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?

Sorry Silvery!

Yes, we know mustard oil is sold, but unless you happen to live in an area where it is sold, it is difficult to get hold of. You are very lucky if you have a local Indian supermarket - as previous comments have indicated, not everyone does have one on their doorstep

It's nice to share ideas and hear how other people overcome such obstacles

(I think it's interesting, anyway)! I helped at a Foodbank in the summer holidays, and it was so great to exchange cookery tips with other enthusiastic people. We al learned from each other.

Can get rapeseed oil instead then. The taste's the same. A lot of commercial mustard oils are blended with rapeseed anyway. I personally

Foxes Spices are very good but they don't do internet sales, only mail order. The bags you get from them are huge for the price though and very good quality. They do all the county shows in the summer and I stock up then.

I tend to use either Asian grocery stores or Just Ingredients, they're very good.

Sainsburys mixed spice contains Cinnamon, Coriander Seeds, Dill Seeds, Ginger, Cloves, Nutmeg. The reviews on their web site are dire. I took mine back as it just smells revolting and wrong. I'm sure it's the dill deeds that are the problem, it's supposed to be a mix for puddings and sweet food FFS.
I used the Barts one from Waitrose this year.

Dill in mixed spice? No. Just, no.

Doubtless, one of Sainsbury's "little twists"

Add mustard seeds to your spices instead of using mustard oil and use rapeseed or groundnut oil instead of ghee. I've never had a problem sourcing ingredients but 'I live in an ethnic area.
I dislike ready prepared spices - they tend to taste like dust or they will have an overpowering taste of certain ingredients.

Dill seeds?!

They'll be using mustard, next.

Dill is one flavour I really dislike.

Isn't ghee just clarified butter? Presumably it's fairly straightforward to make your own (melting, filtering)?

Dill is lovely, but not in a cake. OK, I appreciate that the difference between dill seed and herb will be much the same as for coriander, but still, not in a cake.

I'll have to report back on the Christmas cake, in a month! I did use a little in some butternut squash muffins the other week, but didn't put the gritty things in because I didn't have a clue where they came from. Thought the slightly out of date ginger that I'd used had gone hard, so chucked them. They smelled good and the boys didn't complain. Easy enough to make, too. I bought and chopped up some Boodles instead of faffing around with a grater or processor.

Neither dill or coriander are spices, they are herbs and have no place in mixed spice.

It used to also be called pudding spice and that was really a good mix of actual spices, not seen that for some years though.

Sorry but cinnamon has no place in food whatsoever, it is disgusting and seem to pop up in cakes and puddings everywhere. It can also cause an allergic reaction, I am lucky it only makes me feel queasy and I can smell it before it does harm. www.healthline.com/health/cinnamon-allergy

I'm only half Indian so can't claim authority but ghee is in my experience more of an older generation thing. I wouldn't use it in a normal curry on the reg. Coconut oil behaves in a similar way to ghee (high smoke point, solid at room temp) if you want to be a bit trendy, god knows what my grandmother would say.

OP, if you don't have a good Indian supermarket but don't mind ordering online, there is a company called Steenbergs who are very good. Great quality stuff, and some great blends as well as spices.

Dill and coriander seeds aren't herbs. The herbs are the leafy bits.

I'll have to have a look next time I need to stock up, pistachio. In fact, I really should watch this thread as it's full of intriguing websites!

It's all dup to Brexit. Mark my words first shit spices, then the world!

Yes, I think ghee is more or less just clarified butter? In 20th century English cuisine, used to seal pates and potted shrimp. I think I may even have made some way back when...

I once had dinner at a supposedly upmarket restaurant where, with my pate and toast, they presented me with a tiny little pot containing butter that had obviously melted poured in and allowed to solidify again. When you do this to butter, it does not turn back into butter: it becomes something else, not particularly nice to spread on your toast.

I politely asked for some unmelted butter and, was basically told, by the head waiter, not to be so stupid, that it was butter. Well it wasn't, as anyone who uses butter will tell you. Never been back there.

Well, it's common to pour clarified butter on top of a pate to seal it, but in a separate pot is just bonkers.

Santo Domingo!

Still in need of mustard powder. Will probably have to add some to my Sainsbury's order for this week.