A quiet jar of sesame seeds — lid on, cool shelf

Sesame from the bag is already spilling onto the pan for a crust — and the open bag sits in the steam. Easy: in weeks the seeds taste bitter, they smell of warm oil. I shut a jar and put it on a cool shelf — lid tight, not by the hob.

A quiet jar of sesame seeds — lid on, cool shelf. Nuts in the cupboard I smell for rancid is another note; a bowl of walnuts on the table its own; honey on the shelf another story. Here it is the sesame after the bag itself: a jar, a lid, cool — not a lecture about omega from seeds.

I smell honestly before I sprinkle: paint or fish — into the bin, not onto fish for shine. I take a small jar we will finish in a month, not a sack above the oven. I am not reviewing a new variety with a tasting here — it is about the handful already open at ours.

I do not need sesame that warms by the hob and spoils a salad with bitterness. I need a jar from the shelf from which the rice still smells of seed. At yours does sesame stand shut in the cool — or already open in the steam?