How To Revive Stale Spices

Spices are the spice of life and the kitchen, but it's quite common to find that you don't have enough uses for all the various seasonings in your possession. How many recipes really call for dried mustard, anyway? Large spice jar sizes and recipes calling for just a quarter teaspoon of a spice at a time can mean that your spices will go stale over time.

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As many Americans are self-quarantining due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are setting out to make an easy homemade meal using pantry staples only to find their spices have lost some of their aroma or flavor. However, this doesn't mean you need to go through your spice drawer and toss them. With one simple step, you can bring your old spices back to life.In order to revive your old and stale spices, all you have to do is toast them on the stove.

To do this, put a skillet on a medium flame and add in the amount of spice that you're going to use. Shake the pan or stir the spices so that you toast them evenly for 1–3 minutes until the spices give off a strong aroma. Make sure you watch the spices carefully, as they can burn fast, and then they're no good.

This technique works especially well with whole spices, such as turmeric seeds and black pepper cloves, but it can be used with ground spices as well.

When using this trick to bring your old spices back to life, you'll want to make sure you heat up only the amount of spice that you're going to immediately use. Toasting your entire stash won't work as well, and you want to use up the freshly revived spice before it goes stale again. Spices can be super expensive, so you want to use your supply wisely and save as much as you can on groceries.