The Jar I Need is Always at the Back!
Spice Racks
Used by So Many, Used Well by So Few
Everyone who has ever cooked anything more complicated than toast has at least a few spices in their kitchen cabinets. After running a kitchen for a few years, many of us end up with a problem that will resonate with most: How do you organize a kitchen spice shelf?
When we first got married, our wedding registry included a couple of preloaded spice racks. One was a tall 4-sided Lazy Susan, the other was a wall mounted rack. It seemed like a good idea. It should have been a good idea. Sadly, intentions and execution do not always line up.
One of the problems with those preloaded racks is that the spices have frequently been sitting in poorly temperature controlled spaces for months, if not years. They tend to be stale. The other problem is that not all the spices are ones that every person will find useful. Due to an allergy, we do not use the cayenne powder or crushed red pepper flakes. Why pay for something you can’t or won’t use?
Not one to toss out babies with bath water, I tried to make the prepared spice racks work. It just seemed like they never did. The problem I kept running into was that the structured format of the wooden racks was at odds with my own natural attempts to organize. Short version: I don’t like other people telling me how to sort my stuff. I finally gave up on the prebuilt spice racks and went back to having a designated kitchen cabinet as the place where spices live.
I have been doing all of our cooking at home for the last 25 years or so, and have tried just about every system of organization there is for keeping that spice shelf under control. Why do this? It’s a fair question. It’s not absolutely necessary to organize your spice shelf. Different people have different thresholds of tolerance for organization. Organization is not an either/or, it’s a continuum. What looks chaotic to one person may seem perfectly serviceable to another.
I tend towards high levels of organization. When I was a kid, I used to make a game of going into my room and finding a particular object with my eyes shut. I always know when someone has been in my space, because I know how I leave my stuff. If one pen or slip of paper has moved on my desk, I know it.
As such, I like my kitchen cabinets organized. There are a few standard methods of organization, and I will speak to each. They all have their pros and cons, and it’s really such a personal decision that I would hesitate to say what is right or wrong, just what works for me.
One option is to throw up your hands and not bother organizing it at all. That’s not facetiousness, and it is a perfectly valid solution. That is the solution lots of people use. Especially if you are someone who does not use a lot of spices. Really, if you only have a dozen or so bottles of spices in your cabinet, why bother? You can just see your entire spice collection in a glance. It doesn’t really bear a lot of organizational effort.
Probably the most obvious organization scheme is alphabetical. This has the clear advantage that if you are looking for something, you will have a pretty good idea where to find it if everything is ordered alphabetically. The down side is that sometimes things have multi-part names. Does White Pepper go under W or P? Does Thai Chili go under T or C? You have to decide these things, then apply the rules consistently, or your whole system will fall apart.
Another system is to organize by geographic region. I have never used this one. It has a certain appeal, in that if you do a lot of Italian cooking, for instance, you might want to have all your relevant spices close together. In this system, your basil, oregano, rosemary, and garlic would all be side by side. This falls apart pretty quickly, though, in that some spices are used in a wide variety of cuisines. Just about everyone uses garlic and black pepper, for instance.
You might also organize by type. Hot spices together, herbs together, baking spices in their own group, etc. This suffers from some of the same limitations as the geographic organization. In the event of overlapping categories, what do you do? For instance, the general perception is that cinnamon is to be used in confections. Thing is, cinnamon is not inherently sweet. It is a general-purpose spice, and is kind of hot. I use it in curries, as well as in homemade garam masala. My wife has an allergy to capsicum peppers, so I mix a lot of my own spice packs, to avoid the possibility of finding cayenne or some other pepper in a mix.
The only consistently useful spice organization I have found is frequency of use. This is a system that is highly customized for each person’s kitchen, and is dependent on how you cook. It may even evolve over time as your own cooking habits change. If you do a lot of Italian cooking, the relevant spices will be at the front, while things that are not relevant to that cuisine will be further back. If you find yourself reaching to the back a lot, it might behoove you to consider moving that bottle to the front. If a bottle in front is gathering dust, it might be time to move it to the back.
An additional layer of complication for spice shelf organization is that not all spice containers are the same. I use a lot of garlic powder and dried basil, so I tend to buy those in bulk containers. Less-used spices would lose their flavor if I bought them in bulk. Something like powdered ginger, I buy in small bottles so it stays fresh for its entire useful life. You may not want the big bottles right in front, because they will block your view of things in the back.
I just bought a useful shelf that is 15 inches (38cm) wide and has three tiers in a stairstep arrangement. It fits inside my spice cabinet. I have the smaller bottles arranged front to back, with the frequently used spices in front, and the rest in order of diminishing frequency of use. The big bottles go off to the sides or into a different cabinet if they will not fit. So far, this system has been working. I tried in the past using one of those short 2-tier circular Lazy Susan trays. I found those things inconvenient and prone to mishap if they get spun too quickly.
Even more important than keeping your spices straight and accessible is making sure you don’t let them get too old. I just did an interstate relocation, and before moving, threw out a kitchen trash bag full of unused spices, many of which had expired ten years previously. We have a new household rule that every three months, I audit the spice shelf and find out what is getting close to expiring. That helps us use up spices before they lose their flavor to age.
Another useful tip is not to buy spices just because they look interesting or because they are on sale. Wait until you have a need, then buy. That will make sure your spices are at their freshest when you need them.
Happy Cooking!
