Pantry and Provisions
Pantry and Provisions
The New Family Table Pantry
I don't like to assume what a "standard pantry" means — every home cook develops their own according to their preferences and culture. I cannot promise you that our recipes won't necessitate a shopping trip — but I can promise that for any ingredients that aren't widely available, we'll let you know how to get it.
A few insights on some of the ingredients our recipes will regularly call for:
Salt: We'll specify if one of our recipes calls for something other than Diamond Kosher. While I wish I could tell you that I keep a lovely salt cellar by my stove, in reality I just pour some from the giant box into a stainless steel prep bowl every few days. Still, if you have a salt cellar you love, let me know in the comments!
Black pepper: means freshly ground (you don't need a fancy pepper mill, the grocery store ones work well, too).
Red pepper flakes: I'm not going to lie, the nicer spice brands produce better red pepper flakes, with more nuanced flavor. That said, given how quickly I burn through them, I am happy to use whichever happens to be cheapest when I need to re-up.
Lemons: Look, I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice, but when it comes to lemons I strongly prefer to buy organic when budget allows since I tend to use the zest as often as the juice.
Herbs: Unless noted otherwise, any herbs called for will be fresh herbs. Fresh herbs are often what takes a dish from good to exceptional. If you're worried about not using them all up in time, remember that fresh herbs make a great addition to your basic garden salad, you can add them to butter for an easy sauce, and you can even add some to your water bottle to jazz it up.
Chickpeas/Cannellinis: When our recipes call for beans that are easily found canned, we will work with canned unless otherwise explicitly stated. Canned beans are such a time saver for busy home cooks.
Equipment
Like pantries, there is no such thing as a "standard" home kitchen equipment list. Our recipes will assume a well-provisioned kitchen, but not necessarily one with every high-end specialty appliance. Baking recipes, for example, will not rely on a stand mixer, and we won't be using a sous-vide machine even though they can be a great help in bulk meal-prepping at home.
On Instant Pots and Air Fryers: These appliances bring out strong feelings — whatever your feelings on them happen to be, know that I believe you and your reasoning. For my family, our air fryer has been extremely helpful. Our apartment is small and our oven inefficient; unlike our oven, the air fryer doesn't make our home extremely hot. We got an Instant Pot as a wedding registry gift since that appliance was at its peak cultural relevance in 2017 — we still have it, but we don't use it nearly as much as the air fryer. I pretty much only use the Instant Pot when I want to make soups and stews, and I'm nearly always on the verge of getting rid of it. When it comes to the recipes we'll publish on The New Family Table, none will rely on specialty equipment like these. That said, as an air fryer devotee, I do expect I'll be sharing some air fryer ideas. Likewise, if readers tell me they want Instant Pot recipes, I can't think of a stronger motivation for me to get more familiar with my machine than better serving you.