This is Starter Kit, a series where our editors share the food, drink, and kitchen essentials they recommend when you’re setting up from scratch. Here, Alaina Chou writes about everything you need to stock a pantry—whether you’re a first-time cook, just moved, or finally did that long-overdue cleanout…
Believe it or not, before my pantry shelves devolved into a sprawling mess composed of seemingly every consumer packaged good known to man (which is what happens when you write about said goods for a living), there was a time when they were entirely empty. That time was nearly four years ago, when I first moved into my current apartment and had nary a spice jar or condiment to my name.
Building a pantry from the ground up may feel like a daunting task—it certainly did to me. But while I’m admittedly a sucker for stuffing my cupboard with niche olive oils and seasoned salts I never end up using, curating a highly effective starter pantry requires just a few key products and guiding principles.
If you’re currently building out a pantry from scratch (maybe you moved, maybe you’re getting into cooking for the first time, or maybe you just did a massive spring cleanout?), consider this your checklist-slash-guidebook. Add all of the following products to cart, and I guarantee your pantry, fridge, and freezer will be stocked with a well-rounded selection of essentials to help get dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or dessert) on the table.
For some expert input on pantry must-haves, I turned to cookbook author, Substack writer, and weeknight cooking whiz Caroline Chambers (whose new book, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast, comes out in August), as well as our Test Kitchen editors. Read on for their tips (as well as some of my own) for how to fill your pantry with everything you need—and nothing you don’t.
How to customize this list for you
This list is by no means exhaustive (hence the “starter” in “starter kit”), but rather a suggestion of things to stock up on in an initial grocery run that will serve you well in your everyday cooking routine. Even so, my ideal pantry starter kit will look different from yours, or your neighbor’s, or your best friend’s, its contents dependent on your flavor and cuisine preferences and lifestyle choices.
When deciding what to stock up on, Chambers recommends you “look to your family’s favorite five recipes. Chances are, if you stock your pantry with those items, every week you’re only going to have to buy meat and fresh produce, because you already have the pantry goods (rice, pasta, beans, spices) that you need to make all of your favorite things.” She recommends keeping those five favorite recipes in a notes app, with each of their ingredient lists bulleted below.
Similarly, if you gravitate towards certain cuisines, that will invariably influence which pantry items you should keep stocked. For instance: I cook a lot of Chinese food at home, so I keep a fridge door shelf’s worth of essentials—like light and dark soy sauce, black vinegar, brown bean sauce, and a billion types of chili crisp—on hand at all times. Use the following list as a starting point and supplement it with whatever it is you need to cook the way you want to.
Dry goods
Kitchen cabinet space is precious (unless you have a separate pantry or loads of cupboards, in which case, can I move in?), but a few basic ingredients can go a long way. And before you start loading your shelf with bags of flour and sugar, might I implore you to decant those dry goods into sealed containers? Sincerely, someone who has had one too many pantry beetle infestations in her lifetime.
