Oh dear – I only have 14 of the 17 pantry essentials that people usually kept on hand a hundred years ago – no pastry flour, rock salt, table sauce. What the heck is table sauce?
17 Pantry Essentials a Hundred Years Ago
Oh dear – I only have 14 of the 17 pantry essentials that people usually kept on hand a hundred years ago – no pastry flour, rock salt, table sauce. What the heck is table sauce?
A Hundred Years Ago 
I also wonder what “table sauce” might be. Ketchup? My grandmother talked of making “chili sauce” which I believed to be a condiment so maybe it referred to a spicy condiment?
FWIW, you can still buy Heinz Chili Sauce, which is a condiment. We often have it and really like it.
I used Heinz chili sauce years ago in a recipe for sweet and sour appetizer meatballs and it was very good. Bet it would be good on hamburgers. I will need to buy some when I go shopping!
I haven’t purchased chili sauce in years, I’ll have to look for it when I go to the store.
Similarly to you, my first thought was that it was ketchip, but it might have been chili sauce. I know that I have seen advertisements for ketchup in hundred-year-old magazines, and I think that I also seen hundred-year-old advertisements for chili sauce – though homemade chili sauce sounds better than the commercial variety.
I looked up table sauce quickly and most people agree that it was a type of ketchup or sauce made from tomatoes. Bet you have it. 😀
Thanks for researching this. Good to know. I have ketchup, so there are only two of the “essentials” I’m missing. 🙂
I used to have rock salt in the pantry when I used my old fashioned crank ice cream maker, but I haven’t bought it for years.
Ah, those were the days. I have not used an ice cream maker since I left Texas. 🙂
I agree – those were the days. I have an electric ice cream freezer but somehow it’s not the same as those old hand-crank ones.
I can remember making ice cream using a crank ice cream maker at parties when I was young. Everyone had fun taking turns doing the cranking and it seemed to take forever for the ice cream to be ready to eat.
It did take forever! But it was a blast!
I also wondered about table sauce. I would actually add many more items to that list.
It’s fascinating how “essential” pantry items have changed across the years. If I was writing the list today, I’d add brown sugar, confectioners’ sugar, olive oil, all-purpose flour, cinnamon. . .
Interesting list. I had everything but the fabled “table sauce,” unless that is something like a Worcestershire sauce, in which case I have it all. But I have to confess that the bread flour is a recent addition since the pandemic when I started to explore more bread recipes.
I wish that I could find pastry flour. I think that I could order it online, but can’t seem to find it at the store.
Really? It’s always in our stores. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.
I bet the mustard was also dry mustard!
You’re probably right.
Table sauce? Pass. I have no molasses either, and granulated white sugar has been replaced by golden granulated. Soda I assume is baking soda, in which case yes.
I also assumed that soda was baking soda.
I am lacking the same three items. For flour, I have regular all purpose, bread, and whole wheat.
I don’t have any whole wheat flour – though I do have buckwheat and rye. I occasionally make buckwheat pancakes, and the rye flour is left over from a hundred-old recipe that I made last fall. (Note to self: Look for another hundred-year-old recipe that uses rye flour.)
I never tried buckwheat pancakes. How do they stack up against regular pancakes? Sorry for the pun. Do you like them as much as you like plain pancakes?
They are a heartier than regular pancakes, and a little “nutty,” but I like them.
That’s a good ad for them.
My pantry is missing the bread flour, rock salt, and table sauce, plus I just used up the last of the cayenne! It is on the grocery list….
I should do a better job of adding spices on the grocery list when I finish a jar. More often than I want to think about, I start to make a recipe, only to discover the I am out of a spice called for in the recipe.
I believe “table sauces” would be condiments
Makes sense. Thanks!
‘Table sauce’ is essentially a condiment. Down here, it would be one of several ‘hot sauces,’ like Tabasco or Salsa Roja, depending on whether you’re Cajun or Hispanic. There’s a tomatillo sauce that’s often served, too. In our Cuban restaurants, there’s a cucumber sauce. I suppose for many people it would be ketchup. I grew up using that only for burgers, but I know many people who put it on potatoes, eggs, and so on.
There sure are a variety of sauces. I never heard of cucumber sauce. I’ll have to look and see if they have at stores up here.
I don’t have rock salt and may not have any bread or pastry flour. We just use whole wheat flour. I have several “table sauces” and the rest of the stuff mentioned.
Whole wheat flour is probably healthier.
And I only have 10!
You’ll have to go shopping. 🙂
I guess!
Check to all of them! My table sauces are ketchup, soy, tahini, Tabasco 🙂
Wow, I’m impressed.
I have 14 as well. As for the table sauce? I think ketchup would fall into this category.
Only missing rock salt. Like others we have a variety of “table sauces” because everyone likes something different out on the table.