What Pantry Item Are You Never Out Of?

[helenjp]

There is NO ONE THING I can't do without. Running out of rice used to mean shopping time -- no more! Just too busy to get to the shops, even when I know we've run out of our staples.

I hate ancient cans lingering in cobwebbed cupboards, so I only keep canned tuna and canned tomatoes, and maybe corn and fruit.

Fresh stuff: Thin-sliced pork in the fridge, and some kind of salt fish in th freezer.

Seasoning..recently vinegar is my all-purpose seasoning, sharp when fresh, mellow when cooked.

Recent additions to the "core pantry list": Red pepper -- Chinese chili paste is my staple, but this sprinkling thing is addictive, and my sons are now old enough to like it when their food bites back...a little. Tempeh: keeps longer than tofu, extra quick for lunchbox food.

[Jake]

...(Newbies are especially welcome to answer.)

First day on the site -- I love it guys!

Couldn't resist the invitation...

EVOO

Garlic

Aborio rice

Pasta

Onion/Shallots

Celery

Carrots

Dijon

Stock

Vinegars (at least 4)

Wine (for both the dish, and the chef!)

Lemons/Limes

canned tomatos

Coffee

Maple Syrup

Roasted Red Peppers

Chipotles in Adobo

Dried/fresh chiles

Can make almost anything with these staples in the house.

[MichaelB]

You people scare me. I can honestly report that there is not a single edible thing in my home that I have not run out of at least once in the last 25 years.

To clarify the double negative -- if I use it, I have run out of it.

You know, you buy this stuff to EAT it, not look at it!

Edited December 15, 2003 by MichaelB (log)

[krisdata]

I've recently gotten better at planning the week's meals, and as a result a lot of the items that I used to always have (onions, garlic, redskin potatoes) I now only have if I know I'm going to use them that week.

However, there are some items that are always in the house:

The emergency standbys:

Canned tuna

Boxed Mac & Cheese

Canned tomato soup

Because the hubby packs sandwiches for lunch:

Wheat bread

Mustard

And the rest:

EVOO

Salt

Pepper

Soy Sauce

Microwave Popcorn

Coffee

Veggie oil

Self-Rising Flour (for that emergency batch of biscuits)

Margarine

And the cat food. Always cat food, and usually in large amounts.

I used to buy other yummies on a regular basis, but was just wasting so much food...

[denise_jer]

When I first saw catfood I thought it was outta place. Then my smarter side realized that yep, cat food is always carefully in stock. We can go without something but those cats do not understand "Shut up, it's 4:30,". I had a basset hound who was even better at reproach than most cats. Piss her off, she got right in front of you and sat down with her back to you.

We can't even walk if they are out of food. They try to trip us or "heel" and meow profusely (similar to tripping, but they pretty much only do that when we're on the stairs)! There must always be kibble at the bottom of the bowl.

EVOO

eggs

butter

flour

sugar

salt

black peppercorns

some kind of cheese

Mustard

Hot sauce

frozen veggies

canned tuna

rice

[tryska]

coffee.

and some sort of fat to fry things in.

[FistFullaRoux]

I think it needs to be reiterated that there is a difference between "Things you never run out of" and "Things you normally have"

Myself, the only 2 things I never let myself run out of is soap and toilet paper. Everything else has not been there at some time, but was resupplied at the next possible moment.

Eveyone has used the last of something. I used the last of the butter last night, but it's time for a shopping trip anyway. We're going this afternoon, and we will have it before I need it again, but I can't honestly say I've never run out of butter.

[GordonCooks]

Strip Steaks, Flank Steaks, Pork Tenderloins are on hand 24/7 as well as a dusty can of three bean salad I've had since college. I have no idea why I've kept it but I've packed it the last 10-12 times I've moved.

[tryska]

oh and half n half for my coffee.

these are truly things i NEVER allow myself to run out of.

it's a b*tch tryign to get to the store when you've got a poundign caffeine withdrawal headache.

[wnissen]

I'm going to interpret this question as: stuff that goes bad on the scale of weeks or days rather than months that we always have an extra of: For lunches, bread, lunch meat, bell peppers, baby carrots, apples, oranges. For dinners, garlic, shallot, onion (I always have all three around, for whatever reason), potatoes, romaine hearts, nonfat milk, heavy cream, butter, eggs.

I think that's it. Now, 90% of the time we have tomatoes and bananas, but I realize it's not actually a huge amount of stuff. There's a million things in the overstuffed pantry, but the real staples are quite limited. Thanks for coming up with this idea.

Walt

[suzilightning]

You people scare me. I can honestly report that there is not a single edible thing in my home that I have not run out of at least once in the last 25 years.

To clarify the double negative -- if I use it, I have run out of it.

You know, you buy this stuff to EAT it, not look at it!

we don't just look at it - we do eat it. when i use, say, my capers up i bring the spare up from the pantry and put capers on my shopping list. somethings i keep multiples of - tinned tomatoes- but if i buy some i do that time honored grocery store job and rotate the stock-

[Alex]

I have learned the great value of a pleasant and civil wife, especially in the morning. Therefore we never, ever, run out of coffee. And almost never run out of half-and-half or cream.

Otherwise:

EVOO

balsamic vinegar

Plugra

organic eggs

cheese of some sort

dried beans

canned tomatoes

Edited to add -- everyday wine

Edited December 15, 2003 by Alex (log)

[Mudpuppie]

We can run out of just about anything else and survive, but if there's no beer or no garlic, we're fucked.

You are my new hero.

Aside from the staples -- onions, garlic, potatoes, cheeses, good beer, cat food -- the one thing I am never without is Mezetta's pepperoncinis.

Edited to add "good" to "beer," and cat food.

Edited December 16, 2003 by Mudpuppie (log)

[McDuff]

We run out of everything all the time, except that right now we're holding an 11 lb tub of Schokinag cocoa and about 25 lb of Callebaut 835nv. Might be a while before we're scrounging for a hot chocolate.

[elyse]

I have to say I'm a hoarder. For whatever reasons, I sometimes don't go shopping for a long while, and the stuff in my cabinets really comes in handy. So, do I run out of it? Nope. Do I use it? Nope.

And all that crap on the fridge door? I don't even know what's there. I'll use it one of these days.

Spices and herbs? I've had some for almost 20 years, easily.

Oh yeah... what do I not run out of that I use? Iams and tap water.

Edited December 16, 2003 by elyse (log)

[prasantrin]

And all that crap on the fridge door? I don't even know what's there. I'll use it one of these days.

Spices and herbs? I've had some for almost 20 years, easily.

We have a bottle of TaB from the 60's . My dad went on a diet in the 60's so he started drinking TaB, but then my parents moved back to Thailand (they had been living in the US) for a few years so everything--including the TaB--went into storage. It was then shipped to Canada when they moved here from Thailand. I think we might still have a bottle of poppy seeds, and some bottles of spices, from around 1970, too! It's my mother--she's a pack rat and insists she'll use these things one day...

[Nick]

This has been an interesting thread and, so far, it seems to be that it's mostly city and urban people responding. Becoming more so with all the posts about coffee and half and half or whatever.

Coming from the country and being fairly conservative and thereby willing to accept one never knows what might be headed one's way - think about what you might need in the cupboard if things got tight. Like all you had to eat for the next two or three months was what you had on hand.

What's in your cupboard, or freezer, that will get you by for a couple of months?

[MarkinHouston]

"Coming from the country and being fairly conservative and thereby willing to accept one never knows what might be headed one's way - think about what you might need in the cupboard if things got tight. Like all you had to eat for the next two or three months was what you had on hand.

What's in your cupboard, or freezer, that will get you by for a couple of months?"

While I don't consciously keep that sort of staples on hand intentionally for just my wife and myself, I ordinarily have about five pounds of assorted rice varieties on hand (Texmati, arborio, and "wild"), three or four pounds of dry pasta (spaghetti, penne, and macaroni), and four to five pounds of dried beans (cannelini, small red, Navy, and probably some chickpeas and Lentils du Puy). I have to replenish the aromatics such as onions and garlic, and things such as canned tomatoes and fresh dairy items, but with fifteen or twenty pounds of chicken, beef, pork, and ground venison in the freezer, we could survive until the mortgage company got feisty!!! We have friends with three teenagers who can scarcely last two days without a major marketing trip--their tales of the kids and associated friends moving through the kitchen like locusts are stuff of legends!

[Jake]

This has been an interesting thread and, so far, it seems to be that it's mostly city and urban people responding. Becoming more so with all the posts about coffee and half and half or whatever.

Coming from the country and being fairly conservative and thereby willing to accept one never knows what might be headed one's way - think about what you might need in the cupboard if things got tight. Like all you had to eat for the next two or three months was what you had on hand.

What's in your cupboard, or freezer, that will get you by for a couple of months?

A couple of months??!?!?!?

You're correct, some of us are obviously well accustomed to city/urban life. After a couple of months all I'd have is the wine cellar!

[browniebaker]

For security, I always keep at least three pounds of butter in the freezer,

at least five bricks of cream cheese in the fridge,

at least ten pounds of all-purpose flour,

at least ten pounds of bread flour,

at least ten pounds of White Lily all-purpose flour,

always replenished whenever on sale, never at retail.

[elyse]

For security, I always keep at least three pounds of butter in the freezer,

at least five bricks of cream cheese in the fridge,

at least ten pounds of all-purpose flour,

at least ten pounds of bread flour,

at least ten pounds of White Lily all-purpose flour,

always replenished whenever on sale, never at retail.

And you live in an efficiency apartment?

[helenjp]

Yep, Nick, I'm country-born too, and my mother didn't drive (she was VERY supportive of me getting my license at the earliest possible age!), so I have an urban version of a country pantry.

I'm well aware that my Japanese neighbors, who shop for every meal, think that my fortnightly stock-up is not good planning and cautious preparedness, but laziness and the sign of a poor cook!

I also usually keep one spare of every common item...a mistake in a Japanese-sized kitchen, but I can't get out of the habit. I curse myself every time I trip over the earthenware jars of miso and salt plums that line our corridor, but continue to make new ones every year.

Good Japanese cooks don't store polished rice for more than 2 weeks. I therefore don't keep more than the 5kgs we go through in that time. I do keep enough noodles for about 5-6 meals, and enough flour for 1-2 weeks of bread-baking. With 2 adult men and 2 boys in the family, "enough for a meal" is quite a lot...

Dried food doesn't keep well through the rainy season here, so I always use it up by spring and restock in the fall, buying just what I need during the summer.

Dried beans are not cheap here, so I only keep about 3 half-pound packs in stock.

I rarely keep more than about 10 types of herb and 5 types of spice, because I don't want to accumulate a huge range of stale stuff.

However, I have to admit that while I let stocks run out of common stuff, and serve noodles instead of rice if I run out, if I run out of coffee, it's down tools and straight to the store!

[Maurice]

EVOO

garlic

Darjeeling Tea

Hershey kisses

[cfm]

I never run out of pasta - because I'm not totally adverse to using little shells for a suace that was meant to be for spaghetti.

Catherine

[nessa]

Chipotle peppers in adobo.

Tortillas

Beans

Rice

Cumin

Garam Masala

oh wait, we aren't doing spices....

rice of three varieties,

Nori seaweed

Flour

Tea

soy sauce

Gahhhlic

um cheese!!!!!!!!

Edited December 21, 2003 by nessa (log)