How to Stock Your Pantry

 What are some basic cooking ingredients that are good to have on hand in your kitchen at all times?

 Why not just ask us to name your first-born child? There are an awful lot of variables in your question, and we don’t know you that well.

But whether you’re a vegetarian, Muslim, busy mom, or newlywed, the goal is to have enough of the right ingredients on hand so that you can feed yourself (well) without running out to the store (or the fast-food joint) each time your stomach growls. As Rosemary Brown says, "A well-stocked pantry is one of the best keys I know to being able to prepare good meals in a hurry. Having plenty of ingredients tucked away in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry will add hours to your week."

With that in mind, we looked through our own cupboards and turned to two books that offer advice on stocking a kitchen — The Kitchen Survival Guide, by Laura Brody, and Rosemary Brown’s Big Kitchen Instruction Book. Brody’s book is for beginners, and includes 130 "hand-holding" recipes. Brown’s book is more comprehensive, in both its general information and the number and caliber of the recipes.

Some of these choices you can certainly live without; others you’ll have on hand at certain times and not at others. And many cooks will notice items missing from this list that they consider essential to life. All in all, we’d rather pick a name for your child. But the cumulative suggestions are as follows:

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