Always seem to be missing that one ingredient for dinner? Always have what you need on hand with these 15 fridge essentials that every home chef needs!
Home cooking a dinner every night requires a variety of ingredients, and many recipes have overlapping ingredients. A lot of times, these ingredients come secondary to the main ingredients. Because of this, these ingredients can be overlooked when making a grocery list, and never make it into our carts. This list of 15 fridge essentials will ensure that you never have to go without an ingredient!
In this post, you will be given the 15 most important fridge essentials. This list was created by a home chef who not only cooks every night, but who knows exactly what fridge essentials can and will be forgotten!
After reading this post, you will have a complete list of fridge essentials you should ALWAYS have in stock. This will save you the frustration of not having what the recipe calls for.
This post is all about 15 fridge essentials every home chef needs.
Stocking Your Fridge
Part of being a homemaker is household supply management. (If you want to read more on this, read my post, The Homemaker’s Role.) Making sure to have items that are needed now and in the future is part of this. Stocking your fridge with essentials is something you only have to do every couple of months, and makes your weekly grocery shopping lighter. Making sure to take inventory of your fridge essentials every couple of weeks will help you keep your essentials stocked.
Main Ingredients VS. Secondary Ingredients
In a lot of recipes, there are main ingredients and secondary ingredients. As every ingredient is important to the final result, the main ingredients are usually the ones we focus on when we make our grocery list. Main ingredients can include grains, meats, and veggies. The secondary ingredients are usually needed only in small quantities (like 1 tablespoon), and help enhance and add flavor to the main ingredients. Secondary ingredients can include chicken bouillon, condiments, and cheeses. These ingredients are not the main components to the meal, but make it all that much better! Because they are not the obvious ingredients, they sometimes slip through the cracks, and we are forced to make our recipe without them. This list of 15 fridge essentials will focus on those all-too-often-forgotten secondary ingredients.
Determining What YOUR Fridge Essentials Are
Although this list of fridge essentials includes many popular secondary ingredients, each home chef has different cooking styles. Therefore, we all have a need for different fridge essentials. A good way to find your fridge essentials is to take a look at your favorite recipes and take note of what their secondary ingredients are. This will give you a pretty good list of fridge essentials tailored to your cooking style. After this initial list, you can always add on other fridge essentials as you cook more recipes and discover more popular secondary ingredients.
15 Fridge Essentials Every Home Chef Needs
From butter to cheese, these are the 15 fridge essentials that deserve a spot on your fridge’s shelf! Any brands mentioned are not sponsored in any way.
1. Concentrated Chicken Stock
A lot of recipes with sauces call for chicken broth. Since cartons of stock go bad quickly once opened, having concentrated chicken stock on hand is cheaper and lasts a lot longer. If you want to read more about what brand I use and how I use it, read my post, 5 Clever Cooking Tips That Are Guaranteed to Save You Time and Money.
2. Concentrated Beef Stock
Recipes with things like beef gravy call for beef broth, and are better than boxed broth for the reasons listed in the chicken stock section. Having jars of concentrated stock on hand is a super simple way to save room in your fridge. It also prevents you from having to buy an expensive box of broth at the store for a recipe that only calls for one cup or less.
3. Butter Sticks
Used a lot of times to make a roux or to pan-fry veggies and meat, butter sticks are a fridge essential that you can count on reaching for at least once a week! (Unless you are butter obsessed like I am and believe it makes EVERYTHING better, then you’ll reach for it multiple times a week.) Having both salted and unsalted sticks available is a good idea, as different recipes can call for either one.
Some brands of butter (Land O Lakes) have regular sized butter sticks and half sticks. I prefer the half sticks because most recipes only call for a couple of tablespoons, and these half sticks get used more quickly and keep their freshness.
4. Minced Garlic
Even though I know mincing fresh garlic is tastier, I can’t stand the smell it leaves on my hands. As I’m sure there are ways around this, I opt for the easier, more convenient option of buying a jar of pre-minced garlic. It is still delicious, lasts a long time, and doesn’t require you to do any of the work. A lot of recipes call for a little bit of garlic, making it a fridge essential.
5. Lemon Juice
Not a super common ingredient, but common enough to have a small bottle of it in your fridge for those times you do need it. Since most recipes with lemon juice only call for a tiny amount, one small bottle will last you months. This will keep you from having to buy and squeeze a lemon. It is also a great essential to have on hand for dishes that don’t call for it, but that need that extra zesty flavor!
6. Ketchup 7. Mustard 8. Dijon Mustard 9. Mayonnaise
These condiments are probably the most common fridge essentials. From using them in a homemade dipping sauce to making a gravy with them, these four condiments are fridge essentials that are guaranteed to be used frequently.
10. Maple Syrup
A fridge essential for a home chef? As it sounds out of place, it is called for in some roasted vegetable recipes, and adds the perfect amount of sweetness. As the recipe could be made without this ingredient, you’ll be happy you had it in your fridge when you taste how amazing it is!
11. Soy Sauce
Some recipes call for a splash of soy sauce to add a little tang to the dish. I don’t actually know if soy sauce belongs in the fridge, but that’s how I do it, so I consider it a fridge essential!
12. Eggs
You never want to be caught without eggs! Eggs are irreplaceable, and if left out, could jeopardize the results of the dinner you worked so hard on!
13. Cream Cheese 14. Shredded Cheese 15. Grated Cheese
Ok, so I might have a slight problem with cheese. But trust me, they all have a time and place, and can even be added to recipes that don’t call for it. Because cheese makes everything better, right? Having cream cheese on hand is great for thickening thin sauces. Since it is usually called for in small amounts, a small tub of it in your fridge will satisfy multiple recipes. Philadelphia makes Whipped Cream Cheese, which is softer than the brick, is re-sealable, and is easier to measure out small portions!
Having a variety of shredded cheeses in your fridge will also come in handy, and can be added to recipes which don’t even call for cheese. Sometimes a last-minute addition of cheese is exactly what a recipe needs.
Having grated cheese in your fridge, especially parmesan, is an absolute MUST. I reach for my massive bottle of parmesan at least three times a week. I use it as garnish on top of dishes as well as in sauces and on roasted veggies. It is a fridge essential in my household, and can be used in a variety of ways.
With these 15 fridge essentials, you will always have what you need to make a delicious meal! After reading this post, hopefully you have a helpful list of fridge essentials, and will be able to identify your own fridge essentials. Happy cooking!
This post was all about 15 fridge essentials every home chef needs.