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| The oils I had in my pantry before minimizing. |
Back in January, an article by Mark Bittman* in the NY Times about decluttering one's pantry caught my attention, and I've been saving it as a reference for when I reorganized the pantry which had been on my "to do" list. This week I finally got around to purging my pantry following his advice and advice of others that have blogged about the Minimalist Pantry.
I took everything out of the pantry and put it on the bed in the guest bedroom (we're not expecting guests this week). Then I started categorizing everything and in this post I will discuss oils and vinegars.
I had seven different vinegars, most of which had been used perhaps once for a special recipe. My vinegars were tarragon, apple cider (2 bottles), champagne wine, rice, red wine, white vinegar and balsamic (2 bottles).
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| The seven different kinds of vinegar in my pantry before purging. |
Bittman* suggests two vinegars: balsamic and sherry vinegar. I use balsamic a lot so naturally I saved it, and I kept the champagne wine vinegar as a substitute for the sherry vinegar. But I have put sherry vinegar on my grocery list. A good balsamic vinegar is
Trader Joe’s Gold Quality Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. The remaining vinegars I gave to Wayne, Bea's husband, who cooks a lot of special dishes. We do keep a large bottle of white vinegar to use as a cleaning product, but this is kept with cleaning supplies. That's all we ever use to mop our hardwood floors.
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| Balsamic vinegar. |
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| White vinegar for cleaning. |
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| The oils in my pantry. |
The oils were more numerous---nine. I had extra virgin olive, canola (3 bottles), sesame, coconut, roasted walnut, roasted hazel nut, roasted pistachio, black truffle olive oil, and peanut. The roasted oils were in a set---a Christmas gift. I'm keeping extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), the truffle flavored olive oil (great for drizzling on mashed potatoes),canola for cooking, and the three roasted oils. After I have pared this down by use, I will keep only EVOO and canola on a regular basis. When buying olive oil, make certain it was pressed in the last 18 months---freshness is important. I will refrain from buying flavored oils that I am likely to use only once in a recipe.
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| Kirkland's (Costco brand) Toscano is our favorite olive oil. |
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| This is great for drizzling on mashed potatoes in place of butter. Tastier and healthier. |
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| Flavored oils, a gift from a friend. |
My oil and vinegar shelf now looks minimal.
Stay tuned to see how I pare down other ingredients in the pantry.
* Check out Mark Bittman's article
here.
