it in nearly all my presentations of tofu and tempeh. 

Baking

I don’t do much sweet baking, but I like Nielsen Massey’s vanilla paste, and I just picked up whole vanilla beans from B&B to make my own extract at home. Check back on that in a year. 🌶

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Did I miss a must-use spice of yours?