FOOD Report food & grocery shortages / price increases here: 2022 Edition

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momma_soapmaker

momma_soapmaker

Disgusted
bracketquant said:
It would be extra work, but I wonder if sifting out the powder, letting just the onions sit in simmering water a bit, drain and pat them dry, and then mix everything together would create a better dip. I'll likely try both methods in a side-by-side trial, some time in the future.
Click to expand...
Trust me. It's fine to mix and let sit. There's enough moisture in the sour cream the onion bits soak it up. I have made gallons of the stuff over the years, and there's never any left.

Let it sit overnight, and stir well before using. I use a whisk initially when mixing it up.
 
H

hd5574

Veteran Member
bracketquant said:
I splurged for a New Years Day feast, buying an Angus beef bone-in prime rib. It was marked down from $10.97/lb to $4.72/lb, saving $50. I now have four days to find out how to cook it.
Click to expand...
Prime rib is easy...we pierce ours on the fat side..non bone side and an insert garlic peeled garlic cloves..this is optional..take out and sit on counter let it warm to room temperature put in roasting pan fat side up ..cook about 20 minutes per pound for medium rare..are insert meat thermometer and set for the doneness...you like.... take out let stand about 15 minutes.... slice and enjoy..
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
momma_soapmaker said:
Trust me. It's fine to mix and let sit. There's enough moisture in the sour cream the onion bits soak it up. I have made gallons of the stuff over the years, and there's never any left.

Let it sit overnight, and stir well before using. I use a whisk initially when mixing it up.
Click to expand...
She is correct! I’ve had a lot of this delicious dip and never once experienced crunchy onions in it lol.
It’s practically a staple at parties in this area, usually you’ll find a bowl at any football party around here. Mixed in with the fancy goodies on the table, of course :)

I think every college kid on the planet even knows how to serve French onion soup dip because it’s cheap and delicious!
:)
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I went to our Indiana Kroger today for the first time in over a week.
I truly saw some good sales on meats for a change such as pork loin, all hams, Tyson chicken, bacon, and also chuck roast is on sale (but they’re still too high) ….even center cut salmon has come down in price!

It seems like there were sales across the board. Eggs looked “fairly” well stocked but still high. Same for butter. I can’t remember exact prices, sorry :(
But nothing jaw dropping high, just higher than they should be.

The only odd thing I saw was the pasta aisle! It was practically empty! I’ve never seen it like that except for maybe during the height of the pandemic. Weird.
 
Laurelayn

Laurelayn

Veteran Member
Went to a Boise walmart today for a few things.
A few empty spots but nothing alarming.
One odd thing I did notice though, it was about 62* in there. cool enough it was comfortable keeping my coat on.
I guess that saves several ways, not only in heating costs but also in costs keeping all of those open coolers and freezers at the proper temps.
 
D

Dm19cm

Contributing Member
I noticed the same cool temperatures in stores here in Norcal Laurelayn. And not just Walmart...Safeway, Raley's, Foodmaxx...everywhere really. I don't think it just because it's wintertime and the doors are continually opening. I suspect it also has to do with keeping the heating cost down. I know I'm using less energy this year, but my bill is higher. I would guess grocers are trying to do whatever they can to continue to be profitable. I am old enough to remember when shopping would be a comfortable experience (temperature wise). Not this year!
 
SurvivalRing

SurvivalRing

Rich Fleetwood - Founder - author/coder/podcaster
Went to get two loaves of bread at Walmart, that I’ve been paying $1, and then $1.10 for, for the past few months.

GV White bread is now $1.38 a loaf, up from $0.89 almost two years ago. The honey wheat bread that we’d been using for the past several years is now at $1.78 a loaf…and I haven’t been able to afford that for over three months now.

Only had $2.17 on my account, and before the $0.28 increase in price, I was going to use $0.12 in pennies I had to get two, but came home with only one.

I know for nearly all of you this would not be a problem…but things are THIS tight in our household. A 25.5% increase on one of the most basic grocery items in anyone’s grocery budget, is just ****ing outrageous, and there is NO EXCUSE for this, no matter what the economy says.
 
M

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
SurvivalRing said:
Went to get two loaves of bread at Walmart, that I’ve been paying $1, and then $1.10 for, for the past few months.

GV White bread is now $1.38 a loaf, up from $0.89 almost two years ago. The honey wheat bread that we’d been using for the past several years is now at $1.78 a loaf…and I haven’t been able to afford that for over three months now.

Only had $2.17 on my account, and before the $0.28 increase in price, I was going to use $0.12 in pennies I had to get two, but came home with only one.

I know for nearly all of you this would not be a problem…but things are THIS tight in our household. A 25.5% increase on one of the most basic grocery items in anyone’s grocery budget, is just ****ing outrageous, and there is NO EXCUSE for this, no matter what the economy says.
Click to expand...

I don't know if you have a "day old bakery" store in your AO, but they are usually less than half price, and the bread is fine. When I was still working in the big town, I would go once a month and stock up and put it in the freezer. Good bread was .59 a loaf then.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
SurvivalRing said:
Went to get two loaves of bread at Walmart, that I’ve been paying $1, and then $1.10 for, for the past few months.

GV White bread is now $1.38 a loaf, up from $0.89 almost two years ago. The honey wheat bread that we’d been using for the past several years is now at $1.78 a loaf…and I haven’t been able to afford that for over three months now.

Only had $2.17 on my account, and before the $0.28 increase in price, I was going to use $0.12 in pennies I had to get two, but came home with only one.

I know for nearly all of you this would not be a problem…but things are THIS tight in our household. A 25.5% increase on one of the most basic grocery items in anyone’s grocery budget, is just ****ing outrageous, and there is NO EXCUSE for this, no matter what the economy says.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, friend. But the "excuse" is simple facts... wheat prices are up, fats prices are up even more, energy prices ( running the ovens, delivering the bread to the store) skyrocketed under Bidens idiotic "green" policies.

I have flour in the preps I paid 23 cents a pound for. Sugar was 36 cents. Whole wheat berries I got for 20 cents. All of those are double, or more, now.

I'd strongly suggest you learn the very simple art of bread baking. A thrift shop bread machine would simplify it, but I baked bread for years by mixing a 12 loaf batch in a 5 gallon pail, kneading it on a large pastry cloth on the kitchen table. Smaller batches are downright easy. If you can find a restaurant supply store, you may be able to get 50# of flour cheaper than Sam's club. A 2# brick of yeast isn't terribly expensive , and costs a fraction per loaf of bread compared to the individual packets.

You can use all sorts of extras in your bread... sour milk, leftover oatmeal... use your imagination!

Things are only going to get worse, and those of us on fixed incomes are going to have to get very creative to survive and thrive.

Summerthyme
 
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tnphil

tnphil

Don't screw with an engineer
summerthyme said:
I'd strongly suggest you learn the very simple art of bread baking. A thrift shop bread machine would simplify it
Click to expand...
Beginning to be time to get back to basics...
My grandparents never bought bread, they baked their own in a wood stove. We've become accustomed to convenience and forgotten a lot of the basic things our ancestors took for granted that people knew how to do.
If they could grind wheat and make bread on a cranky wood stove, then it should be very simple now with prepared flour and a regulated oven.
I'm NOT picking on Rich here at all, just musing in general.
With all that said, I'll admit that while I know many "old time" skills, bread-making isn't one of them. I really need to change that.
Summerthyme and you other handy ladies have any tips or recipes you'd care to share? We eat very little bread, but homemade bread is delightful and knowing how to make it would be very useful.

ETA: many of us have two-person households... thus, a recipe for one loaf of bread baked in the oven would be the most useful.
 
nomifyle

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I have all the necessary ingredients and equipment to bake bread but highly unlikely that I’ll ever bake bread. Neither of us are bread eaters, not that we dislike it but because it’s unnecessary for good health. The most I’ll ever do are tortillas and maybe even fry bread, tortillas is how we usually eat a sandwich and sandwiches are not frequent.

Besides I’ve been paying over 5.00 a loaf for Ezekiel bread for years and it usually gets too hard in the freezer to eat.

I do like avocado toast though.
 
SurvivalRing

SurvivalRing

Rich Fleetwood - Founder - author/coder/podcaster
Marseydoats said:
I don't know if you have a "day old bakery" store in your AO, but they are usually less than half price, and the bread is fine. When I was still working in the big town, I would go once a month and stock up and put it in the freezer. Good bread was .59 a loaf then.
Click to expand...
There was one in Casper years ago, but I’m not aware of any others.

When we lived in the Dallas metroplex before 1993, we regularly hit the bakery stores…

I miss those days…
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
tnphil said:
Beginning to be time to get back to basics...
My grandparents never bought bread, they baked their own in a wood stove. We've become accustomed to convenience and forgotten a lot of the basic things our ancestors took for granted that people knew how to do.
If they could grind wheat and make bread on a cranky wood stove, then it should be very simple now with prepared flour and a regulated oven.
I'm NOT picking on Rich here at all, just musing in general.
With all that said, I'll admit that while I know many "old time" skills, bread-making isn't one of them. I really need to change that.
Summerthyme and you other handy ladies have any tips or recipes you'd care to share? We eat very little bread, but homemade bread is delightful and knowing how to make it would be very useful.

ETA: many of us have two-person households... thus, a recipe for one loaf of bread baked in the oven would be the most useful.
Click to expand...
All of this.
Bread baking scares me. I swore I’d learn but never did, really. Especially regular white bread which just never did turn out right when I did make attempt
 
M

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
My husband is a gourmet cook. His grandmother taught him. He makes the most awesome bread. The neighbor found out that he made bread, and the two of them were having bread baking contests every week. They traded loaves a couple times and the poor neighbor's were so terrible that the chickens wouldn't even eat it -- it would sit there for a week until it got full of ants and then they'd peck at it. I miss those days. But if he made bread twice a week now, I'd probably weigh 500 pounds.
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Pasta has been low in the stores for a long time, but there is always something on the shelves. I'm not a brand person - dry pasta? No real difference I can tell, so store brand or off brand is fine. It's the standard well advertised brand stuff that seems to be missing. My guess, labor problems. Fuel or cost of raw ingredients shouldn't really affect supply...just price.

Yes, bread machines are great. Many of us are trying to do low carb these days, but when people are really sweating their next meal and cutting back to bare bones on groceries because of family economy, bread is important, and gaining weight isn't an issue when you barely have enough to eat. Carbs? My Grandmas (and my Grandpa-logging camp cook) would have never been able to fill hungry, working bellies without bread, biscuits, pancakes, oatmeal and potatoes. The stuff around which their meals were made.
 
B

Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
For somebody struggling to buy a loaf of bread for the table today, a bread machine - while theoretically a great suggestion - wold be an expensive porchase well beyond their current means.

The cheapest, stomach filling food I have used to starve off hunger in my leanest times (for me, it was the college years) is rice and beans. Coming out of New Orleans, I never found that to be a problem. Nor did I ever think of it as a poor man’s food. For me, it was (is) actually gourmet food.

But that said, that combination is about the cheapest, relatively nutritious food a person can buy right now.

Ramen noodles are also relatively cheap, and yes, they are filling. Nutritious? Uh, not as much.

If a person has any ground at all to grow on, alot of extension services either have some seeds they can give a small, family grower, or else they have contacts who do, and are willing to donate. The Extention service cannot supply a huge farmer with free seed, but they usually have some left over packets of seed from last year to share with small family gardeners. Left over seed packets from last year will usually produce pretty well with most vegetables. Just plant a few extras.

You don’t need expensive chemical fertilizers. In fact, I refuse to use any of that commercial stuff - organic or chemical - in my garden. My favorite fertilizers are previously used coffee grounds, aged (or new) powdered milk, inexpensive WalMart epson salts, composted kitchen scraps and lawn clippings, egg shells, peanut shells, seafood shells (like crab shells or shrimp shells, after your meal of seafood), etc. (Because I have chickens, I also use aged chicken manure. But I did not have manure for many years, and I still grew cheap, successful gardens.) The epson salts are about the only thing I buy in the line of fertilizer, because most soils are deficient in magnesium. But walmart still sells the stuff cheap.

For a small garden plot, you do not even have to till, if you do not have access to a tiller.

You can double dig the ground with a shovel, spade and hoe (I use all three when breaking new ground). Or, if you have 6 months to wait - say over winter - you can just cut the grass down to the soil line, then cover it with thick, black plastic. In 6 months, you will have barren land that you can dig up, fertilize and plant.
 
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S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
psychgirl said:
All of this.
Bread baking scares me. I swore I’d learn but never did, really. Especially regular white bread which just never did turn out right when I did make attempt
Click to expand...
If you are expecting it to taste anything like the uniformly shaped commercial loaves, it never will "turn out right". Although if you get a pan de mie pan, and use the right recipe, it can come... somewhat... close. There is a TON of sugar in the common commercial breads.

Homemade will be a bit more like French or Italian bread. Chewy, yeasty (I'm not sure they even use yeast in commercial loaves... maybe they pump carbon dioxide into them instead?) and filling.

The King Arthur Flour website has a ton of TESTED recipes, as well as tips, tricks and troubleshooting.

I'll see if I can dig up my 100% whole wheat recipe I posted on here years ago. It can be very difficult to get an edible loaf with all whole wheat. And honestly, if you are used to commercial bread, I wouldn't try it as your first loaf. I grind hard white winter wheat for bread... it's much milder tasting than red wheat, with a sweet, nutty flavor. Whole wheat bread baked with freshly ground wheat is wonderful!

But except on rate occasions I want something specific and special (caraway rye, maybe) I haven't used a recipe in years. I heat my liquids (raw milk needs to be scalded, as it contains an enzyme that inhibits yeast growth, although to be truthful, I've even skipped that step when I was in a hurry and it turned out fine. I add butter, or oil, or sour cream.... some type of fat. When it's cool enough (110°-120°F), I add the yeast... a scant tablespoon for every 2-3 loaves. And some sort of sweetener. Honey helps keep it from going stale as fast, but you can use anything... ive made some incredible loaves using the last of some jam from a jar. Then I mix in a couple cups of flour, and beat it well until it's smooth... and let it rise until it's bubbly.

Then I add 1/2 tsp salt for every tablespoon (or packet) of yeast I used, mix in more flour until it comes away from the side of the bowl (using my Kitchenaid mixer), or if doing it by hand, until its too stiff to stir. Knead it with a dough hook, or dump it on a well floured counter or pastry cloth. Whole wheat dough will be sticky... flour your hands and the surface well, but try to not work too much flour into the dough... it will make a hard, dry bread.

Put it in a well greased bowl, turning the dough once so the top is greased as well, cover with saran wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Not TOO warm! DDIL had rye bread rising on her stove top while the ham was baking in the oven, and it baked the dough on the bottom of the bowl!

If your house is drafty or chilly, turn the oven on BRIEFLY (TURN IT OFF BEFORE ADDING DOUGH!), set a bowl of hot water on the bottom rack, and rise your dough in there. HANG A SIGN ON THE CONTROLS to remind you to not turn it on!

They sell clear plastic dough bowls with measurements, but you don't need to go to that expense. Gently press on the rising dough with a finger once in awhile... if it springs back, it's not ready. If it indents, and stays indented... it's ready. If the whole thing collapses... you over rose it. Don't panic... dump it out, knead it again briefly, put it back in the bowl and try again. Bread is VERY forgiving!

When it's right, divide it into well greased loaf pans... you want them 1/2 to 2/3rds full. Cover with plastic wrap, or a damp towel ( if the dough dries out on top, it won't be able to fully rise), and let rise until double again. It will take less time this time.

Preheat the oven to 350°, and bake standard sized loaves (9" x4") for about 30 -35 minutes. In the old days, they'd take a hot loaf out of a pan and thump it on the bottom... if it sounded hollow, it was done. Now, I use an instant read thermometer... it will be 170° in the center when it's ready.

Cool on a rack, and store whatever you don't eat immediately once it's completely cool. Any you won't be able to eat in 5 days or so (less in hot, humid weather) can be frozen.

Here is the whole wheat recipe

Food - Bread Recipes

I posted in the wrong place (homesteading) so Ill say it again...I just bought some Pullman bread pans and want to start making my own breads again. I also bought bread bags for freezing so anyone have some great bread recipes you care to share :)
www.timebomb2000.com www.timebomb2000.com

Have fun!

Summerthyme
 
T

Terrwyn

Veteran Member
SurvivalRing said:
Went to get two loaves of bread at Walmart, that I’ve been paying $1, and then $1.10 for, for the past few months.

GV White bread is now $1.38 a loaf, up from $0.89 almost two years ago. The honey wheat bread that we’d been using for the past several years is now at $1.78 a loaf…and I haven’t been able to afford that for over three months now.

Only had $2.17 on my account, and before the $0.28 increase in price, I was going to use $0.12 in pennies I had to get two, but came home with only one.

I know for nearly all of you this would not be a problem…but things are THIS tight in our household. A 25.5% increase on one of the most basic grocery items in anyone’s grocery budget, is just ****ing outrageous, and there is NO EXCUSE for this, no matter what the economy says.
Click to expand...
If you get a minute watch artisanbreadwithstev on you tube. He has a no knead recipe that is interesting. You mix at night, let raise in a bowl, morning put in loaf pan and clip another on top to cover. I just bought the clips to try it.
 
M

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
Mid South WM this AM --- Parking lot already full at 9 AM probably a combination of New Year's and bad weather coming in this weekend
The spring mix salad stuff that I like that has been between $4 - $6 a container for months, was $2.98. I guess nobody was buying it. It was well within date, but when I got inside it, doesn't look too good. I hope I can get 2 salads out of it. Chickens will be thrilled, otherwise...
The oranges didn't have a price on them but I got 2 anyway. They were .50 apiece. Two weeks ago they were .79 apiece.
All the dry cat food, except the really expensive stuff, was wiped out. They didn't have much canned at all either, except the expensive stuff again. A man in front of me got 7 cases of Sheba, almost all they had. A man in the dog food aisle had 100 lbs. of Purina. The dog food aisle looked pretty well stocked. I'm glad people are feeding their pets in this nasty cold weather.
They finally had some of the Krusteaz cornbread mix.
No big bottles of hand sanitizer to be found. That stuff is great when you have no running water. I had several bottles stored but they disappeared.
Almost no Lay's potato chips. They had plenty of the cheaper, not fit to eat brands.
I had to pay $4.46 for a dozen eggs. :shk: I hate store eggs --- I don't know what I'm going to do if the neighbor's chickens don't start laying again.
A woman almost crashed into me when I was loading my groceries. She was going way too fast when she whipped into the parking space. Her truck was bigger than mine, it wouldn't have been pretty.
 
briches

briches

Veteran Member
Just got back from a smaller run to Food Lion (VA). I noticed some increases for sure.

A dozen eggs of store brand large eggs was $4.99 dozen. $6.17 for jumbo. :eek: We did get a dozen as we shook our heads. Spreadable cream cheese - $4.59 for 12 ounces. Kraft shredded cheese regular price was $7.98 a pound (I bought Food lion at $4.00 a pound). Chicken breast was $2.49 pound (used to be $1.99). My coffee creamer is now $4.29 (I have got to find a cheaper alternative, but it’s my indulgence). Cheapest apples were $1.79 pound. Bananas .59 pound.
Store brand pasta is still .96 a pound. I picked up a couple to replace what I had used.

I hadn’t been since the beginning of December. Definitely noticed the increase in prices.

I will definitely be utilizing my meal planning and shopping the “sales” to help stretch our budget.
 
KMR58

KMR58

Veteran Member
summerthyme said:
I'm sorry, friend. But the "excuse" is simple facts... wheat prices are up, fats prices are up even more, energy prices ( running the ovens, delivering the bread to the store) skyrocketed under Bidens idiotic "green" policies.

I have flour in the preps I paid 23 cents a pound for. Sugar was 36 cents. Whole wheat berries I got for 20 cents. All of those are double, or more, now.

I'd strongly suggest you learn the very simple art of bread baking. A thrift shop bread machine would simplify it, but I baked bread for years by mixing a 12 loaf batch in a 5 gallon pail, kneading it on a large pastry cloth on the kitchen table. Smaller batches are downright easy. If you can find a restaurant supply store, you may be able to get 50# of flour cheaper than Sam's club. A 2# brick of yeast isn't terribly expensive , and costs a fraction per loaf of bread compared to the individual packets.

You can use all sorts of extras in your bread... sour milk, leftover oatmeal... use your imagination!

Things are only going to get worse, and those of us on fixed incomes are going to have to get very creative to survive and thrive.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
Right now a 50 pound bag of organic non GMO AP King Arthur flour is $30 at our local Amish store. We will pick up a couple more bags next week.
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
summerthyme said:
If you are expecting it to taste anything like the uniformly shaped commercial loaves, it never will "turn out right". Although if you get a pan de mie pan, and use the right recipe, it can come... somewhat... close. There is a TON of sugar in the common commercial breads.

Homemade will be a bit more like French or Italian bread. Chewy, yeasty (I'm not sure they even use yeast in commercial loaves... maybe they pump carbon dioxide into them instead?) and filling.

The King Arthur Flour website has a ton of TESTED recipes, as well as tips, tricks and troubleshooting.

I'll see if I can dig up my 100% whole wheat recipe I posted on here years ago. It can be very difficult to get an edible loaf with all whole wheat. And honestly, if you are used to commercial bread, I wouldn't try it as your first loaf. I grind hard white winter wheat for bread... it's much milder tasting than red wheat, with a sweet, nutty flavor. Whole wheat bread baked with freshly ground wheat is wonderful!

But except on rate occasions I want something specific and special (caraway rye, maybe) I haven't used a recipe in years. I heat my liquids (raw milk needs to be scalded, as it contains an enzyme that inhibits yeast growth, although to be truthful, I've even skipped that step when I was in a hurry and it turned out fine. I add butter, or oil, or sour cream.... some type of fat. When it's cool enough (110°-120°F), I add the yeast... a scant tablespoon for every 2-3 loaves. And some sort of sweetener. Honey helps keep it from going stale as fast, but you can use anything... ive made some incredible loaves using the last of some jam from a jar. Then I mix in a couple cups of flour, and beat it well until it's smooth... and let it rise until it's bubbly.

Then I add 1/2 tsp salt for every tablespoon (or packet) of yeast I used, mix in more flour until it comes away from the side of the bowl (using my Kitchenaid mixer), or if doing it by hand, until its too stiff to stir. Knead it with a dough hook, or dump it on a well floured counter or pastry cloth. Whole wheat dough will be sticky... flour your hands and the surface well, but try to not work too much flour into the dough... it will make a hard, dry bread.

Put it in a well greased bowl, turning the dough once so the top is greased as well, cover with saran wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Not TOO warm! DDIL had rye bread rising on her stove top while the ham was baking in the oven, and it baked the dough on the bottom of the bowl!

If your house is drafty or chilly, turn the oven on BRIEFLY (TURN IT OFF BEFORE ADDING DOUGH!), set a bowl of hot water on the bottom rack, and rise your dough in there. HANG A SIGN ON THE CONTROLS to remind you to not turn it on!

They sell clear plastic dough bowls with measurements, but you don't need to go to that expense. Gently press on the rising dough with a finger once in awhile... if it springs back, it's not ready. If it indents, and stays indented... it's ready. If the whole thing collapses... you over rose it. Don't panic... dump it out, knead it again briefly, put it back in the bowl and try again. Bread is VERY forgiving!

When it's right, divide it into well greased loaf pans... you want them 1/2 to 2/3rds full. Cover with plastic wrap, or a damp towel ( if the dough dries out on top, it won't be able to fully rise), and let rise until double again. It will take less time this time.

Preheat the oven to 350°, and bake standard sized loaves (9" x4") for about 30 -35 minutes. In the old days, they'd take a hot loaf out of a pan and thump it on the bottom... if it sounded hollow, it was done. Now, I use an instant read thermometer... it will be 170° in the center when it's ready.

Cool on a rack, and store whatever you don't eat immediately once it's completely cool. Any you won't be able to eat in 5 days or so (less in hot, humid weather) can be frozen.

Here is the whole wheat recipe

Food - Bread Recipes

I posted in the wrong place (homesteading) so Ill say it again...I just bought some Pullman bread pans and want to start making my own breads again. I also bought bread bags for freezing so anyone have some great bread recipes you care to share :)
www.timebomb2000.com www.timebomb2000.com

Have fun!

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
Thank you @summerthyme !!
By the way I sent you a pm. :)
 
von Koehler

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Just received a depressing email from Wild Fork.

As of 1 Jan 2023, they will no longer offer the annual $29 membership for free shipping. They will permit existing members to make one last renewal of their membership. This policy varies over the country but does apply to Iowa. Apparently they are planning to scale back the monthly or annual membership only to those states where they have an existing retail store. I am planning on renewing my annual membership. I can't beat the prices, quality of the meat, and quick shipping to my door. Other online meat sources are way more expensive.

If I understand their new shipping policy correctly, non-members can still order online but will have pay for additional shipping charges on each order.

If I understand the details correctly, a non-member could still enroll in the last few days of this year to get the $29.00 annual membership.

Standard disclaimer, I have no financial connection with Wild Fork other than being a satisfied customer.
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
summerthyme said:
If you are expecting it to taste anything like the uniformly shaped commercial loaves, it never will "turn out right". Although if you get a pan de mie pan, and use the right recipe, it can come... somewhat... close. There is a TON of sugar in the common commercial breads.

Homemade will be a bit more like French or Italian bread. Chewy, yeasty (I'm not sure they even use yeast in commercial loaves... maybe they pump carbon dioxide into them instead?) and filling.

The King Arthur Flour website has a ton of TESTED recipes, as well as tips, tricks and troubleshooting.

I'll see if I can dig up my 100% whole wheat recipe I posted on here years ago. It can be very difficult to get an edible loaf with all whole wheat. And honestly, if you are used to commercial bread, I wouldn't try it as your first loaf. I grind hard white winter wheat for bread... it's much milder tasting than red wheat, with a sweet, nutty flavor. Whole wheat bread baked with freshly ground wheat is wonderful!

But except on rate occasions I want something specific and special (caraway rye, maybe) I haven't used a recipe in years. I heat my liquids (raw milk needs to be scalded, as it contains an enzyme that inhibits yeast growth, although to be truthful, I've even skipped that step when I was in a hurry and it turned out fine. I add butter, or oil, or sour cream.... some type of fat. When it's cool enough (110°-120°F), I add the yeast... a scant tablespoon for every 2-3 loaves. And some sort of sweetener. Honey helps keep it from going stale as fast, but you can use anything... ive made some incredible loaves using the last of some jam from a jar. Then I mix in a couple cups of flour, and beat it well until it's smooth... and let it rise until it's bubbly.

Then I add 1/2 tsp salt for every tablespoon (or packet) of yeast I used, mix in more flour until it comes away from the side of the bowl (using my Kitchenaid mixer), or if doing it by hand, until its too stiff to stir. Knead it with a dough hook, or dump it on a well floured counter or pastry cloth. Whole wheat dough will be sticky... flour your hands and the surface well, but try to not work too much flour into the dough... it will make a hard, dry bread.

Put it in a well greased bowl, turning the dough once so the top is greased as well, cover with saran wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled. Not TOO warm! DDIL had rye bread rising on her stove top while the ham was baking in the oven, and it baked the dough on the bottom of the bowl!

If your house is drafty or chilly, turn the oven on BRIEFLY (TURN IT OFF BEFORE ADDING DOUGH!), set a bowl of hot water on the bottom rack, and rise your dough in there. HANG A SIGN ON THE CONTROLS to remind you to not turn it on!

They sell clear plastic dough bowls with measurements, but you don't need to go to that expense. Gently press on the rising dough with a finger once in awhile... if it springs back, it's not ready. If it indents, and stays indented... it's ready. If the whole thing collapses... you over rose it. Don't panic... dump it out, knead it again briefly, put it back in the bowl and try again. Bread is VERY forgiving!

When it's right, divide it into well greased loaf pans... you want them 1/2 to 2/3rds full. Cover with plastic wrap, or a damp towel ( if the dough dries out on top, it won't be able to fully rise), and let rise until double again. It will take less time this time.

Preheat the oven to 350°, and bake standard sized loaves (9" x4") for about 30 -35 minutes. In the old days, they'd take a hot loaf out of a pan and thump it on the bottom... if it sounded hollow, it was done. Now, I use an instant read thermometer... it will be 170° in the center when it's ready.

Cool on a rack, and store whatever you don't eat immediately once it's completely cool. Any you won't be able to eat in 5 days or so (less in hot, humid weather) can be frozen.

Here is the whole wheat recipe

Food - Bread Recipes

I posted in the wrong place (homesteading) so Ill say it again...I just bought some Pullman bread pans and want to start making my own breads again. I also bought bread bags for freezing so anyone have some great bread recipes you care to share :)
www.timebomb2000.com www.timebomb2000.com

Have fun!

Summerthyme
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Thank you! I’m getting caught up on the threads
This way you describe does make it sound easier. :)
 
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