Prevent Spoiling Your Spices By Choosing The Right Kitchen Storage Spot

A meal is only as good as the ingredients that you use and if your recipe calls for spices, you know that the quality of those herbs can make or break your dish. Unfortunately, just getting your hands on the best spices isn't enough; you also need to know how to store your spices to ensure their maximum freshness is preserved. In addition to using good containers that help to keep the flavors fresh, there's also the most important tip to prevent your spices from spoiling: finding the right storage spot.

While spices are beloved for their potent flavors, they are also fairly delicate in their composition — so much so that storing them incorrectly in the wrong kitchen storage spot can cause them to spoil. This means keeping them away from sources or heat, humidity, and direct sunlight, as all of these factors can lead the spices to lose their incredible taste, rendering their usefulness highly compromised. Instead, you'll want to find a cool, dark, low-humidity spot for the freshest-tasting spices. You'll also want to think through genius ways to store spices without cluttering up your kitchen.

Though many home chefs like to keep their spices right next to the stove where they are easy to grab and add to a recipe, storing them next to your stove will result in the kind of heat that can harm their flavor profile. Similarly, while it could make for a cute display to store your spices in the windowsill, avoid this spot as the sunlight can impact the spices negatively, causing their flavors to deteriorate. No matter what region you live in, steam is a common condition in kitchens, from boiling pots of water to hot dishwashers. Because of this, spices stored near sources of moisture can begin to suffer from a clumping texture or even grow mold.

Even though there are lots of spots in the kitchen that are off-limits for spice storage, there are a couple options available for housing and organizing your spices. For starters, locate cabinets or drawers that are far away from your stove, electric tea kettle, dishwasher, or window. Any of these spots can provide an ideal location for spices, while keeping them well within your reach when cooking. If your kitchen is short on sufficient spots that meet these requirements, you can always solve your storage problem with a convenient spice rack for cabinets.