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I was organizing and labeling my spices cabinet when I run into those two spices that I cannot recognize. I'm assuming one of them is fenugreek. I'm quite sure I bought them when I had 'Indian cuisine' phase.

Cropped & sharpened
enter image description here

Original - click for full size.
Seeds I don't recognize

The left item seems looks and feels like a chopped peanuts or bark. However it has a onion-like/garlic-like smell with some earth or bark component.

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  • Why not taste them?
    – Sneftel
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 8:08
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    @Sneftel because I haven't used them in long time so I don't know how to recognize them by taste?
    – Maja Piechotka
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 8:51
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    Rather than taste (many spices don't taste how good expect in isolation), better to crush and smell them. Apart from taking a picture that's in focus, a ruler to give an idea of scale would make a big difference
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 9:20
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    Could you post another photo? A clearer image and placing a pen near the spices will give us an idea of the size of it.
    – Nav
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 9:25
  • @ChrisH I could not recognize them by smell either (kind of like bark, earthy something).
    – Maja Piechotka
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 10:00

2 Answers 2

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Agree that stuff on the right is fenugreek.

The stuff on the left is asafoetida.

asafoetida chips

source

Asafoetida is a resin and is sometimes sold in chips as depicted. It smells strongly like onions or garlic which would not be true for any nut.

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  • Damn, should have thought of asafoetida, that could well be it.
    – bob1
    Commented Nov 9, 2020 at 1:59
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It is quite hard to tell as the photo is blurry. The one on the right could well be fenugreek, it should be a blocky irregular shape with a division on it somewhere.

Edit: with the sharpened photos: It looks like a nut of some sort, possibly peanut because of the presence of what looks like a plumule (see 5th figure down page) in the flake at the bottom middle. I can't make out the one on the left, but it might be coconut flakes or possibly something like liqorice powder or even garlic flakes.

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    I think you're right on fenugreek, even though it's darker than I usually see. I think on the left could be just about any crushed nut.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 11:49

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