Why I keep the stock cube tin shut tight

The cube is already out — and the tin stands open by the hob “I’ll shut it in a minute”. Easy to forget: by the week the cubes are softer, they smell of cupboard and steam, they crumble into mush. I shut the lid tight at once — so dry cubes wait for the next soup, not dampen in the steam.

Why I keep the stock cube tin shut tight. A stock cube when there is no bone is another note; a jar of tomato paste its own; a quiet cup of stock another story. Here it’s the tin after the cube itself: lid, dryness, cupboard — not a lecture about “proper bone broth”.

If a cube is already soft or smells of damp — I smell honestly: doubt — into the bin, not into the pot “nobody will notice”. I keep the tin in a dry cupboard, not above a boiling kettle. I’m not reviewing a new brand in this note — it’s about the tin that already stands on our shelf.

I don’t need cubes that sweat in an open tin. I need a lid from which next Tuesday smells of soup, not of cupboard. At yours is the stock cube tin shut at once — or already standing open, and the cube soft?