FOOD Stock up advice

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________

Bolt

FJB
A visit to Granny's Kitchen would be a worthwhile investment of your time. There are lots of really good recipes, ways to stretch a food dollar, and canning tips. For those of you who don't know how to can, there's no better time to learn. When supplies get tighter, canning allows you to take advantage of bulk sales. Food keeps YEARS, it's easy to store, no freezer burn, and makes it easy to transport food should you need to go away for a while. One my favorite recipes I got there was the one Packy posted for Sloppy Joes. I have given some away as gifts from time to time and everyone loves it, myself included. There's some great information there.
 
Miso, I need more miso, I love the stuff.

Packy, many good suggestions.

I have a good bit of dehydrated vegetables from frozen and fresh. I vacuum seal them in mason jars and store in a dark pantry.

God is good all the time

Judy
many yrs ago I used to make miso broth. Yummy.
Learned my lesson when I had to toss about 8 boxes of instant brown rice I had stored in a closet. Was surprised how fast it went rancid. Now I buy only white rice for long-term storage.

Ghee (pronouned "hee") lasts a long time unrefrigerated without going rancid -- much longer than refrigerated stick butter. It's just "clarified" butter, or butter with the solids taken out, but it holds up pretty well.
I used to make it years ago.
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.
east Indian recipe: called Simply Wonderfuls: mix powdered milk, some powdered sugar, some ghee, nuts, raisens. Make little balls. Divine.
Black pepper in bulk. Marco Polo trecked thousands of miles across mountains and desert to find a route to the Spice Islands. The spice he sought,was black pepper. Mid evil food was often nasty, and pepper made it taste not as nasty.
I need pepper. I never buy it cuz expensive.
Lentils cook relatively quickly. I'll also second Helen, on canned soups. None of this stuff is particularly nutritious, but it will make all the other starches at least taste better.

No one ever mentions canned sardines. They are high in the good Omega fats (Omega 3?) and also have Vit D and calcium. Esp. important if you are feeding kids. I eat a can every morning with eggs. It is the only food that I both store and eat. Most of our stored food is unfortunately, the usual starches.

I have been going through our go-bag bins, and pulled out the dangerous (bomb-in-the-making) canned tomatoes. Also found canned peas, some cans of tuna, a can of salmon, and a can of hominy. All of this stuff was from 2009. The peas were bulging. I fed the tuna and salmon to the dogs. The contents of the tuna and salmon cans looked and smelled perfect. Was a little envious dishing out salmon for the pups. I ate the hominy myself - was still in excellent shape. The glass jar of peanut butter looked perfect, but I didn't open it.

I had a bunch of various home (Excaliber) dehydrated foods in that bin from 2009 that were gross. Don't know if there was too much moisture, or just too much time in storage. They were in glass jars. The other stuff I tossed were all the commercial mylar energy bars, breakfast bars, etc. The oils in them had obviously broken down. All of that was nasty.

Take-away: Make room in the budget for canned fish.
big 6 oz cans of sardines at Dollar Tree. From Vietnam.
I took this as a challenge and used instant mashed potato flakes and was able to form it into patties. Helps to refrigerate the patties a bit before trying to fry, too. (Might try freezing a batch of preformed patties to see how that works.) Fried in bacon grease, they were pretty good. NO, they're not like Jimmy Dean or Owens sausage patties, but they were quite edible. Top it with a fried egg, even better.

If you buy something that you've never tried before because it's cheap or available and find you don't like it as originally described, use your imagination and figure out a way to work it into a dish you might like better. I don't care for the Walmart canned pulled pork (waaaay too sweet for my taste), but stirred into a batch of canned or homemade baked beans and then baked, it's very good. Drain off a can of the sausage and cook it down in a skillet then add to a batch of split pea soup, etc. Don't like canned peas but have some and are hungry? Make pea soup with them and use your stick blender, etc., etc. You've added nutrition and not wasted money OR food.

People are either going to starve to death or decide right quick that some of the stuff they now deem "yucky" tastes pretty damn good when their stomach has been growling.
I will eat anything. Not picky. I could eat rice and beans every night.
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Here’s how make my pea soup:

In a hard bottomed stew pot sauté onions, minced garlic and your diced ham. I have added parsley and a small amount thyme leaves as well. If I have fresh celery, dice that up in small pieces and in it goes, too!

I use a lot of ham :)

Add a bag of peas, the usual standard size.

I add enough chicken broth to cover the split peas, adding maybe a little hot water.

Simmer, adding seasonings as you like such as salt , pepper, as well as the ham bone if you have one. Simmer until soft but not too mushy. I think it takes about 45 minutes total.

I also “have used” bacon in place of the ham but truly think ham is betterthis...***blasphemy lol, but true!

So really the way I make pea soup is not that “secret or special”, unless it’s using chicken broth instead of plain water to make the soup broth. It should be slightly thick but not overly thick.

It always turns out delicious and seems to be foolproof. I use the exact same method for lentil soup, too. For lentils it I’ve only used ham.

I’m guessing a crockpot would work too,, but the soup doesn’t take very long on the stove so I don’t bother with the cp.
Here ya go Barry!
 

rafter

Since 1999
Hash browns, did you say? :D
==============

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttK2YP_ayYI

The Tricks to Crispy Hash Browns
RT 08:08

I did it! I figured out the tricks to getting crispy fried hash browns- and there's three big ones. Clarified Butter, rinsing the starch off the potato and having a lid while cooking. Enjoy the video!

I can watch this guy all day! Thanks for sharing it, I just subscribed to his channel.
 

Stanb999

Inactive
We go to the local restaurant supply, nearly every city has one. We buy bulk gravies, dried goods, and various other sundries. Then dry pack them into jars. The cost per oz is much less than consumer packages and the quality is often better. A simple thing like gravy mix. it's a 16oz bag that makes 1 gallon. The cost is 4 dollars v/s the little packets that make a cup that cost a dollar. Spices are also cheaper tho certain things don't keep well. Like onion powder gets hard so that we by in the small containers. They have the potatoes dried for hash browns, chips for au gratin, and flake or better pearls for mashed. All are very inexpensive. Meat prices are approx to sale prices at the store. Like a 40 pound box of chicken breast is often $60 bucks or 1.50 a pound. You can also purchase meat cuts that are not generally sold at the grocery store. Like the pork loin ends, it's the neck portion of the loin. It looks undesirable in the grocery meat case as some of the meat is dark. But it has the same flavor and texture as center cut with a bit more fat so it doesn't dry out as easy. The cost per pound is 75% of pork loin or about 1.50 a pound. Bacon ends are also a good deal. They have the big boxes of french fries, big bags of froze veggies etc. Most all better quality than the grocery store and at the same or lessor price.
 
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psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
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.
I have the reverse about green beans; I despise frozen ones and will very methodically pick them out of a frozen veggie mix, but would eat canned ones every single day and not bat an eye.
Weird.
 

nehimama

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I looked for those dried hash browns online kroger tonight because I placed a delivery order- I’m not feeling well at all. Anyway, I don’t think our Kroger carries them.
Oh well. No biggie.
I just want to lay here and get my other order items. Then go to bed.
I have found them at Gordon Food Svcs, a restaurant supply store. Large container, like a milk carton from the old days.
 

phloydius

Veteran Member
Yup....I think a lot of people don't use the chicken stock (or ham stock) for the water, and it makes a big difference.

We use home made ham stock, it is far superior to chicken stock in split pea soup we think. We also add about a quart of diced up ham pieces (that may be too tough or fatty from the ham bone), some pieces of bacon, and about a TBS of bacon grease for some added fat.
 

inskanoot

Veteran Member
Yea

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.

Maybe SB can put some Taco seasoning on it.......nope never mind.
I supposedly ate a dish containing rattlesnake. Couldn’t isolate the flavor, because there was so much other stuff in it. Jim Croce’s wife had a restaurant in San Diego.
 

phloydius

Veteran Member
If you run melted snow through a water filter, could it be used for drinking water?

Technically yes, assuming your filtration is good enough. Rain droplets (and snow) form around tiny particles of dust, pollution, pollen, etc., in the air, so it will be in the drinking water. Some filters are good at making deadly pond water safe, other filters are only good at making pre-treated water from the tap safer (and various levels in-between). Research your filter to know what it is designed to do. It is also a matter of degrees -- melted snow is safer than standing pond water, but not as safe as triple purified water.
 

Lei

Veteran Member
I have a variation on the pea soup. I put out maybe 6 or so little dishes with chopped onion, celery, tomato, sausage, green pepper , etc. You take a spoon of each one into your soup bowl and pour your pea soup over it, Serve with a nice bread and a glass of red wine for a "fancy" dinner.
 

anna43

Veteran Member
There is (or was?) a restaurant supply store a couple blocks from where I worked. Haven't been there since I retired so appreciate the reminder. In the past I've purchased dried potatoes including hash browns, spices and 12.5 lb. bags of popcorn. My late dh loved popcorn and used to make it a dishpan full at a time so I bought a lot of those 12.5 lb. bags through the years.
 

rafter

Since 1999
We use home made ham stock, it is far superior to chicken stock in split pea soup we think. We also add about a quart of diced up ham pieces (that may be too tough or fatty from the ham bone), some pieces of bacon, and about a TBS of bacon grease for some added fat.
I never heard of ham stock. How do you make it?
 

phloydius

Veteran Member
I never heard of ham stock. How do you make it?

The same way you make chicken or beef stock/broth. You might want different spices, but we use the same few (with one exception) for all our stocks: Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Pork, & Ham. The exception is that we don't add salt for the ham stock, since the ham is already very salty. Specially for the ham we love to use the shank portion the most, but you can do it with any portion. We don't want the stock to have many strong flavors so that we can use it in a bigger variety of dishes. We cook the poultry for about 24 hours, beef for about 48, and the Ham & pork for about 36 hours.

Bonus tip: If you smoke any of your meats and plan to make that same meat flavored stock, save any part of the outside that has the smoke flavor (including the skin) and it makes an amazing smoky broth.
 

FollowTruth

Phantom Lurker
Dollar Tree doesn't charge for shipping if you have your purchase shipped to their store and you pick it up from there.

If a pop top can is dropped, dented or otherwise knocked around it can break the seal My problem with them is my arthritic hands have a very difficult time opening them.

My hands present the same problem so I use a soup spoon as a lever and lift the lid off that way.

IMG_0659.jpg
 
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