What do you keep in your food cupboards?

[sharkstale]

What do you consider a well stocked food cupboard?
What types of foods, how much of it, and what do you use it for?

I find that whenever I buy tins, they never get used, so I stopped buying them.
So, on average, my cupboards seem to only stock pasta, rice, pasta sauce jars, cereal, peanut butter, crackers, gravy, crisps and some toddler 'organix' snacks. Sometimes croissants/scones but they'll be gone in a day so they don't exactly fill up the cupboard.

We obviously have a lot of fresh and frozen food, I'm just wondering how people have such well stocked cupboards when mine seem empty in comparison?

I have two tall larder units. I am a bulk buyer when on offer type of shopper
There are fours draws within each and each one has a type

Flours x3 types, dried yeast, baking powder, breadcrumbs, suet
Tins of beans, butter, kidney, mixed and chickpeas tomatoes, tuna, purées, fruit, mackerel
Teas, Yorkshire tea, Earl grey, jasmine, green tea, herb teas, coffees, beans and instant, sugar
My Asian ingredients draws, seaweed, soy sauce, oyster sauce sauce, miso soup paste, various chilli’s and sauces, spring roll wrappers, tins of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, panko breadcrumbs, dried mushrooms, wasabi, wasabi peas.

Nuts, seeds, dry fruit
Crackers, Oatcakes, Ramen, rice crackers
Spices Shelf with all the basics and different flavoured salts
Rice drawer this is the biggest and has a pot filled with rice and a spare sack so it fits in two sacks of rice, plus a small amount of sushi rice and pudding rice.

I also have the cupboard next to the cooker with oil, vinegars and my most used spices in. Plus a cereals cupboard and two cupboards filled with booze. We are not big drinkers. I’m having my birthday party in a few days so I’m offering it all out. Making Buck’s Fizz with the 10 bottles of cava I already have.

DS bemoans we are an ingredients household. There is a basket of crisps and chocolate that they can eat.

I buy too many of what I call 'poncy shit in jars', usually when I see them on the reduced shelf. I currently have a jar of M&S 'Moroccan paste' so probably ras el hanout type stuff and it says to cook it with lamb, chick peas, canned tomatoes and dried apricots. You could serve that with bulgar wheat or cous cous. That's the sort of things we eat quite a lot of.

Also any beans can be used in chilli. Or maybe butter beans or chick peas with chorizo and possibly fresh pork shoulder and peppers/tomatoes/onions.

An easy Mexican style storecupboard meal is 'taco soup' so tomatoes, beans and sweetcorn cooked with spices, stock and, if you have them, chicken, peppers and onions.

Tinned potatoes are good in curries or a Spanish omelette (slice with an egg slicer, a good MN tip I learned).

I don't bother making pasta sauce but stock up on the Heinz ones when on offer as they're nice enough and not UPF.

Oh yes, how could I forget, canned Chinese straw mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. Good in ramen or the water chestnuts can go in pot stickers.

@VivaciousCurrentBun Your cupboards sound a lot like ours, sometimes we have half a dozen different types of rice alone.

Cereals shelf - oats, weetabix, protein granola, bran flakes, chia seeds, sultanas and protein powder.
A shelf of various nuts, seeds, and cake decorating stuff.
rice & pasta - usually basmati, long grain, risotto rice, rice noodles, wheat noodles, orzo, spaghetti, at least one shape of pasta and macaroni, and some sachets of microwave rice and those mixed grain sachets.
tea and coffee, hot chocolate, herbal tea
tins: tomatoes, chick peas, kidney beans, tuna, sweetcorn. Tomato puree.
peanut butter, jam and honey
snacks, biscuits, crisps, rice cakes, cereal bars etc for packed lunches
any spare condiments that aren’t open and in the fridge - mayo, ketchup, olives, gherkins, mustard, chutney etc
Flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking stuff
loads of herbs and spices and stock cubes
oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, gravy granules.

So I have a dried goods cupboard:

• Several different varieties of pasta (spaghetti, linguine, lasagna, fusilli, rigatoni, conchiglie, farfalle at the moment but it varies.
• Long grain, basmati and arborio rice.-
• Dried noodles (wheat and rice)
• Red lentils and green lentils
• Pearl barley
• Cous cous

Tins:

• chopped tomatoes
• cherry tomatoes
• passata
• baked beans
• mushy peas
• kidney beans
• mixed beans
• haricot beans
• tuna in spring water

Then:

• spices
• spice mixes
• Chinese ingredient sauces (dark and light soy, oyster, hoisin, sesame oil, Shaoxing rice wine, mixing etc)
• stock pots, gravy granules etc
• Worcestershire sauce etc
• honey etc.

Then a baking cupboard.

Oh, and cereal (weetabix, porridge, shreddies) and snack things that DD takes to school like dried fruit, cheese straws and crackers.

Plus tea, coffee, hot chocolate flakes etc.

I tried to list everything out but honestly had to give up and I’ll just say we get to the zombie apocalypse I’ll be fine.
Chickpeas - hummus, falafels, add to curries, stews, curried chickpeas in sandwiches and wraps (like coronation chicken is used).
Bulger wheat: coarse or fine? Fine - Tabbouleh, falafel ingredient, coarse - use as a grain in any salad or dish in place of where you might eg use cous cous or rice if the dish is vaguely Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean.
Give me more and I’ll give you ideas.

For plum tomatoes, put them in a blender then you can ise in any dish requiring a can of chopped tomatoes in the sauce.

Far far too much I cant even go through it all. Every few months I try to write out an inventory to stick on the inside of the door so that I know what Ive got but it doesnt seem to work to reduce it all.

We have 2 main food cupboards in the kitchen, then another 2 cupboards which are just spices/herbs/condiments/pastes, then another half cupboard of condiments, then 2 main food cupboards in the utility room where the shelves are bowing with tons of stuff in them and then I also have a tea and coffee cupboard. Then I have a separate unit in the kitchen with all my baking stuff in it which has all the usual flours/fruits/flavourings/sugars bits and bobs.

Its too much.

Oh and the snack box

Its only me and OH here!

Yes same here, I could live for months and months just in this house.

With my cupboards and two freezers, I hardly needed to shop during Covid lockdown.

Same here. And yet it was those of us who had plenty of stuff in so didn't need to go to the shops who were apparently causing all the shortages according to some on here......

We were fortunate to make our normal Costco toilet roll purchase some time in January or February 2020 so didn't need to think about it at all until May/June? when all the initial craziness had passed. It wasn't until COVID that I realised that there were people who bought small packs of toilet roll as and when they needed them. And these weren't the people who had no money and no space so they couldn't afford a bigger pack where the cost per roll was much cheaper.

I dont buy in bulk at all, we just did our normal shopping during covid, we didnt really avoid going out. I went to work every day anyway.

Lots. Lots of cans of beans, chickpeas, lentils, canned tomatoes, coconut milk. Lots of pasta, rice, noodles, polenta. Spices and condiments, things like jarred peppers, peanut butter, tahini. A big drawer for baking — flours, sugar, baking powder, ground almonds, vanilla and lemon essence, golden syrup, rose water.

Lots. Lots of cans of beans, chickpeas, lentils, canned tomatoes, coconut milk. Lots of pasta, rice, noodles, polenta. Spices and condiments, things like jarred peppers, peanut butter, tahini. A big drawer for baking — flours, sugar, baking powder, ground almonds, vanilla and lemon essence, golden syrup, rose water.
This could be my cupboard!!

I always have lemons and greek yogurt, citric acid and msg,olives and various nuts and seeds in stock.

herbs, pasta, gravy, cheese sauce, beans, beans & sausages, sweetcorn, tinned tomatoes (we make our own pasta sauces), peas, mushy peas, stock cubes, sugar, crisps, various packet seasonings, chocolate, pot noodles & super noodles.

Oh and nutella.

I could survive the next Armageddon with the contents of my store cupboard, and the ensuing nuclear winter if the freezers are still functioning.

HTH

I have a tall larder cupboard with a shelf of baking stuff - different flours, sugars, golden syrup, vanilla essence etc., a shelf of dry goods- different types of pasta, rice, couscous, seeds etc., a shelf of tins and jars - tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, sweetcorn, pesto, soups, mustards etc., and a shelf of herbs, spices and seasonings. Then underneath that a cupboard with breakfast cereal, porridge oats, muesli, and a snack box - biscuits, crackers, nuts, crisps occasionally.

I have things that I know I use regularly.
So tins of tomatoes, beans and pulses, sweetcorn, tuna, olives, coconut milk, pears and apricots.
Jars of peanut butter, jam, marmalade, marmite, mustard, mayonnaise and chutney.
Cartons of passata.
Bottles of cordial, oil, wine, beer.
Rice, pasta, flour and sugar, tea and coffee, cocoa and drinking chocolate.
Boxes of cereal, crackers.
Herbs and spices

I stock up when the above are on offer, and try to make sure there is at least one spare of everything in the cupboard - more if it’s something we use frequently, like tomatoes.

I recently organised them with clear storage tubs which I initially bought as replacement fridge storage but realised they were good anywhere. Game changer.

I like this thread. I thought I was unusual in having more stuff than a corner shop. It's partly because we don't have a corner shop, I live in a village with no shop so if you run out of something you have to improvise or get in the car. My good friend and neighbour also has a large pantry so we do "borrow" the odd onion etc.
A lot is down to staorage space, if you don't have the room then you can't have a big stock of storecupboard things.
I do buy in bulk and I also grow fruit and veg. I have a chest freezer in the garage as well as a kitchen freezer

@Bjorkdidit I like the sound of your Taco Soup! A sort of mexican ramen?
@DeftGoldHedgehog I recently bought some of those from BM bargains for storing bathroom stuff and they are great. Might get some to organise the kitchen.

They are better than normal fridge trays as I can pull them out much more easily. My shelves and traditional trays are hard to get at as the fridge is in a bit of a awkward space really near a wall, so it's not as easy to keep clean as it ought to be. I'm putting off going and organising my final big cupboard that is full of stuff I don't use so I shall now go and get to it!

Tins of chopped tomatoes, tins of pulses, lots of tinned oily fish.
Baked beans
A few types of pasta and rice.
Couscous
Peanut butter
Marmite
Jam and marmalade
Honey
Maple syrup
Black treacle
Oats
Currants, raisins, sultanas
Various types of nuts, eg flaked almonds, desiccated coconut, cashews, walnuts/pecans
Various types of flour and sugar
Preserved ginger
Pumpkin seeds
Knorr Stock Pots
Gravy powder
Merchant Gourmet lentil / grain pouches
Usually some Penguins, KitKats or Clubs
Fancy crisps that DP likes
Olive oil and rapeseed oil
Cocoa powder
Ketchup, brown sauce, various other condiments
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Various vinegars
Baking power and bicarb
Herbs and spices

Pasta, rice, quinoa, herbs, tins tomatoes, tuna tuna, kidney beans, cup a soup, Ryvita, pesto, marmite, peanut butter, noodles, sugar, flour, cake decorations, sardines.