The cloves just didn't smell sufficiently clove-y to me anymore. Based on the date I had scrawled on the lid with a Sharpie, I'd purchased the jar in November of 2018. Now, nearly five years later, the aromatic thrill was gone and I'd barely made a dent in the contents. Now, like several other equally fading but underused items on my spice rack, the cloves seemed to challenge me with an unwinnable quandary — do I toss and start fresh, knowing that the sun will be a cold rock in space before I bake enough to get to the bottom of another jar? Do I just put it back, destined to spend the rest of my days periodically eking out one-quarter tablespoon of the stuff at a time? Or could I figure out once and for all how to build a better spice rack?
There is no question that a well-curated arsenal of spices and dried herbs are essential for successful cooking and baking. But while an eclectic "global pantry" seems like the Pinterest board dream, reality can feel more like a collection of jars that resembles the family junk drawer and whose contents taste like… absolutely nothing. So determined to never throw out anything not completely used up was my late mother-in-law that her spices often carried the fonts of other eras. Needless to say, many of them were flavorless tubs of powder.
