Yes. I keep a can of fried onions for one specific chicken dish my SO likes. I do not use them for anything else. I keep canned condensed French onion soup for a rice side dish that he likes as well. Do not use that for anything else either. I keep a bottle of caramel sauce in my fridge just for his milkshakes. I am sure there are many more.

The only time I use apple sauce is for my blueberry bran muffins, so I buy the little packs of unsweetened AS to put in kids lunches that are exactly 1/2 C, the amount I use in my recipe.

I do freeze things from the garden to use in certain things. I have a freshsaver that I can reseal the bags, so I can take out just what I need. So I might freeze 1/2 C servings of shredded zucchini to add to the muffins or chard or kale sliced to add to soups and stews.

"On the same principle, I don't count the saffron for challah."

I have never heard of saffron in challah. Please explain. I put raisins in my round ones for a sweet New Year.

There is a 10" fry pan in my kitchen that only is used to make blintz shells so I use it once every few years.

There used to always be a open jar of mint jelly for lamb chops but I have convinced husband that ketchup is more tasty.

Good going on the lamb chop conversion! Lamb chops are my favorite food but not with mint, rosemary or garlic! Ketchup is fine. :)

Re blintzes, I've learned to make hoop cheese. Let me know if you're interested. I don't know what happened to my mother's blintz pancake pan, but I've found that De Buyer crepe pans work fine.

When I was a child, my mother developed her challah recipe, and it has saffron. I think it's from somewhen in her background, but I don't know exactly where. It's a double rise, brioche style dough, and very rich. Always for High Holidays, but also other special occasions. I don't mean to say Shabbat is less than special, but I prefer a simpler, breadier challah for normal weeks.

I have some saffron threads for cooking with, but the really good powdered stuff from Vanilla Saffron Imports is for the challah.

Also have that half jar of mint jelly, mainly for my son -in law who I don't think had ever had lamb before he married my daughter....and was not too sure about the whole thing. Now he loves it, but with mint jelly!

And there is the jar of marischino cherries for the time someone might want a manhattan....and a can of anchovies, and can of cocoanut milk and red raspberry perserves for raspbery vinaigrette and white Kyro for the day I might make caramel corn or pecan pie....frozen pistachios for cod crusted with pistachios, and cubes of pesto, and a bag of buckwheat flour etc.

And don't get me started on the liquor cabinet. I have finally gotten past the 3 kinds of gin for those who are particular and am down to 2 kinds, and white and green cream de menth and brown and white cream de cocoa and triple sec and cuantro, and marsala ( who drinks that stuff? But it's necessary for certain dishes), dry and sweet vermouth, amaretto, frangelico, Fireball...not sure why...Poire and I think i am out of apricot brandy and need to buy more....and the usual whiskeys several kinds of rum ( cocanut rum?? Eww!) and vodka.

Yep...I stock stuff for any wild hair idea I might have.

Yes, I keep on hand the ingredients for Chicken Wild Rice Casserole which is fast and adequate for those times I need a dish for a potluck or for contributing to a church-sponsored dinner for a bereaved family.

I keep a tin of Bird's Custard Powder on hand for when I make trifle....I am the designated trifle maker for the family :-) So much easier than making it from scratch.

I also have a jar of Crosse and Blackwell mint sauce on hand for when I roast leg of lamb. Mint sauce - not jelly (too sweet) - is a requirement for roast lamb just as horseradish is a requirement for roast beef! (sorry but ketchup on lamb is a sacrilege!!)

And I also almost always have a couple of cans of pumpkin puree on hand to make muffins or pumpkin bread. I don't consider this to be necessarily restricted to a certain season when the fresh pumpkins are available and not enough room in my tiny little freezer to store freshly roasted puree anyway.

I have a jar of barley malt syrup that I use when making bread, but I use it for more than one bread recipe, and so I don't know if that counts.

I have teff flour in my freezer for making injera and rye flour for making rye bread.

Lately I've been making tonic syrup, and so I have several ingredients that I use for that, which I do not use for anything else, including juniper berries, cinchona bark, angelica root, and Everclear.

I really had to think about this. The only items I can come up with are canned pumpkin (for pumpkin bars and pumpkin bread) and Mandarin oranges (for a salad I make often). I keep Barilla Thick Spaghetti just for DH's favorite spaghetti and meatballs. Pretty much everything else in the pantry gets used for at least a few things.

"(sorry but ketchup on lamb is a sacrilege!!)"

And then some!!! :-O

Lars, I think your malt and grains sound like staples, though the teff is on the line, but your tonic ingredients definitely count!

I don't mind that other people assault their meats with the stong flavors of mint, rosemary and horseradfish, but I hate them all. I'm fine with a little salt, or a good wine sauce. There are a lot of unnecessary fancies that people do, like encrusting, that are only a distraction from good meat. Ketchup is highly unnecessary, but for me it’s reductive. It doesn't mask the meat. That's not true for everybody. It's chock full of umami.

Boy, do we have some philosophical differences of opinion :-) I would never consider my meat "assaulted" by those favors....accented or complimented maybe. And perhaps it is my British upbringing coming through as condiments served with a meat course are SOP - horseradish, mint sauce, chutney, mustard, etc. Plebes may opt for brown sauce.

Ketchup is for French fries. Period :-)

Well, as I said, I hate those flavors on meat. Hate. Won't eat if so served (scrape off delicately while no one is looking). Hate. Hate. Hate.

I like plain good meat. Those "accompaniments" are really strong flavors, probably meant originally to mask gaminess.

Ketchup doesn't mask the flavor, therefore doesn't bug me. I should say, I don't care for bad ketchup. Some tastes overcooked. Others taste like sugar in the form of red plastic. I wouldn't put that kind on an enemy! But I'll stick up for people who like ketchup all day against the hordes of minty green horseradish!

Hm... I wonder if it's a supertaster thing?

Yes, and then I forget what recipe I was going to use it in.😩

LOL! i have a couple of those. :)

I just copied my gumbo recipe and realized that I keep filé powder in my pantry for gumbo, and I do not use it for anything else.

Lars--I wonder if there is another use for file powder? I've never seen or heard of one, and my family is from south Louisiana.

Some people put in it in jambalaya, then explain to you why you can't because it'll taste awful if not done by a native. Apparently, there's a very specific timing to it or else a magical incantation. I was searching for an answer and found out about its thinkening powers—as well as those of okra, not to mention the roux—and stumbled on this delightful little article about muscilaginous vegetables: https://www.saveur.com/how-to-cook-file-molokhia/

I should probably replace my filé powder, but I will wait until I plan to make my next batch of gumbo.

I've been adding filé powder to my roux, right after the roux has cooked, and this method works for me, even though some say that you are supposed to add it at the very end of cooking. I've never done it that way, and so I do not see a reason to change. My gumbo is always smooth and never ropey, even though I use both okra and filé. I add the filé for the flavor - not for its thickening properties.