A Modern Cook’s Pantry

For stocking the essential pantry, I would highly recommend having both yellow and Dijon mustard on hand. They are both very versatile and have very different flavor profiles. For me, Dijon mustard has been a little like good anchovies; just a small amount can give a dish just enough of a push out of the ordinary without the need for acquiring any new skills or breaking the bank for high priced ingredients. And re the nuts, I know walnuts are said to have many health benefits, but personally I much prefer the taste of good pecans--raw or toasted--hands down. I toss on lettuce salads, press into the avocado in my veggie sandwiches, and sprinkle on my dessert of vanilla ice cream with banana slices, a crumbled Trader Joe's toasted coconut cookie, and a pinch of cocoa powder.

In light of the global catastrophe caused intensive animal agriculture (on land and at sea), it would have been nice to see a modern pantry list (or at least one list in the series) that eschewed animal products and invited people to learn more about effective vegan alternatives. For example, I keep flax seeds, which can be ground and mixed with water to use as an egg replacer in baking (plus the flax seeds are a high quality source of Omega 3s).

The most important thing in your pantry is your shopping list. Make a list of your have-to-replenish-regularly items, organized by the store where you buy the items. Print the list out and keep it in your kitchen, mark it up when planning your next shopping trip. Also take a picture of it on your phone so you have it ready just in case you stop at this or that store on they way home.

Thanks for a very helpful article! I've been meaning to reorganize the fridge and pantry shelves. One idea: keep a list of fresh produce posted on the fridge door. Especially in Summer, I tend to buy too much produce at the farmers' market, and don't always use it all up. I also make a lot of soup! I do keep bananas and other fruit in a two-tier metal basket on the counter. Since the galley kitchen is adjacent to the living room, this setup is a great reminder to have fruit for a snack! In Summer, the fruit is tomatoes. I prefer mismatched spice jars. :)

@PeppaD. I sort my spices and condiments by savory, sweet, spicy and seeds and includes pre-made spice blends by prominent spice as I taste it - so to my taste, chinese 5-spice powder and garam masala are sweet and would be found, herbs de provence and greek seasoning are savory and sazón and creole seasonings are spicy.

I use sturdy 18" diameter lazy susans throughout my pantry. They are especially useful on upper shelves because a turn of the Susan brings the stuff in back to the front. You can find them at the Container Store and Ikea.

I practice what I call "the pantry reduction act". When the shelves are overflowing, I spend an hour or so making a menu plan that will use mainly pantry items. Time to make a coconut-based curry, or stuffing with those extra chestnuts, or a nice cheese plate with the various jars of chutney. The same goes for the freezer: "freezer reduction act"!

I think that two more functional items deserve Ms. Moskin's attention: a wine cellar and humidifier for storing bread that extends its edible life.

What a time we live in, for all the global anxieties, even a modest household, with cupboards and a fridge, live with the ingredients at our fingertips of a buttery, pantry, larder, cellar, cold cellar, and ice house that used to belong to only high estates. The spices and herbs available to us used to cost a royal dowry. Cost of the pantry described herein: $300-400. Article only left out a small kitchen garden for fresh herbs. 50 things wine, ale, water tea, coffee soap, wash water, cleaner lard, bacon, meats spices pepper, crushed red pepper, hot sauce crushed pepper, black pepper, salt preserves bread, flour, rice, pasta, oil honey, nuts, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles stock, sardines, garlic canned tomatoes crackers,cookies for tea liquor, port butter eggs milk lemon, carrots, potatoes, parsley celery onions apples Parmesan. freezer: ice frozen spinach, herbs, broccoli

Excellent illustration by Matt Collins for this article.

"I used to keep ingredients forever, even though they made me feel guilt and anxiety..." Goodness! Please don't read the politics section of this newspaper!!

Re. The pantry: where there is a will ,there is a way. I live in an old tenement apartment with a shower stall in the kitchen, and built a wall of narrow shelves to hold spices on one side of it. Built a counter with open shelves underneath. Get some tools,and get creative.

I sort my dry goods , spices, and condiments by cuisine. I have sections for Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese cooking, plus sections for Europen countries, and "America".

I wish I had a true pantry. Many years ago, I had a small one and I adored it. But alas... When I re-did my kitchen, I made sure I had plenty of upper cabinets for stables, and a drawer-in-a-drawer for canned goods. It's much easier to see what one has when they are lying on their sides in a shallow drawer. Organizing ones kitchen is key. I love using small bamboo lazy susans in my cabinets. They are perfect for small bottles/jar/bottles. I have one that has two tiers - that small flat can of anchovies or sardines does not vanish. I love Rev-a-Shelf's spice organizer that can be cut to size to fit in a flat, shallow drawer. It's so nice to see all one's spices and herbs laid out, and I do find that keeping them in a dark, dry place makes them last longer. Another Rev-a-Shelf product I find invaluable is their pull-out utensil unit. It has 3 stainless cans on the top shelf, that hold all ones utensils, easy to find and grab, no rummaging though a drawer. On the bottom shelf, are all my oils and vinegars and my dry vermouth that I use for cooking. All are within an arm's reach from my stove. Having the right stables in ones cabinets/pantry, the refrigerator and the freezer makes it possible to pull together a meal in about 10-15 minutes tops, when one is simply too tired to cook a "real" meal. My freezer now always includes quartered cooked red potatoes with sea salt and sweet potato fries. Invaluable! And eggs - always lots of eggs in the refrigerator.

And the list? Sorry but being a way South native born Florida Cracker my pantry contains items that are quite different from a new yorker. Of course there are some similar items and salt and pepper are everywhere but lets just say there is a big difference.

A real problem is cooking for one or two when the quantities sold are often for much larger family units. Meal delivery services kind of address this, but a nice example of a pantry for a single person or couple would be appreciated.

I remember with great fondness my Nana's pantry, an enclosed room on the back porch of their southern home which was a combination mud room to the garden, gardener's workroom, and storage for flower bulbs, china, and pots of stew, gumbo, roast and beans, and pies and cookies when the winter holidays kept the fridge too full. Maybe my favorite room in the house.

This is wonderful. We are replacing our old galley kitchen with a new, open plan and this will wonderfully guide me on what to toss and how to rebuild my new kitchen pantry!

Living both in the east and in the more arid West, I've found brown sugar to be a mistake. If you keep a small bottle of molasses you can make your own fresh, soft, brown-as-you-like sugar as needed by stirring a little (or a little more) into white sugar. For many recipes, you don't have to stir; just add each separately to the mixture you're cooking.

The most important item (in my most humble opinion) NOT included in the clever Swiss Army pantry illustration is CHOCOLATE, i.e., unsweetened cocoa, block of dark chocolate, chips, etc. Without chocolate, my pantry would be incomplete.

The article erroneously suggests that preserved lemons can be substituted for fresh lemons; NO, absolutely NOT! I love fresh lemons with their aromatic skins, freshness and acidity. Preserved lemons taste like soap and ruin any dish!

Two of the things I love about this house are it has a pantry off the kitchen and a cabinet built just for spices. There is no question they have made me a better cook. We're looking to downsize for retirement and I dread losing those necessities. I hope whoever buys this house wants to cook!

“I don’t like honey mustard; I have never liked honey mustard,” she said. “Why did I have to have this complicated relationship with it in my refrigerator door?” This is so recognizable :)

You had me reading and rereading this article looking for the list(s) ... Good read all the same

Upon reviewing the pantry staples list, I was disappointed not to find pomegranate molasses! Some items listed I use very often, but others I would never use. I think the idea here must be to do a personal inventory of items in the categories listed and fill in those you are most likely to use.

I regret to report that our house has no separate pantry. Spices and other items for culinary emergencies are kept in kitchen wall cabinets and some in the cool basement. Being used to this primitive arrangement, I think invariably of pantries as associated with wine cellars, butlers, kitchen maids, and footmen.

"Think of it all as signs of life. And then, next January, start the process all over again." Where I live, my kitchen and pantry and spice cabinet suffers two extremes on a yearly basis. It's either extremely warm and dry from October to April due to the many radiators throughout the house, or else it is cool and damp from the outside humidity between May through September. Because of this fluctuation, I change out and pitch various items come my Spring and Summer baking seasons vs. my Autumn and Winter baking seasons. It's always done out of necessity rather than merely stocking and organizing purposes. But one thing is for certain - no matter how hard I try to keep things in their place, I think this situation is eerily similar to one sock finding its escape from the dryer - one day everything is orderly and in place and suddenly, nothing is where I once placed it. I think it's one of the many mysteries of being preoccupied and having my husband rummage around in the kitchen, truly trying to help out.

In reference to labels: Painter’s tape works far better than masking tape, which can dry out and be much more difficult to remove.