6 Foods & Ingredients to Throw Out of the Kitchen

Table salt

Too harsh a taste, too much sodium, and it doesn't dissolve as well as sea salt when cooking. If you must put it on the table for your guests, at least keep it out of the kitchen. Sea salt is a much better choice for cooking. Greek sea salt - fine, medium, and coarse - is very reasonably priced (look for it at my list of online Greek food shops) and kosher sea salt is reasonably priced and widely available.

Cooking wine

Don't get me started. Cooking with wine is a Greek favorite. Cooking wine can include salt, and may even state on the label that it's not for drinking. Cooking with a wine that isn't for drinking? Toss it.

Dried parsley

The very act of drying parsley removes any hope it may ever have had for taste and aroma. Chuck it. Use fresh (flat-leaf for cooking) parsley. Chop it up and smell the amazing fragrance.

If you're worried about not having parsley on hand when you need it, fresh parsley stores well and can be frozen.

White bread

You know the kind. It tears if you look at it. If you take the entire loaf in your hands and squeeze, you can make a ball the size of a meatball. Yes, it's the kind of bread I grew up with as well, usually spread with peanut butter and jelly, but it serves no purpose in a Greek kitchen. If you're going to eat the calories in bread, the bread should be substantial. Greek breads are dense, most frequently made with whole grains. Or pita bread, a legacy from our middle eastern neighbors. If I found white bread in my kitchen, I'd either toast it for crumbs, or feed it to the birds.

Iceberg lettuce

Where lettuce is called for, it's understood in Greek cooking that it's Romaine. Other leafy greens such as radicchio, kale, and spinach are not called lettuce. Iceberg lettuce has no value my kitchen, adds nothing nutritionally and - the nice crunch notwithstanding - should be tossed. It isn't even good for the family's pet rabbit.

Garlic Powder

It never dissolves quite right, does it? Use fresh garlic or garlic cloves instead and get rid of the powdered (and certainly anything like garlic salt)! Fresh garlic can be used like green onions - chopped, sautéed, as an ingredient and as a garnish, and garlic cloves can be minced, chopped, sliced, pressed (or mashed), and grilled. Cut a garlic clove in half and use it as a rub. (And it's easy to get rid of the garlic smell from your hands.)