If you know anything about cheesemaking, the vinegar can be used to coagulate prepared dried milk to make fresh cheeses or paneer. The whey can be used to make ricotta or added to stock to make heartier soups.There's so, so much you can do with powdered milk, besides making milk, of course.
Substitutes for evaporated, sweetened condensed, and buttermilk.
Magic Mix, which is then used for making puddings, cream of ______ soups, and Hamburger Helper type dishes.
SOS Mix, which is then used for all kinds of sauces and soups.
Yogurt
Peanut butter play dough
Survival bars
And a whole lot more. Oh, and you can even use coconut oil in place of the butter in Magic Mix to make it entirely shelf stable.
I love peas but nothing tastes worse than canned peas.During the Depression, a worker went to the homes of people who applied for aid. The family had to stand outside while the worker looked over, under, and through every possession, every room, and every outbuilding to make sure they didn't have so much as a can of peas.
The worker told me it was the most shameful job ever, but they had kids to feed too.
Same concept, you get it?
Corn oil supposedly lasts forever.Coconut oil will last 'til half past forever! However, it makes everything you cook taste like coconut, and I don't particularly like coconut-flavored hash browns.
My Mother-in-law used to keep lard in an empty coffee can with a plastic lid in a cupboard under the sink. It never went bad on her.Don't forget powdered and canned milk, some canned meats and fish, oils and shortening even if it isn't the greatest thing to cook with. I prefer lard but it doesn't last as long.
Coconut oil will last 'til half past forever! However, it makes everything you cook taste like coconut, and I don't particularly like coconut-flavored hash browns.
FYI Pork, Turkey, and BEEF can be had from Keystone, runs about 8.00 a can for the big can. Yes costs more that raw, but this is cooked and canned so there will always be extra cost.Commercially canned chicken and fish - ham that doesn't require refrigeration, really hard to find. Pork and turkey I can. Beef? Too expensive. In our house it's a treat.
Good stuff all. Just remember the duck tape, and swiss army knife.Another thing people always talk about are dried beans. That's something I never eat. Maybe some little white beans for a Portuguese soup I make. And I can't remember the variety.
What do you non been eaters like to store?
I'm definitely going to pick up a couple hundred pounds more flour.
More rice
Instant potatoes
Sugar
Salt
More pasta
Maybe more vinegar, I think I have 10 gallons of white and apple cider.
Some spices.
Definitely meat, that will get vac packed and frozen.
I have plenty of canning supplies so anything can be canned quickly if need be.
I've used vanilla pudding and canned pumpkin to make.......wait for it.........PUMPKIN SPICE PUDDING!I've used vanilla pudding and added various fruits to stretch the fruit.
Many items SOLD OUT!FYI Pork, Turkey, and BEEF can be had from Keystone, runs about 8.00 a can for the big can. Yes costs more that raw, but this is cooked and canned so there will always be extra cost.
And when I say from Keystone, I mean from Keystone Our ready-to-eat meats make your family meals easier (keystonemeats.com) Granted they only sell by the 12 can case so overall high cost, but individual not so much.
Forget ground beef/hamburger that is way to high priced.
Yeah it's a hit and miss kind of thing. I'm sure they are suppling the big buyers like Pleasant Hill Grain Keystone Ground Beef (pleasanthillgrain.com) at double the price to you and me.Many items SOLD OUT!
I did just check the Keystone site and yes they are all sold out.Many items SOLD OUT!
in my house,I love peas but nothing tastes worse than canned peas.
When I stocked up on Keystone Beef it was $5.75/28oz can. I'm good.I did just check the Keystone site and yes they are all sold out.
And I just checked Pleasant Hill Grain and they have the ground beef in stock 147.00 per case of 12 = 12.50 each for the 28 oz size. A bit high, but it can be had. So pay it and have it, or not and sub something cheaper. Tuna is going for .88 a can locally. Everybody has to do what they seem right and willing to do.
Keystone Ground Beef (pleasanthillgrain.com)
Chunky. Just like you cooked it yourself. Only ingredients are beef and salt. Good stuff! Never tried their ground beef, but should be excellent as well.So, that keystone brand of canned beef isn’t mushy? It’s chunks of beef? I have one can to experiment with but at these prices I don’t know how many I could buy.
I may just open it to find out how we like it.
Absolutely, do! We love our home canned beef stew, but there is a slightly different taste than before it's canned. I strongly advise people to try one of any new canned item before stocking up...So, that keystone brand of canned beef isn’t mushy? It’s chunks of beef? I have one can to experiment with but at these prices I don’t know how many I could buy.
I may just open it to find out how we like it.
Keep in mind a lot of herbs are invasive and take over everything. I have enough oregano to supply everyone in my town.So why don't y'all plant herb gardens? The plants grow fast, greenery can be dried, mixtures can be cheaply made, and less incidences of food fatigue as tastes can be changed all the time. You can even make your own pesto. Always the first thing I put in along with a tea garden. Can even be planted in the front yard between existing landscape
i wanted to make some beef soup so i took a HALF CAN of roast beef hash and a small tator and some baby peeled carrotsGrab yourself several cans or corned beef, roast beef, or sausage hash. It’s one of those things that’s tasty, high in protein and sodium (which you will need if you don’t have a bunch of salt put up) and can be cooked with extra potatoes, noodles, rice, or biscuits for a super filling meal.
I love peas but nothing tastes worse than canned peas.
I buy them at Walmart.Has anyone tried the Bristol canned hams, they are 1 pound hams, TODAY they are $3.00 each, can says " sell by 4/17/2026.
water added smoke flavor added, gonna try one for ham and bean soup, gettin chilly here, low tonight mabye 37,
I buy them at a Dollar General store,
Dollar General | Save time. Save money. Every day.
Dollar General makes it easier to shop for everyday needs by offering the most popular brands at low everyday prices in convenient locations and online.www.dollargeneral.com
Doc you are so correct. We have an electric stove that is useless when the electricity goes out. But we also have my wonderful gas range on my camper porch hooked up to a 250 gallon propane tank. It had been in storage since 2010, but this spring we got it out, changed the oraface from natural gas to propane and it works perfectly. If necessary I can pressure can what is in the 7 freezers (different sizes). That's about the last thing in the world I would want to do, but if forced I would.On cooking and storing food:
Having all the food in the world is useless if you can't cook it or store it correctly. You should have multiple methods of doing this. As we move further into our economic devolution, it's going to get harder to buy new appliances or replacement parts for existing ones. If all you have is an electric range, what will you do for cooking if that breaks?
When DW and I look at appliances and food, we always think about contingencies. As a tiny, but recent example our automatic coffee maker just died. No problem; we have an old-fashioned aluminum drip type coffee pot and DW kept up my supply of coffee without so much as a burble (she knows that I turn into an abominable monster without my coffee ;-).
If our electric range dies, we have a single burner electric hotplate (which can get hot enough to melt lead), a propane-fired bar-b-que grill (with a single side burner), a two burner propane camp stove, a propane "crawfish boiler" and our wood burning stove. In other words, redundencies. Same deal with refrigeration. We have a regular refrigerator and two chest freezers in use. As backups, we have two - unplugged - dorm sized refrigerators that we currently use as food storage cabinets, but which can be brought into service if the fridge dies. As a last resort, DW is able to can food which would otherwise spoil.
If the electricity is interrupted, we have a large generator and several inverters which can be used with our vehicles (including our tractors) to produce electricity. This will keep our freezers cold for a very long time.
Every hurricane season the news shows videos of people throwing out countless tons of food because they had no way to store it or save it before it spoiled. As a New Orleans native, I've seen this same scenario play out more times than I can remember. With a little forethought and preps, most of these people could've saved their food.
Storing food is only half the equation; saving it is the other half.
Best
Doc
Sounds good.i wanted to make some beef soup so i took a HALF CAN of roast beef hash and a small tator and some baby peeled carrots
, some frozen mixed vegetables ,a onion, and garlic and i had homemade beef soup in about 40 minutes
I did also. But I thought they were giving away a pop tart with the canned stuff. Blast. It may be “one of those days.”i kept reading as pop tarts. ha ha
one of those mornings
i wanted to make some beef soup so i took a HALF CAN of roast beef hash and a small tator and some baby peeled carrots
, some frozen mixed vegetables ,a onion, and garlic and i had homemade beef soup in about 40 minutes
I plant herbs in 5 gallon pots, cut off the bottoms and then plant them in the garden so they are rather contained. Those that produce roots off runners don't get too far as I clip off the sections and dry them first. Keeps the garden tidy. Babies I give to others with the same advice. I find that mints are most problematic so each is in its own hanging pot. Yes, I have several gallons of oregano but then I prefer Italian seasonings without lots of saltKeep in mind a lot of herbs are invasive and take over everything. I have enough oregano to supply everyone in my town.
The feverfew I have pops up everywhere too.
Black pepper as pepper CORNS stores indefinitely. GROUND, not so much.
You can find a Black/white/red pepper mix of corns in some grinders as well as some bottles to refill grinders.
Yeah I noted Darrell on The Walking Dead eating a snake out of a cooking pit, with dirt on it, and the gag reflex kicked in. I'll probably starve to death now, cuz I won't be able to eat a dead snake with dirt on it. He even had it up in his eyebrows.Yuck factor has been mentioned. To that I say you need to store foods that don't give you the yuck factor or adjust your yuck factor to accept the foods available. Its better to slowly introduce canned veggies and start adjusting your yuck factor than to be in a SHTF situation with no food at the grocery store (never happen right?) and not having any veggies. I really don't care for canned peas and usually use frozen, but I store canned peas because better canned than none. I open a can every once in awhile and eat them. I guess I'm lucky but my yuck factor is pretty limited to hominy and grits.
See what I mean about differing tastes....I love peas but nothing tastes worse than canned peas.
should have told him they were Hawaiian...........A few years back, I bought a small jar of coconut oil to cook with for the first time. I had heard so many good benefits of using it. I fried Cary's eggs in it "one" time, and he wanted to know what I had done to his eggs. I told him I used coconut oil. He let me know right quick that he didn't like coconut flavored eggs. I've not used it to cook with, since.
Those little "hams" are a lot like SPAM, and I mostly prefer SPAM to them, but they do make decent pea soup, beans, diced into mac and cheese or sliced and fried/mixed into scrambled eggs for breakfast. Sliced and fried, even make an acceptable sub in a fake BLT.Shooter, those Bristol brand canned hams from Dollar General? I don't call them "ham"...I call them "Sp-ham".
They certainly smell like good ham but they are pressed loaves of pieces of ham. I dry heave just looking at things like that - can't help it, just born that way - but my nephew's son has sneaked to their kitchen in the middle of the night and eaten an entire one, and my chickens love them!
When I first bought them they were $2 each, now I think they may be closer to $4 each.