Passionate about pantries

A couple weeks ago, tired of tripping over things that somehow got stored on the floor, I did a deep clean and reorganization of our pantry. It's always nice to do this, since it increases efficiency and reacquaints me with things that tend to get pushed in back and forgotten.

As always when giving attention to the pantry, I took a moment to step back and give thanks for this space. It's stocked deeply and thoroughly. It allows us to create entire meals without having to dash to the grocery store (an hour's round trip) for any particular ingredient. If we're getting low on something, it gets added to a running list for restocking at a future time.

I was asked to write a piece for Lehman's on the benefits of a well-stocked pantry, which I just sent in. I pitched a follow-up piece on pantry organization, on which I haven't heard back yet. But my enthusiasm to write on the subject made me realize just how passionate I am about pantries.

Interestingly, pantries took off in a BIG way during the COVID lockdowns (dubbed "pantry porn") as people (a) realized the benefits of having an in-home grocery store, and (b) were bored out of their gourds and decided pantry organization was the next Hot Topic. I thought it was great to see so many people get involved in pantries, although I think the trend has fizzled somewhat.

Of course, most of these pantries featured online involved a lot of beautiful organization that wasted a lot of space, at least in my opinion.

These intensely organized pantries may be Instagram perfect, but many don't reflect the reality of active usage. As meals are planned and prepared, things get raided, moved around, rummaged through, restocked, de-stocked, and otherwise used. Many pantries featured in the pantry-porn phase were more for photo ops than practical food storage.

Still, it was a trend I enthusiastically applauded. Pantries are the greatest thing since ... well, sliced bread. (The term "pantry" stems from the Latin word "panna," or bread room)

Our pantry is ugly. It will never be featured on anyone's Instagram feed. But it is perfectly suited to our family's needs, deeply stocked, and critically important, especially since my job loss. Therefore it is dazzlingly beautiful in my eyes.

Pantry tour

A couple weeks ago, I put up a post about canning mushrooms.

In that blog post, I happened to include an older photo of our pantry. This, oddly enough, garnered most of the comments.

Here's the other side of the pantry (again, an older photo):

The photos above were taken mere weeks after the pantry was built back in Jan/Feb 2021, so it's evolved quite a bit since then.

But ... considering the interest, would you like a pantry tour?

To begin, I invite you to watch its construction. The pantry was, literally, the first project Don did in our new (to us) home, and you can see how he built it here and here.

However two and a half years have passed, so the pantry has acquired more staples. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so – apparently – does a pantry.

Additionally, when Older Daughter moved back in with us, we combined our two kitchens. She brought along her personal store of food staples and spices. This inventory has since widened since she's taken over cooking duties for all of us. Accordingly, I rearranged the pantry to give her a great deal of dedicated shelf space.

Before we embark on the tour of the pantry, let's make one thing clear. Apparently there’s a trend on social media dubbed "pantry porn." This consists of photos and videos depicting meticulously organized pantries with everything neatly labeled and maintained (apparently it got a foothold during the COVID lockdowns). Organized pantries have become status symbols.

 

Our pantry is not, to put it mildly, like that. It's cramped and crowded and frankly a mess. But it's also well-stocked, and within the chaos Older Daughter and I know where everything is. That's all that matters.

Okay, let's begin. Here's what the pantry looks like today (compare that to the meticulous organization of the top photos taken just after the pantry was completed).

Originally the way I organized things was: canned meats, sauces, vegetables, and other savory items on the left; and canned fruits on the right. While I still (roughly) maintain that order, it's no longer set in stone.

Stepping inside, you can see the step stool in the corner We are a family of hobbits. This step stool is in constant use.

In the other corner is the spice rack, another section in constant use. Originally nothing was stacked in front of them, but (ahem) that didn't last long. The box with my pressure canner is on the left. The stacked buckets on the right have bread flour and pasta in them.

The high shelves are too high for me to reach without the step stool, so I store things up there I don't need as often: insulated food carriers, the turkey roaster, boxes and boxes of canning lids.

Plastic pitchers, some cleaning supplies, pre-popped popcorn (one of the parrot's favorite treats), and a jug of bulk croutons.

Fruit vinegar, extra plastic food-storage bowls, and a bag of gluten for bread-making.

These shelves hold mostly fruit: peaches, pears, apples (sauce, diced, and pie filling), raspberry and strawberry jam, blueberries, etc. On top the jars, I store large-but-flat plastic containers.

Fruits, teas, and a lot of miscellaneous stuff such as syrup, popcorn, raisins, cleaning supplies, etc.

Miscellaneous things like cornmeal, powdered milk, farina, raisins, syrup, cheese powder, etc.

Baking aids (flour, oatmeal, lard, shortening, peanut butter, etc.), spices, boxes of dirty rice (my weakness), matches, vinegar, and a box of miscellaneous canning lids and rings that are in constant use. Oh, and a few bottles of beer Don slipped in.

On the other wall, a lot of canned foods: corn, mushrooms, turkey stock, various soups, stews, and tomato sauces.

More veggies: peas, green beans, dry beans, lentils, carrots, dehydrated broccoli.

Some canned foods, but also a vast array of Asian and Mexican spices and staples Older Daughter uses in meal prep.

More canned food, mostly meats and pinto beans (for making refried beans). On the floor are two plastic totes where I store garden seeds.

A mishmash of jars of meat, a couple of frying pans (don't ask me why; we've always stored them there), some graham crackers, etc.

Canned chicken, jumbo boxes of Grape Nuts (which I love in homemade yogurt), a couple of spare dishtubs which are handy when the power is out and I'm washing dishes with stored water.

On the floor of both sides of the pantry are bulk quantities of such things as Asian sauces, vinegar, lemon juice, vanilla, some cleaning supplies, etc. This is also where Don keeps his cast iron Dutch ovens for breadmaking.

I also keep olive oil, baking powder, rice, and other bulk items on the floor.

Against the far wall is a cart Don made decades ago. It was originally a microwave cart, but now we use it for general-purpose storage: Boxes and baskets of potatoes and onions, overly large utensils, a box with things like aluminum foil and wax paper, etc. On the floor is a bag of dog food (left) and parrot food (right).

As you can tell, this is NOT an Pinterest-perfect pantry. Nor is it a museum maintained as a testimony to beautiful organizational skills. I don't have the time or interest for that kind of nonsense. Instead, the pantry is an in-home grocery store. It's also in constant flux, as a good pantry should be.

Because we have the pantry, we store no food whatever in the kitchen. Kitchen storage is dedicated to pots, pans, utensils, dishes, etc.

When he first built the pantry, Don made it so a door could be installed and opened inward (with the spice shelf behind it). As it turns out, we never needed a door. We did, however, hang a pretty curtain in front for times we don't want the messy pantry visible to visitors.

So there you have it, a tour of our pantry. It's not pretty, but it's well-stocked. I'll take that over "pantry porn" any day of the week.

The chicken pot pie test

I was chatting with my father the other day. Currently he's 86 and my mom is 90. Because Mom is getting a little more unsteady on her feet, Dad's been doing a lot more of the cooking – and rather finding he's enjoying it. (Mom is so proud of him!)

Somehow we got on the subject of chicken pot pie, something both my parents enjoy eating. But Dad said it was easier to purchase this fare (as take-out) from a nearby restaurant because it was so difficult to make the pies from scratch.

This puzzled me at first, because chicken pot pie is one of my easiest go-to meals for company. It was a standard recipe whenever we hosted the neighborhood potluck at our old place. What's so hard about making chicken pot pie?

Then Dad started going down the ingredients list and I realized he's right. From scratch, it's a bear. First you have to get a chicken, de-bone it, and cut (or shred) it into appropriate size pieces. Then you have to peel and dice carrots (or other vegetables), peel and dice potatoes, cut onions, make the sauce, and make the crust.     

Of these steps, arguably the most time-consuming is the chicken. But the reason making chicken pot pie was never an overly difficult dish for me to make is because I already have chicken breasts canned up. Canned chicken shreds beautifully, making it ideal for a pot pie.

This led me to thinking about the advantages of a deep pantry. I just wrote an article for Self-Reliance Magazine entitled "Pantry Independence" which underscores the importance of having component ingredients preserved for a variety of recipes. (It's a pretty good article, if I do say so. You might want to grab a copy of the current issue.)

I'm starting to think of this as the "Chicken Pot Pie test." Can you make a chicken pot pie from scratch with ingredients found in your pantry and/or found fresh on your farm?

From the article, I included a list of what we have in our pantry. The pantry is roughly 75% home-preserved food (canned or dehydrated) and 25% dry staples and baking/cooking aids. It's organized roughly by categories: meats, vegetables, fruits, sauces, spices. On the floor under the lowest shelves are bulk containers of things like rice, flour, beans, etc.

I tend to purchase bulk quantities of things we can't (or won't) produce ourselves, and then re-can them into more convenient pint jars that we can keep refrigerated once opened (this is especially helpful now that we're empty-nesters and don't go through the volume of food we used to).  Examples include mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce. I have beans preserved in two forms (canned and dry), and plenty of dehydrated broccoli (my favorite veggie).

I went through our pantry and took a rough inventory of what's currently in storage. Here's what I came up with:

• Meats: Canned chicken, ham, pork sausage, beef, tuna.

• Sauces: Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, chicken stock, beef stock, salsa, pizza sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce.

• Vegetables: Dry beans (some dry, some canned), green beans, corn, carrots, peas, mixed veggies, mushrooms, broccoli (dehydrated), chopped canned garlic, onions (some fresh, most dehydrated), tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes.

• Fruits: Peaches (some sliced, some puréed), apples (sauce, diced, or pie filling), blueberries, raspberries (canned in water for making fruit salads), pears, strawberries (some dehydrated, some as preserves), raisins (homemade).

• Dry staples: White flour, whole wheat flour, oatmeal, cornmeal, dry beans (several types), lentils (red and brown), rice (white and brown), popcorn (homegrown), pasta (several types), granola.

• Baking/cooking aids: Baking powder, baking soda, vinegar (distilled, apple, and homemade fruit-scrap vinegar), cheese powder, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, walnuts, cream of tartar, cornstarch, vanilla, powdered milk, powdered eggs, peanut butter.

• Fats: Olive oil, lard, shortening.

• Sweeteners: Honey, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar.

• Convenience meals (often leftovers which I later canned up): Navy bean soup, chili, lentil stew, chicken in orange sauce, curry chicken, roast beef with gravy, chicken soup, dirty rice mix.

• Spices: Salt, pepper, poppy seeds (homegrown), cinnamon, garden herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley), paprika, berbere powder, Montreal steak seasoning, curry powder, chili powder, red pepper (crushed homegrown cayenne), powdered ginger, garlic powder, nutmeg.

I also store potatoes and onions in the pantry in separate crates.

In light of increasing supply-chain issues and the rising cost of food, it might be worth giving yourself the Chicken Pot Pie Test and see how you do.

What to do with lots of canned fruit

Now that I have a pantry that's properly organized and inventoried, I realize I have a lot of fruit canned up. A lot.

 

Over the years, as I canned up this abundance, in the back of my mind I did so with one objective: how much we enjoy fruit salad. For this I can thank my mother, who tells me as children we kids wouldn't eat our fruit unless she mixed it in a fruit salad. She used one secret ingredient I've always adored.

Last summer when cleaning out and inventorying our freezers, I found I had gallons of frozen raspberries from our bushes. Younger Daughter is the raspberry fiend in our family, and with her off in the Navy, most of the berries went uneaten. But they were beautiful berries and I needed to do something with them. Rather than make them into jam (which I dislike), I opted simply to can them whole in water, with an eye toward one day being part of a fruit salad. That day had come.

So last weekend Older Daughter came up for a visit. As you can imagine, Mr. Darcy was THRILLED to see her.

When I mentioned I was planning on making a fruit salad, Older Daughter eagerly asked if she could bring some home with her. You bet!

So I pulled out all the necessary ingredients from the pantry:

The only thing missing was strawberries. I had a bag of frozen sliced strawberries, the last loot from our old  garden, which I defrosted and added to the mix.

Everyone's notion of the ideal fruit salad is different, but here's what ours consists of: peaches, pears, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, apples. (I canned chopped apple "bits" a few years ago specifically to add to fruit salad.)

I drained the small fruits.

The peaches are drained separately, so I could chop them up.

Of the two quarts of pears I used, one quart is drained and chopped.

The mix so far:

Then -- and this is my mother's secret ingredient -- the other quart of pears is put in the blender with its juice, and puréed.

This creates a "sauce" ...

 ... which is then poured over the rest of the fruit.

Mix it all together, and voilà: A sure-fire way to get the kids to eat their fruit.

And it has a secondary benefit of clearing out some pantry space.