How do you start stocking up on food?

dwarven1

dwarven1

Lonely Mountain Arms
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I really have no idea what to stock that can be rotated into your normal food supply. I mean, rice, OK, sure... but we buy our meat fresh and Kath makes her own spaghetti sauce - so we can't even stock up on cans of that. What about canned meat? I mean, what do you do with tuna other than tuna salad?

In short... where does one start?
 
dwarven1 said:
I really have no idea what to stock that can be rotated into your normal food supply. I mean, rice, OK, sure... but we buy our meat fresh and Kath makes her own spaghetti sauce - so we can't even stock up on cans of that. What about canned meat? I mean, what do you do with tuna other than tuna salad?

In short... where does one start?
Click to expand...

As far as tuna, there is always tuna casserole, tuna sandwiches, tunal salads for starters. Spaghetti sauce we made our own this year and canned it. We put up 47 quarts from tomatoes out of the garden.
pasta
canned foods you use, whether it's soups, mushrooms,etc.
If you use canned vegies
Think of the things you use everyday, all the time, etc. Buy extras.
I canned some vegies, and also froze vegies from the garden.
You can set aside an extra 20 dollars or so and use that to buy extras. You'd be surprised at what you can stock up on.
 
Rice, beans, pasta, lentils, flour, sugar, salt, dried potatoes, instant milk, mac&cheese, tuna, soups(both dry and canned), vinegar (for pickling), cooking oil or crisco, baking powder, any normally used canned goods like fruit, tomatoe products, veggies, coffee, tea, grain alcohol (can be cut 50% to double amount), powdered gatoraide, canned tuna, chicken, roastbeef, stew, olives, pickles and spices to add to your meals, it makes things alot more palatable.

All above have long shelf life but watch your tomatoe products and rotate them out regularly.

Living in the northeast, everyone should have these staples just for the threat of winter weather, let alone a major disaster or TEOTWAWKI.

Buy five or ten items each time you shop and put them in a single location. You'll be surprised how quickly it adds up. If push comes to shove with the food supply for whatever reason, your diet is going to change, at least temporarily.

Edit: Know how to bake a loaf of bread over an open fire if necessary. One pot meals will be the norm in a SHTF situation.
 
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Buy the foods you usually eat just get a little extra like everyone says. Iffin you don't have one of those vacuume sealer thinges, get one, even for dry foods. ...and a big freezer for the meats.

OK that last item isn't much help if the power goes out for more than a couple days but you'll save by buying in bulk.

It will pay for itself.

IIRC cooked meats may be home canned but I'm not positive on that & would have to look into it.

Even if the worst that happens is an extended period of unemployment you'll be set.
 
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MrTwigg said:
Buy the foods you usually eat just get a little extra like everyone says. Iffin you don't have one of those vacuume sealer thinges, get one, even for dry foods. ...and a big freezer for the meats. (

OK that last item isn't much help if the power goes out for more than a couple days but you'll save by buying in bulk.

It will pay for itself.

IIRC cooked meats may be home canned but I'm not positive on that & would have to look into it.

Even if the worst that happens is an extended period of unemployment you'll be set.
Click to expand...

Yes cooked meats can be home canned. One of the best things you can do is pick up the Ball canning book. Meats also have to be pressure canned not water bath canned.
 
All great suggestions - especially for rotating food. We can quite a bit from the garden, though we have not ventured into canning meats. Tuna can be served up in so many ways beyond salad. Even simple casseroles or mixing a can into Macs-n-Cheese. You can also just buy some canned goods like beets, corn, beans, soups, chcickpeas, etc. We also have good stocks of MRE's and Costco Buckets to add to the mix and supplement.
 
Buy a good pressure cooker and start canning what you eat. I used to can one big batch of something two to three times a week. You *can* can your pasta sauce and stock up on it! Depending how you cook/keep your meat you can can it as well. Stews work best. Usually I'll recommend make a small batch and try it at one week, two week, three weeks, and four and make sure it still tastes right and if not try again with changes to the recipe.

Also, have pasta, rice, and/or flour around and other baking goods and you are set after a few months of canning for a period of time. And just rotate out by using each of the above. If you can get flour in bulk even better, unground will last longer if you have a grinder.

Vacuum seal and freeze things, but keep in mind if the SHTF your freeze might not work so be prepared to be able to use whatever is in the freezer quickly or can it quickly.

Canned food will last 2-3 years but will lose some of its flavor and vitamin content.
 
Thanks for the link, Rob... I downloaded the file so I can peruse it at my leisure.

Doobie, Sue - quick question. Exactly what does the canning process do? Do you pull a vacuum on the container so that bacteria have no oxygen to consume?

FGABF, thanks for pointing out pasta - I hadn't thought about it.

Sue, it's not the extra $20 to buy extras, it's what to buy! I mean, bread only keeps so long, and we tend to pack sandwiches for lunch, so the cold cuts have to be bought each week - so I'm trying to figure out here if we have to change our eating habits to ensure that we have some stuff that we can store long term.
 
Canning is how they preserved food hundreds of years ago (I can bring a can to show you on Wednesday if you want), but basically there is a wax like substance on the tab of the can, you put your food to preserve inside the cans then inside a pressure cooker, based on laws of physics the pressure change causes higher temperatures in the water. With proper pressure you heat your product to a temperature greater than which will kill all bacteria. Some of the steam will leave the can as it is cooking, when you remove the cans it will cool and the pressure inside will go down creating a vacuum like seal with the wax (or whatever the plastic is). The key is to ensure you cook it long enough and hot enough. If there's a little bacteria left inside it can continue to grow. Also the cooking can have adverse affects on texture/flavors.
 
oh, also once you have a good amount of food stored up, you start to eat from what you have stored and when you buy/grow new food you add that to your storage. I have some friends who went 4 months without going grocery shopping (or going to restaurants) for food and they ate pretty much just as well as they had prior.
 
I see. I think. In the case of stew, for example, would I cook it normally first then place it in the pressure cooker? Or does the pressure cooker take the place of the normal cooking process?

And where am I seeing you on Wednesday? You going to MJ Whittall for the degree?
 
Recipes do need to change somewhat. You cook it first, this helps get a more even flavor, then you put it into the pressure canner (I goofed earlier, pressure canner not cooker. There are differences). I have some things that I cooked just in the pressure cooker, but that was mainly because I was preserving fish and it was in a precooked stock. Ball Blue Book is a good book on canning and has some recipes. I have a copy you can borrow.

Sorry, Wednesday at breakfast. I assumed you would be there.
 
Ross it depends on the meat, and most you pressure can for about an hour.
If I go through my cupboards, what I store is...
canned goods
mushrooms
tuna
crab meat
shrimp
some soups mostly tomato
kidney beans
pinto beans
black beans
refried beans
diced tomatoes
tomato paste
tomato sauce
stewed tomatoes
some vegies

This is off the top of my head right now
I have pastas
stuffing mix
cereals
oatmeal
instant mashed potatoes
coffee
teas
gatorade powder
koolaid
flour
sugars
spices
baking ingredients
condiments, like ketchup, mustards, mayo, etc.

I have one freezer that is vegies that we grew this year and some that I have bought
My other freezer has meats, lunchmeat,cheeses, and various other things we use like butter etc.

like I said this is off the top of my head. Then there's the paper products, cleaning supplies, etc.

Store what you eat and what you use.
 
Ross,

I don't know if you have a chest freezer, but we have a large one and stock all kinds of meats, veggies etc. I also have 10 1-gallon jugs of water in there as well. It will keep things cold if the power goes out and still leave plenty of room. We have a generator back-up, but it won't work if I'm not home. Plus, there's 10-gallons of drinking water should the need arise.....
 
Ross,
If you would like to learn about canning, or food preserving, or better yet get the wife involved, there is no place on the net, with a better bunch of people then http://mrssurvival.com/

Yes, the site is mostly comprised of women, but they welcome men to join, and the folks there are outstanding. In the "Preserving the Harvest" forum, I started a thread about canning supplies that got stuck. There is some great info in that thread.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a PM.
 
Adam_MA said:
Ross,
If you would like to learn about canning, or food preserving, or better yet get the wife involved, there is no place on the net, with a better bunch of people then http://mrssurvival.com/

Yes, the site is mostly comprised of women, but they welcome men to join, and the folks there are outstanding. In the "Preserving the Harvest" forum, I started a thread about canning supplies that got stuck. There is some great info in that thread.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a PM.
Click to expand...

I second that site. It is full of good info.[grin] I have Adam to thank for that one.[wink]
 
Eat what you like

Ross:

Old Jewish Proverb."Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."

sure you can go out and buy MRE's and C and K Rations to stock away for Har-Magedon but hey just take a walk through some old Cival defence stockpiles and look at that stuff.

Would you rally want to eat 50 year old potted meat? Only Hawaiians claim to enjoy that Spam and look at their other favorite food Poy??? Yuck!


(Im not saying I wont eat SPAM; I eat most things as long as they dont run too fast; however I hear that a lot of people don't like spam. Must be winers)




Best bet is to go into Sams Club, BJ's , Costco, etc and buy a couple of chest freezers and items that you like to eat in large quantities.

50 pound flakes of cow
25 pound frozzen turkies
20 pounds slabs of bacon
3 pound cans of tomato paste, peppers, mushrooms
potted meat if you must
10 pound bags of garlic
50 pound bags of onions
50 pound bags of flour and coucous
50 # bags or rice & potatos
Dont forget the Applesauce. in 3 pound cans!


then not only will you have food to eate but extra for barter

23034462.jpg



Time to bake the ingberlach house!
Noent

Ashkenazic Honey-Nut Candy

Since the ancestors of the majority of Ashkenazim came from the Slavic regions of eastern Europe (Poland and the Ukraine), it is this form of Ashkenazic cooking that is most widespread. Honey candies are popular Ashkenazic Passover, Purim and Hanukkah treats. The basic recipe is varied by adding poppy seeds, sesame seeds, matzot, carrots or spices. When ground ginger is added, the candy is called "ingberlach" ("ingber" is the Yiddish word for ginger). When the ginger is omitted, the candy is sometimes called "pletzlach" (board), because it is spread into a thin
layer to cool.

Since honey syrups absorb moisture from the air, it is advisable not to make this candy on a humid day.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 cups honey

4 to 6 cups finely chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds

1. Cook the sugar and honey over medium-low heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes.

2. Gradually add the nuts and continue cooking, stirring frequently and being careful not to burn the syrup, until the mixture is very thick and reaches the soft-crack stage. The candy will remain chewy at this stage; if it reaches hard-rock stage it turns brittle.

3. Spoon the mixture onto a wet board or oiled baking sheet and spread to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Let cool until firm but not hard, about 10 minutes.
Using a sharp knife dipped into hot water, cut into squares or diamonds.
(The mixture can also be dropped by spoonfuls onto oiled baking sheets.) If desired, wrap the individual squares in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Store in an airtight container at room temperature
 
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Hamar said:
Me too! Fried up with brown sugar....or sliced up right out of the can on wheat bread.....MMMMMM!
Click to expand...

I like to fry it up, and eat it on egg and cheese sandwiches, or just slice it thin out of the can, and eat it on bread with mayo, and tomatoes!
 
What are you stocking up for? Weather? Power outage? Terrorists? TEOTWAWKI? How long do you want to stay fed?

Start with the basics. Canned foods that you eat. Soups, sauces, tuna. There are a number of other meats out there. We like the canned chicken and turkey. Throw it into some dirty rice, pasta sauce and a host of other things. Dry goods that you regularly use. Rice, flour, beans, pasta etc. If you are buying canned good that you dont normally eat, buy one and try it before buying a case. Also I would shy away from the big jars and cans of stuff unless you have a big family who can eat it quickly. It will spoil unless you have a means to preserve it.

To find out how much you need keep track of your eating habits for a couple of weeks. Than just buy 2 or 3 items every time you go to the store. Before you know it you will be at a couple of weeks worth of food. Set a goal to reach. e.g. By Jan 1 have two weeks worth of food stuff stored. By Mar 1, 6 weeks.

If you want to get into longer term storage bulk foods like wheat, corn, beans and rice are the way to go. These take more prep time and you need more tools to prepare them but they last for a long time.

Do you have enough water or a means to get water without power or city water? Figure about 2 gals a person a day. We have found that that is about what we use for cooking, drinking and cleaning.

Camp stove or means to cook food without power? Have a way to heat your house without electricity?

Is your spouse on board? My wife tolerated my prepping until she saw of all things an Oprah episode on the bird flu. Came home from work and she wanted to know how much we had and if we could get up to 18 months because that is what the length of time the show said the flu would take to run its course. Now she is more or less on board.

Sorry for the rambling but I am bored and I hope you find at least some of it useful.
 
Please don't apologize; I'm finding most of what's being posted here useful, especially your post.

I'm mostly thinking of storms, etc. Not sure what to do about terrorists other than to head for VT and my sister's place.

For long term TEOTWAWKI I'd have to bug out, too, and I'm making those plans separately. Water - I don't let our bottled water go below 18 gallons. Power? That's going to be a problem as SWMBO won't be on board with that as our power has been so reliable - It make take a storm to convince her of that. Cooking? Got a grill with a hookup to a 500 gal propane tank.

But your comments about meats and such is very useful to me. I may have to experiment with some new recipes; we don't use a lot of canned stuff so that would be a change.
 
Kinda related but slightly O/T.

When switching to a diet of mostly canned and/or prepared foods which have less fiber, so a fiber supplement might not be a bad idea.

A good multi vitamin / mineral supplement might be a good idea too.
 

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