I read food labels, but try to avoid foods which have labels.
I’m struck by how the same ingredients show up over and over again in different products. I looked up five McCormick spice mixes online for comparison:
The mixes contain ingredients we already have in the kitchen, apart from outliers like Yellow #5 and Tricalcium Phosphate. If we don’t have an ingredient, there’s invariably a substitute in the pantry.
Every spice mix contains dried garlic, slowly oxidizing, unable to match the impact of fresh garlic.
Previously I’ve posted about our spice system: whole spices if at all possible, small quantities, nothing more than one year old.
There’s plenty ingredient duplication in other product lines including salad dressings and canned soups. It’s no accident we don’t have these items in our pantry.
It’s easy to whip together a quick soup with an immersion blender, our almost-free stock from the freezer, mirepoix (which we make in bulk and freeze), and leftover vegetables.
