FJT;16647 wrote:This topic comes up every so often on the forum with people weighing in both for and against listing these items.
I am one who weighs in for listing the "store cupboard" items for two reasons:
- As a single, older woman living in the Pacific Northwest, my pantry does not match the assumed list. One could rightly assume that I would have fish sauce, soy sauce, gochujang but I likely don't have Dijon mustard. One can't assume I have both red and white wine or red and white wine vinegar. I will have rice vinegar, black vinegar, malt vinegar. . . Eggs and milk I buy in small quantities and am likely out of them. Confectioner's sugar - never in my pantry unless I know a recipe calls for it.
- I have never understood those who write up a shopping list for the week. I do use shopping lists for entertaining and for trying new recipes but my general approach is to go to the market and see what looks to be of the highest quality. Then I start building menus around those products. This means that if I pull up a recipe in the grocery store, I am not near the cookbooks to check for errors or store-cupboard items i.e. I'm in the position of the original poster, Indio32.
For similar reasons, I get annoyed that some items are not detailed - it is "milk" not "whole milk", "2% milk", "nonfat milk". (Consider apples and potatoes which are rarely marked with even the broad categories one needs to select them.) The variety one has on hand or that one purchases looking only at the ingredient list in the grocery store, may not be what works best (or sometimes even works) in the recipe.
However, I do understand the arguments against including them, both the financial argument and the number of items returned in a search. And I want those who hold the view that they should be excluded, to sympathize with the original poster who picks a recipe in the grocery store away from her cookbooks.