We've been getting most of our spices from Savory Spice in Lincoln Square for the last few years and really enjoy them. They have a good variety of salt-free options as well. Last year they had a holiday special where you spend $100 and you got ten $10 credits to use from January thru October... pretty awesome deal for quality spices!

Just wondering if anyone else frequents Savory Spice and what your opinions are comparing them to Spice House and Penzey's?

Got some free whole allspice on Monday's Penzeys coupon. I could have selected something more expensive, I guess, but that's what I needed. And I bought a bag of their very good Turkish oregano so I didn't seem like a cheapskate. (Wait a minute, I am a cheapskate...) Anyhoo, years ago the promotion was ANY 1/2 cup jar for free and I picked up saffron. But at that time the jar was like $15. And the big jar held a tiny cello packet of saffron.

I found Savory Spice to be a nice store but the products seemed a little more like what you'd get in a upscale grocery or gourmet store rather than Spice House or Penzeys where they are supposedly searching out and importing their own stuff.

RockyDennis wrote:Spice House has gone way down.

Bought by a couple of ex-marketing execs who needed a new hobby. Inevitable.

Hi- While I was looking for my can of Old Bay Seasoning, I pulled everything out from my spice shelf, and I am pitching a lot of old spices such as three year old thyme, but I ran across two bottles of Spice House spices I got for free 3-4 years ago at the annual picnic, when cinnamon girl gave them away. I have yet to use them. I am wondering if they are still good. If that is the case, I will try to find a home for them. One is apple pie spice, and the other is Chicago Old Town Spiced Sugar. What does everybody think? I know in general you are only supposed to keep your spices for a year, and it is maybe okay to keep them another year if you use more, but these jars are way older than that.

Also I am looking for advice on Old Bay Seasoning. One of my sisters lives in New Orleans, and she is bringing some shrimp. She found out her handyman has a friend that goes shrimping, and she is going to buy some of his shrimp, and bring it when she flies here Wednesday. She asked if I still had some Old Bay Seasoning from probably four years ago, and I replied that I threw that can out because I assumed it was too old, and bought another can a few years ago. She replied that Old Bay keeps a lot longer than what the can says. Is that true? I still have not found my can of Old Bay from two years ago, but I have another shelf to look into. I just have to take everything out. I have lots of plastic grocery bags in that shelf. Thanks, Nancy

I have had Old Bay Seasoning from five or ten years ago and it has not lost its taste over these years. I like to use Old Bay on french fries as well as many seafoods.

Nancy, they won't have 'gone bad' but they may have faded in flavor, aroma and/or color. In other words, no reason to not try them and see how they do. In my experience, ground spices don't stay at their best for too long.

When it comes to blends, you may think they're fine but different components fade out at different rates. So, you might smell something and think it's as good as new even though it's degraded a bit. I've found this to be true with, among others, 5-spice powder. Older stuff can smell okay initially because the dominant ingredients are very strong. However, the lesser ones don't hold up as well, so the overall mix loses something. Still, it's not going to hurt you to ingest older spices and see if you think they're suitable for use.

=R=

Thanks for all of the replies. I might just give the jars from the Spice House to somebody, and tell them to try them, and if they don't find them satisfactory, they can pitch them. I figure if I have not used them by now, they are never going to be used. I finally found my Old Bay seasoning, and it expired on 5/21, and so I am just going to keep it. I just pitched a ton of spices that I got from the Spice House prepandemic, and a few from Whole Foods that are also ancient. I got a bunch of spices from Penzey's six months ago, and so they are a lot fresher.

NFriday wrote:Thanks for all of the replies. I might just give the jars from the Spice House to somebody, and tell them to try them, and if they don't find them satisfactory, they can pitch them. I figure if I have not used them by now, they are never going to be used. I finally found my Old Bay seasoning, and it expired on 5/21, and so I am just going to keep it. I just pitched a ton of spices that I got from the Spice House prepandemic, and a few from Whole Foods that are also ancient. I got a bunch of spices from Penzey's six months ago, and so they are a lot fresher.

Toss all the Spice House jars. That company is completely awful. Especially if they were produced at the old Skokie warehouse. What went in there. Nope!

Possibly too late, but Nancy if you are throwing away those little jars from Spice House or Penzey's, I'd appreciate some more jars. I wash them out and use for spices bought in bags at spice stores and Indian grocers.

tjr wrote:Possibly too late, but Nancy if you are throwing away those little jars from Spice House or Penzey's, I'd appreciate some more jars. I wash them out and use for spices bought in bags at spice stores and Indian grocers.

You can have mine! I’ve got 100+ from the worthless Spice House. Gross.

I can't imagine why you would would to transfer from the bags to jars. The bags fit into a smaller footprint in the dark cool place you are keeping your spices.

Why are you keeping everything in glass jars ?

Hi- I mostly had them in bags. I think what few jars I had were recycled a few days ago. Most of the spices at Penzy's come in glass jars.

lougord99 wrote:Why are you keeping everything in glass jars ?

Doesn't glass keep the spices fresh longer? Not as air permeable, I thought.

lougord99 wrote:I can't imagine why you would would to transfer from the bags to jars. The bags fit into a smaller footprint in the dark cool place you are keeping your spices.

Why are you keeping everything in glass jars ?

I keep my "working stock" in jars, some plastic, some glass, along with a few ancient metal cans in my pantry cabinet. The back stock is in the freezer. Penzey's small jars were plastic until some years ago. The larger size were always glass. I think I'd be frustrated by digging through a mountain of little bags - I probably have 50 varieties of spices and herbs, possibly as many as 100. Admittedly, some rarely used ones are a little weary. And it's easier to scoop from a jar, or use a shaker for some things. On top of all that, a few have sentimental value like the McConnon allspice can from the 40's or 50's, the Jane Parker cans from my youth, or the ground fenugreek bottle with label handwritten by Bill Penzey's mother in her charming retirement project shop.

Cynthia wrote:

lougord99 wrote:Why are you keeping everything in glass jars ?

Doesn't glass keep the spices fresh longer? Not as air permeable, I thought.

That's what I've always thought too. I use glass whenever possible.

Artie wrote:

Cynthia wrote:

lougord99 wrote:Why are you keeping everything in glass jars ?

Doesn't glass keep the spices fresh longer? Not as air permeable, I thought.

That's what I've always thought too. I use glass whenever possible.

I find that the spices I leave in the opened flat packs get clumpy, no matter how carefully I try to close them. This never happens in glass. It’s also a bit harder to freehand season with the flat packs—plus you have to use your fingers unless you’re going to try to use a spoon. I like the “shake” functionality of the jars for most things. I leave the spices I use in quantity and typically measure out in the flat packs. The rest I put in the jars which I keep from the original purchase.

I prefer glass. I find it a bit less convenient than other storage options like baggies or flatpacks, especially when the measuring spoon is too damned wide for the jar. But I think -- and maybe I'm just imagining it -- the spices hold up a bit longer in glass. Jars are also easier to store in orderly fashion, all next to each other in a drawer with the contents written on a piece of tape on the lid.

=R=

Personally, I preferred the plastic Penzeys jars from a few years back. They are a lot easier to stack and less likely to break should they drop.

I am gradually working the number of spices in my cabinet down and in getting all of my spice back into jars out of plastic bags. They are easier to use and stay fresher.

tjr wrote:On top of all that, a few have sentimental value like the McConnon allspice can from the 40's or 50's, the Jane Parker cans from my youth, or the ground fenugreek bottle with label handwritten by Bill Penzey's mother in her charming retirement project shop.

I like that you have these things in your kitchen that have sentimental value for you. I like having things like that around me in the kitchen too.

When we remodeled our kitchen after dismissing two designers, I did the design and materials myself with a contractor we had used many times in the past.
One of the questions was what to do with all the spice bottles?
About 60+ if I remember correctly, mostly glass type from Penzy’s.
We all wondered how we could get all the those bottles standing upright in a convenient space?
After much standing around and this and that, I suggested, “Why not make the rack horizontal?”
Problem solved! Little labels are affixed to the end caps and the spices are arranged somewhat according to the culture in which they are used.
FWIW, we now obtain our spices from The Spice House.
-Richard

budrichard wrote:FWIW, we now obtain our spices from The Spice House.
-Richard

Barf. Gross. Yuck.

budrichard wrote:FWIW, we now obtain our spices from The Spice House.

RockyDennis wrote:Barf. Gross. Yuck.

Correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm getting the impression you don't like The Spice House.

G Wiv wrote:

budrichard wrote:FWIW, we now obtain our spices from The Spice House.

RockyDennis wrote:Barf. Gross. Yuck.

Correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm getting the impression you don't like The Spice House.

At some point, he worked there. He didn't like it. Now, every time someone mentions it, he whines like a child. I think it's about time to move on . . .

=R=

Agreed, either tell the Spice House story or let it die. The teasers are getting stale.

The Penzey's glass jars have extremely brittle plastic lids. I haven't broken a jar yet but have cracked a few of the lids. The plastic jars had far more flexible lids.

And good plan on labeling the lids, as I realized when digging through my drawer for rarely-used ground sage tonight. Something like this: https://www.target.com/p/avery-removabl ... A-81844643 would work well.

tjr wrote:Agreed, either tell the Spice House story or let it die. The teasers are getting stale.

The Penzey's glass jars have extremely brittle plastic lids. I haven't broken a jar yet but have cracked a few of the lids. The plastic jars had far more flexible lids.

And good plan on labeling the lids, as I realized when digging through my drawer for rarely-used ground sage tonight. Something like this: https://www.target.com/p/avery-removabl ... A-81844643 would work well.

My guess is that any such stories will likely run afoul of our posting guidelines, so no reason to even go down that road. It's just beyond time to let it go.

As for the labeling the lids, I generally just use some blue or masking tape and a sharpie, which I keep in a drawer in the kitchen. Works well enough.

=R=

tjr wrote:And good plan on labeling the lids, as I realized when digging through my drawer for rarely-used ground sage tonight. Something like this: https://www.target.com/p/avery-removabl ... A-81844643 would work well.

That's almost exactly what we do here.

Penzey will give you replacement plastic lids for the asking.
As I remember they come with two different size holes.
The spice that won’t pour though the lids give me problems as once in a while I forget a spice does not have a plastic lid and dump a bunch into a recipe!
There are some unique red pepper grinds that can only be sourced from Patel, Fresh Farms, H-Mart and the like. We keep those in a separate cabinet along with whole dried Chiles of various kinds.
-Richard

I posted in the lecsó recipe thread about paprika, but the best Hungarian paprika I've been able to find here is from this Burlap & Barrel place:

I haven't tried any of their other stuff, but I was happy to finally find a source of Hungarian paprika that's as good as what I'd find in Hungary. As I said in the other thread, Penzey's Hungarian is now "Hungarian-style paprika" (I don't think it was always that way, but I can be wrong.) Spice House does still source theirs from Hungary, and the same region as the below, but Burlap & Barrel's seems fresher and more fragrant.

https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/

Thanks, didn't know about the free lids.

My ambition is to put together a Google Sheets database of all my spices with inventory status so that when I go to a spice store I'm never wandering around trying to remember which little jar is empty. I would be able to just look on my phone. Same when Penzey's runs a $12.95 jar for free, like they're doing now. Same sheet could also drive label printing for top labels.

And definitely right about the ground chilis available at Asian stores - recently got into Kashmir chili, not sure why the big guys don't sell it.

Burlap&Barrel is online only, right? Looks like some good, and unique, stuff.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

G Wiv wrote:

budrichard wrote:FWIW, we now obtain our spices from The Spice House.

RockyDennis wrote:Barf. Gross. Yuck.

Correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm getting the impression you don't like The Spice House.

At some point, he worked there. He didn't like it. Now, every time someone mentions it, he whines like a child. I think it's about time to move on . . .

=R=

You’re absolutely correct. I worked at the now shuttered Skokie warehouse. Mainly in the blending & grinding room, making everything from Vulcans Fire Salt to Gary Wiviott’s rub. Only a select few were given the job of blending/grinding. During the holiday season, working overtime was mandatory, no matter what. Cleanliness was another thing. Employees not using protective gloves or facial hair coverings were not enforced. Some did many didn’t. To go along with the ones filling the orders going out, I was so glad the day I had enough & finally quit. Even the Navy Pier location was a disaster that nobody wanted to work at. The new owner back then was a complete bonehead. Just cared about the money. Even our holiday bonus was taxed. Nope to that company.

By law, bonuses are taxable. It isn’t up to your employer.