Under $25 Pantry Essentials at Amazon

When I test and develop recipes for Food & Wine, I can be assigned anywhere between six and 11 dishes in a week. That much cooking requires a lot of grocery shopping, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to drive around Los Angeles hunting down hard-to-find ingredients. Enter: Amazon. From specialty black peppercorns to discounted vanilla bean paste, I rounded up a few of my most-used pantry essentials that will instantly upgrade your cooking. The best part? All of my picks cost less than $25 at Amazon.       

Best Recipe Developer-Loved Pantry Essentials at Amazon Under $25 

Recipe Developer-Loved Spices and Condiments at Amazon

If there’s one thing to take away from this article, let it be that salt is the ideal product to buy in bulk on Amazon. Since I go through it quickly and there’s no guarantee my local grocery store will have my preferred brand in stock, I turn to Amazon as a hassle-free way of ensuring a healthy supply in my kitchen. It pays to buy the shelf-stable products — like sea salt flakes, kosher salt, and other spices and condiments — ahead of time, so you can focus on fresh ingredients while grocery shopping.  

Burlap & Barrel Zanzibar Black Peppercorns

Using superior spices is my not-so-secret hack to elevating a homemade dinner, and Burlap & Barrel happens to be my go-to source for all things fiery, smoky, and intense. If you’re used to relying on pre-ground black pepper, give Burlap & Barrel’s Zanzibar peppercorns a whirl and see the difference it makes in your meal.     

Rizzoli Mangiar Bene Anchovy Paste in Olive Oil

Anchovy paste is an excellent way to incorporate a lot of flavor quickly. You need anchovies for Caesar dressing and puttanesca sauce, but with the easy access provided by a squeezable tube, you’ll likely find yourself adding a dollop to salmon burgers, beans, and more. Since a little goes a long way, this $7 paste will last a long time in your refrigerator.  

Recipe Developer-Loved Baking and Cooking Ingredients at Amazon

It can be frustrating when you want to make a recipe but you can’t because the ingredients are too difficult to find. With a little planning and a Prime membership, you’ll never run into this issue again. From Dutch-processed black cocoa powder for homemade Whoopie pies to specialty rice for paella, these are the pantry ingredients I grab at Amazon. 

Neilson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste

I abandoned vanilla extract in favor of vanilla paste years ago. I love that I can see the intact seeds in my baked goods and that the bottle doesn’t leave wet rings on my kitchen shelf. It’s an expensive product, but it’s worth it for the intense vanilla flavor. Plus, it’s on sale for just $21 at Amazon.  

Koda Farms Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour

I go through quite a bit of sweet rice flour in my kitchen. Some of my favorite recipes, including Butter Mochi and Bibingka Banana Bread, utilize mochiko to create their signature bouncy, chewy texture. Since it’s not always easy to find (and not all brands are created equal), I make sure to keep Koda Farms Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour in my pantry at all times.   

Recipe Developer-Loved Olive Oils and Vinegars at Amazon

Of course, I couldn’t do much in my kitchen without olive oil and vinegar. While there are also great finishing olive oils at Amazon that exceed $25 (like these editor-loved brands), I always add a bottle or two of cooking oil (like Graza) to my cart. I also recommend grabbing a few vinegars that might be difficult to source at most grocery stores.  

Texas Hill Country Olive Oil Co. Wild Cherry Balsamic Vinegar

You would think that after making so many recipes, they would all blend together. On the contrary, there are a few that I’ve never forgotten, like this Chocolate Cherry Focaccia. I love the bittersweet chocolate with its crunch of turbinado sugar and tart cherry balsamic vinegar. Ah, the vinegar. It’s a special ingredient that tastes just as good as a salad dressing as it does mixed with oil and served with a toasted baguette. I can’t get enough of it. 

52USA Shaoxing Cooking Wine

Shaoxing Cooking Wine is a rice wine from, well, Shaoxing, China. It imparts a mellow sweetness and depth of flavor to stir-frys and steamed fish alike, making it an ideal cooking wine to have in your pantry. Instead of hunting it down at a specialty grocery store, I simply add it to my Amazon cart.