What are your favorite pantry items?

jason.r.whitworth

So Chefsteps is generally about doing from scratch, and more modernist ingredients, but what are some basics you like to keep around your home?

For example a great hot sauce? favorite brand of oil or vinegar? a premium brand of something basic that you think is worth paying extra for? a little known regional food product?

Here are a few of mine off the top of my head:

Kewpie mayo

El Yucateco XXX mayan hot sauce

Rao's Marinara sauce

Grillo's Hot Pickles

Melinda's Jalepeno Ketchup

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Comments

coryhansen78

+1 for El Yucateco XXX. Yum.

I like their jalapeno sauce as well, but it's tough for me to find usually..

Lots of other Mexican hot sauces (too many to list)

Heinz Ketchup (like to buy a couple of big bottles at Costco and smoke one of them)

Edmond Fallot Dijon

Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard

Baklouti Chile infused olive oil (for popcorn popping)

Achiote Paste

Frontera Salsas - usually Habanero, Chipotle or Double-Roasted Tomato

Chipotle Tabasco

Night of the Living Bar-B-Q Sauce

Lemon Pepper from Penzey's

Mrs. Renfro's Jalapenos

A couple of guilty pleasures above, for sure!

Brendan_Lee_56950

Kewpie for sure. Lea and perrins worchesterchire, I have a few different hot sauces like shark brand and rooster brand sriracha, crystal hot sauce, sambal chili sauce, and I definitely need heinz 57.

I also have a huge pantry of Asian ingredients that I'm pretty picky about.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I've tried hard but can't get behind the frontera salsas. They taste really watered down to me.

Cheryl_71360

Tiger sauce, Dukes mayo, Olio Carli EVOO, Abrams BBQ sauce, Cholula hot sauce, Marmite, definitely Lea and Perrins worchy sauce AND heinz 57.

jason.r.whitworth

Agreed on frontera, although i am not sure i have found a jarred salsa i would call good.

They all either taste bland or they have strange ingredients like peaches or something. Which i guess is ok, but i want a go to like red salsa.

Its a ongoing struggle. Maybe Whole foods 265 brand regular salsa.

com-chefsteps

My standard “good” olive oil is Nicolas Alziari "fruitée douce,” which I think is delicious enough to tolerate the sophomoric jokes my inner Bourdain makes about the name.

Konriko Creole seasoning is a childhood/family staple, so I gotta have that. It’s made in New Iberia, LA, so add Tabasco while I’m at it. JIF peanut butter (childhood again).

I’m still looking for a balsamic that I love, but that’ll take years since I don’t use it much, and tiny amounts at that.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Kewpie, Bulldog sauce, Tapatio, Worcestershire, Better than Bouillon. Flour, Sugar, Kosher Salt

Brandon_Byrd_40557

A lot of my favorites have been mentioned already, so I'll throw in a plug for More than Gourmet stock bases, which I first found out about via a recommendation in James Peterson's textbook on sauces. They're 20:1 stock reductions (glaces) made with Escoffier's recipes and are perfect for sauce making or just using as stock for braises, stews, risotto or whatever. They're also good to enrich the flavor of soup/stock that you make yourself. The 16oz tubs keep forever in the fridge and the quality is miles above any of the watery, salty garbage you'd buy in the grocery store.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

The Zingerman's 10 year Vecchia balsamic will make you a believer. The 30 year is even better if you want something thicker, sweeter, and less acidic. Zingerman's also has a 50 year old sherry vinegar that I'm itching to try.

e_lancaster2002

Duke's Mayo

Rao's Marinara sauce

Huy Fong Foods' sriracha

Heinz ketchup

Cholula

San-J Tamari sauce

plain rice wine vinegar

agave nectar

Penzey's Northwoods blend

com-chefsteps

I'd assumed this stuff was crap; I'll try it.

bkeene12

Effie's Homemade Oatcakes

If I am hungry, I can always reach for one of these and feel completely satisfied.

Ducktrap's Smoke Mussels

Worth paying for. The scallops are pretty good too.

Tsp Spices

I have a few of these tins on hand for spices I use less regularly. They are very convenient.

Frontera Red Chile Enchilada Sauce

I'll stick up for Rick; he did a good job on this one. I don't actually use this stuff for enchiladas but it tops a Nacho Mountain in place of the pre-made Chunk-O-Salsa crap that is available at the grocery store. In other words- it is great in a pinch... when there is no time to make your own.

These four are solid and are held in high regard in my pantry and fridge.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

From everything I've tried, it's the next best thing to making stock yourself. Let us know what you think!

Jack_Mayer_85396

Definitely agree with you Brandon ...

Jeremy_131558

Is the kewpie mayo really that awesome? I stumbled across it at a walmart of all places when I was looking for a new sauté pan (which appears to be online only). I remembered hearing about it but figured it wasn't anything special.

monaghan.joseph

Are you from Michigan?

Brandon_Byrd_40557

No, but I used to live about an hour south of Zingerman's in Ohio. We'd make periodic pilgrimages up there to buy cheese, bacon, vinegar, etc. and to sample the offerings from their deli. They make a killer corned beef sandwich.

Malcolm_Brown_28731

Oroazzurro Colatura di Alici

Tutto Calabria peppers

La Valle canned tomatoes

Grand Cru Gember Pasta

Three Crabs Fish Sauce

Alice7980_151719

Some of my all time pantry unavoidables are olive oil, eggs, black peppercorns, all-purpose flour, chicken, herbs and spices products from Canada ( http://www.hortonspicemills.com/listing.php?pid=69 ) and many more.

Though I am a confessed bake-o-phobe, I would never wish to be marooned without spices since that are a sole part of all my dishes.