It’s spring so it’s time to get organized. I know that the idea of spring cleaning as a holiday isn’t as fun as Christmas or even Valentine’s Day, but I think it’s important to have yearly rituals that don’t revolve around spending money. My home could use the attention. The dark days of winter had me shoving shit in all the corners of my place to be dealt with later. And now, unfortunately, later has come.
Two years ago, I wrote about my spice drawer and cabinets to show everybody how to get set up for success in a small kitchen. Last week we talked about cleaning out the freezer and using it to save our exhausted asses in the future. Today is all about making our ingredients last for as long as possible by storing that shit the correct way. You already spent the money. Might as well keep those premium products like nuts, flours, and maple syrup good for as long as possible. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, why not become a paid supporter here at Stir the Pot instead of letting food rot in your cabinets? It’s better for the planet, for you, and honestly, me. Give it a think huh?
I cannot tell you the number of times that I’ve popped over to cook at someone else’s place and found great ingredients just wasting away in their pantry. There are no lessons about how to store ingredients out there so I understand just putting it away wherever it will fit. But if you take a little time, think it through, and follow my guidelines, this stuff will last until you use it up rather than when you finally notice it tastes bad and throw it out. On that same note, don’t save all your premium ingredients for some special time in the future if you know that time will never come. Lots of us want to save the good olive oil, the gorgeous jar of tomatoes, the fancy harissa paste we bought on a whim for some classy dinner party or date night we will throw in the not-too-distant future. Then we forget, or just keep waiting, until the thing in question has gone bad and we end up just throwing it out. Princess Kate is busy, she won’t be popping up demanding dinner from you anytime soon. Use your saffron and fancy olive oil now. You’re reason enough. But from now on, we’re storing everything the right way for optimum freshness for as long as possible AND keeping in mind that if we don’t use it, we’re gonna lose it.
Here are the top ingredients I see people wasting through bad storage:
Maple Syrup
This one always breaks my heart. I grew up putting Log Cabin syrup all over my pancakes, which I loved, but when I grew up and bought my first bottle of real maple syrup I vowed to never go back. I would rather ration out my maple syrup than ever buy that again. Real maple syrup needs to be stored in the fridge. I understand why lots of people shove it in the pantry next to the honey, but it’s not the same. The high sugar content in both products does act as a preservative but unlike honey, maple syrup can develop mold on the surface and on the walls of the bottle it’s in. Nothing would be sadder than a gorgeous pile of pancakes in the morning with a plop of mold on top because you didn’t notice the syrup has spoiled. Stick it in the fridge and save that tree juice for as long as you can.
It's worth noting that Maple Farmers have some tips and tricks for saving a moldy bottle, but I’ll let them guide you on that. Stick it in the fridge and avoid the issue in the first place.
Soy Sauce, Tamari, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, Coconut Aminos and the rest of the gang
These items are probably the most common ingredients I’ve found in people’s pantries that absolutely belong in the fridge. It even says it on the label; you’ve probably never checked. The high salt content, bolstered by preservatives like sodium benzoate, help ensure that commercial produced soy sauces and similar products are unlikely to spoil and make you sick stored at room temperature. But you need to be going through them quickly, within 6 months, to make that really work in your favor. Traditionally, soy sauce and similar products were kept at room temperature because there wasn’t refrigeration BUT cooks were also using the product all the time, ensuring that it didn’t get a chance to go bad. Don’t use yours constantly? Put it in the fridge. Another reason to chill these products? You are robbing yourself of flavor. Flavor you paid for, damnit. Lillian Lin, co-owner of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, put it like this to Epicurious:
“Our soy sauce brewer, Yu Ding Xing, says that the ‘peak freshness’ lasts from three to six months after opening the bottle… the more delicate the flavors, the shorter the shelf life.”
Keep that flavor and stick it in the fridge, k?
Whole Wheat Flours, Nuts, Nut Butters, Seeds, and Specialty Oils
I was at a cute café last time I was in Nashville and part of my order was a garden salad topped with sunflower seeds. Fuck yes. But when the salad came, it tasted off because the sunflower seeds were old as hell or hadn’t been properly stored. It ruined the whole meal for me. You might not think you would notice something like that but even if you couldn’t put your finger on what was wrong, you’d know something was up. Products like whole wheat flours, nuts, and seeds have oils in them which make them delicious but also spoil quickly if stored in places with frequent temperature changes or that stay hot as fuck, like your kitchen. The oils in whole wheat flour, nuts, seeds, and your cooking oils start to oxidize as soon as they are made and will all eventually taste “off” given enough time and improper storage. You know the taste. That smell you get when you are wiping off the air vent, or hood if you are lucky, above your stove? That’s all the spoiled oil particles that have collected from your cooking and that smell is the exact taste when those products turn. That’s what my salad tasted like from those sunflower seeds. No thanks. You’ll know it from now on.
So where should everything go? I use my olive oil constantly so I’m not stressing about that but I keep my toasted sesame oil in the fridge because that one spoils faster than the rest. I use my brown rice fast too but if you don’t, consider the fridge. I keep my all-purpose flour in the pantry because I use it often and it doesn’t have that wheat germ oil in there to spoil as quickly. All the rest of my flours go right in my freezer in an airtight container. All the nuts and seeds that I am not actively snacking on go right in the freezer and all my nut and seed butters, even peanut butter, I keep in the fridge. Cashew butter is getting crazy fucking expensive; I’m not wasting that shit. Is it likely that eating any of these products in a small amount after they’ve turned will make you sick? Not really. But why the fuck do you want to eat stuff that tastes bad particularly when you spent your hard-earned money on it? No thanks.
Save your money and save dinner by storing your products the right way from the jump. Groceries aren’t getting any less expensive anytime soon but we can all get smarter about how we use and store what we buy to stretch those dollars as far as possible. Is there something you see people store wrong all the time and need to get it off your chest? Let me know in the comments so we can all do better.
Tomorrow, the Sunday Recipe Club will be baking a loaf of springtime soda bread along with the STP Recipe Podcast. It’s ready in an hour and complements a brunch spread perfectly. Not on the list? You know what to do.
“We need a bigger fridge…”
Thanks for all the tips! I'm moving in a few weeks, and I'll be cleaning out my pantry. Unfortunately, I have various nuts and seeds that have been languishing in the pantry for years, so out they go. :(
Also, I found out about maple syrup the hard way. I stored it in the pantry and went to use it, only to find mold. It now lives in the fridge. Thanks again, Michelle! You da bomb!
And one question: How about lentils? I couldn't find black lentils (I needed them for your winter rigatoni!), so I ordered them online in a huge bag. I have it sealed in the pantry, and I store my other lintels in glass canning jars, but should I be doing something else to preserve the flavor?