What, in your opinion, are spices or other cooking supplies you always try to keep on hand?
I've got a small, really eclectic collection of spices, that are completely unorganized. It seems like I never have what I need to try a new reception. I'm looking to fill it out and accumulate the more common ones I don't presently have. What would you say is a good list of basic spices? Are assortments in a prepackaged spice rack a good idea?
I also like to keep flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, assorted pasta, rice, and frozen ground beef and chicken breast.
What all do you always try to have in stock?
Garlic. Lots and LOTS of garlic. I have both powdered and minced (which is kept in the fridge).
Salt. We actually use both iodized and sea salt, but I'm not married to using sea salt. We don't use a ton of either, though.
Pepper. I like both black and white, and have a grinder with multicolored peppercorns as well. If you like spicy stuff, get chili and/or cayenne (we have both).
Onion, both dried-&-minced and powder.
Like Asian cooking? Get plenty of ginger. Chinese 5-spice is handy, too (which has ginger in it). Sesame seed can be good, but I use sesame oil more for cooking and seeds for garnish, if at all. Oh, seasoned wok oil (has garlic, onion, sesame, and one or two other seasonings good for Asian cooking) is good, too. Cinnamon, as well, come to think of it.
Italian - you want thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano. I use all of these except thyme, which my wife is allergic to (but you can season acceptably well by substituting rosemary, actually). Bay leaves.
Mexican food - you'll need cilantro. I use premixed taco seasoning.
For general poultry duty, I use savory, sage, and marjoram a lot (plus rosemary and onion, and sometimes tarragon).
Dill can be handy, though I don't use it nearly as much as I used to (my wife doesn't care for it).
Montreal Steak Seasoning is good for burgers or steaks.
Cooking wines are nice to change flavors for often-used staples.
Lemon pepper is good for poultry too, now that I think about it.
Olive oil is good for lots of stuff. It's got a lower temperature limit than some other oils, though (produces smoke quicker), so you'll also want canola oil for frying.
Lemon and lime juice.
A few different kinds of vinegar - we have white, rice, red-wine, and cider in our pantry.
Soy sauce. Maybe fish sauce, if you like Thai (I do, but we don't use it fast enough) - and peanuts for topping whatever Thai you make.
A lot of our spices are really older than they ought to be, probably - hadn't heard about the whole-spices keeping better than ground, but I already don't have enough time as it is, I don't know if I could realistically spend time grinding spices to cook with on a regular basis.
