Coriander mystery

[JAZ]

Last week I had to make lamb curry for 30 students and staff, so I needed a lot of ground coriander. I used all the preground spice I had and then discovered that I didn't have any seeds to grind fresh.

Then I remembered an Indian spice kit I'd gotten a few years ago. I'd gone through it and used most of the ground spices and some of the whole, but just kept the rest of it around in case I ever needed, say, ajwain or white poppy seeds. I thought I might have had a packet of coriander seeds left in it, so I got it out of the cabinet. No seeds. But as I was looking though the packets I noticed spilled powder in the box just as I spied a packet of ground coriander. This is what I pulled out.

At first I thought insects, but it was the only packet that was affected. I didn't use the coriander -- even if it was okay, it was way too old, but now I'm wondering what caused that. Does coriander contain something that eats into plastic? Any ideas?

[HungryC]

I'd still suspect bugs: they were inside, and chewed their way out.

[ray goud]

If it was a property of the coriander, all the plastic would have a degradation, instead of small areas.

If it was insects in the coriander, there would have been a WHOLE BUNCH to make that many holes to get out!

I think it was coriander-loving bugs who wanted to get IN to the good stuff (polyethylene is a poor small-molecule blocker so they would have easily detected the aroma).

Ray

[OliverB]

looks like what the larva of those damn little moths do that we tend to get every couple of years. They get into anything if they want to, surprising as that is. I had to throw out lots of stuff a couple of years ago, nowadays I hunt for them as soon as I see one of them fly around. They seem to come with nuts or other such things at times.

Yumm

[sparrowgrass]

I would think that you would be able to see bug bits in the bag if it was bugs--surely some would have become trapped.

I have a vague memory of some sort of spice affecting plastic--I googled, and found one reference to cloves being hard on plastic.

[Lisa Shock]

What about mice? Or lizards? (I live in Phoenix, AZ and found a lizard in a cupboard once.)

[docdix]

I had the same thing happen to me. I packed the seeds in a zip lock and placed it in a tupperware inside the cupboard. After a few months I remembered I had some and was about to use them. As I unpacked it there were black "bugs" inside and yet the package had not been breached.Some of the seeds were already powdery. I surmised that the seeds had larvae contamination (either naturally or accidentally by the re-packer) Threw them out and bought a pack from an Indian grocery and so far its been free from any infestation four months running. Aside from reasons of flavor and aroma, that is why I toast them slightly before using them.

[Tom Gengo]

What about mice? Or lizards? (I live in Phoenix, AZ and found a lizard in a cupboard once.)

I would agree w/ Lisa, mice. I have seen the same type of tears in some of my plastics stored in the garage- probably to make a nest. I stored in the garage about 30 bucktails (deer tails) dyed a multitued of colors for my other passion, fly tying and fly fishing. Unfortunately the mouse (mice?) found them, chewed them up and made a nest out of bucktail hairs in a kalaidoscope of colors.

Edited January 28, 2010 by Tom Gengo (log)

[JAZ]

I have three cats. Mice and lizards don't last long, if they even dare to show their little heads.

As far as insects go, I'm not ruling it out, but it seems strange that only the coriander was affected.

[Chris Hennes]

On the far right-hand side of your photo in the upper region of the coriander there are small streaks of orange: these seem out of place to me. Is that just a photographic artifact?

[Beebs]

I've seen hatched bug larvae in whole coriander seeds (you can tell if it's been infested, because each seed has a little tiny hole in it). But your coriander is ground, so that couldn't be it....