What We Mean by "From the Cupboard"

Open the shopping list on any RealPlate recipe, or on your week, and you'll see a section called From the cupboard.

These are the things we reckon most people already have at home: salt, pepper, olive oil, dried herbs, spices, stock cubes, flour, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, a bit of garlic. They still matter – you need them to cook the meal properly – but they're not usually something you'd buy fresh for one dinner, and they're hard to price fairly recipe by recipe.

So we list them separately. They're there in plain sight, so you can check you've got them before you start, but they don't get added to the recipe total.

That keeps the shopping list focused on what you're actually likely to buy that week: the vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, tins, grains, bread or noodles.

It also keeps the prices realistic. If a recipe uses a teaspoon of dried oregano, adding the full cost of a jar every time would not be sensible – but leaving the oregano off the list entirely wouldn't help either, because you still need it for the dish to taste right. The cupboard section is the compromise: transparent, practical, and close to how people actually shop.

The line isn't always perfect. One household always has soy sauce; another has to buy it. Some people have a full spice drawer, others keep salt and pepper and not much else. Separating these ingredients is our way of not pretending everyone's kitchen is the same.

If you do need to buy a cupboard item, you can still add it to your own shopping. By default, though, it stays out of the meal price.

The aim's simple: show the full recipe, keep the price honest, and help you avoid getting halfway through cooking before realising you're missing something small but important.