part 2/3

Spice-making tools & techniques:

1. Jars: You want to have airtight jars to store your spices in, and to store them in a cool, dry place like a cupboard. McCormack spices come in nice little plastic jars. You can buy special glass jars with labels & lids & organizing kits & magnets if you'd like. I just use 4oz Ball mason jelly jars (typically sold locally at supermarkets or craft stores in a green box as a 12-pack for like ten bucks or whatever) with aftermarket screw-on lids. Side note, I don't do anything fancy for organization, just making sure to have the labels facing forward (you can invest in a handheld label printer, if you want enhanced readability) & then sort them in alphabetical order, so that I can find what I'm looking for. If you're making your own spices (i.e. not just buying them off the shelf), I'd also recommend putting the creation date on the jar label, in addition to the spice name - that way you'll know how old it is. Spice age varies; I have a friend who is a spice-driven chef & doesn't keep any of his freshly-ground spices for more than 6 months (and typically only recommends creating small batches fresh & keeping for no more than a month!). It's worth reading up about the shelf life of different spices; here's a good starter article.
2. Freezing: You can also freeze certain items; bay leaves, for example,can last for years in the freezer, which is great for purchasing in bulk. Here's a good article on freezing fresh herbs. Hard herbs respond better to freezing than delicate soft herbs.
3. Zester: This is like a long, skinny cheese grater. You can do Parmesan cheese with it, plus shave chocolate, as well as zest lemon, plus zest all kinds of whole spices with it. Super useful tool to have in your inventory!
4. Coffee grinder: Specifically, the Krups model. This is like a tiny blender that will powderize whatever you put in it. Easy way to make your own spices from whole spices & dehydrated spices. You'll be amazed at how much more potent
5. Dehydrator: This is a plug-in appliance, which basically acts like a low-powered convection oven. Other than dehydrating stuff like fruit & beef jerky, they are also super useful for dehydrating spices! A good one to start out with is drying peppers & then grinding them using the Krups (if you like spicy stuff). You don't need anything fancy, literally just something to dry food items for hours on end. The round ones on Amazon start at $40. Nicer models go for $90, like this highly-rated Gourmia model. Excalibur is one of the top brands you can buy, if you want to get crazy into dehydration, or you can get a multi-functional device like the Breville Air. You may want to get a small Silpat sheet to help the process. You can also check out the air-drying process, which is especially useful for drying herbs on a zero-budget.
6. Smoker: Smoked spices (and cheeses, and meats) are amazing! You can use a traditional smoker or build a smoker, or use a pellet grill. One slightly more budget-friendly tool I use (a pellet grill is usually $350+, whereas this is $60 - or less, on sale, pays to check Oster's site directly) is an Oster smoker-roaster, which is a compact outdoor unit that you can actually use pellets in (I use these ones). Dehydrators & smokers are a bit on the more advanced side of spice-making, however, so think of these more as stuff to look at down the road. You can also buy smoked spices off-the-shelf to try, such as smoked paprika. Side note, you can also experiment with liquid smoke, which actually works pretty well in many dishes!
7. Roasting: You can roast spices either in a pan (skillet) or in the oven. This adds an additional depth of flavor (separate from smoking). Roasted cinnamon is a good one to try (and is available off-the-shelf from McCormick now!). More on the dry-roasting technique here. However, you don't always want to roast your spices.
8. Frying: Roasting is the dry version, frying is the wet version. More on the frying techinque here.

part 2/3