• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Mary's Nest

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Recipes and Videos
  • Shopping Guide
  • About
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never Run Out of These 12 Pantry Staples

Learn about each of these pantry staples and why you need them.

August 6, 2022 By Mary's Nest Leave a Comment

Never Run Out of These 12 Pantry Staples

Watch the Never Run Out of These 12 Pantry Staples video

With all that’s been going on nationally and in the world, we need to make sure that our pantries are well stocked with real food and ingredients that we can use to make easy and budget meals for ourselves and our families. I’ll show you the 12 pantry staples you’ll never want to run out of for your home cooking.

*Affiliates note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. My videos and blog posts 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.

Buy or Make Your Pantry Staples Homemade?

In my video, I show you examples of pantry staples from the supermarket that you can buy (hopefully on sale!) to store in your pantry. But did you know that you can also make some of these staples homemade?

Some of these pantry staples you can’t make, such as salt or sugar. (Or at least you can’t make them easily without having access to a salt mine, seawater, maple tree farm, or a sugar cane field.)

However, you can make some of them, such as flavored extracts and dry seasonings. Better yet, you can make them with the ingredients you select to make your homemade versions healthier and cheaper than their store-bought counterparts. In the following sections, I’ll show you how to easily make these staples in your kitchen.

Homemade Flavored Extracts

You can make all kinds of extracts, such as coffee and mint, and store them for the long term in your Extended or Prepper Pantry. I also show you how to make vanilla extract. This popular pantry staple is used in baking and in dairy products, and it’s one of the easiest to make.

Mary with 10 favors of homemade extracts.
  • How to Make Homemade Extracts  – Flavored Extracts – Baking Basics
Mary holding a jar with Vanilla Extract.
  • How to Make Homemade Vanilla Bean Extract – A Perpetual Vanilla Extract Recipe

If you’d like to learn how to make a nonalcoholic extract, visit Heidi’s Rain Country Homestead YouTube channel. She also has a fabulous Etsy shop with homemade aprons and more.

Homemade Dry Seasonings

Have you checked on the price of Herbs de Provence at your grocery store lately? Chances are that you’ve seen this seasoning and your other favorites at higher prices than they were just last year.

I’ll show you how to make Herbs de Provence and other popular dry seasonings in the following recipe videos. You’ll also learn how to make a nutrient-dense all-purpose seasoning mix that you can add to any dish to give it a powerful boost of nutrition.

  • How to Make Homemade Seasoning Blends
  • How to Make a Nutrient-Dense All Purpose Seasoning Mix

Salt as a Pantry Staple

Salt is one of your vital pantry staples, and you’ll want to have more than one kind on hand. In the following video, I talk about the essential salts for your Prepper Pantry with the least amount of microplastics so you can choose the best ones.

  • The Best Salts with the Least Amount of Microplastics

In addition to some of the pantry staples you can make homemade, you can also water bath can food, especially vegetables, for long-term storage in your Prepper Pantry. I’ll show you the salts, spices, and pectin you’ll need as part of your essential ingredients for home canning.

Canning Salts, Spices, and Pectin - WaterBath Canning 101 - Home Canning Basics for Beginners Series Video
  • Canning Salts, Spices, and Pectin – WaterBath Canning 101 – Home Canning Basics for Beginners Series

You can even make your own variations of salt. Here are two of my favorites for herb and citrus salts.

  • How to Make Homemade Flavored Salt with Fresh Herbs

  • Cooking with Scraps – How to Make Citrus Salts and Sugars

Sugar as a Pantry Staple

Sugar is another pantry staple that you won’t want to do without. Of course, everyone knows of white sugar, but it isn’t always the best to use in a traditional foods kitchen. In the following comprehensive video, I talk about the essential sugars for your Prepper Pantry. After watching this video, you’ll know which ones you want to stock.

  • Which Sugar is the Best? Essential Sugars for Your Prepper Pantry

Do you remember earlier when I said you couldn’t make sugar homemade? For example, making white sugar is a lengthy progress that starts with sugar cane and ends with a mill that creates raw sugar crystals at the end of a long process. So it’s best to get white sugar from your grocery store.

However, once you have white sugar in your pantry, you can use it to make homemade brown sugar and simulate an unrefined sugar, like Sucanat. I’ll show you how in the following tutorial video.

  • How to Make Brown Sugar – Light, Dark, and Unrefined Sugar Like Sucanat

Sucanat stands for Sugar Cane Natural, and it’s a favorite of mine to use in place of white sugar in recipes. Since it’s unrefined sugarcane, Sucanat still contains many of the nutrients that have been stripped out of white sugar, but it retains its sweet taste.

Honey as an Alternative Sweetener

Honey is also a natural sweetener and a favorite pantry staple of mine. I especially like raw honey that still has many of the local nutrients from where the bees harvested the pollen. If you have honey in your pantry, you can use it to make a healthy simple syrup in addition to using it in various recipes.

  • Caution: Remember to never feed honey, of any kind, to babies/infants younger than one year old.
  • How to Make a Healthy Simple Syrup

Vinegar as a Pantry Staple

In addition to keeping white vinegar in your pantry, also consider adding raw Apple Cider Vinegar. It includes the “mother” that is rich in good probiotics, which are excellent for our digestive systems.

Best of all, you don’t have to buy this pantry staple from your supermarket. Instead, I’ll show you how to easily make it (and gain a great skill!) in my Apple Cider Vinegar do-it-yourself recipe for beginners. It’s a comprehensive three-part series you won’t want to miss.

How to Make Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother Video
  • How to Make Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother – DIY From Scratch Recipe for Beginners (3 Part Series)

Fighting Grocery Prices and Stressful Times

It’s hard to watch the notifications on our phones, turn on the TV, or listen to the radio nowadays. Our news is filled with distressing stories covering rapid inflation, supply chain disruptions, and other global concerns. We can’t control the news, but we can control how we manage our kitchens and our pantries.

In the following videos, I’ll show you how to fight rising grocery prices with a free checklist, and I’ll also give you 10 clever tips to save money on groceries.

  • How to Fight Rising Grocery Prices with Free Checklist
  • 10 Clever Tips to Save Money on Groceries

And even under these stressful times, you’ll be heartened to know that we can cook with economy and grace, doing the best with what we have.

  • How to Cook with Economy and Grace

Your Four Corners Pantry

When I talk about the pantry, I’m speaking broadly of your Four Corners Pantry, where you can store shelf-stable and perishable food. The Four Corners Pantry consists of your:

  • Working Pantry – Where you access your shelf-stable foods and ingredients regularly
  • Refrigerator – For your perishable foods
  • Freezer – For your perishable foods that need to be kept below freezing
  • Extended Pantry (also known as your Prepper Pantry) – Where you can store your shelf-stable foods for the long term

When you run out of items in your Working Pantry, you can “shop” at home for them by transferring items from your Prepper Pantry to your Working Pantry. And the next time you’re shopping at your grocery store, especially during a sale, you can restock the items you’re low on in your Prepper Pantry.

Arrow showing restocking from the Extended Pantry to the Main Working Pantry.

The Prepper Pantry also gives you a backup food supply in case of an extended impact on your ability to get food. You can store many of your pantry staples here too.

How to Create Your Prepper Pantry

If you’re ready to start building your Prepper Pantry, I’ll show you how to start stocking your Prepper Pantry with real food over time and on a budget in the following video. (However, if you need to accelerate the process of creating your Prepper Pantry, you can do that too.)

  • How to Stock Your Prepper Pantry for $5 a Week with a Prepper Pantry Grocery List
  • How to Accelerate Stocking Your Prepper Pantry

You’ll also want to carve out a section of your Prepper Pantry to create an Emergency Pantry, which I describe in the following video. (Be sure to download and print out the accompanying checklist and meal plan to help you plan for and use your emergency food supplies.)

  • How to Build a 2-Week Emergency Food Supply (Includes Printable Checklist and Meal Plan)

And while you’re working on your Prepper Pantry, don’t forget to include these crucial Prepper Pantry items. You’ll want to have more than just food in times of emergencies, and I’ll show you the 10 items you’ll want to have on hand so you’ll be well prepared.

  • 10 Crucial Prepper Pantry Items You Need to Stock Now!

Grind Your Own Flour with the Mockmill

Is flour a pantry staple? Absolutely! You can store flour in your Prepper Pantry, but your flour will have a shorter shelf life than whole grain. If you have whole grain, you can make homemade flour whenever you want with a manual or electric grain mill.

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.

And I have great news! The folks at Mockmill are very kind to offer my viewers and readers a special one-time discount on any of the grain mills that they sell.

  • Use my affiliate link for a special one-time 5% discount on Mockmill Stone Grain Mill products, including Ancient Grains, like Einkorn, Emmer, and Spelt. (The discount will appear when you checkout.)

You can see me unbox and try out the Mockmill 100 Grain mill in the following video.

Mockmill 100 Unboxing YouTube Video
  • Mockmill 100 Grain Mill Unboxing and Review

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!

  • FREE 36 Page Traditional Foods Pantry List – Printable Pantry Staples List

Kitchen Academy Videos

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, live streams, and other members-only perks. Plus, your YouTube comments include a special members-only badge.

JOIN NOW
And become a Traditional Foods Kitchen Pioneer

In the following members-only video, I talk about the Importance of Making Our Food Homemade.

  • The Importance of Making Our Food Homemade

Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest

  1. 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.

  2. Subscribe to Mary’s Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.

  3. Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy (Optional Paid) - For more detailed videos, live streams, and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.

I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!

Love,
Mary ♥

Trending Posts on Mary’s Nest

  • 10 Clever Tips to Save Money on Groceries
  • How to Successfully Make Fermented Foods and Beverages
  • 10 Crucial Prepper Pantry Items You Need to Stock Now!
  • Stock Up On These Top 10 Foods Now!


Shop for items used in this blog post or video

Favorite Pantry Supplies

  • Diastatic Malt Powder
  • FoodSaver Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
  • FoodSaver Vacuum Lids
  • Victoria Stovetop Waterbath Canner
  • Ball Electric Water Bath Canner
  • Wireless Fridge and Freezer Exterior Thermometer
  • 5 Gallon Buckets with Lids
  • Gamma Lids – White
  • 5 Gallon Mylar Bags
  • 500CC Oxygen Absorbers
  • 10g Silica Gel Packs
  • Sucanat

Favorite Kitchen Supplies

  • Favorite Aprons
  • Spice Grinder
  • Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
  • Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
  • Vacuum Lids
  • Whisk
  • Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
  • Cast Iron Dutch Oven
  • 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
  • Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
  • Flour Sack Towels
  • pH Strips (Helps you check on the acidity of your vinegar)

More Kitchen Supplies with Discount Codes

  • Mockmill Grain Mill (for making homemade flour)

Use my Mockmill affiliate link for a special one-time 5% discount on Mockmill Stone Grain Mill products, including Ancient Grains, like Einkorn, Emmer, and Spelt. (The Mockmill discount will appear when you checkout.)

  • Masontops Fermentation Kit

Use promo code MARYSNST for a one-time 15% off Masontops and Breadsmart products on Amazon.com.

Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide

  • Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
  • Visit my Shopping Guide page
    Learn where I buy my beef bones, electric grain mills, sprouted grains, and more…and get special discounts for Mary’s Nest visitors, including from US Wellness Meats, Mockmill, Masontops, and Cultures for Health.

Recommended Reading

  • Prepper’s Pantry: Build a Nutritious Stockpile to Survive Blizzards, Blackouts, Hurricanes, Pandemics, Economic Collapse, or Any Other Disasters
  • Food Storage 101 Where do I begin? (Cookin’ With Home Storage)
  • Backwoods Home Magazine – print subscription
  • Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats

**Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.

Filed Under: Extended Pantry, Pantry Staples, Prepper Pantry Tagged With: Extended Pantry, Pantry Staples, Prepper Pantry, Shelf Stable Pantry Staples

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Mary

Mary's Nest with Beef Bone Broth Jar
...And I'm so glad you're here.

Do you want to be a Modern Pioneer in the Kitchen and be part of the Traditional Foods Movement? If so, you’ve found a home!

I'll show you how to create Traditional "Nutrient Dense" Foods, including Bone Broths, Cultured Dairy, Ferments, Sourdough Bread and More!

  • New to Traditional Foods?
  • Blog and videos
  • Shopping Guide and Discount Codes

Kitchen Academy

Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
  • Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy for exclusive videos and live streams

Search

Recent Posts

  • Top 7 Cheap Foods You Need to Buy Now at Aldi
  • Never Run Out of These 12 Pantry Staples
  • 10 Clever Tips to Save Money on Groceries
  • How to Successfully Make Fermented Foods and Beverages
  • 10 Crucial Prepper Pantry Items You Need to Stock Now!

Archives

Categories

Amazon Links

Mary's Nest Shop
  • Mary's Nest Amazon Shop - Great ideas for:
    • • Bone Broth
    • • Kitchen Tools
    • • Cookbooks
    • • Baking Supplies
    • • Canning Items
    • • Food Preservation
    • • Self-Sufficiency
    • ...and more!

Food Links

Mockmill
  • Get 5% off your Mockmill purchase

US Wellness Meats
  • US Wellness Meats - Get bones for Beef Broth and more!
    (Note: Use promocode MARYNEST to save 15% off regular-priced items on your US Wellness Meats order.)

Let’s Socialize!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Footer

Mary's Nest Cooking School logo

Mary’s Nest

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Recipes and Videos
  • Shopping Guide
  • About
  • Contact

Search

  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to Mary’s Newsletter

Privacy policy

Copyright © 2022 · Mary's Nest, LLC, All Rights Reserved · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site, we will assume that you agree to the use of such cookies.Ok