Stocking a Home Pantry That Works Harder

A good pantry is not a large one. It is a short list of ingredients that combine in many directions, bought in sensible quantities and stored where you can actually see them.

Ours runs to about forty items. Four oils and vinegars, three tinned tomatoes, two kinds of pulse, one good stock, a handful of whole spices and a jar of anchovies do the work of a much longer list. Everything else is bought for the week it is needed.

Store what you use daily at eye level and everything else above it. Decant flour, rice and pulses into jars, not for the look of it, but because you can see when they are running low and because pests cannot get into glass.

Write the date on anything ground. Whole spices last years; ground ones lose their edge in months, and a stale cumin is the single most common reason a good recipe tastes flat.