SC -Siggy dated was The top 10 icks list

[Siegfried Heydrich]

>  The spice shelf in my kitchen
>smells sooo good that I can hardly bring myself to transfer the spices from
>their paper bags to their jars.
>
>Gwynydd

Best to do so, though, if you want them to retain their fine 
flavorful and aromatic essential oils. Regardless of how they were 
kept in Medieval times. You'll get to enjoy them longer. If you 
really like it, you could take a small amount of your favorite and 
put them in a little cloth pouch like a sachet and keep it in the 
cupboard to remind you of what you are protecting.

Although i now have most of my medieval herbs and spices in smallish 
glass jars, light is also hazardous to spices and herbs and if you're 
spices are kept in a standard kitchen spice rack most of the time, 
many will loose their color as well.

Furthermore, heat causes the essential oils to volatilize - thus the 
flavor is gradually lost into the air, even in a closed jar - it 
isn't hermetically sealed, after all (unless you have one of those 
vacuum sealing machines i saw on the shopping channel at my mom's 
house) - so the volatile oils will seep out.

So, if you want to preserve their flavor and appearance, i recommend 
that you keep you herbs and spices in a cool place, not over or near 
your stove and/or oven, and either use the brown jars (but then you 
can't see as easily what's inside) or keep your jars in a dark place.

Anahita
just discovered my galangal has lost its flavor so i need a new 
batch, but my 25 year old cubebs are still amazingly fragrant.