As traditional foods cooks, our Four Corners Pantries are usually well stocked, but did you remember to include these 10 Essential Prepper Pantry items for complete preparedness?
Affiliates note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. My content may contain affiliate links to products and services. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay.
Table of Contents
- Four Corners Pantry
- 10 Essential Prepper Pantry Items
- Learn More About Growing and Drying Herbs
- Learn More About Tallow
- More Ways to Use Honey
- Using Chickpeas in a Traditional Recipe
- Nutrient-Rich Mushroom Broth
- Beyond All-Purpose Flour
- Putting Tomatoes to Good Use
- Going Beyond Dried Beef
- Salt and Microplastics
- The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
- More Prepper Pantry Videos
- Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
- Kitchen Academy Videos
- Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Four Corners Pantry
As I describe in my 10 Essential Prepper Pantry Items video, your Four Corners Pantry consists of your:
- Main Working Pantry—Where you stock non-perishable foods
- Refrigerator
- Freezer
- Extended Pantry—Or what we nickname “The Prepper Pantry“. This Extended Pantry has four sub-pantries:
- Backup Pantry—Extra non-perishable foods to restock your Working Pantry.
- Emergency Pantry—Two weeks of food you can prepare without electricity and clean running water.
- Healing Pantry—All the supplies you need to make natural remedies.
- Survival Pantry—”Forever Foods” that can see you through the most difficult of circumstances
10 Essential Prepper Pantry Items
Here are the 10 Essential Prepper Pantry items you want to make sure that you stock up on now for total preparedness:
- Beeswax—Be sure to include this important item in your Healing Pantry since it may not be easy to find at the last minute when you need to make a natural remedy.
- Dried Herbs—If you can only stock one dried herb, make sure you choose oregano. This herb serves culinary and medicinal purposes, with powerful research to back up its benefits! After oregano, stock thyme. Thyme is one of the most common herbs used when making homemade cough medicines. (I also talk about a third herb to stock in today’s video.)
- Tallow/Olive Oil—If you have to choose only one form of fat, be sure to stock tallow. You can use this shelf-stable fat for cooking and for making health and beauty aids, including face cream and foot cream. And if tallow is new to you, I show you how easy it is to render tallow from suet. Plus, adding extra virgin olive oil to your pantry is a smart move. It’s highly nutritious and also very helpful when making herbal oils and salves.
- Honey—Be sure to keep pourable honey and creamed honey on hand. Pourable honey is useful when making natural remedies, and creamed honey makes a sweet treat in place of sugar candy. Also, keeping some Manuka honey on hand for medicinal purposes is an excellent idea. And if you are ever battling a cough, you can make a honey-based cough syrup.
- Chickpeas—These beans, also known as garbanzo or ceci, are the best dried beans to keep in your pantry. You can soak, cook, and eat them as is tossed in olive oil and oregano. Or you can turn them into hummus or add them to soups and stews. Plus, you can ground chickpeas into a gluten-free flour and use the flour to make flatbreads.
- Dried Mushrooms—Whether you buy them dry or dry them yourself, having dried mushrooms on hand is essential for adding a meaty taste to foods—at a fraction of the cost—when you are low on meat. And even the humble white button mushroom is nutritious!
- All-Purpose Flour—As traditional foods cooks, we often forget about stocking all-purpose flour (white flour or plain flour). But this type of flour can come in handy for making or feeding our sourdough starters and also making Hardtack—the ultimate survival cracker.
- Canned Diced Tomatoes—If you can only stock one type of canned tomato, make sure they are diced tomatoes. As I talk about in today’s video, this type of tomato is extremely versatile, and you can use it in variety of recipes.
- Dried Beef—You can stock canned chicken, tinned fish, and even roast beef in a can (if you can find it), but dried beef is affordable and has an indefinite shelf life! If you run low on food and money is tight, dried beef can come to the rescue. For example, you can turn it into old-fashioned tasty chipped beef on toast or simply dice the beef to add it to a salad or soup.
- Salt—As traditional foods cooks, we always seem to have sea salt on hand, but we might forget to stock plain old iodized table salt. If we were in a situation where we couldn’t get a good supply of foods containing iodine—such as fish—we could avoid goiter (swelling of the thyroid gland) by simply adding a bit of iodized salt to our diet. So be sure to have some iodized salt tucked away in your pantry. And don’t worry if you don’t use it right away. It won’t go bad; it’s a “forever food”!
The following sections provide additional information and recipes on how you can use your 10 essential Prepper Pantry items.
Learn More About Growing and Drying Herbs
The study of herbs and their medicinal properties is a favorite subject of mine. I enjoy reading books by Rosemary Gladstart, such as Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, where I learned about some of the best herbs to grow, how to dry them, and how to make immune-boosting foods and natural remedies using herbs.
Learn more about medicinal herbs, drying herbs, and making natural remedies:
- 10 Essential Medicinal Herbs to Grow in Your Garden
- 5 More Essential Medicinal Herbs to Grow in Your Garden
- Dehydrating Herbs and Drying Herbs
- How to Make Immune Boosting Foods and Natural Remedies (video playlist)
Survival Garden Seeds
In my research into the best herb seeds (vegetable seeds too!), I discovered Survival Garden Seeds and their extensive collection of heirloom seeds. If you’re looking for high-quality, open-pollinated, non-GMO, and non-hybrid garden seeds, be sure to use my special MARYSNEST discount code to be able to get 10% off any of the three following products:
- New: Ultimate Medicinal Herb Collection (36 Variety Pack)
- Home Garden Collection (30 Pack)
- Homesteader Collection (50 Pack)
- Farmers Seed Vault Collection (100 Pack)
Learn More About Tallow
As I discuss in today’s video, you can use tallow in a variety of recipes. It has a high smoke point and stores well. If you’re thinking about rending suet to make your own tallow, watch the following video:
More Ways to Use Honey
If you would like to learn how to use honey in your Traditional Foods Kitchen, check out the videos below:
- How to Make Immune Boosting Honey with Garlic, Ginger, and Turmeric
- How to Make Ginger Honey to Fight Colds and Flu
- Which Sugar is the Best? Essential Sugars for Your Prepper Pantry
Using Chickpeas in a Traditional Recipe
You can never go wrong keeping chickpeas in your pantry. Along with using chickpeas to make a tasty hummus, you’ll also love adding them to this traditional Northern Italian dish:
In today’s video, I talk about how you can grind dried chickpeas to make a gluten-free flour. If you’re intersted in gluten-free flours, check out the following videos:
- How to Make Gluten-Free Flour Mixes with Free Checklist
- How to Stock Your Baking Pantry with the Best Ingredients
Nutrient-Rich Mushroom Broth
In addition to being an excellent substitute for meat, mushrooms also add an incredible umami flavor to any dish. And if you want a change from bone broth or vegetable broth and super mineral broths, try making the broth recipe below:
Beyond All-Purpose Flour
As traditional foods cooks, we certainly want to remember to stock all-purpose flour, but we also want to make sure that we have plenty of whole grains on hand. Learn more about stocking whole grains and turning them into flour in the informational videos below.
- How to Store Whole Grain and Make Homemade Flour
- The Basics of How to Bake with Fresh Milled Flour
- Wheat Berries FAQ about Einkorn, Spelt, and More
Grind Your Own Flour with the Mockmill
When it comes to electric grain mills, after I did A LOT of research, I decided to buy a Mockmill. And am I so happy I did! The Mockmill is a very affordable but beautifully crafted German-made mill that stone grinds grain with settings ranging from 1 to 10—fine to coarse ground grain.
Learn more about Mockmill electric grain mills for making fresh flour and their Flake Lover’s Flaker that flakes whole grain in minutes. (This is not a sponsored post, I bought the Mockmill products that I show you, and I’m a happy user of their devices in my kitchen.)
- Mockmill 100 Grain Mill unboxing
- Get the Mockmill 100 Stone Grain Mill (Same product I show you my unboxing video.)
- Flake Lover’s Flaker from Mockmill in action
Putting Tomatoes to Good Use
As I shared earlier, your best bet when it comes to stocking canned tomatoes is diced tomatoes, but you can also put any type of canned tomato to good use in your traditional foods kitchen. Check out these tomato recipes below:
- Grilled Polenta Recipe with Fresh Tomatoes
- How to Make Marinara Sauce with Fresh or Canned Tomatoes
- How to Make the Best Homemade Tomato Soup with 5 Tips
- How to Home Can Crushed Tomatoes
Going Beyond Dried Beef
It’s always smart to have a few jars of dried beef on hand in your pantry, but when you have fresh meat, be sure to try this stew!
Salt and Microplastics
When it comes to stocking up on salt, yes, we want to make sure that we have some iodized salt on hand for emergencies. But for everyday use, we primarily want to rely on salt that has the fewest microplastics. Learn more about microplastics and using salts here:
- The Best Salts with the Least Amount of Microplastics
- Canning Salts, Spices, and Pectin – WaterBath Canning 101 – Home Canning Basics for Beginners Series
- How to Make Homemade Flavored Salt with Fresh Herbs
Order YOUR COPY Now!
The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes. Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes! Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.
More Prepper Pantry Videos
3 Crucial Pantry Questions You Need to Ask
Ask yourself these questions to ensure you have the essentials in your pantry to prepare for emergencies.
How to Prep a Pantry That Can Withstand Price Controls – The 3 Essential Foods to Stock NOW!
Learn about foods you should stock in your pantry that would be the most affected by future price controls.
The 3 EASY Ways to Lower Preparedness Anxiety
Take these simple steps to ease your “Preparedness Anxiety” and help you feel ready for the unexpected.
Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!
And if you’re looking for a printed book full of my traditional foods recipes that shows you how to create a traditional foods kitchen, be sure to order your copy of my new bestselling book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.
Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
Are you looking for more traditional foods videos? If so, I invite you to join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy. Members of this optional paid YouTube community get access to exclusive videos and other members-only perks. Plus, your YouTube comments include a special members-only badge.
Kitchen Academy Videos
Baking with Ancient Grains in the Traditional Foods Kitchen
Bake with Einkorn, Emmer, and Spelt—nutritious ancient grains that bring rich flavor and tradition to your favorite recipes.
Discussing the Secrets to Perfect Green Herbal Oils
Let’s talk about the popularity of flavored herbal oils.
Are You Salt Sensitive or Salt Resistant? Get the Latest Salt Intake Research
Learn how your body may react to salt intake differently from others.
Stay in Touch with Maryโs Nest
- Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for Traditional Foods Videos (Free) - When you subscribe, be sure to click on the notification bell that will let you know each time I upload a new video.
- Subscribe to Maryโs Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free 36-page eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy (Optional Paid) - For more detailed videos and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
- Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook (Optional Paid) - Get a printed book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Prepper Pantry Supplies
- Wireless Fridge and Freezer Exterior Thermometer
- Life Straw
- Water Disinfection Tablets
- Water BOB Tub Liner
- Cast Iron Trivet
- Tea Lights
- Glass Kettle
- Manual Can Opener
- Battery Powered Can Opener
- Long Lasting Ice Packs
- Igloo Cooler
- YETI Cooler
- Electric Cooler
- Jackery Solar Power Station
- Jackery Portable Solar Panels
- 10 Gauge Power Cord
- Kill A Watt EZ
- Hand Crank Flashlight
- High Powered Flashlight
- Hand Crank Emergency Radio
Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide
- Visit Maryโs Nest Amazon Shop
- Visit my Shopping Guide page
Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Lehman's, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
Nice summary. I failed the first guess though I am stocked with Beeswax. Not so sure about the dried beef, do you have a recommended source. Though if I have enough good power days this summer – I can just freeze dry some.
I guess water is more of a survival item than pantry. But we have found over the years that on a well and with unknown issues during a storm – keeping a large supply of drinking water stored is also critical.
Thanks for all your lessons
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for your kind comment, and I’m so glad you already have beeswax in your pantry.
I’m not sure of an online source for dried beef. (Maybe other sweet friends can leave a comment on recommended places.) I buy a lot of my beef and beef bones online from US Wellness Meats and and fish from Northwest Wild Foods. If you haven’t tried them before, I have discount codes available on my Shopping Guide page.
Yes. Water is essential to have in your extended pantry, and I discuss it in several of my pantry videos, including the Top 15 Prepper Pantry Items You Need to Buy NOW at Costco. I like that you keep an ample supply of drinking water. It’s better to have more water than you think you’ll need, especially for unexpected emergencies or to give you the ability to share with extended family and friends.
Thanks so much for being a sweet friend! ๐
Love and God bless,
Mary