79 replies to this topic

[weinoo]

Allright, so I'm imagining there are eGulleteers who have a bit of a hoarding disorder. By that, I mean maybe you have dozens and dozens of cans of tomatoes, for instance. Canned tomatoes which, if you looked at the date on the can, might even be expired.

Or perhaps yours is more subltle: you know, 50 cocktail glasses stuck away somewhere just awaiting that cocktail party that you know you're never gonna throw.

Me - I like plastic containers. Cup size, pint size, quart size - doesn't matter to me. Gotta have 'em. And they're easy enough to collect, because when I order in (up) Chinese food, or Malaysian food, or Vietnamese food, that's what they come in. Valuable in most restaurant kitchens, to be sure. But at home, do I really need dozens and dozens of these space hogs that constantly tumble over?

What are you hoarding?

[JBailey]

My last hoard was soda bread from a local bakery around St. Patrick's Day. Their loaves were delicious. When the soda bread was stacked high I bought a single loaf and as the actual day approached I bought several more and a couple days after I bought out the balance of four. Yes I confess to eating them - well I did give one away!

I find myself doing this with other items when the season starts to end. Peaches in the summer or corn from the farmstand when I know there are only a few more pickings from the field or ripe tomatoes...OK, I guess I hoard anything when scarcity faces me!

[abadoozy]

Duck confit... I even started a thread about it here a few months ago. I made some about a year ago, sous-vide, so it was in sealed pouches in the fridge. We ate most of it, then got down to one last package. I wanted to save it for a special occasion, so let it sit. And sit. And sit. It's still in the fridge, I can't bear to throw it away, but after thinking about botulism and other bad things, I can't bring myself to eat it either.

[Darienne]

Poblanos.

I am hoarding Poblanos right now. I have never hoarded Poblanos before. They have never been for sale in my area and every week I go into the grocery store which carries them to see if they are still stocking them. The produce manager says he'll carry them as long as they are available from the central distributor.

Yesterday's lot was sort of puny...but I bought some anyway. I have frozen Poblanos to last a good long while, and still I buy more, fearful that each time will be the last I ever see them in Peterpatch.

Tonight is Poblano Soup.

[the old cook]

First time on here as a registered member, so hopefully, am doing this the right way....I hoard: china, I have at least nine sets (or more) of china...love it all! DO use it, at my advanced age, can't wait for "someday"...for food items, it's chocolate, I don't actually like chocolate that much, but always afraid I will not have any if I need it. Hmmm...maybe I need to make something with all that chocolate and serve it on china!

[weinoo]

First time on here as a registered member, so hopefully, am doing this the right way....I hoard: china, I have at least nine sets (or more) of china...love it all! DO use it, at my advanced age, can't wait for "someday"...for food items, it's chocolate, I don't actually like chocolate that much, but always afraid I will not have any if I need it. Hmmm...maybe I need to make something with all that chocolate and serve it on china!

Welcome to eGullet...9 sets of china may be a record...but on eG one never knows .

[Darienne]

Welcome Old Cook to eGullet. And welcome also to those of us who are at 'advanced age'. You are not alone.

Chocolate on china sounds good to me. You don't want to hoard your chocolate past its prime.

[andiesenji]

Allright, so I'm imagining there are eGulleteers who have a bit of a hoarding disorder.

Me - I like plastic containers. Cup size, pint size, quart size - doesn't matter to me. Gotta have 'em. And they're easy enough to collect, because when I order in (up) Chinese food, or Malaysian food, or Vietnamese food, that's what they come in. Valuable in most restaurant kitchens, to be sure. But at home, do I really need dozens and dozens of these space hogs that constantly tumble over?

What are you hoarding?

Ditto! But I am often taking things to other people so I do go through them fairly rapidly. I can't say as I "hoard" any of the ones that come with foods in them, my supplies of plastic containers are purchased.

the old cook

Posted Today, 08:15 AM
First time on here as a registered member, so hopefully, am doing this the right way....I hoard: china, I have at least nine sets (or more) of china...love it all! DO use it, at my advanced age, can't wait for "someday"...for food items, it's chocolate, I don't actually like chocolate that much, but always afraid I will not have any if I need it. Hmmm...maybe I need to make something with all that chocolate and serve it on china!

Again, Ditto!

I'm really not sure just how many sets of "china" I have. I have antique sets I inherited and sets that I have acquired during the past 50+ years. I have seasonal sets that are brought out for a particular season of the year.
Most are packed away and are rotated out for use every few years.
I don't consider it "hoarding" per se., I consider it collecting.


As far as hoarding foods go, I have sufficient canned goods to see me through a siege and/or a severe earthquake aftermath. I have enough hot sauce of various brands to light up a small city, but again, that is not hoarding, that is "collecting".

As long as you are not sleeping with several hundred cans with no labels under your bed, I don't think you are hoarding. (This was recently on the local news - an elderly man in Lake Los Angeles.) Now that's hoarding!

Edited by andiesenji, 02 April 2011 - 09:06 AM.

[OrionChef]

I hoard deli containers, I guess it's a carry over from work. My fridge, looks like my Mise tray at work - everything in deli's - labeled and everything.

I might need to find a support group.

[Alchemist]

I have the Deli hoarding disorder as well. But they go to good use as when I make most things I make them in restaurant quantity. I just finished 12 quarts of chicken stock yesterday and today, along with 6 quarts of posole. Therefore I NEED dozens of deli's.

Food stuff wise, it's pickles, mustards (I have at least 8 different kinds), hot sauces (from at least 7 different countries), and anchovies. I'm not proud.

[lstrelau]

I have 9 or 10 more or less complete sets of china plus a full set of Armetale 'peweter' and then an inordinate number of sets of 8 or 12 plates/bowls/cups in individual patterns that are great for creative plating. And then there is the cutlery...mostly sterling (except for the everyday stainless) 12 place settings of 19 implements in one antique set, plus another fish set and a couple of other antique sets of knives/forks for various purposes (dessert, pastry). And then the Reidel crystal - whether or not one believes that a different glass for every grape is really necessary (whether it is or not, I like using them) makes another 8 or 10 of about 15 different stems. Sheesh when I start trying to catalogue it I do sound a bit obsessive... but we do use all of it - not at once of course (except for my annual birthday dinner when I serve 8 people 12-15 courses and use as many of the pieces as I can find use for).

As long as I don't have to move into a smaller house I'm okay for now but it will be one hell of an estate sale or garage sale when I go!

[liuzhou]

I'm an English man living in China. Some every day things back home are rare here, so when I see them I buy the lot. I did have about 40 cans of anchovies (only one left), twenty of Heinz baked beans, 10 jars of capers, ludicrous amounts of tomato paste. ...

The problem here is that they get these things in, sell out in seconds then never restock. They don't really know what they are. Duh!

Edited by liuzhou, 02 April 2011 - 10:24 AM.

[Paul Bacino]

Dried Pasta.. In every shape.. I can find

Rustica, Latini and Barilla.. mostly

Edited by Paul Bacino, 02 April 2011 - 12:18 PM.

[chezcherie]

i write trader joe's cookbooks. tj is notorious for discontinuing great stuff. therefore, i hoard tons of tj's stuff. in fact, i exhort readers to hoard their favorites, too. with trader joe's, it's a matter of self-preservation.

[runwestierun]

OK, here goes. *deep breath*

I have 4 freezers. And 3 refrigerators. Do you need to know more?

[andiesenji]

i write trader joe's cookbooks. tj is notorious for discontinuing great stuff. therefore, i hoard tons of tj's stuff. in fact, i exhort readers to hoard their favorites, too. with trader joe's, it's a matter of self-preservation.

I do have to confess that when it looked like they were going to discontinue the black beluga lentils in the microwave heat bag, I bought a bunch.

I also buy the seasonal stuff when they are closing it out. (The peeled chestnuts in the microwave heat bags, for instance.)

TJ's has some super good bargains when they have closeouts - the discounts are deep and the use by dates are usually far in the future.

[Margo]

I hoard deli containers, I guess it's a carry over from work. My fridge, looks like my Mise tray at work - everything in deli's - labeled and everything.

I might need to find a support group.

Welcome, OrionChef, I think you've found your people.

Count me as another plastic container hoarder. That really can't be justified with the label "collecting." The hot sauces, on the other hand, can.

[weinoo]

OK, here goes. *deep breath*

I have 4 freezers. And 3 refrigerators. Do you need to know more?

That's not hoarding; that's the depletion of the world's fossil fuels .

[IndyRob]

Getting a FoodSaver caused me to hoard meat. Every Saturday morning I'd go hunting. Not for game, but for bargains. More was going into the freezer than was coming out. I think I'm recovering now, but there is probably still a few pounds of miscellaneous cryovac'd proteins in there.

[qrn]

as some above ,its the freezer,with all of that vac packed stuff,,,and stuff from last years garden etc.etc,
and the pile of pans,pots and other cooking stuff that I had to put on the huge rack in the basement....so the kitchen cabs would not run over
Bud...

[the old cook]

oh boy, forgot to even talk about all the crystal and silver I also "collect", luckily, I DO have once a month luncheon for lots of ladies, which allows me to use parts of it...and I too have freezers and refrigs...plural. Obviously, I have "issues"! I need to get to know people like you all, I am considered VERY odd where I am, due to my desire to use real plates, etc., over paper! And, to love cooking!

Why am I feeling I have to apologize because I like cooking from scratch?

[maggiethecat]

Um, I doubt that anyone needs ten pie birds, but I won't ever stop hoarding -- er, collecting them.

I hoard butter -- when it goes on sale I'll fill the fridge with it, then go buy some more. Just in case.

[sparrowgrass]

Wild rice. I stocked up the last time I was in Ely MN (at least 2 summers ago), and when I cleaned out the freezer there was a 3 pound bag and 2 one pound bags.

[Chris Hennes]

I hoard butter -- when it goes on sale I'll fill the fridge with it, then go buy some more. Just in case.

I hear ya Maggie...

[FoodMuse]

I hoard spices!



I do clean up this clutter every now and then, but after making a curry or complex chili it all goes to hell again.

[andiesenji]

oh boy, forgot to even talk about all the crystal and silver I also "collect", luckily, I DO have once a month luncheon for lots of ladies, which allows me to use parts of it...and I too have freezers and refrigs...plural. Obviously, I have "issues"! I need to get to know people like you all, I am considered VERY odd where I am, due to my desire to use real plates, etc., over paper! And, to love cooking!

Why am I feeling I have to apologize because I like cooking from scratch?

Don't apologize, glory in it! That's what I do - check my cornbread from "scratch" post on my blog!

[BeeZee]

I seem to have an inordinately large number of canned tomato products...

[andiesenji]

I hoard spices!



I do clean up this clutter every now and then, but after making a curry or complex chili it all goes to hell again.

I'll see yours - and raise you ....... these!




plus these that live in the freezer - spice mixtures with seeds and etc., that often have unwanted hitchikers that hatch at room temp.



And those do not include the salt collection and the pepper collection:

I'm NOT hoarding, not at all. I am merely prepared for just about any cuisine from several continents.
One never knows when a visitor from some exotic local may drop in and wish to cook for me.

[baroness]

I'm NOT hoarding, not at all. I am merely prepared for just about any cuisine from several continents.
One never knows when a visitor from some exotic local may drop in and wish to cook for me.

I am SO stealing that excuse for my huge spice/condiment/cookbook/gadget/small appliance/Fiestaware collections!

[abadoozy]

As of today, I have 4 geese in my fridge/freezer. Does that count?