one man's ongoing quest to become a better cook

When Alicia Hansen over at Poise In Parma recently gave away a $50 Whole Foods gift card to enable a lucky winner to stock their pantry, she asked her readers to leave a comment telling her what their favorite pantry ingredient was. There were many terrific responses and it got me thinking as I rifled through a mental list of my “go-to” pantry items. Here’s what I posted:

“I have three: Olive oil, because it’s what I use the most, followed closely by garlic, with coriander not far behind. Coriander is probably my favorite because you can use it in almost anything to brighten the flavors.”

It was actually a tough choice. Besides the three I posted I have many favorite items in my pantry: salt, vinegar, onions, stock, eggs, and the list goes on. So I decided to devote my own post to this topic so I could break it down even further.

Most Useful

The only rock we eat, salt is without a doubt the most useful and most used ingredient in my pantry. We’ve been programmed to avoid high sodium foods, which in itself isn’t all bad, since most high sodium foods are highly processed, but salt isn’t our enemy. In “I’m Just Here For The Food“, Alton Brown offers the following: “On average, Japanese people consume twice as much salt as Americans yes they have the gall to live an average of ten years longer.” Use it right during cooking and you’ll never salt your food while you eat it.

I try to have several kinds of salt on hand: table salt, kosher salt, and sea salt. Table salt is great for baking because its fine grains dissolve easily. Kosher salt is better during cooking because the coarse texture is easy to pinch. Sea salt’s bigger crystals provide a nice crunch when used as a finishing salt.

As a cook, the key, of course, is to learn how to use salt to your advantage. When and how much you salt depends on what you’re making. Salt should be added when it can do the most good, which usually means during or before cooking. Boiling rice, pasta, or potatoes? Salt the water liberally after if comes to a boil and before you add the starches. The water should taste like sea water. You won’t taste the salt in the pasta, rice, or potatoes, but they’ll taste different. And by different, I mean better. Roasting chicken or grilling a steak? Salt before hand.  Learning to properly season while you cook will make everything you prepare better.

Most Used

Garlic and olive oil are the two things I use most. Growing up Italian, this should come as no surprise, but it goes beyond that. These are two very useful and flavorful ingredients.

Many of the things I make contain at least a little garlic, which is why it’s the biggest item in my tag cloud. While garlic can be overpowering and easily burned, it’s real power is in it’s subtlety. Like some of the other ingredients discussed in this post, garlic in small quantities enhances and deepens the taste of many dishes. Added whole crushed, minced, chopped, as a paste, or sliced, it’s an effective and easy way to add layers of flavor. The finer the chop, the stronger the taste. Crushed garlic has the strongest taste of all but when cooked, it has a much milder, sweet taste. I have a press, but I never use it. I like to crush it to remove the skin, then finely chop it before using the edge of my knife along with a little salt to mash it into a paste. I love it for marinades, sauces, stocks, brines, soups, salads, and it’s also great pickled! I don’t think I could cook without it.

When I need a fat, nine times out of ten, it’s olive oil that I reach for. Good olive oil with some herbs and good dipping bread make a terrific appetizer or snack. The important thing about cooking with any oil–olive or otherwise–is not to heat the oil over its smoke point, which refers to the temperature at which a cooking fat or oil begins to break down. Olive oil smokes at roughly between 400 and 365ºF. It’s great for roasting, sautéing, browning, stir-frying, deep frying, as an ingredient in marinades and sauces such as mayonnaise, pesto, or romesco, and as a condiment, drizzled over various dishes.

Olive oil is healthy, too. There are numerous well-documented studies around the world touting the many health benefits of olive oil as one of the most indispensable ingredients of a healthy diet. It’s naturally packed with monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, so not only can a good extra virgin olive oil lower your risk of heart disease and cancer, research has shown that it also provides a wide range of anti-inflammatory benefits that can positively impact illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and asthma.

Most Versatile

When I considered this category I wanted to highlight the ingredient that I use in the widest variety of ways. For me, the answer is coriander. Coriander is the seed or fruit of the cilantro plant and is a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. One of the oldest known spices, the seeds have a lemony citrus flavor when crushed similar to a blend of lemon and sage.

Ground coriander seed is traditional in desserts and sweet pastries as well as in curries, pickles, chutneys, sauces, beef bases, soups, meat, and seafood dishes with South American, Indian, Mediterranean, and African origins. Add it to stews and marinades for a Mediterranean flavor. It is also used in North American, Mexican, and Southeast Asian cuisines, as well as in spice blends like chili powders, garam masala, and berbere.

• Coriander can be used with lentils, beans, onions, potatoes, hotdogs, chili, sausages, and stews.
• Sprinkle it over fresh salads.
• Use it to flavor homemade bread, waffles and scones.
• It’s an ingredient for some cakes and biscuits including gingerbread.
• It adds flavor to creamed cheese or mayonnaise.
• It’s a garnish for meat, fish or vegetable dishes.
• Use in meatballs, meat or vegetable burgers.
• Add it to stocks and gravies.
• Use in marinades, particularly for meat and fish.
• It goes very well with mushrooms.
• Use to spice up stir-fries and bland vegetables such as spinach.

It’s an ingredient that you can add to almost anything, and like salt, a little will brighten and enhance the flavors in almost any dish.

Most Underestimated

Hands down, vinegar is the most underestimated ingredient in my pantry. It could arguably have taken the crown for Most Versatile. With both flavored and regular varieties in abundance, your choices are nearly endless when it comes to vinegar. Its uses are seemingly endless as well.

• Boil better eggs by adding 2 tablespoons to the water before boiling. It keeps them from cracking.
• Marinating meat in vinegar kills bacteria and tenderizes the meat. Use one-quarter cup vinegar for a two to three pound roast, marinate overnight, then cook without draining or rinsing the meat. Add herbs to the vinegar when marinating as desired.
• Make buttermilk. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of milk and let it stand 5 minutes to thicken.
• Replace a lemon by substituting 1/4 teaspoon of vinegar for 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
• Firm up gelatin by adding a teaspoon of vinegar for every box of gelatin used. To keep those molded desserts from sagging in the summer heat.
• Prepare fluffier rice by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water when it boils.
• Make wine vinegar by mixing 2 tablespoons of vinegar with 1 teaspoon of dry red wine.
• Debug fresh vegetables by washing them in water with vinegar and salt. The bugs will float off.
• Scale fish more easily by rubbing with vinegar 5 minutes before scaling.
• For extra tenderness with boiling ribs or stew meat add a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar.
• To add a zesty new taste to fresh fruits such as pears, cantaloupe, honeydew, or others, add a splash of rice or balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately to prevent the fruit from becoming mushy.
• Freshen wilted vegetables by soaking them in cold water containing a spoonful or two of white distilled vinegar.
• When boiling or steaming cauliflower, beets or other vegetables, add a teaspoon or two of white distilled vinegar to the water to help them keep their color. This will also improve their taste, and reduce gassy elements. This also works when cooking beans and bean dishes.
• Make pasta less sticky and reduce some of its starch. Add just a dash of white distilled vinegar to the water as it cooks.
• Give some extra zest to your white sauce by adding 1/2 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar.
• Add moistness and taste to any chocolate cake—homemade or from a box—with a spoonful of white distilled vinegar.
• To keep frosting from sugaring add a drop of white distilled vinegar. It will also help keep white frosting white and shiny.
• Make perfect, fluffy meringue by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for every 3 to 4 egg whites used.
• Perk up any soup or sauce with a teaspoon of red or white wine vinegar.

As you can see, you don’t need to use much vinegar to get big results.

Most Neglected

Most of us have items in our pantries that we’ve forgotten about or rarely use. Take a look for yourself and take out whatever’s in the back that you never see and therefore never use. Have some fun and go pantry shopping to see what you have. Then make something with what you find. It’s a great way to keep your cooking interesting and to ensure that you keep rotating fresh ingredients in and out of your pantry.

What’s in your pantry that you can’t cook without?

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