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Never Run Out of These 12 Pantry Staples
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 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.
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.
- How to Make Homemade Extracts  – Flavored Extracts – Baking Basics
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.
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.
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.
You can even make your own variations of salt. Here are two of my favorites for herb and citrus salts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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!
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.
In the following members-only video, I talk about the Importance of Making Our Food Homemade.
Stay in Touch with Mary’s 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 Mary’s 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, live streams, 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!
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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 the new Flake Lover's Flaker. (The Mockmill discount will appear when you checkout.)
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
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Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from Lehman's, Mockmill Grain Mill, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, US Wellness Meats, and More!
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**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.
