stocking a new kitchen: the essentials

I'm going to be moving into a new place at the end of November and, having no food stock at all right now, decided I need to make a running list of things I'll want to stock up on. Feel free to add to it.

first, stuff that will not spoil too quickly:

flour
corn starch
brown sugar
cane sugar
honey
olive oil
peanut oil
canola/vegetable oil
balsamic vinegar
white vinegar

seasonings:
sea salt
kosher salt
peppercorns
some dried herbs (rosemary, basil, oregano)
cumin
chili powder
five spice powder

condiments:
ketchup
brown mustard
some salad dressing

brown rice
white rice
dried beans (black, red)
pasta (spaghetti, other italian noodles, udon, ramen)

This shit is surprisingly expensive when you have to replace it all at once!

I think everything I typed out is already on your list. :)

baking soda
baking powder
crushed red pepper flakes
lentils
rice vinegar

canned tomatoes

otm!

Basically, when I moved out of the place I shared with the ex I had most of this stuff, but I kind of said "fuck it" when I opened up the pantry because I didn't want to spend any more time boxing. Hence the fresh start.

dried thai chilis
dried chipotles
soy sauce
sriracha

canned black beans
assortment of campbell's/progresso soups for laziness and quick ingredient use
vegetable/chicken stock

It's kind of funny how many oils and vinegars you need, but they do such different things! I was afraid it was overkill, but I have red wine vinegar, balsamic, white vin mostly for cleaning jobs and potato salad, and rice vinegar. And sometimes apple cider, too.

apron
nutmeg
triple sec
horseradish

do y'all use both sea salt and kosher salt?? you never really see kosher salt over here in the uk but i always see it mentioned in american recipes

i don't know the difference between all the salts. i just got some kosher salt recently but had always just used table salt before.

I'd put fine sea salt on the table, really. Iodized salt, which is what is commonly used, is kind of unnecessary because you'd have to have some serious nutrition issues to not get your iodine elsewhere.

I used to have three types of soy sauce (half gallon of kikkoman, dark chinese, light chinese) but that is kind of overkill.

oyster sauce
hoisin sauce
some sort of preserved garlic for when I am too lazy to buy fresh

canned white beans
garbanzo beans

you need tamari soy sauce

I don't mean to be hating, here, but when can u be too lazy to use fresh garlic? The stuff keeps for like 3 months! Chop chop and yr done.

Mine always seems to start growing long before 3 months!

Do you keep it in a cool, dark place?

Okay maybe not 3 mos but I still think there's not really a good enough reason to use canned/jarred garlic.

yeah mine sprouts after about 2 weeks

cornmeal
tomato paste

also btw i think that if it sprouts you can just cut it in half, length-wise, and pop out the sprouting part

yeah i usually do that but it starts getting mushy soon after it sprouts. no big deal i just try not to stockpile garlic. jar garlic is not that bad btw

or plant it and harvest the shoots when they are 4"-6" long for garlic scapes.

peanut butter

Worcester Sauce

fish sauce

mh do you know if you'll be moving anywhere near a grocery place w/bulk bins? IMO that's the easiest/cheapest way to get spices – in bulk and as you need them.

Tin of anchovy fillets
Capers

Noodle Vague is absolutely right about Worcester Sauce. Also cinnamon, cardamom, some lemons, frozen peas, english mustard, tinned fish, a massive sack of rice, stock cubes, tins of chick peas. I'm awed by your love of beans.

SQUIRT BOTTLES

need to order some of these, iirc

Whenever I've moved to a new place, the first store I try to find is the restaurant supply store. They are the best for cheap sturdy kitchen/dining stuff.

yeah that only just occurred to me the other day!

fish sauce

― just sayin, Thursday, October 29, 2009 4:46 PM

;)

I've never actually been in this place (and was kind of lol hippies about it) but it looks like they might have bulk stuff! On a warm day it'd be walkable.
http://www.newcitymarket.com/

hey jaq where is a really cheap place i can go and buy cast iron pan + roasting pan/rack?

i got very lucky when i moved here and received the remnants of someone else's recently moved out of kitchen. still needed to add some stuff, but good basics, free :D

guys i have a stainless fry pan---can i use this in the oven??

yes?

oh god now i am questioning everything

what's the handle made of?

ok now i remember i have baked something in a bit stainless thing before.

*big

Tza, for a cast iron pan, I'd check the hardware stores first - they usually have good prices on the Lodge brand. Otherwise, I'd go to Seattle Restaurant Supply up on Aurora - they'd have both cast iron and roasting pan/rack. I need to head there for some 1/2 sheet cookie pans - maybe we should take a li'l trip on Saturday?

gbx, as long as the handle isn't wood or plastic a stainless pan is fine in the oven.

ok that is what i thought, it's all metal, triple-clad something i got on sale at the fancy-ass kitchen store a couple blocks away (THIS IS A DANGEROUS PLACE FOR ME, BTW)

guys can i drop out of school and just cook forever instead

off topic, but here is where all my stuff will be going:
http://cdn-7.eneighborhoods.com/c1/347/356261_6.jpg

(current stuff on counter not mine

wdykll

My kitchen, before we moved in:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/2695909470_d12c94e3d9.jpg

my kitchen is so dirty right now bc i have not done dinner dishes yet!

anyway i want apron pics from you guys!

yeah i'll take a picture of mine after it's clean again. it has awesome bright yellow-green walls.

wtf jaq your kitchen rules!!

jaq's kitchen is amazing
my kitchen is small! it's ok for me but two people could not be in it and cooking.

It is really great and pretty fun to cook in. More crowded now with stuff though.

i am consumed w/kitchen envy

fwiw I should not jinx this, that is my new house that I am signing the purchase agreement on today! Also, Jaq's kitchen is pretty cool.

I was going to link to Mark Bittman's piece about what to get and what not to get for the pantry, but it looks like it's all been pretty much covered here, except for the sherry vinegar.

Here it is anyway: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/dining/07mini.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bittman%20stocked%20kitchen&st=cse

I have a Lodge pre-seasoned skillet, it works GREAT and has from the beginning. I never even wash it, just scrub with a clean brush & hot water. I don't use it for eggs, though.

here is my stupid electric stove kitchen alcove thing

http://i401.photobucket.com/albums/pp95/tza/IMG00059-20091030-1229.jpg

Ha WmC, I just got How to Cook EVerything Vegetarian & three paragraphs into that article, I'm like "this sounds just like my new cookbook." Same dude (as you know).

Though I love my old Joy of Cooking, I've come around to thinking every kitchen really needs one of Bittman's comprehensive cookbooks.

Envious of all your kitchens. The kitchen in my early 1920s-era apt. still looks like it was hastily added on with a vestigal pantry and little countertop space.

I've been looking for a new place to move to and I'm evaluating places solely by the kitchen.

Kitchen stuff has topped my list of absolutely-must-haves when I've looked for our last 4 rentals: gas stovetop, counter space, pantry/storage, decent range hood, workable layout. The last 2 have had electric convection ovens, which I hadn't had much experience with.

Hey I just got a george foreman grill! Now I need: gas stove, dishwasher, double sink, etc.

ahhhh i hated double sink in my old apartment!

Got a dishwasher, can't WAIT to go back to gas

jealous

my kitchen is small! it's ok for me but two people could not be in it and cooking.

Kitchen in my new place is like this too ;_; My last place had this hueg kitchen with a DW and benches everywhere and I took it all for granted and now I have this piddly galley kitchen with 2 teeny spaces big enough for a chopping board each. And thats it. I CANT STAND IT.

At least I have gas and a working oven this time though (last place had this shitty elec oven that burned everything).

I miss my dishwasher. bf said "oh dont worry I'll do all the dishes! I like doing dishes".

...

A prize to the person who can guess how many times he has done the dishes.

benches!? in the kitchen!? wowwwww

I dont mean seperate tables! LOL or are you bein frustratedly sarky hehe ;)

kitchen is huge

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/IMG_0067.JPG

and i cook stuff like this in it

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/IMG_0030.JPG

Yeah thats what my old kitchen was like. Well, not that modern tho.

Anyone familiar with a place called Penzey's Spices? Is this some suburban strip mall chain that claims to have good stuff to market to suburbanites? There's one on the west side of town and I thought about checking to see if they have any starter sets.

there's one in my neighborhood. i have purchased curry powder and garam masala there---both good

I've been buying pretty much all my spices/herbs from Penzey's on-line for the past 4 years - great quality and they do have starter sets as well as a build your own option. I sent their kits as xmas presents to family members last year and everyone was happy with them.

If you're a baker, their double-fold vanilla is amazing btw.

I bought a few things (dried galangal, white pepper, a good salt/pepper/garlic/chive thing called Fox Point Blend) at the one in Memphis a few years ago. Decent enough.

What did you think of the dried galangal? I bought some dried ginger and find it pretty useless - maybe if I had a spice grinder and could pulverize it, I'd be happier with it. Keeping a chunk of fresh ginger wrapped up in the freezer seems a better option for me.

There wasn't much to it, really. Slightly fragrant but it didn't really add that good galangal flavor to the tom kha. I always stock up on fresh when I'm at a good enough Asian market, now...clean it up, trim off the manky edges, portion it out and keep it in the freezer.

BUT!...the last time I was at Super H Mart south of Atlanta, I saw they had vacuum-sealed frozen young galangal, so I got several packs of that instead. It was as cheap or cheaper than fresh, and zero waste.

Think I'm going to take the list from this thread and go buy stuff over the next couple days. I took possession of the new place on Monday and should be completely moved in by the end of the weekend.

Congrats, and happy stocking up!

Putting new light bulbs in the pantry on Saturday morning caused me to go on an organizing/cleaning tear in there that took all day. I found an expired box of blue jello, no idea how long it's been around or how many times we've packed and moved it!

omg $100 gift certificate at fancy kitchen store

i have an OK santoku from Target...is it time to get a real-deal chef's knife? pasta maker? GADGETS?

JAQ ET AL WHAT TO DO

a tip i learned from Thomas Keller is to label your spices/condiments with month/year of purchase. most of this stuff either loses or changes flavor after a year (or two!) so no need to hoard old spices/condiments.

YOU DID NOT ANSWER MY Q SHASTA

gbx get an immersion blender. they are mad convenient little gadgets.
i dunno what the hell do you need?
i don't think pasta makers are worth it unless you make pasta super often. i just use a rolling pin, yo.
santoku is very similar to chef knife, only stuff doesn't stick to it as much, so a chef knife may actually be a step down.
me; i got a wicked dutch oven from my gurl. one of those enameled ones. it's blue and awesome
yesterday my gurl was like "so is it ever going to be clean again?" i laughed.

xpost shasta: i purposely don't label my spices so i don't get all pissed for not using it up in time. also i use my spices up in time most of the time. if not i just use it anyway. i'm ghetto i guess

TK on knives for the home kitchen:

"Knives are the cook's fundamental tool, but you need only four of them, and if they're good ones, they'll last your entire lifetime: a 10-inch chef's knife, a 12-inch slicing knifee, a paring knife, and a serrated knife, used almost exclusively for cutting bread. The style or specific type of knife is up to you-- there are many good brands, and the particular sizes and shapes should be chosen according to your own preferences. Whether you choose a Japanese santoku or a traditional chef's knife is less important than that the quality is excellent and that it feels comfortable in your hand. I use my slicing kinfe for 50 percent of the cutting I do at the restaurant, though you will likely use a chef's knife more often.

I can do anything I need to in the kitchen with these four knives and a steel. The steel is important to keep your knives sharp, to hone them. Learn how to use it, and stell your knives frequently. You should also buy and learn to use a sharpening stone to keep your knives sharp or find a quality knife-sharpening service. Sharp knives make your work both easier and better, and they're safer to use than dull knives."

I received a ~20 piece Henckels knife set as a gift a few years ago and I am partial to the paring and chef's knives gibby.

TK is a control-freak and obsessed with organization so no worries dude. I just had a habit of finding old spices and condiments (usually obscure ones) buried away in my fridge/cabinets over the years and this was a good way to get me to get a handle on those.

I second the immersion blender. Gave my mom one for Christmas after she complained about blending butternut squash soup in batches. I use mine all the time.

I recently bought a new chef's knife (Forschner Victorinox - Cooks Illustrated's inexpensive pick) and now I have to get rid of my cruddy old one. Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you throw away a knife? Seems dangerous to just chuck it in the trash.

agreed with TK on knives: i use my santoku for almost everything, but it's dull and of not ~aMaZiNg~ quality. but it works (when it's sharp, which it isn't atm). i also got two good paring knives for xmas, and have a perfectly adequate bread knife. i don't own a 12-inch slicing knife, but i'm not sure when i'd use it?

as for the immersion blender: good suggestion! i just got a normal blender/food processor, but i'd prefer to keep it for either smoothies/processing. an immersion would be great for soups and curries.

although, man, i just drool over the dope-ass chef's knives they've got at the kitchen window. kinda thinking i should pop for a nicer santoku or chef's knife, get my current one sharpened and give it to my sis. the most "serious" knife she's got is a 6.5" santoku and that shit just aint right for someone who likes cooking as much as she does.

actually i think it might be smaller than that, like 5" or something??

I find I use most:

– My 8" knife
– My 6" knife
– My immersion blender (so much hummus & soup action)

Maybe you should get a good knife sharpener instead of a new knife?

Also I love having a great skillet I can use on the stove or in the oven.

I remember reading some good advice on here re: knifes

knife sharpening tips
knives
best inexpensive knives

me, I have a chinese meat cleaver and a paring knife. I'm probably going to lose a finger or two soon

I need to get something that will cut through bonesss.

Last (inexpensive) cleaver I had, I destroyed, thinking it would chop through a ham shankbone. Need a hacksaw for some stuff.

I wanna get one of those lol hueg cleavers used by butchers at wet markets

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3073/2705450145_0b0b795fa1.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/1796007111_c1f4f40362.jpg

i want an immersion blender and a mandoline and a wall-mounted spice rack instead of a huge disorganized pile of spices in different-sized jars that i sometimes have to sample to tell what they are

I've had an 8" wusthof chef's knife for years and it was great but I got a forschner santoku like two years ago and have maybe used the chef's knife five times since then.

I had disorganized piles of spices in different jars but always knew what they were - my wife made me label them once when she was looking for something and couldn't tell what anything was.

i know what most of them are i just confuse paprika and cayenne, they smell almost the same
just tired of the pile falling over in the cabinet tbh

i want a santoku!
also a spice rack!
and a vitamix!

also several times i have broken jars of spices bc they fall out of the cabinet when you are digging through them to find the jar you want.

i DO NOT recommend a mandoline tbh: we got a fancy-ish one with GC $$ and it's shit: i can slice and dice way faster doing it with a knife.

(i am willing to admit that it may be the case that i don't know how to use it properly, but it came with the worst 'instructions' ever)

i've used one before and loved it!

come to my house and teach me! or maybe i am just a really good knife-user??

if you get a cuisinart you can mandoline things w/out cutting yr fingers right?

i mean julienne things

i'm a good knife user, i think i just want another option for some stuff.

oh yeah i have cuisinart blender/food processor that also slices but only small enough stuff to fit through the opening. and the julienne is too fine imo.

well, no it shreds and slices iirc. not julienne, sorry

i don't even really need a mandoline, i was just at my friend's house and she has one and i coveted it. but a few years ago she sliced off the tip of her thumb with it. it was reattached and you can still see the circle.

get a cheap japanese mandoline... those things are awesome.

even the brand name ones (Breniner) are only $20, saves you so much time.

hmmmm

so many options

only get a mandoline if you are really into slices thinner that 1/8" i have one and have hit the tips of my thumb and middle finger using it a couple times. so now i use the gaurd which totally fucks up about the last inch of whatever your slicing, and i don't know if it's just my mandoline but shit gets stuck in there too. i find it to be a pain in the ass to use. maybe if i was making gratins for like 200 people it would make sense. i agree with just1n3 that mandolines are not as cool as good knife skills. and lindseykai: don't throw away knives unless they are completely unuseable. you never know when you may have somebody over and need it or you need a back up or whatever. just chuck it in some drawer.

in fact i made a gratin for xmas eve and didn't use the mandoline

second on the benriner--cheap and effective

I love my 10" Wusthof chef's knife and my chef's choice knife sharpener. I have a hard time cooking at other ppls' houses when their knives are shit.

Get a mandoline AND a kevlar glove! I think this is the magic combination.

hey fuck it man if you really want one i will send you mine. i don't use it and it's just taking up space
it's a super benriner and i think i still have all the stuff that originally came with it

i mean, sure!

yes perhaps i can help. webmailing u
HEY

!

i guess he meant you bc you're a man

u can have it

i gotta gift certificate remember

ok, fair :)

oh snap should we have a poll to see who gets it?

er wait i got an email from harbl
no poll sorry gibby, but they really are over rated
and i would think hard about the kevlar glove cuz i nicked my thumb and middle finger twice dude
the blade is sharp! and all the little pictures showing how to use it are like "watch out! blade is sharp!"

japanese mandolines are def *NOT* overrated IMB

i don't care how good your knife skills are, if you want ultra precise uniform cuts (for like say for a ratatouille) or julienning, there is nothing more efficient and simple. i cook alone 70-80% of the time and i'd rather keep my prep time to a minimum. Plus, uniformly sliced product not only will cook more evenly but it also looks prettier.

all imo (aka you're wrong).

aw shasta . . .

no but yr right cuz i like to dote in the kitchen
i am not necessarily trying to cut everything in 2 minutes or less

i went to target and all they had was OXO mandolines oxo lol wow heh
what i want pretty much is the quickness and evenness of it. i cook for myself mostly too and it gets like anything to get it over with faster would be a +.

i feel like the main problem with ours is that the thingy that you put the vegetable on is shiiiiiiiiit: it ~appears~ to be covered in a multitude of spikes, but there are only like FOUR or something that are metal and the rest are plastic... so the first time i used i cut off about 15 of the plastic ones! its really hard to get the food to stay on the holder thingy and the blade just doesn't seem that sharp. i dunno, there is a good chance i just need someone to teach me how to use it properly.

we just did a big spend on kitchen stuff (thank u wedding presents!) and the best thing we bought was a really deep, large, glass-lidded, non-stick frypan. we've been using it like crazy and it is awesome.

also recommend if you have a small kitchen: we got this large chopping board that has an extender so you can fit it over your sink and utilise bench space better.

got a Globe 8 in chefs knife. ugly as heck IMO but dang it felt the best. which is a bummer because the Shun was so fuckin pretttttttttty

slice some shit up gibby! keep it sharp, yo

I need a knife sharpener.

Don't you already have a husband?

i bought a sharpener and lost it between the store and my house 3 months ago.
so, i still have dull knives.

things i dropped off to get sharpened last night:

-- santoku (which is not gonna see much action from now on u_u)
-- hatchet
-- machete

they were actually kinda thrilled at the prospect of working on the machete, which is better than the reaction i expected : o_O

so do you use the hatchet and machete for food prep? or just keepin 'em sharp to slice/chop up the propspective intruder

while scrolling, read thread title as "shaking a new kitten: the essentials" and got all sad. :(

haha, no, i do not use them for prep.

the hatchet got dinged up over new year's due to drunken last of the mohican impressions, and the machete is a ugandan souvenir that's never been sharpened. i figure if i'm gonna have a machete, it may as well be a functional one. trim the bushes, u kno

a hatchet could actually be useful for spaghetti squash. That shit is hard to halve.

yea and you always see those dudes with the machetes hacking into young coconuts, so i was thinking maybe gbx was into the young coconuts

with the hatchet also use like a cleaver (but don't forget to have a cigarette in yr mouth when doing it if being photographed, see upthread)

Santoku, I love you...

the hatchet got dinged up over new year's due to drunken last of the mohican impressions

be safe :|

image is from my old apartment but I still have the same thing going on with my spices - magnetic spice rack! I just write the names on the front in Sharpie:

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v197/224/57/516053577/n516053577_397272_6285.jpg

Love my kitchen now, it's pretty big considering we're renters:

(twitpic - can't embed - http://twitpic.com/p6n9o)

The wall not seen has microwave, pots & pans rack, two shelves, wall-mounted spices and a dishwasher.

that's a great spice rack! we keep ours in a lazy susan cupboard near the ground, which is not optimal, but our counter space is full of gadgets, fruit, and bread products.

i need something like that
and a spatter screen for frying tofu, made a mess yesterday

i think we've got pretty much all the equipment you need for a kitchen, just not the best organization. got a knife sharpener and a hand me down slow cooker for christmas, that about covers it!

oooh no wait could still use a food processor. no idea where we'd put it thought, the slow cooker's in its box on the floor in the corner atm.

I can only offer Canadian advice, but in the craft section of Dollarama they have the tins I am using to hold the spices, with a heavy-duty magnetic backing for $1.00 each. Originally I bought a bunch of watchmaker's cases (these are actually in my heart-shaped spice rack picture, as it is a 2 year-old photo) and sheets of magnetic stickers and DIYed it, but the sticker magnets were not very durable and I slowly replaced them with the sturdier, $1.00-each ones, five or so at a time. The board is from IKEA, $7. I tried keeping them on the side of my fridge but there were too many, one or two would fall off with each door slam. I still had a precarious shelf in my cupboard with all the "extra" spices (i.e. I only fill the magnetic ones with about 1/5 of a normal spice jar's contents) and that annoyed me. This might not be the best way to store spices, but I actually ended up emptying a lot into Ziplock bags, labelled them, and shoved them in a tupperware container, tucked at the back (my best guess at cool, dry and dark in this basement apartment). Sadly, one day I found wormy bits (maggots? no idea. chucked em in the outside garbage and furiously inspected rest of spices) in the dill container and I've never used dill since. I love dill, but it's lost to me!

I wish I had good knives. But that's what my upcoming wedding is for :)

i am so ridiculously happy w/new knife, i have been making excuses to chop shit

just dry fry yr tofu! no mess!

i love that magnetic spice rack!

yeah i know about dry-frying (iirc i told u about it!) but i am liking pan-frying in peanut oil lately i dunno

that's because peanut oil is so tasty

yes, you did, i was just sayin, to avoid mess/splatter, it's grebt!

it is indeed

Just want to thank everyone for this thread.

My two essentials are a grill pan and my og Kitchenaid mixer

yo harbl
just get an old shitty 1qt pot with a lid and deep fry the tofu, or shoestring potatos, or tempura. strain the oil through paper towels and reuse. i keep mines in a mason jar.

i have a huge pot i sometimes fry tofu in and you're right it helps but it's not nonstick. w/ nonstick i only need a couple tablespoons to do a good job at it but it's still like oil all over yknow

deep frying tofu is my favorite way to eat it. do you press the tofu cake a bit before frying?

yup!

Ooh good call on the Kitchen-Aid, Elvis. My mom had one & I miss that shit almost as much as I miss having a car. I burnt out my hand mixer trying to make divinity w/it. Srsly, how did people make divinity before the stand mixer?

gahhhh i need some kind of mixer too. i don't even have a hand-mixer or immersion blender! i never notice i need stuff until it's pointed out though so i should stop reading this thread.

My MVPs: stand mixer (not Kitchen-Aid, works just as well I think); immersion blender; dutch oven; four good knives.

I do love my Kitchenaid - 575 watts of dough-kneading, meringue-whipping, sausage-grinding, food-milling power. 10" Lodge cast iron skillet, 8" chef's knife, and le creuset dutch oven are my other complete necessities.

12" lodge cast iron, tongs, santoku, very large cutting board, microplane grater, and my 8 quart all-clad stockpot are the things I would buy first if I had to start over again. I could probably do about 90% of my cooking with just these.

what is divinity?

I have a German mandoline and BOY IS IT SHARP. Yes, I have been cavalier with it and sliced bits off my fingers before :/ Nothing drastic, but shit you have to be careful with those bastards. The only real benefit I find is they are excellent for making scalloped potato bake, cos you can get such thin slices. Ditto, I suppose, fried chips of potato or kumara or beetroot.

I never realised how dull all my knives are til I was using one of my sis in laws at xmas. I need to go get my crappy block of knives pro ground.

i think there's some knife sharpening advice knocking about here somewhere

Knives

I got that Lansky system that Jaq recommends and it is thee bombe.