How to stock your kitchen!
My Southern PantryMy father’s favorite room in the house was his kitchen; however, a great kitchen would be nothing without an even greater pantry. As a child, I was often sent to the pantry to retrieve a specific item or ingredient for him. The shelves were so full I swear I could hear Scarlet saying, “We will never go hungry again.” In the south, we have a love affair with abundance and the pantry is a necessity to store it all. The Trosclair pantry was a southern food sanctuary. The shelves were lined with mason jars filled with treasured preserves, jellies and jams: fig, lemon, pear, strawberry, blackberry, plum, peach mayhaw, dewberry, muscatine and hot pepper. There were Tupperware containers with stone ground grits, various dried beans, and always a 25 pound bag of Louisiana rice. It was a proper pantry with assorted pickles made from watermelon rind, squash and okra to the more traditional cucumber pickles ranging from tart to sweet. The real jewels were the relishes. Some were as traditional as chow-chow, but others were even more exotic such as the green tomato-orange relish that my mother and I discovered was the best thing ever on a home made cheeseburger. My father’s pantry also housed assorted sundries and a large freezer stocked with wild caught gulf shrimp and whole redfish that would later be transformed into his legendary fish courtboullion. There was venison, quail, and duck from the hunting camp—enough to prepare Sunday dinner for multiple congregations. The word pantry is derived from the older French word paneterie, meaning bread. The pantry dates back to medieval times when castles were being built and had specific rooms to store provisions. In some of the grander homes of the south, you would find a butlers pantry where linens, silver, china and other service items were once held. Today the butler’s pantries are being turned into service bars as entertaining has taken a more casual turn. The pantry began to change in 1912 when the Hoosier Cabinet found its way into homes. It featured sugar and flour sifters, storage, and jars made specifically to fit the different shelving and compartments. These jars were made to hold coffee, tea, crackers, and salt. In the 1920’s, built-in cabinets quickly replaced the Hoosier Cabinet. By the 1930s, breakfast nooks begin to replace pantries. By the 1950s, the pantry had almost disappeared in most of the country when better refrigeration and prepared foods began to become commonplace after WWII. It remains a part of the modern Southern kitchen, however.In today’s Southern kitchen, you may not have an actual pantry like I had in my childhood home. However, there is a place for storing dried beans, the best ground grits, a southern provider of biscuit flour, various jams, preserves, and relishes. It may be in the laundry room, a cabinet in the garage, or a specific kitchen cabinet or two. It is not a Southern kitchen without a designated place of honor for these southern staples. In the south, when you are presented with any hand labeled jar, a brown bag of corn meal, grits, flour or anything shared from someone’s garden, it is always revered as a gift and finds its place in the pantry.Regina’s Essential Pantry listGrainsLong grain ricePecan RicePopcorn RiceStone ground grits, white and yellowSteel cut oatsNoodlesEgg NoodlesMacaroniThin SpaghettiDried BeansI always put dried beans in zip-lock bags for extra protection – also date with a Sharpie; you want to use within 6 months. I will go through my stash on a rainy day and make a couple of my favorite dishes with beans that need to be rotated and then I freeze in smaller containers for later or to give away to friends.Baby limas, limas (aka- butter beans)Black beansBlack eye peasRed kidney beans & Pink kidneysSmall Red Beans (aka Mexican beans)Great Northern and White beansPinto BeansFlours & MealsAll purpose flourCake flourYellow Corn MealWhite Corn MealSugarsBrown SugarGranulated SugarPowdered SugarRaw Cane SugarLeaveningsBaking PowderBaking SodaDry yeastBaking goodsCocoaCorn StarchDark baking chocolateKaro Syrup (light)Pure Cane SyrupHoneyJams & JelliesFig PreservesHot Pepper JellyOrange MarmaladeBlackberry jamStrawberry JamPlum or MayhawPicklesBread and Butter PicklesDill PicklesPickled OkraPickled JalapenoOlives /Black, Queen Stuffed, KalmataCapersGiardinieraCanned & Bottled GoodsDiced TomatoesRotel TomatoesTomato SauceTomato PureeTomato PasteCreamed CornGreen ChilesBasic BBQ SauceCatsupMustards, Dijon, yellow, whole grainSources Organic-non GMO gritshttp://www.ansonmills.com/products/8http://mcewenandsons.com/http://www.greenwaygrits.com/Ricehttp://cajuncountryrice.com/rice-products/cajun-country-popcorn/