Cooking with Shirley Home Page

Pantry Staples

If you are just setting up house, you'll need to keep some standard food staples on hand to be prepared for almost any recipe. Most of the items on this list can be stored in a pantry or cupboard. It's a good idea to mark items with the date you purchased them to make sure you use the oldest items first using the "first in, first out rule." Many now are already marked. Some items will require refrigeration after opening or have expiration dates (such as yeast). Check labels. This is a general guide. Nuts should be frozen if you aren’t going to use them in a few weeks. Take your own tastes into consideration when selecting your pantry basics.

• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Barley
• Beans, canned: black, red kidney, white, garbanzo, refried
• Beans, dried: red kidney, lentils, split pea, black, pinto, black-eyed peas, small white)
• Bread crumbs: plain and seasoned, Panko
• Broth, canned (suggest low sodium): beef, vegetable, chicken
• Cereal: assorted dry and oatmeal or other hot type
• Chocolate (chips or solid): unsweetened, bittersweet, semisweet, cocoa powder
• Coffee: beans, ground, instant
• Cooking spray: butter flavored and regular
• Cornmeal
• Cornstarch
• Crackers: assorted to your taste
• Dried fruits: raisins, golden and dark, currents, apricots, cranberry
• Extracts: vanilla, lemon, almond, orange
• Fruit and Fruit Juices: applesauce, pineapple chunks & tidbits, orange segments, pears, peaches, tomato juice, V-8 juice
• Flour: All-purpose, whole wheat (freeze), cake, bread, semolina, rice
• Fruit preserves: jams, jellies, butters
• Garlic: fresh
• Gelatin: assorted flavored powdered, unflavored
• Lemon juice
• Lime juice
• Marshmallows: large, miniature
• Milk: boxed, powdered, evaporated, sweetened condensed
• Nuts: almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, pine (freeze)
• Onions: red, yellow
• Pasta, dried: spaghetti, linguini, fettuccine, penne, noodles (see All About Pasta)
• Peanut butter: creamy and/or crunchy
• Pepper: whole corns or ground, black, white, green, pink and mixed
• Peppers: roasted and dried
• Rice: long-grain, wild, brown, basmati, arborio
• Salt: kosher, sea, low-sodium and/or iodized
• Spices (see Herbs and Spices)
• Soup: assorted canned and dried, beef and chicken granules
• Tea: assorted flavors, green, black  
• Tomatoes: canned whole, stewed, chopped, plum, paste, sauce, roasted
• Tomatoes: sun dried
• Tuna, canned
• Yeast, dry active

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