How to tell good black pepper
Size, smell and a simple float test you can do at home.
What a month of spices costs a family of four
From turmeric to cardamom: how much a Kerala kitchen uses in a month, and what it adds up to at our prices.
Customers sometimes ask whether buying from a spice shop costs more than supermarket packets. The fairest answer is to look at what a home actually uses. Here is a month for a family of four cooking two meals a day, in a Kerala style, at our current prices.
Turmeric powder: about 150 g, roughly ₹100. Kashmiri chilli powder: 200 g, about ₹175. Coriander powder: 250 g, about ₹90. Black pepper: 100 g, about ₹135. Mustard seeds and cumin: 150 g each, about ₹120 together. Fenugreek, fennel and garam masala in small amounts: about ₹110. Green cardamom, used in tea, payasam and biryani: 30 g, about ₹120.
That comes to about ₹850 a month, or ₹28 a day, for a family of four. Cardamom and pepper are the expensive items, and also the ones where fresh, bold produce makes the biggest difference, because you need less of a stronger spice to get the same flavour.
There are two ways to spend less without losing flavour. Buy whole spices where you can, such as pepper, cumin and coriander seed, and grind small amounts at home; they keep for a year, while powders are best within three months. And buy powders in quantities you will finish within that time. A 1 kg bag of chilli powder that goes dull in the cupboard is no saving at all. Our 1 kg and 5 kg packs make sense for restaurants and large households, not for most homes.
