Equipping the Kintsugi Kitchen: Starting from Nothing (Consumables edition)

This is close to the same idea as the other thread (the Equipment edition). This one is for the basic things one needs for a kitchen that are consumables. I know we all have our favorites, but this should be the very basic things one should always have. As an analogy, think of items to list here as screws and nails in a project; the things on the other list as the tools; and items that actually make up the body of the project (the "wood" as it were) as being on another list.

"Consumables" is not just food. It includes anything you eventually use up.

FOOD:
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
Dried garlic (fresh would be better, but dried will keep)
Dried onion (again, fresh would be better, but dried will keep)
5 pounds flour
5 pounds sugar
Dozen eggs
Can baking powder
Soy sauce (the cheap stuff--this is a basic list!)
Butter
Dried bouillon (beef or chicken or veg--your choice or get all three)
Ketchup & mustard (or your local equivalent of assumed prepared condiments)

NOT-FOOD:
Dish soap

This is probably very incomplete!

Edits/credits:
LMC - soy sauce
oops, forgot butter

 

@Vacuum Energy mentioned dried soup.
I´d add soysauce, it does wonders for making things taste good.
Milk,
Oats in the sense of the very basic ingredient of oatmeal. Combined with milk and you choice of nuts or fruits or other, you have breakfast. Combined with a small amount of flour, baking powder, and sugar (And whatever you damn well want/have) you have very very cheap drop biscuits. Also breakfast. (Aaaand lunch and dinner if you´re doing the starving student thing.)

 

Soy sauce (and not the fancy kind for this list!) is a definite addition.

I vacillated on plain old rolled oats because some people just hate them and won't use them for anything. Me, I'm a big oatmeal fan, but my wife won't touch them in any form.

 

Instead of "dried soup" go even more generic with dried bouillon. It can be a soup base and a base ingredient for lots of other things.

 

Should note, if feasible buy it from asian* grocery stores, usually cheaper and better tasting.

*I feel like this descriptor is rude somehow but I don´t have a better one.

 

Since roughly half of them have that on their signs, I think it's OK.

 

A thing i usually kick myself for being out of on the semiregular is brown sugar. I use that stuff a LOT in my baking. Id rather be sure i have brown sugar on hand than any other kind tbh.

Other things we keep around whenever possible:

• 4 sticks salted and unsalted butter each
• Peanut butter
• Noodles (usually angel hair or shells)
• At least 10ish cups of uncooked rice
• Ground beef
• Garlic powder
• Basil
• Mojo (near the holidays, an absolute must have)
• Rotel diced tomatos with chiles. We've had an endless stream of these little cans in our family probably going past before i was born. Diced tomato is love, diced tomato is life.

 

i suppose i could survive without my spice rack, but why would i want to. on the other hand i know perfectly well that its beyond very basics ::D
on that note, spice mixes - i dont know how expensive they range in america, but tomato spice mix and herbs of provence are basically staples here (...of which i use neither because i mix my stuff myself I DIGRESS)

herbs come in freeze-dried and actually quite cheap if you buy the refill packs in dollar stores: basil, chives, onions, garlic, rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley, paprika
curry powder also goes a long way in making stuff edible

(stuff i also have: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, chili, coriander, black cumin) (but thats not usual basic spice rack fare)

also: RICE
get it from asian grocery stores because its cheaper there, and they have bulk packs. consider your rice consumption, and whether a sack barrow might be feasible, those things can get heavy.

 

Tinfoil.
( Plastic wrap also works but you can't use it in the oven to cover things when you need them sealed up. I fucking love tinfoil. I even use it to replace baking trays at times. )

A honking big bag of dried beans, which can be obtained much like rice.

 

I can't be dealing with dried beans because I never have the foresight to soak them. But I have tinned kidney beans and tinned tomatoes in the cupboard almost all the time. Also rice, pasta, olive oil. Bread in the freezer.

That's just me, though. I've seen good "staple" lists at the beginning of recipe books, but they vary so much depending on what you cook. And location...I don't have baking powder because I buy self-raising flour, which is ubiquitous in England and works in nearly any non-bread recipe (not biscuits).

 

Chicken breasts: freezes well and you can buy them in giant packs for cheap
Carrots: keep for a while and are a good vegetable if you find a meal missing one, also useful in all kinds of soups and stews
potatoes: see carrots
coffee: a tin of ground coffee is reasonably cheap and, depending on your caffeine consumption, vital
baking soda: useful for baking and cleaning!
Is dish soap considered a consumable? Because that's hella necessary. What about paper towels? Sponges? Trash bags?

 

Yeah, I do canned beans, too. Kind of an and/or, maybe?

 

See the Equipment Thread ::3

 

There are non-food consumables on this list, too! :) Things like tin foil are consumable in the sense that they are used up, hence why I put them in this thread.

 

I did my first Trader Joe's/CVS run in new apartment today. I think I did okay... sort of got overwhelmed and needed to be out of the store before I got to a couple things. I'm moving with some non-perishables and dry goods (olive oil, flour, spices, etc), so I didn't necessarily get all of those.

Here's what I got:

-6 eggs
-half-gallon of milk
-block of cheddar cheese
-yogurt
-bag of pasta
-3lbs rice
-1.5lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (which I prefer to breasts)
-4pack of sausages
-4 single-serving applesauces (my ultimate low spoons way of consuming fruit)
-bag of lettuce
-box of cereal
-dish soap
-paper towels
-sponges

-loaf of bread
-jar of peanut butter

-an onion

 

Quoting myself from the other thread:

 

You also may at some point need ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, or a combination of the three. I personally find those are easy to forget to buy even if you know you'll need them. Plus they typically keep for a while, so worst case scenario you buy some and don't use it for a few weeks. You can get ketchup and mustard pretty cheap, not sure about mayo. I think you can get a small, pretty affordable jar though!

Having a loaf of bread around has been helpful to me in the past, even if I didn't buy it with a set purpose in mind.

 

ketchup and mustard are good for, if absolutely nothing else, spicing up meat. toss some spices in with ketchup or mustard for an easy sauce to cook meat in.

 

Ketchup and mustard. I'll allow it.

ETA:

1. This is, of course, US based. Other countries may have different prepared sauces that are basic.

2. You can buy whatever yellow mustard you want, but pay the extra 5o¢ and get the real Heinz stuff or I will fight you irl.

 

Cheese and peanut butter are both good essential protein items, both pretty easily accessible even at lowest spoon levels. They have the advantage of eggs and meat in that they don't need cooked. I know they were two of the first things I bought when I moved into my current apartment, along with bread, milk, eggs, ramen, and various frozen veggies.