Pantry Challenge 2024

[2024Hackathon]

A relative has downsized. I 'inherited' a mass of pantry items she couldn't take with her. They range from the exotic to the everyday. A lot of them are well beyond their Best Before date (some going back to 2012 like stock cubes).

However, I can't bear food waste. So, I'm making a conscious effort to use up the pantry items along with the contents of our freezer and minimise the need to purchase much beyond fresh fruit and vegetables (we do have a lot of dehydrated vegetables).

I know I'm going to run out of inspiration and find it easier to default to not rotating in the pantry items which is why I'm hoping to keep this here.

Note from 31 Dec. I used some dried whole egg when baking (I used half the amount of fresh eggs and the remainder was from dried) and it was (unexpectedly) fine.

01.01.24 pantry challenge

Breakfast: porridge, HM bread toasted, HM yoghurt (all pantry; I may need to try and shift yoghurt making to dried milk)

Lunch: yesterday's vegetable soup (pantry) with tomato salad (current stores)

Dinner: duck (freezer) with roast potatoes, vegetables all from pantry (red cabbage, rehydrated carrots and celeriac).

Good idea. I need to do this so I'm placemarking. Will check cupboards and report back.

Some of the random items I've inherited:

11 tins of preserved Chinese radish (opened one on 30 Dec and a little will go a long way)
2 jars XO sauce
3 jars Chilli Crisp

20 packets of curry sauces
11 bottles sauces, mustards, ketchup

many tins/jars/packets of fish (mackerel, salmon, sardines, some Polish | Russian labelled ones I need to translate)
50+ jars/tins of tomato or tomato sauce (with basil or olive)
24 small tins of fish pate
5 jars tuna-stuffed peppers
3 jars bottarga
9 jars anchovy cream
2 large bags bonito flakes
5 bags of various seaweeds
11 jars Greek stuffed vegetable parcels
9 tins palm hearts
14 tins artichoke hearts
4 jars sorel
5kg tinned smoked aubergine puree
10kg dried carrots
10kg dried onions
8kg tomato flakes
2kg dried red (bell) peppers
4.5kg dried mushrooms (Chinese, morel, button, wild mix)
30 boxes Swedish red cabbage
7kg assorted soup mixes (cream of mushroom, wild mushroom, mixed vegetable, tomato)
14 boxes stock cubes (mushroom bouillon, vegetable, fish)
10 jars HM lime pickle

14kg various sultana, raisin, currants, dates, prunes, apricots, mixed dried fruit
6.5kg dried mango, dried banana, dried cherries, dried pears
11kg candied kiwi, candied melon, candied pineapple, ginger
9kg assorted fruit purées (lemon, cherry, peach)
4.5kg nuts (almonds, pistachio, hazelnut, pecan, walnuts)
1kg dried whole egg powder
2kg eggwhite powder
5kg malt extract
9kg golden syrup
1.5kg black treacle
6.5kg various cooking chocolate (milk, plain (40-70%), white)

15kgs of unusual flours like vital wheat gluten, (lonjevity) high fibre flour, oat fibre, bamboo fibre, wheat fibre, psyllium husk

2kg dried cheese powders

There's a lot more to inventory.

Pleasant surprises:

• dried onion makes very good caramelised onion
• dried carrots and celeriac come back well in taste and texture
• dried egg rehydrates nicely and worked in the one recipe I tried it in (I halved the fresh egg amount and made up the rest with the dried egg powder).

Goodness! That is some stash! How did your relative manage to house it all? And how will you? Either they were in catering or preparing for armageddon!

Some of it is very specific and quite random... I would have difficulty knowing what to do with 5kg of smoked aubergine puree for example! Are these in catering size tins etc - will it mean once you open them you will need to freeze any that remains unused? I have so many questions!

However - during a CoL crisis and having been given the stores I would want to do as you are! Some things like 9kg of golden syrup would in theory last for many years - might crystalize but be fine once heated.

I have a well stocked pantry (but nothing on this scale!) and am trying to do similar but in a much smaller way! So far I have made fish cakes with the tinned fish and used dates and walnuts just past their BB date for cakes and flapjacks.

How did your relative manage to house it all? And how will you? Either they were in catering or preparing for armageddon!

Some of it is very specific and quite random... I would have difficulty knowing what to do with 5kg of smoked aubergine puree for example! Are these in catering size tins etc - will it mean once you open them you will need to freeze any that remains unused? I have so many questions!

Stored in a large house which is why it definitely couldn't go into a 1 bed flat.

Mix of catering (volunteer cook for charities local groups and someone who is unphased by cooking for a couple of hundred people). She was a keen hobby baker who made her Christmas cakes etc. as gifts for literally hundreds of people, every year. She dehydrated and preserved a lot of fruit and vegetable gluts. This is precisely the sort of stuff you can't pass on to a charity, foodbanks or soup kitchens.

I think COVID-19 disrupted so much for her that in combination with family events and illness, she wasn't turning over her stocks or entertaining nearly as much as she did.

This explains some of her stores. I'm speculating but some, I think, is chronic food insecurity.

It's catering size tins of the aubergine (more aubergine than I thought, the tins are 2.87kg each). So, you're right, I'd need to have enough space in the freezer to take the excess after opening the tin. And I can't just stash it in there, I'd need to have a plan for using it.

I mentioned on another thread that I've just found

• 11kg of linseeds (gold and brown)
• 7kg lupin flour.

I can make bread and crackers from the linseed. I'm going to have to think of ways of distributing this round because I'll have to freeze the linseed to stop it spoiling. I have a chest freezer but, even so, that will take a lot of room.

Such an amazing variety!
Do you have an ice-cream maker?

Yes, I do. DH has stuck it in the loft and he hasn't found it (a bone of contention).

Do you have some suggestions from my motley assortment of ingredients? I'd embrace all ideas very warmly! (And it might help me to persuade DH to brave the cold, climb up there and have a sustained search.)

Enjoy you delectable challenge.

Some of the fruits could be used in ice cream though more so for making coulis to add to variations of Eton Mess. ..

The egg white for perfecting Pavlova and Meringues.

You could eat Fish Soup for decades.

The savoury selection will whet your appetite for tasty adventurous dishes.

Golden Syrup Dumplings and Sticky Date Pudding.

Dried mushrooms are insanely expensive now, use to make mushroom risotto, with rocket and parmeasan on top.
Use the pasta sauces in lasagne, in addition to other pasta bakes.

If there is any condensed milk in there, add to the chocolate and make slow cooker fudge

is the Olio app active in your area? It is designed for redistributing left over food, including store cupboard stuff. You could make up bags with multiples, take photos, and then give to anyone who expresses an interest

You’ll need to use the nuts quickly otherwise you’ll risk them going rancid. I’d be looking at making some batches of flapjack type breakfast bars loaded with nuts and some of the dried fruit.

Are you interested in trying your hand at home brewing? I used to do it years ago and you can definitely use up some of your dried fruit that way - I made a great Date Wine which was also great to give as gifts.

My challenge to myself for the new year is to try making Mead. I have honey but also a very large bottle of maple syrup and have discovered that I can make Maple Mead (to make it mead there has to be SOME honey in there but can also include other syrups) so perhaps an option?

The sugar based products (syrup, granular sugar, honey) will literally last decades so no need to worry about them. The flours and nuts will go rancid. How are they stored? Do you have a vacuum packer since this will help to preserve them. Flour will last way beyond its sell by date but will turn eventually (particularly wholemeal)

I have a good quality heat sealer and one of the items I've inherited is a vacuum sealer. My relative was meticulous about sealing items.

The nuts were all soaked in a brine and then dried in a dehydrator and vacuum packed. I'm pretty sensitive to rancidity so I'll definitely be careful about that and look to use them up within the next few months. They'll probably be making their appearance in tiffin | chocolate fridge cake and in various fruit cakes (very popular in my family). There's a bag of cashews and I've got a recipe for a couple of curries with those so I intend to eat them that way.

The weird fibre flours don't have any fat to go rancid, afaict (the oat fibre, bamboo fibre). I'm not sure I'd know what's going on with the lupin flour but that's got 7g fat per 100g (the rest is protein and fibre).

The linseed is what I'm most cautious about because I usually find the pre-ground stuff so fishy I can't bear it. This linseed is whole, not ground. I've done a test grind of the brown linseed in a bread I made a couple of days ago and it seems fine.

Thank you for the information about the syrups etc. I can see how I can have a future of baking gingerbread and malt loaf to give people.

02.01 All pantry and existing stores unless stated otherwise.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt and granola
Lunch: mixed vegetable soup with leftovers of carrot and celeriac from last night

Dinner: leftover braised Chinese mushrooms; half fresh egg, half dried egg to make up something like egg foo yong (small amount of leftover pork belly from freezer, peas, onions, handful of shrimp from freezer)

I might give that some thought when I've finished the inventory. I do ferment some food but it's tricky because I do a fair amount of business travel and no-one will look after them when I'm away. I have lots of trouble getting them to look after the bread and yoghurt starters.

The mead sounds like a lovely project. I'd never have realised it could be made with maple syrup or similar but it sounds logical.

03.01 All today's meals will be from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt and granola
Lunch: tomato soup (stores mix with dried tomatoes) plus HM bread
Dinner: we have Christmas meat to finish so some people will have that with stores vegetables (carrots, green beans, baked potatoes, cabbage) this evening. I'll have fish stew (from freezer fish and tinned tomatoes and rehydrated peppers etc. stores).

I've rehydrated dried onions and I'm now caramelising them with oil for several hours. I'll add some butter and a tiny splash of vinegar and sugar from the stores later. Caramelised onions go with a lot of meals and they're the basis for a quick gravy or for mixing with baked beans.

The following won't be from my stores, unfortunately.

I'm considering culturing a new additional yoghurt strain for my MIL's DP. He's had several courses of antibiotics and it's created gut problems. He'd like to try L. Reuteri. I need to buy the capsules and culture the contents with fresh milk so I'll have to buy both of these initially and then more fresh milk to continue making it for them if I can get it going. This may seem minor but the capsules are £22 and it seems there's a high failure rate to get it going.

I'm also not confident about whether or not this is a heritage strain or if I'd need to start it over from scratch every 12 weeks or so.

i

I’m in. I’ll be working through the freezer too. Good luck to everyone. Will report back soon.

I’m trying to work through the freezer but I’ve had a tough day and I’m having thoughts of Chinese takeaway which I’m struggling to banish…

04.01 All today's meals are from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt and granola
Lunch: tomato soup (stores mix with added dried, smoked tomatoes) plus HM bread

Dinner: Chicken or plant-based sausages with green beans, grilled tomato, rehydrated button mushrooms, caramelised onions, baked potatoes.

This thread inspired me to do a stock take of my pantry and plan a menu for the month.
I have to bin a few things as they were spoiled, but even with past bb dates I have kept others.
You can use the dehydrated egg to make ice cream!
The smoked aubergine can be made into dip, baba ganoush, and add it to every pasta sauce, stew for depth of flavour

Haven’t had time to go through the cupboards. We were out all day. I cooked broccoli tonight and saved the water for stock for a stew I’ll cook tomorrow.

You can use the dehydrated egg to make ice cream!
The smoked aubergine can be made into dip, baba ganoush, and add it to every pasta sauce, stew for depth of flavour

I shall look to find a recipe for dehydrated egg and ice-cream as that hadn't occurred to me—thank you.

Good call on uses for the aubergine. I'll do that when I have enough space in the freezer to be able to decant the remainder of the tin (each tin has 2.875kg).

make mushroom risotto, with rocket and parmesan on top.
Use the pasta sauces in lasagne, in addition to other pasta bakes.

Good idea, I'll see how much I need to rehydrate the mushrooms before including them.

Following due to other thread and for ideas xx

:)

05.01

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt and granola
Lunch: mushroom soup (stores mix with added dried wild mushrooms) plus sourdough crackers with a vegetable spread

Dinner: Tuna pasta bake. Roast broccoli with parmesan/nut sprinkle plus peas and sweetcorn.

I'm planning to make freezer coleslaw over the weekend for an easy side dish to have with meals. I'll be able to use the dried carrots and dried bell peppers in this although I need to buy a fresh cabbage. (Both of the following recipes are vinegar based and I like them like this. However, they work well with a dab of mayonnaise or salad cream at the point of serving.)

https://www.theseoldcookbooks.com/amish-freezer-slaw/

This one is a similar idea that doesn't need the freezer but I don't have the fridge space to store that amount of coleslaw. I could cut the recipe down but I'd either have to rotate in a meal to use the rest of the cabbage or blanch and put it in the freezer.

y