Old-fashioned tasty recipes......PLEASE!

I use quark instead of double cream with desserts.
The oldest tins in cupboard, found hidden at back behind larger container, are 2 condensed milk use by Dec 2014. Oldest item I actually have is a bottle Canadian whisky in shape of CN Tower, bought in Toronto April 1977 as moments of visit, and do not intend to open it!

elleks....I have a pressure cooker too. I love pressure cooker stew especially when you leave it for a day and have it as second day stew but for some reason I find braising steak tastes better done in the oven. Also I can cook twice as much as I need and freeze a meal for another time.

Lemsip- yes turned out cupboard back in march lockdown- found spices/herbs from 2014?yes i binned them!

Yes also unearthed condensed milk (bought for a recipe, then never done!) From 2016/17?

I've cut back on many fancy ingredients as I found that all I really needed was salt, pepper, mixed spice and mixed herbs. All the rest was superfluous to requirements.

I don't know how old the recipe is Sophia but have you tried making an Australian recipe called 'damper'? It's fast, simple and can be made from ordinary store ingredients. I'm sure you can find a recipe online for this so I won't put the details here. Two things you must do - remember to pre-heat the oven or it will have a close, damp texture and use parchment or it will stick and you won't thank me if you have to scrape it out of the baking dish. It just needs mixing, no kneading or proving required so it's great if your hands/wrists aren't strong enough for the former or you don't have an airing cupboard for the latter. There's a sweet version with fruit or a savoury one with cheese.

When we moved house a few years ago we discovered that if you leave tins at the back of the cupboard for long enough they explode (presumably silently) and the contents and the tin turn in to a strange black unidentifiable mass so I can't tell you how old they were.

Never heard of any of those ingredients. My cupboard is full of various herbs and spices and tinned foods that are years old, one day I may have a clear out, but use by dates don't worry me too much. DH watches lots of cookery programs (he does all the cooking) and often complains about the unknown and expensive ingredients they use. I dislike the way that chefs 'play' with food and build little towers and arrangements in the middle of a plate. It wouldn't impress me, I want a meal that's going to sustain me not a work of art!

Nearest I have is arborio rice which I would use for carnaroli.
Tofu and quark are both in my local supermarket so not especially unusual although not things I buy.

Never heard of any of them!

I get so frustrated when I see recipes in magazines and so many of the ingredients would mean a trip to the supermarket.
I would guess that they assume we all plan menus in advance - me, I just decide about 30 minutes beforehand what either I fancy or what is still in the fridge/freezer!
Also, I would have thought that we should be spending as little time as possible in a supermarket rather than browsing shelves and click and collect ? Not one of those items available where I shop, national brand or not!
As far as the oldest item in my cupboard - due to the last minute lockdown in my area, and the fact we hadn't planned to be at home for Christmas Day lunch, I had no cranberry sauce.(no time to shop for extras but already had a chicken in the freezer) . Found a jar in the depths of my larder and asked my son to open it. He pointed out that it was dated February 2012 !!! We went without!

I'm the same. I bought a famous '5 ingredients' cook book but, living in the centre of Spain, I usually found that at least 2 of the 5 ingredients were impossible to procure locally. The book is gathering dust on my bookshelf!

I used to have Quark and tofu in my fridge and cupboards when I was veggie but never had any of the other stuff .

During the last lockdown, I found a bottle of food essence which expired in May 1995. ?The funniest thing though is that I even hovered over the bin, hesitating to throw it away!! ?‍♀️

I live deep in the french countryside but I have all of them except the quark .... although I think it is pretty much just fromage frais a la faiselle so easy to find in all supermarkets here ...and the tofu ( which I don’t like anyway)

Only of that list that I recognise is Quark, which I only purchase when I am about to make a cheesecake. That, combined, with any other soft cheese is perfect for these.

I don’t have any of the ingredients you listed but just yesterday I reminded my OH to add Kimchi to our shopping list. I wouldn’t have that in the store cupboard because it continues to ferment in the packet.
I do have a huge amount of half used items so thank you OP.

........for reminding me it’s time for a use up week. (Not a clear out as nothing goes to waste in this house.)

It's funny you mention kicap manis. I'd never heard of it either. Last week however Morrisons sent a bottle of it instead of soy sauce, which they claimed to have run out of. Haven't opened it yet but if Morrisons thinks it will do instead of soy sauce, then they are probably right....

Well, tofu I really don't like at all, but the others I either have had, or have now. And I don’t live in London, I'm Yorkshire born and bred. My father didn't like his food 'mucked about with' and wouldn't even eat rice or spaghetti so as soon as I left home to university I started experimenting. Then I married a man from India, who doesn't like 'boring ' food, so we eat all sorts of things, different all the time. Often the proper ingredients make a world of difference. Sometimes they don't, but you learn by trial and error. Occasionally a jar gets thrown out very quickly, but that is rare. One of us will generally like something even if the other doesn't, and there's always my daughter, and her English, Manchester, partner, who are both good cooks and experiment too. Their 3 year old will eat most things now, though of course not when we've been told it's his favourite!

Rosieod1 i would soak your cocktail cherries in brandy.......just to be on the safe side......delicious.....hic ☺. Oldest item in storecupboard, a whole nutmeg inherited from my mam 10 years ago...heaven knows how long she had it. And i do still use it occassionally grated on top of a custard tart. Scent brings back happy memories of family teas.

I became fascinated by all things Japanese at the beginning of lockdown in March. I’ve Japanesed my home, my wardrobe and more especially, my food cupboard. I was so delighted to discover miso soup and also kimchi. I ate mostly Japanese food for a couple of months, and lost weight, low sugar, but also my diabetes, type 2, went into lockdown too. When I went for my annual checkup the nurse was enthusiastic. I now intersperse our meals with European food, but we eat miso, mushrooms, tofu and green tea most days in some form and lots more fish than formerly. I suppose it’s whether one finds other cultures interesting. If you do, now, during lockdown is a good time to study, most things being available on line.

Heard of two things, used one.
Maybe I’d like risotto more if I used carnaroli instead of arborio rice. I used to make Kimchi when one DD was still at home (thank heavens for YouTube).
Vampirequeen I’m with you on pressure cooker stew. It tastes just like Mum used to make.
One job during the first lockdown was clearing cupboards. The oldest thing was tinned peaches, several years out of date, probably safe but I binned them. I’ve started keeping herbs, garlic etc in the freezer instead of in jars.

I know about Quark and silken tofu, but not the others. (Don't like either of them though. Give me Tofoo any day. Silken tofu is too much like custard.

I love braised steak. Can someone tell me what gives it that wonderful, rich flavour?

When I was young we did not have a fridge. There were no sell by dates, in the war it was a crime to throw away food so we used our common sense. We still do.