Life is busy – it’s that way for many of us. I wake up at 5AM, write for up to an hour and am out the door before 7. I get home 12 hours later, we walk the dog and it’s 8 or 8.30. A quick look through the fridge to see if there’s enough to cook something and a decision to cook or eat out. While we cook fairly often, we really could eat at home more with a tiny bit of planning and a few more ingredients in the cupboard.
The problem with our ‘pantry’ (which is really just a series of shelves) is that it’s full – and barren. To be clear I am really talking about everything that isn’t a preserve – tins of mystery ingredients, unmarked spices and random quantities of different beans, grains and rice.
This years goal is to take control of the pantry. I’ve been doing some research and here’s the plan:
- Clear out existing items that won’t be used. I’m going to take things that I haven’t used out of the cupboard and place them on te kitchen table. We’ll begin by cooking our way through those things to make room for the core staples.
- Label the spices and herbs. I have a bunch of small mason jars waiting for the bags of mystery spices. Spices that I don’t use often will also have to be purged or used (preferably used)
- Deliberately choose 20-40 must-haves and a quantity for each. Although I don’t know the contents of the list I know some of the items such as:
- Large jar of honey
- Flour – 2 mason jars of 1 large bag
- Instant yeast – bread
- 2 types of rice – large mason jar each
- 1 large mason jar of dried barley
- 1 large container of maple syrup
- 1 large mason jar of lentils
- Stock. Lots of stock (preferably made here). A large freezer would change our life (though we could pressure can it).
- 1 large mason jar of dehydrated split peas
- We will keep backup of most – which is fairly easy since things like Lentils come in large bags which are bigger than a mason jar. I’ll keep the backup separately and when I dive into my backup supply, I will add that ingredient to the shopping list.
- Each item that is a staple will be marked as such (I’m thinking a sticker on the bottom) so that I can remember that I have backup and learn what my staples are.
- We will develop a catalog of recipes that can be used with my staples so that cooking in a jam can be done without thought. These recipes will also incorporate ideas for mixing in our preserved (like mixing jam with balsamic to make a glaze for chicken).
- Other seasonal ingredients can easily be added to these recipes.
I am realizing, as I am typing, that the other benefit of such a system and learning to choose our core pantry items is the possibility of preserving many of these things – or complimentary items (such as split peas which we did last year and missed this year) that will add to our repertoire.
I also plan to cook beyond my staples – the benefit of having a steady supply of core ingredients is not to limit our choices but expand on them.
Any tips from others out there? Anyone else want to join? We`ll post about our progress and share links, photos and tips we receive from others – I`m bounding with excitement to get started (although I better cook for New Years first).
We have started a non-profit company that helps others to understand the conventional food system and to re-negotiate the terms of their engagement to it. We hold workshops around each major local food crop and discuss how to source it in season, how to prepare it fresh and how to preserve it in a pantry, in quantities that reflect their individual or family nutritional needs for the year. Freezing, canning, dehydrating and fermenting.
Any information about how one establishes and maintains a pantry, organizes and manages it is of great interest to us. Establishing, stocking and maintaining a good pantry greatly increases a sense of food security, can be very economical if bulk purchase are made (sometimes with other parties and re-packaged) and can encourage the best kind of food preparation and consumption: cooking from scratch at home to provide for self and to share with others.
Please do offer any information about pantries!
I embarked on a similar project before the holidays. In our tiny cottage, the garage is our main food ‘pantry’, housing all of my canned preserves and our beloved chest freezer (yes, it really does change your life!). Soups and stews and homemade pizza shells – if you can find room for one, you’ll rarely lack for homemade “fast food.”
In our 64-sf kitchen, I’ve got ONE food cabinet, over the stove, that has only 2 shelves but is as deep as my arm to the shoulder. It is jam-packed all the time and gets disorganized at the blink of an eye. I am loving the magnitic spice tins that I now keep on the fridge; makes me use dried herbs & spices that much more since they are easy to find. I also pulled an old tower shelf out of our loft (which had been on its side, holding clothes) and filled it with Mason jars of staples: rice (brown, basmati & arborio), granola fixins (various nuts, seeds and dried fruit), dried chile peppers and other veg, and whole spices. It looks lovely and really, makes life better on a daily basis. I also bought a couple of plastic storage bins and organized the extra herbs & spices into one bin, mustard & pickle supplies into another, granola extras, etc.
I’m planning on post on it at some point (if I ever catch up on holiday baking posts!). I think you’ll be surprised by how much more willing you are to cook, even after a long day, and how much more inspired you’ll be when different combinations of ingredients are (literally) staring you in the face.
3 things in our pantry – always – canned tomatoes (my own, and when they run out, canned diced), canned beans (usually white cannellini beans), and red wine vinegar.
There are so many things that you can improvise with those. I especially like a pan sauce I make from tomatoes and red wine vinegar, reduced … wonderful on all sorts of things or all by itself.
Good luck with your pantry project!
If you can manage it, I highly recommend buying in bulk rather than having backup storage. When my jar of rice (for instance) is empty, I toss it in the grocery bag to bring to the store and refill.
Whenever I make a big batch of something; stew, chili, soup, etc.. I’ll fill two jars, label and freeze them right away. I often forget about them until that night when we’re hungry and too tired to cook. A quick defrost in the microwave, or if I’m anticipating my laziness I’ll thaw them on the counter/fridge while I’m at work. When I get home – dinner is made! I also refer to my slowcooker as ‘the housewife’ because it works all day long when no one else is home:)
Sherry
I am reminded of a similar list, though not necessarily for a pantry since some are fresh and perishable. Alice Waters in her book “The Art of Simple Food” has a list of items to keep on hand as often as possible.
For the pantry she recommends: olive oil, vinegars, salt, black peppercorns, spices, pasta, polenta and cornmeal, rice, dried beans, canned tomatoes, anchovies, capers, flours, sugar, baking powder and soda, vanilla, yeast, jam, wine.
Perishables include garlic, onions, shallots, celery, carrots, olives, fresh herbs, eggs, lemons, mustard, cheeses, nuts, chicken broth (could be preserved stock in the pantry?), butter, milk, bread, potatoes.
She explains each item further, and then provides an amazing list of recipes that can be composed at a moments notice from this inventory. I have tried to work with that idea as one tool to keep me cooking from scratch and not going out for a bite.
I just put up a bit on vintage kitchen furniture inspired by your post on pantry organization: http://eatingfloyd.blogspot.com/2010/12/hoosier-daddy.html#more
Now I’m off to rummage through my cupboards. Your industriousness has me feeling guilty!
You should definitely make stock, and pressure can it. Having frozen stock around is nice, but it requires remembering to take it out of the freezer–which sort of defeats the purpose of easy pantry cooking. With some stock on hand, and a familiarity with your pressure cooker, you can churn out bean soups in half an hour. (From dried beans! Without soaking!) Getting comfortable with our pressure cooker has transformed the way we cook.
I keep a list on the inside of the pantry door. Any time we remove and consume something from the pantry, we write that item on the list. This creates a grocery list so I can easily replace each item. I aim to have at least one back up for every staple…sometimes more, if I find the item on sale.
I also try to organize each shelf by type. One shelf for flours and grains, another for fruits, and so on. (Admittedly, this is tough because our pantry is smallish. I’m actually trying to get my hubby to convert a coat closet (filled with junk) into another pantry.)
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