It all starts innocently enough: Cooks pick up asafoetida, a garlicky onion spice, to make that potato curry - once. Before long, they have aji powder, elderflower vinegar, figs in malbec syrup, ras el hanout, and sumac.

Modern pantries have become the Blob.

Lydia Walshin knows the problem well. When she counted, the cooking instructor and food writer in Gloucester, R.I., had more than 200 items in stock: oils, vinegars, spices, jams, sauces, chutneys, grains, and six kinds of salt. Some had been there, unused, for years.

Walshin had decided to take stock as an intellectual exercise. A pantry, she had told students time and again, was an essential foundation of good cooking, a way to create a variety of meals with whatever was seasonal and fresh. So what should go in the perfect pantry? And, just as important, what should be left out?

After nearly 18 months, Walshin is still trying to answer the question. In 2006 she launched a blog, ThePerfectPantry.com, that highlights less-familiar ingredients, such as agave nectar, and some neglected favorites, such as arrowroot, then offers suggestions on how to use them.

Walshin hasn't managed to cut back on her total pantry items - current count is 226 - but she has outlined clear rules about what belongs there.

"I have to have used the ingredient more than once. And I have to use it in more than one way. Otherwise, it's not part of my perfect pantry."

In a way, the pantry problem is a reflection of our frenetic food culture. Thousands of cookbooks are published each year, providing ambitious kitchen warriors with recipes for Laotian beef salad, Italian grape and hazelnut tart, and the like.

Americans also eat out more and, with the help of the Internet, they can try to re-create the dishes at home. If it's Tuesday, it's Belgian mussels. The catch: What do you do with the rest of the sour Flemish ale?

It's ironic. Storing foods we don't use is the antithesis of the pantry concept, not to mention uneconomical.

Early Americans built pantries (originally called butteries because the ingredients were stored in butts, or barrels) as a place to store everyday items away from the heat of the kitchen.

The term has since developed to refer to the staples cooks have on hand, whether they are in cabinets, canisters, freezer or fridge, says Catherine Seiberling Pond, author of The Pantry: Its History and Modern Uses.

It's no surprise, Pond says, that pantries have transformed and become so cluttered: "The evolution of pantries very much echoes trends in cooking and household domestic economy."

As Walshin has found, there is no one perfect pantry. But there is a baseline. Most serious cooks now stock sea salt (not iodized), peppercorns (not ground pepper), commercial broth (not bouillon), extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic and wine vinegars, and several flours.

From there, it depends on what you like to cook and eat. Recently, Walshin posted her "desert island" list - 23 staples with which she says she could make most of her favorite dishes - including Parmesan cheese, lemons, cinnamon, cumin and Dijon-style mustard.

A reader poll of their must-haves added crushed red pepper flakes, coconut milk, herbs de Provence, and fish sauce.

The perfect pantry

Take stock. If spices have been around longer than a year, they might not have much flavor. If you have ingredients you've never used, try them or get rid of them. Cooking instructor Lydia Walshin's test of what belongs in a pantry is whether the item has been used more than once and in more than one way. "A pantry should be a staple of things you use, not things you wish you used," she says

Don't be a snob. Experiment with accessible ingredients. "You don't need to go to some fancy gourmet store. Supermarkets are a gold mine for pantry staples," says cookbook author Nina Simonds, who blogs at SpicesofLife.com. Simonds uses prepared marinades, bottled teriyaki sauces, and curry pastes rather than mixing her own spice blends or marinades on a busy weeknight. A current favorite: Trader Joe's butternut squash soup, to which she adds spinach, a dab of curry paste, and grilled chicken.

La Brea Bakery's Nancy Silverton, whose latest cookbook, "A Twist of the Wrist," shows how to make great meals from jars, cans, bags and boxes, uses Progresso lentil soup as a base for grilled fish and simple steamed vegetables, and canned beans for salads, crostini and homemade soups.

Put new ingredients into everyday rotation. When a recipe calls for a tablespoon of green masala paste, what do you do with the rest? Silverton's answer is to use it for simple sauces and dressings rather than wait for the next Indian feast. Combine it with mayonnaise and spread on turkey sandwiches or use as a condiment for chicken or fish. Or add a touch to buttermilk dressing for a spicy Indian flavor. That also works for pestos, tapenades, and chipotle peppers in adobo.

- Washington Post