Neccessary Kitchen Items

[Eagles]

I've started cooking fairly regularly but am pretty inexperienced. I'm some what limited because I go to school in a small town and there aren't really any luxury grocery stores. Anyways I've started reading the What's cooking El D/Iron Chef threads for advice and good recipes but reading the recipes I feel like I'm missing a lot of the ingredients. So for cooks what are some key items I need in my kitchen?

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
missing a lot of the ingredients. So for cooks what are some key items I need in my kitchen?

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you asking aobut ingredients or tools? I think for ingredients, you just end-up building a pantry as you go. I make bread a lot, so I buy more bread flour. You might not, so you don't. On the other hand, if you make more pastry, you buy cake flour. I don't, so I don't.

As for kitchen tools, there was a thread in this forum pretty recently about what you should take to CulinarySchool. I think they called it a "toolkit", for search.

[MissT74]

Salt
Pepper
Flour
Sugar
Paprika
Garlic or Garlic Powder
Onions or Onion Powder
Cooking Oil (Crisco)
Virgin Olive Oil
Cooking Wine
Vanilla
Mrs. Dash

That's what I can think of right now, or also known as what's in my cabinets...LOL

T

[Billy Bibbit]

If you're into cooking ethnic food, one thing that I've found helpful is to eat at a nice restaurant that serves that particular cuisine and ask someone there for advice on where you can find some of the obscure ingredients. In my experience they're usually flattered at your interest and they're more than happy to help you.

For non-perishable ingredients like spices, mail order grocery stores may be your best bet, depending on how small your town is.

[Eagles]

SamIam,
Both utensils and ingredients, more so ingredients though.
Billy,
The town is pretty big acutally it just doesn't have any high end grocery stores like whole foods, trader joes etc

[pokerbobo]

[ QUOTE ]
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Sugar
Paprika
Garlic or Garlic Powder
Onions or Onion Powder
Cooking Oil (Crisco)
Virgin Olive Oil
Cooking Wine
Vanilla
Mrs. Dash

That's what I can think of right now, or also known as what's in my cabinets...LOL

T

[/ QUOTE ]

this list is a good start....

I would also add some fridge necessities

Lemon Juice
Soy sauce
worchestershire sauce
sour cream
Italian dressing
vinegar

[pokerbobo]

Get a decent set of knives.... beleive it or not, my father in law got me a set of the popiel infomercial knives for xmas last year, and they are actually very good quality for the $$$.

At least one decent frying pan

rubber scraper (must have for any mix in a bowl type stuff) cleans all the mix off the sides of the bowl without scraping over it with a spoon a million times.

wisk

tongs

spatula

all absolutly needed

add any other stuff as you go

[MissT74]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Sugar
Paprika
Garlic or Garlic Powder
Onions or Onion Powder
Cooking Oil (Crisco)
Virgin Olive Oil
Cooking Wine
Vanilla
Mrs. Dash

That's what I can think of right now, or also known as what's in my cabinets...LOL

T

[/ QUOTE ]

this list is a good start....

I would also add some fridge necessities

Lemon Juice
Soy sauce
worchestershire sauce
sour cream
Italian dressing
vinegar

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me add:

Ketchup
Butter/Margerine or both!
Eggs (they keep for quite some time, actually)
A1 Sauce (if you like it, I don't)
Parmesean Cheese (fake or real, up to you)

Pretty basic, but um yeah!!

T

[adrockuk]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Sugar
Paprika
Garlic or Garlic Powder
Onions or Onion Powder
Cooking Oil (Crisco)
Virgin Olive Oil
Cooking Wine
Vanilla
Mrs. Dash

That's what I can think of right now, or also known as what's in my cabinets...LOL

T

[/ QUOTE ]

this list is a good start....

I would also add some fridge necessities

Lemon Juice
Soy sauce
worchestershire sauce
sour cream
Italian dressing
vinegar

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll throw in
balsamic vinegar
dried chillies
ginger root
Loads of tinned tomatoes.

Make sure you have a variety of starch foods in, rice, potatoes, pasta and noodles. I also keep a selection of frozen veggies in, broccoli, spinach, peas, carrots for when I've none fresh. I'd say that you'll need to always have onions in stock, relying on onion powder would be quite bad.

Herb wise other than what's already been mentioned I'd suggest (dried) Basil, Thyme, Oregano and maybe rosemary.

All that stuff will happily sit in your house for weeks/months and when you add some meat you'll be able to make a lot of flavorful dishes. Obviously pick up little bits here and there as you need them and some fresh produce when you can.

A lot of it is down to personal taste and I'm sure my cupboard wouldn't suit many people.

[MissT74]

[ QUOTE ]
Make sure you have a variety of starch foods in, rice, potatoes, pasta and noodles.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally, 100%, agree with this. Stores usually sale pasta 10/$10 etc etc and if you're stocked up on rice and pasta, you can whip up a dish in no time at all.

T