A quiet jar of cumin seeds

Into the pilaf I tip cumin by the handful from a crumpled packet — and afterwards I leave the packet by the oil near the hob. In a month the seeds already smell of cupboard dust, not of the east. I pour the cumin into a small jar with a tight lid and take it to a cool shelf — away from steam and sun.

A quiet jar of cumin seeds. Sesame, raisins, mustard seeds — other jars on the same shelf; spices in a dry pan before the onion — another habit at the heat. Here it is cumin itself at rest: a lid, cool air, the smell stays in the seed.

If a bitter oil smell is already there — I bin it, I don’t mask it in pilaf. Before soup I take a pinch from the jar, warm it briefly — then the onion. I’m not praising a new sack from the market here: I mean the one already opened at ours.

I don’t need cumin that cools as dust by the radiator. I need a jar from which a clean smell still rises. In your kitchen does cumin live under a lid on a cool shelf — or crumple as a packet by the hob?