The Pantry Primer: Stockpiling the Basics for Scratch Cooking

By Daisy Luther

To be efficient, every pantry requires certain basics that allow for scratch cooking.  A good pantry should have everything you need to whip together a pie, a loaf of bread, or a batch of biscuits with no trip to the store required.

Many of these basics can be purchased in large quantities. One of my favorite destinations for pantry basics is Amazon, where I purchase yeast, aluminum-free baking soda, and other building blocks of a scratch pantry. I have also acquired 50-pound bags of organic sugar at Bulk Barn for a reduced price.

What basics do you need?

To build your stockpile, look through your cupboards and see what you use the most. Every kitchen will be different but below are my most-used items – the ones that I search out and buy in bulk.

Baking Items:

• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Yeast
• Cocoa
• Nonfat dry milk
• Alternative Flours

Fats:

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Shortening
• Butter
• Lard

Sweeteners:

• White sugar
• Turbinado sugar
• Muscavado sugar/brown sugar
• Honey
• Molasses
• Maple syrup

Other:

• Salt
• White vinegar
• Apple cider vinegar
• Balsamic vinegar
• Black pepper
• Herbs and spices
• Cornstarch (please consider organic for all corn products)

Want to learn more? The new edition of The Pantry Primer is now available!

Lots of us like to have hard copies of information that we’ve found helpful.  Because of this, I’ve expanded on the information included in this series and put it all in one handy primer, available on Amazon.

The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget