Spice Check!

I don't have a very organized system for storing my spices. Basically I line them up on two small shelves in the cabinet between the fridge and the stove. The frequently used ones are kept towards the front, and when I need something less accessible I have to stand on a kitchen chair to reach. Sometimes when planning to make a recipe I have to dig through all of the containers to see if I have the particular spice I need, and occasionally I have purchased a duplicate for whatever reason (I think I actually have three opened containers of garlic powder!).

Recently I decided that I needed to be a little more organized about things, so I took out all of the spice containers and made an alphabetical list of what I have, and taped it to the inside of the cabinet door. That way when I am not sure if I have what I need for a recipe, I can just check the list.

As I was digging things out of the cabinet to make my list, I am embarassed to admit I found this little gem:

If you can't read the text on the bottom, it says "Sell By July 29 1985". The spice is more than 22 years old!!! But why I had that old spice (ha ha) is a mystery. I would have been six years old at the time of its sell-by date. And the first time I lived in a place where I would have had my own spices was in my junior year of college, in 1999! So it doesn't make sense that I would have had that spice before it was already 14 years expired!

Where did the mystery spice come from?? My theory is that maybe it happened to be left inside a cupboard of a house or apartment I moved into, and without noticing it I included it with the rest of my spices. Or perhaps one of my former roommates had it and left it for me when she moved out. Either way, it quickly found its way into the trash. And to anyone who has eaten cookies or cakes I have baked... don't worry, I have another NEWER container of allspice.

Maybe y'all should check your own spices! McCormick even made a website dedicated to it: http://www.spicecheckchallenge.com/