Interactive lesson

Organising the pantry, step by step

Interactive lesson: six climates in one house, what goes where, shelves and containers with measurements, mice and moths without poison, and a safe pantry.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Six climates in one house

No single room suits every store, so the pantry is divided by climate.

Cold and damp — Cellar, clamp or earth pit: 0–4 °C (potatoes 4–6 °C) and 85–95 % humidity. Potatoes, roots, cabbage, apples, pears and the crock go here.
Onions and squash — Onions need cold and dry, 0–4 °C and 60–70 % humidity. Squash needs warm and dry, 10–15 °C, in an unheated room or under the bed.
Dry and dark — A store room at 5–15 °C, jars up to 20 °C, humidity below 60 %: jars, dried fruit and vegetables, herbs, flour, beans, honey, sugar and salt.
Measure in the first winter — Leave a min/max thermometer and a hygrometer for 2–3 days in every possible place and write down the readings. Many British and Irish houses have no cellar: then the coldest north room, a garage or an outbuilding takes its place.

Why: The most common reason stores spoil isn't a bad recipe but the wrong place. A store that keeps for months in the right place keeps for weeks in the wrong one.

A north-facing larder is a cold larder only in winter: in lowland UK and Ireland it runs roughly 3–8 °C from November to March, but 14–20 °C in summer.
The sixth climate is the freezer at −18 °C (0 °F), for meat, vegetables, fruit, butter and stock.

2. What goes where

Dry food doesn't go in the cellar. That's the rule broken most often.

Fruit apart — Keep apples, pears and quinces in a separate cellar or room, never next to potatoes and cabbage.
No dry food in the cellar — Dried fruit and vegetables go soft and mouldy, flour goes lumpy, and grain in sacks on the floor takes up water. It only takes a few weeks.
A dry corner — If the cellar is the only cold room: a closed cupboard raised off the floor, against the wall towards the house, with dry food in screw-top jars with a desiccant.
Jars away from heat — Jars of preserves and bottled fruit go in a dark store room at 10–20 °C, never next to a stove, boiler or window.

Why: The cellar is the biggest and coldest room, but a potato cellar has 85–95 % humidity, and dry food takes that moisture up. Apples, pears and quinces speed up sprouting in potatoes, and cabbages and turnips give fruit their smell.

The best dry store is often a cupboard in an unheated bedroom or a larder on the north side of the house.
The kitchen is for a week's supply, not a year's.