— Svetlana Hanson

So, you know, let me share at, you know, at least my, uh, experience with, uh, tahini and, and, um, the first thing that comes to mind is that, you know, some, uh, sesame seed products, and this is, uh, I guess goes beyond tahini. This is true of, uh, sesame oil as well, but some items, uh, can be bitter or, you know, have some noticeable bitterness from the start. Um, you know, while others are very mild or have, uh, no, I'll say for most people anyway, no perceptible, uh, bitterness. And, um, so, uh, you know, one thing comes to mind, and that is, I'm wondering, Svetlana, if you are one of these super tasters, you know, when it comes to bitterness, in other words, uh, while, you know, most of us out there probably fit, you know, uh, our sensitivity to bitterness, right? Fits within, you know, some, uh, more common range of variation. There are outliers that are particularly sensitive to bitterness. And, um, yeah, I'm, I'm wondering if that could be your palate, your, your sensitivity to, uh, this particular taste. Keep that in mind, you know, as, uh, as you move forward, uh, uh, tasting foods. But, um, so how long can tahini be stored in the fridge? So this is, uh, related to the previous, um, question on soy sauce and, uh, and many other questions that we received in the past, uh, regarding the shelf life of a product. Um, generally speaking, uh, folks don't do a maximum shelf life on product. There's just too many variables. And, um, when it comes to, you know, a fairly stable product, you know, like tahini, um, the, the shift in quality, uh, or we might say the decline in quality, uh, can be very gradual and long. And so where you decide that it's no longer palatable is really an individual decisions, an individual choice based upon, uh, you know, pallet pre preference, ultimately. Okay? Um, so how, you know, I store mine outside of the fridge. And, um, again, I'm in a, in a relatively cool part of the world, um, right at the 45th parallel. And, um, tahini can last for a few months, um, in the fridge. Uh, and, and it's not because it goes bad, uh, for me, it's because I end up eating it, um, and having to replace it. But, uh, uh, you know, you might, uh, just, uh, date your container, put it in the fridge, and then, um, uh, again, try to use through, you know, work through it in a, in a, uh, say, timely fashion before you start to pick up, uh, bitterness that's bothersome to you. And, you know, once again, uh, you might consider a smaller container. I buy tahini in a gallon sized jug. It's, you know, it's, it's this big. But, uh, you might consider something much smaller, um, that is in, in alignment with your usage rate. Okay? Uh, and can you freeze it? Yes, you can freeze it. Um, uh, it's, it's, uh, kind of atypical. Um, but give it a try and, you know, you know, be prepared for, uh, the, uh, tahini separates anyway. Um, so certainly be, be prepared for some separation of the oil from the other solids. And, uh, you know, bring that out to defrost, uh, in whatever time is adequate, whether it's 24 hours or more or less. And then stir it, um, you know, sufficiently so it's all even in viscosity again, because, um, you know, even at room temp, um, the solids will tend to fall, uh, to the bottom of the jar. Uh, the oil, you have an oil slick at the top and things at the bottom get really, really hard. And, uh, so to just keep that, uh, mixed, you know, before you use it is, uh, gonna be the best practice. And then, is almond butter a good substitute? Um, you know, uh, any of the other nut and seed butters can be a good substitute. It just depends on what you're using it for. Um, if you wanna make something, uh, in a, in a more traditional fashion, uh, that calls for, uh, tahini, then no. Maybe that's not the best answer. But if you want to just make another version of something, then sure, uh, almond butter can be great. Um, also note that these different seeds and nuts, uh, have different flavors. So, you know, as you use almond butter in place of tahini, or, you know, a sesame seed paste, that the flavor of the end product is gonna be very different. And so give it a try and see how you like it. Uh, that's, uh, gonna be, you know, the feedback that I give to a lot of, uh, cooks, a lot of students, uh, that make ingredient substitutions.