A quiet jar of chilli flakes

By the hob an open sachet of chilli flakes — kettle steam lifts the sharp smell, and by midweek the sachet is already flat and dusty. I tip the flakes into a small glass jar, click the lid, and put them somewhere cool and dark — not above the hob, not by the window. The next pinch still burns clean.

A quiet jar of chilli flakes. Paprika as powder is another jar on the shelf; oregano as leaves in the dark is another herb; cumin as seeds is another seed story; paprika I actually use is another note. Here only the chilli flakes: heat under a lid, cool and dark — no pan steam.

If they already smell of hay with no heat left — I bin them, I don’t hide them in a tomato sauce “for show”. A pinch near the end of cooking — I don’t boil them for an hour. I’m not selling a new sachet from the rack — only the flakes already open in our house.

I don’t need flakes that cool as dust by the radiator. I need a jar that still smells sharp and clean. In your kitchen do chilli flakes live under a lid in the cool and dark — or as an open sachet in hob steam?