Five ingredients I will never buy

At some point you realise certain ingredients look useful, sound useful or are marketed as useful, but they don’t actually make your cooking any better. They take up space, cost money, and quietly do nothing.

These are the five I have cut out for good.

1. Shallots

Some people swear by them. I don’t.

If a recipe says “use shallots,” you can use a normal onion. Same result, same flavour, fewer leftovers rotting in the drawer.

Unless you are making a delicate French sauce (unlikely on a weeknight), the difference is so tiny it’s not worth the extra faff. I’m not paying more for something an onion already does perfectly.

2. Flavoured salts

Truffle salt, chilli salt, smoked salt, garlic salt… all of them.
They are designed to make you think you are upgrading your food when really you are limiting yourself.

A good sea salt or Himalayan salt covers every dish you will ever cook. Clean, reliable, predictable.

If you want garlic flavour, add garlic.
If you want smoke, add smoke. It’s that simple.

Flavoured salts are clutter disguised as sophistication.

3. Baking chocolate

People buy it because the packaging says “for baking,” not because it tastes good.

Most baking chocolate is made to melt neatly and behave predictably, not to taste rich or exciting.

If you want better bakes, use a dark chocolate you actually enjoy eating. Your brownies, cakes and cookies will taste instantly deeper and more interesting.

There is no point buying a second type of chocolate just because the label tells you to.

4. Margarine

This one is straightforward: I don’t like how it tastes and I don’t like how it cooks.

It burns oddly, it tastes artificial and it leaves a strange aftertaste in baked goods. Not healthy either.

Butter gives flavour. Oil gives consistency. Margarine gives neither.

There is no scenario where I reach for it, so I don’t buy it.

5. Skimmed milk

I never understood skimmed milk. It tastes like white water.

There is no point using milk without any fat content in your cooking. If you are worried about calories, you can always use less, but the difference is minimal anyway.

Whole milk tastes like milk, everything else is pointless.

Final thought

Cooking gets easier and better when you stop buying ingredients that overpromise and underdeliver.

The basics still win: onions, real salt, real chocolate, real butter, whole milk.

Your kitchen stays simpler. Your food tastes better.

And you don’t miss a single thing you stopped buying.