Stuff These Stockings With Spices
The most successful stocking fillers are the perfect blend of the mundane and the special, plus bonus points if it’s something a stocking wearer will never buy for themselves. This is what makes spices – really good spices – the perfect stocking filling for anyone who’s cooking (or wanting to learn how to cook).
I’m not talking about mixtures, although I have recommendations for them too. The blends are not as versatile as the individual spices, and they don’t generate as much curiosity in the kitchen. I’m talking about deluxe versions of the universally beneficial pods, seeds, and powders. Truly delicious smoked paprika, whole cardamom pods (both green and black), tellicherry peppers are just a few of the options that immediately spring to mind, as are the notoriously expensive vanilla pods and saffron threads.
If the stocking owner is trying to imbue a particular regional cuisine, buy the spices they are most likely to need. Give sumac if they are just starting out in mid-Easter cooking, whole dried peppers for Mexican food, or makroot lime leaves for Thai food. (Bonus: lime leaves will give the stocking an awesome smell.) If your goal is to really bake, buy them some Ceylon cinnamon, a fancy vanilla paste they’ll never buy for themselves, or a can of whole nutmeg.
This is, of course, not a complete list of good spices to put in someone’s stocking. If their culinary interests are not listed above, a quick Internet search is sufficient to find the spices that are key to a particular cuisine. Then it just remains to buy the thing. And at the very least, you can always stuff their stockings with some really good salt. Both Maldon and Jacobsen sell their salt flakes in small cans, and they always admire.