# What common ingredients aren't in your kitchen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309 "2007-09-06T22:55:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/21 "2007-09-07T12:19:15Z")
Soda Eggs White bread Cookies or chips or basically anything that you could grab from a bag and stick in your mouth without cooking. Not common, but I keep running up against it when trying new recipes: prepared mustard. I’ll have to break down and buy it eventually. Olive oil is a necessity. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/22 "2007-09-07T13:34:22Z")
I’m not much of a cook. I’ve no : Milk eggs sugar oil flour mayonnaise Pork Chicken Turkey coffee tea alchohol potatoes ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/23 "2007-09-07T14:20:46Z")
Yes, we have no: olives - ugh! olive oil - Oil that tastes like olives. Double ugh! margarine mayonnaise coffee alcohol cookies hot sauce nuts maraschino cherries - can’t think of why we’d ever need these whipped cream artificial sweetener flavored vinegar rye bread - I like it, but my wfe doesn’t anything made of soy beans ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/24 "2007-09-07T14:30:36Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] But but but… that’s one of the four food groups! The flavor group! 😃 [/QUOTE] Instead of hot sauce, we have spices like Hungarian hot paprika and chili powder (and sometimes chipotles packed in adobo sauce). It evens out. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/25 "2007-09-07T14:36:59Z")
Mustard Mayonnaise The last spice listed in whichever recipe I’m trying to cook Vinegar And of the original list in the OP, we only have olive oil and maraschino cherries But we always have filo, tahini, and halawa! ---
**Author:** ![Daffyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daffyd/32/8923_2.png) [@Daffyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daffyd)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/26 "2007-09-08T04:40:24Z")
Milk Bread Potatoes Rice Cereal Sugar/Honey/etc. Fruit Juice Cookies Packaged Snack foods… What can I say, we’ve been on Atkins for years… Gotta love eating full fat cheeses, whipping cream and butter and having your cholesterol go down to normal, be able to stop taking pills for high blood pressure, and lose 40 pounds and keep it off for years… But it does tend to confuse people who come to dinner expecting lots of starches along with their veggies and meat… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/27 "2007-09-08T05:08:59Z")
There is no **basil** in our spice rack, but that’s entirely my fault. I’m not a fan of hives. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/28 "2007-09-08T06:25:58Z")
Alcohol (Can’t buy it myself, so other than the occasional party there’s none in my place.) Pork Margarine Artificial sweeteners Snack foods White vinegar (I have sherry, red wine, apple, rice, three kinds of balsamic, oregano and champagne. Mostly used for salad dressings.) Anything milk based (except for butter) Deli meat Fruit juice Canned vegetables I could’ve claimed soda, except I’m addicted to regular Ramune. Mmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/29 "2007-09-08T08:12:26Z")
Flavored vinegar? Olive oil? Rosemary? Those are COMMON? Damn, I must live in a cave or something. I never have anything listed in this thread except sweet biscuits, bottled salad dressings, and raw sliced meat that’s used immediately. When I want fancy food, you know, stuff with mayo or marischino cherries, I go to a restaurant where someone who knows how to use those things will mix 'em up correctly. The only thing that would surprise me, as a visitor, by its absence is water. Not bottled or spring water, just plain old tap water to drink. **Micro Dot** , I’m curious about the impetus for this thread. Do visitors run a quick kitchen inventory when they stop by? Do amateur chefs routinely visit friends for tag-team tenderloin with terragon and thyme? I just don’t understand reason for the question. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/30 "2007-09-08T08:32:53Z")
About the only thing on the list that I don’t keep is cooking sherry…I don’t cook with any wine that I wouldn’t drink! Count me in as another one who thinks that ketchup is an abomination to all that is holy… I also don’t buy margarine…I would rather my fat intake have real flavor. No potatoes No canned vegetables No cold cereal No white bread ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/31 "2007-09-08T09:22:04Z")
Flour sugar meat of any kind eggs coffee tea salt white bread spices other than pepper and onion powder canned veggies or fruit jello cakes, pies and other sweets The joy of being a Diabetic Vegetarian in heart failure. If it might taste good I can’t have it. Except hot sauce they can have the seven different varieties in my fridge when they pry them from my cold dead hands. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/32 "2007-09-08T10:23:15Z")
Milk. Tea Cereal Margarine Olives There’s stuff at the back of the fridge ::eek:: I dunno what it is but it snarls Earlier this week I was without Bacon Salt then the mailman arrived with a package from the USA 🙂 God Bless America ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309/33 "2007-09-11T17:21:18Z")
[QUOTE=Just Some Guy] I try to buy produce the day I use it so unless it’s something that keeps (like onions) my fridge doesn’t have a lot of produce in it. [/QUOTE] We do that for fish and meat, too, especially now that we live where we can walk to a kosher butcher (we used to have a lot of kosher meat in our freezer, back when that wasn’t the case). If you went by what’s in my fridge, you would probably think we lived on cheese and sauces. We go to the grocery store most days, to get stuff for dinner. We have lots of recipes that use only stuff that keeps, for the days we don’t want to do that. > [@RedRosesforMe](#): > > And one uncommon item I always have is tahini. You never know when you need to make hummus. We have tahini, too. It keeps well, and sometimes we do make something that calls for it. We always have at least two kinds of hot sauce on hand- a vinegary Tabasco-type sauce, and a non-vinegary Sriracha-type sauce. > [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > Crackers > Cookies > Snack chips of any kind > Candy We don’t have any of that stuff, either. I’m the sort of person who can absent-mindedly eat a whole bag of chips or box of crackers while watching TV, so I save myself the temptation by not buying snack foods. My mom keeps candy out in candy dishes in the living room. Someone gave us a pretty candy dish for a wedding present, but we will never use it for candy- a candy dish presents the same problem for us that readily available crackers or chips do. If I want snack food, I buy the kind of dried seaweed that is used for sushi. It’s nutritious, very low-calorie, and salty enough to be an acceptable substitute for chips or crackers. > [@Tinkertoy](#): > > spices other than pepper and onion powder…If it might taste good I can’t have it. No spices? I thought spices were what you were supposed to use if fat and salt were out for flavoring food. > [@chowder](#): > > There’s stuff at the back of the fridge. I dunno what it is but it snarls We think our fridge crud was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons by the time we moved out of our last apartment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-common-ingredients-arent-in-your-kitchen/418309.md?page=1)