If you play with preserve off, do you want to know about artifacts you missed?

[ewert]

Except consumables can also be vulnerable to acid, and farming consumables with monsters that destroy consumables ... err. =P

[Derakon]

You can drop the vulnerable stuff before taking on the puddings. For me that'd generally be a staff of Destruction and maybe a couple scrolls of Teleport Level (though by the time I'm that far down, I have enough ?TL to not be worried about losing one or two).

Obviously a different story if you recently found ?MassBanishment and you're carrying it back to town. In that situation you'd probably want to shoot the puddings to death instead.