To wonder wtf is happening to spices?

[PickAChew]

I've noticed a general downgrading in quality, this year. I've tried and failed to find decent cardamom. Every pack I've seen has been tiny pods and the ones I've ended up with are impossible to open and often dehydrated when I do get in.

I can put that down to a bad harvest, but it doesn't explain the mixed spice I've just used for my Christmas cake. After sifting it with the flour, I was left with lots of odd little bits. Turns out that it's more than half orange peel. Yes, tasty in a cake where you want orange peel, but it's obviously there to cut costs, along with the use of cassia, instead of cinnamon.

And pimento? Just why?

I like the spices in the world food aisle of my little Sainsbury's. Cheap, loads of choice, good quality

If you have a big supermarket they often have an "ethnic aisle", with lots of overseas products. Look down there for great spices (at a fraction of the cost of the ones stocked elsewhere in the store). Also cheaper basmati rice!

Just want to add, the ethnic aisle is also a much cheaper source if ginger paste, coconut milk

You can get smoked paprika in Tesco.

Waitrose spices are the highest spec! (Used to work for a spice company) Really top quality. Natco etc are pretty nasty which is why they're cheap. Honestly, the price you pay reflects the quality of the ingredients.

Can'tChoose The one on that web page says 'for external use only' The mind boggles. What would it be used for - a chest rub, or a knee poultice perhaps?

I have heard before that it can't be sold as a consumable here, so I do wonder why so many cookery books/chefs advise you to get hold of it if you can?

I do use Ghee. Maybe just add mustard powder let down with a bit of water and rapeseed oil to it to make your own mustard oil?

Agree with looking in the supermarket's ethnic aisles. Coconut milk is definitely cheaper, and I found Pomegranate Molasses and Turkish Pepper Flakes (Pul Bibir) sp? in our local Asda

I know you can get smoked paprika but sweet smoked is different apparently. It comes in a tin.

The front says mixed spice! No small print. I think dh might have picked that one up, but tbh I'd probably not have expected anything but mixed spice if I'd picked it up. I bought the stuff there because the Sainsbury's stuff has been awful since its rebranding.

I did look at the ethnic food aisle when I was in a Sainsbury's that has one (my nearest big one doesn't) and the bags of cardamom were exactly the same, so I think there might have been a crop problem with that. Tesco's were the same.

As for an Indian supermarket, my nearest one is an extra bus ride beyond my nearest waitrose, which isn't a big one and isn't that near.

Asda are pretty good for a lot of ethnic ingredients actually, incl the fresh veg aisle. A couple of unusual veggies I've bought out of interest and not quite known what to do with them.

I've bought sweet smoked paprika in M&S in the past, and I think also Sainsbury's. The proper Spanish stuff in the tin, not their own brands San Domenico, I think?

Indian supermarkets for everything spice related. Even traditionally non-Indian spices.

I think you should be able to get a kilo of shelled for £4-6 right now. Got a couple of bags recently for family.

The tins of smoked paprika are definitely a whole order of magnitude better than the jars.

Which reminds me, I've run out. M&s did used to sell a nice one of those, which I was thankful for when Sainsbury's stopped selling the sweet la chinata

Yes, San Domenico

My local Tesco sell Ghee

So does mine oakthorn in fact so does my crappy little corner shop. They don't sell bread but you can get pretty much everything you need for a curry.

I've had good sweet smoked paprika, and all the other flavours, from TK Maxx in the past, in nice tins.

This is not just a first world problem, surely? Who grows and harvests the spices?

As an retired old gimmer living alone (but cooking the occasional curry, chilli, etc for me and/or others, and baking cakes with spices in) a few grams of spices are all I need - so it's important to me that they are the right ones. And I have no Waitrose anywhere within range even though I drive.

Carrot cake needs cinnamon, for example...Mmm carrot cake...

Pussycat, it was just a light-hearted comment. Spices are important to me too.

Sorry, it wasn't a dig. Just that I have been musing recently on the connectedness of everything :)

Isn't mustard oil illegal in this country now due to it been indigestible i was making a tikka masala recipe from scratch that called for this but i just used my usual veg oil instead and it still tasted amazing

And what you said got me thinking...

I fancy trying ghee to cook curry thanks to this thread. Without it, I too might have been trying to source mustard oil.

I had no idea about mustard oil not being sold for consumption. I buy it at my local Indian supermarket, and use it in one of my favourite recipes (Achari Murg). Haven't died yet (obviously)!

Mustard oil is sold. I bought it yesterday