BIG Yellow Pot Pantry Essentials 2022

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to another BIG Yellow Pot post. I have missed you guys a ton but I needed a break from social media as well as some time to spend healing from a loss. I'm SO glad to be back in a better state of mind. I am also excited to share that today, we will be discussing my go-to pantry essential items. Earlier last month, I asked if you guys wanted to have a Cook Book Collection OR Pantry Essentials. Needless to say, Pantry Essentials won by a landslide. Believe it or not, I was going to post both anyway. Don’t be too down if you picked Cook Book Collection. That video will be coming on February 24th!

With the votes in and everything settled, I decided to narrow down (yes, it's still this long AFTER I narrowed) a list of my favorite ingredients. I will be sharing the brands and ingredients that I find absolutely necessary to have in my kitchen at all times. This time around, I will exclude all refrigerator or freezer items. BUT don't worry, if you guys want a Fridge Essentials blog post or quick video, I will post a poll on my story (@thebigyellowpot on Instagram) for everyone to vote on that page tonight after this blog post goes live.

I didn’t just create this list out of thin air, I will make sure to link the books that helped me when stocking a kitchen of my own for the first time since my college apartment. I hope you all enjoy & leave me a note in the comments with 5 of your go-to pantry ingredients. If you leave a comment, I will enter your name in a giveaway that I plan on doing in mid-March.

There are 5 Categories:

Sweeteners

Baking Essentials

Grains, Cans & Starch

Fats/Oils

SEASONINGS, Sauces and Vinegar

Sweeteners

• Honey

• Agave Nectar (vegan alternative, just as good)

• Caramel Sauce

• Smuckers Strawberry Jam

Let's begin with HONEY! I typically try to go with Baxter's Bee’s Honey. You can order her honey here at https://baxtersbees.com/ , my favorite flavor is Golden Aloha made from different tropical flowers found near the Pacific. I also love the clary sage and its buttery rich qualities. I do buy other brands, this is just my favorite. If you’re vegan, try Agave in the Raw. I love both equally.

Golden Aloha Honey

Caramel Sauce, I love Ghirardelli’s Salted Caramel Drizzle. It is so good, I used to make all my caramel from scratch when I catered. When I tasted this brand, it was perfectly balanced and not too sugary. So now, I buy a bottle of this and it lasts for 20 plus orders instead of using brown sugar, butter etc. I also use salted caramel sauce on my browned butter chocolate chip cookies, mocha cheesecake, in smoothies/milkshakes, and my favorite use is drizzled over baked sweet potatoes and skip the sugar, it's perfect!

Smuckers Strawberry Jam… Whether it's a nice piece of warm buttery toast, a mixed drink, ice cream sundaes, making strawberry shakes or making strawberry milk. I get multiple uses out of this small jar of jam and it's truly the smoothest and perfectly balanced jam I had growing up. Syrup always hurts my stomach, so I opt for honey or jam on my waffles. Smuckers hits every way you use it.

Baking Essentials

• All Purpose Flour

• Sugar (granulated, turbinado, pearl sugar, palm sugar, brown sugar)

• Salt (fine sea salt for baking & flaky Maldon for topping desserts)

• Dry Active Yeast Packets (pretzels, pizza dough, other breads)

• Corn Meal

• Baking Powder and Soda

• Pure Vanilla Extract

• Chocolate Chips

• Chopped Nuts or M&M’s

• Crisco or Lard (I use this to grease cake pans, pie plates and muffin pans)

• Parchment Paper (not an ingredient BUT very much essential for baking)

• Baking Spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, ground and whole clove, pumpkin spice etc.)

I am pretty open to using different brands for my baking supplies to see if they yield different or better results. My family has used Pillsbury All Purpose Flour for ages but I decided I wanted to try White Lily and King Arthur. My pie crust recipe does really well with King Arthur and I found the White Lily was finer, so I used it for roux or gravy. However, my mothers famous Pound Cake recipe uses Pillsbury and anything else she uses just doesn’t mesh quite as well when she isn’t using that flour.

That's the same way I feel about most of these ingredients. I don’t mind using anything as long as it isn’t store brand. I use a specific Pure Vanilla Extract from McCormick but recently, the formula seems less strong and contains water when it didn’t use to. So I finally invested in some Vanilla Bean Paste. The brand I bought was Nielsen-Massey. I will include a photo below. Baking is something that I have learned to love but it's not my first love. I prefer cooking savory foods but I enjoy a pie or a cookie.

Grains, Cans & Starch

• Rice (sushi, basmati, jasmine, yellow & white rice)

• Pasta (Farfalle, Angel Hair, Rigatoni & Linguine)

• Bread Crumbs (Italian and Panko)

• Oats (rolled old fashioned oats)

• Grits (5 minute quick grits from Quaker)

• Canned Goods (my most favorite are black beans, sweet corn, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, salmon/mackerel)

• 10-pound bag of Potatoes (Russet)

I will drop a few pictures of the brands that I use. The only ingredients I won't budge on as far as brand would be the following: Grits, Oats, Diced Tomatoes and the canned Salmon. I'm pretty fluid with these items because it's all in how you cook them. Grits and Oats are pretty obvious. I use Quaker brand.

The diced tomatoes I get are always going to be the Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes. I use it for soups, stews, pasta, sauce and more. I make salmon cakes with the canned salmon. I make “Mama Sheila’s Fish Stew” with the mackerel. It is such a delicious recipe that I found when making it for Shainah's interview. I have made it 2 times since then and tried new variations. I will make sure to link a photo of the cookbook below from Slay in the Kitchen with Shainah.

As far as vegetables in a can or frozen vegetables, I'm just not a fan. I grew up on frozen and there was nothing wrong with that. So the cans I will keep are almost always fire roasted tomatoes, corn, beans (chickpeas) or chilies in adobo. Being that I have my own money now, I chose to just use fresh produce.

Fats and Oils

• Canola Oil (cold pressed oil and non-stick spray) (for frying)

• Toasted Sesame Oil (Asian inspired foods/recipes)

• Grapeseed Oil (Cast Iron Skillet & Steaks)

• Duck Fat or Schmaltz (roasting root veggies, spatchcock chicken, Latkes etc.)

• Wagyu Beef Tallow

• Avocado Oil

• Olive Oil (California Olive Ranch, I don't use olive oil unless I make pasta)

So my fats and oils list is quite short. Aside from butter, I also keep other fats in my fridge. So I will include that in another post. I also keep bacon fat that has been strained and cooled into a mason jar for my Southern Fried Cabbage copycat recipe. I look forward to sharing this one with you guys this month. BUT the only thing that I have as noted here is that seed oils and vegetable oils when heated can release harmful agents called Free Radicals the more they heat and break down.

I read all about this in Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. She explains the amazing importance of olive oil, how to properly heat oils and which oils have better smoke-points. She recommends using cold-pressed oils and to heat your pan WITHOUT the oil first so the oil wont break down and release those free radicals. Beef Tallow is something I learned about reading her words and I have fried french fries in it. I will link the tub I bought from Amazon.

La Tourangelle is a food company that I like to use. Their different varieties of oils are all amazing. They also have other food items such as salad dressings and almond butter. So far, I have heard great reviews and since I am a sucker for packaging, these oils sing to me. I will include photos of some of the “flavors” they have.

Seasonings, Sauces and Vinegar

• Mustard (I usually frequent honey mustard made from spicy brown mustard, a smidgen of mayo, a bit of sriracha & my honey)

• BBQ Sauce (Sweet Baby Rays or anything that says Bourbon)

• Hot Sauce/Buffalo Sauce (Franks Red Hot, Texas Pete & different varieties)

• Pasta Sauce (I really love a vodka sauce from Rao’s & Truff’s Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce but Prego does just fine and at a nice price point.)

• Tomato Paste, Pizza Sauce

• Curry Paste (green and red) and Curry Powder

• Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Garlic and Onion Powder

• Mrs. Dash anything.

• Soy Sauce, Oyster Sauce, Fish Sauce

• Sesame Seeds

• Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary & Italian Seasoning

• Turmeric, Ground Ginger, Chili Powder, Chicken Bouillon

• Black Pepper (ground and fresh cracked)

• Coconut Milk, Evaporated Milk

• Vinegar (Apple Cider, Red Wine, Balsamic, White, Rice Wine & anything I can find that I think has a nice flavor profile)

Okay... I know you guys are like why is this section so long?!? Why? Well, that’s really simple. The reason I keep so many things in this category of the pantry is because these are my staples. These are spices and seasonings that I use in almost every meal. Without them, I would feel like my food is missing something. They are the flavors I am most comfortable with and what I know how to use. They also transform the less exciting items into meals. I remember once as a broke college student having only a single pack of chicken breast and the steam-able bags of broccoli. I had oranges, seasonings and cornstarch. But I also had soy sauce and tons of other marinades and seasonings. I was able to make orange chicken and had some for the next day for lunch.

Once you get to know your personal cooking process and what flavors you frequent most, you will be able to build beautiful meals at home straight out of the pantry. I do enjoy working with all of these ingredients. Personally, I use a lot of Asian ingredients and Latin inspired dishes. So my pantry reflects a lot of that. I won't bother putting any photos because the brands don’t matter too much to me. I try new things all the time and keep myself open. When shopping at specialty grocers, you will always find something new and cool. I frequent Fresh Market and Trader Joes but Whole Foods is a new favorite as well when Im feeling fancy. So while this list is completely personalized to me, you should be able to see the range of meals you can create with just the right ingredients laying around.

An open faced omelette with spinach, tomato and Truff Black Truffle Hot Sauce & Cilantro.

Hopefully you all enjoyed my list of Pantry Essentials for 2022. I wonder what my list will have on it next year and what ingredients or tools I will encounter along this journey! Go ahead and leave a comment with the names of 5 ingredients that you would use from this list! Let me know if you guys would want to have a What I Keep in my Fridge OR Essential Kitchen Tools in the comments!

Best ,

Caity C.