Pantry Staples

RunMyKitchen assumes you have common cooking staples on hand so recipes don’t constantly tell you to buy salt and oil. These items are included in your pantry by default and used freely in recipe generation. You can add, remove, or replace any of them.

Default staples

Category	Items
Seasonings	Salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin, chili flakes, dried oregano, dried basil
Oils & fats	Olive oil, vegetable oil, butter
Aromatics	Garlic, onion
Sweeteners	Sugar, honey
Acids	White vinegar, lemon juice
Baking	All-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda
Sauces	Soy sauce, hot sauce, ketchup, mustard
Dairy	Eggs

Note

Staples are assumptions, not requirements. If a recipe uses a staple you don’t actually have, tell the AI and it adjusts — both the recipe and your staples list.

Remove a staple

Tell the chat what you don’t keep on hand:

• “I never have cumin.”
• “Remove baking soda from my staples.”
• “I don’t use hot sauce.”

The AI removes it from your defaults. Future recipes either skip it or add it to your shopping list.

Add a staple

If you always have something that’s not on the default list, say so:

• “I always have sesame oil.”
• “Add coconut milk to my staples.”
• “I keep fish sauce and rice vinegar stocked.”

Added staples behave like the defaults — the AI assumes they’re available and won’t list them on shopping lists.

Dietary customization

The staples list adapts to your household’s dietary settings:

• Vegan — Butter is replaced with plant-based oil; eggs are removed.
• Gluten-free — All-purpose flour is replaced with a GF flour blend.
• Low-sodium — Salt remains but recipes use it sparingly; soy sauce is flagged.

Set dietary preferences in Household settings and your staples update automatically.