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Week 34- The Importance of Storing Sugar and Salt

11/30/2019

To help with building your year's supply (this is Week 8 of 26), see this chart.

The basic year’s supply includes a recommended supply of 8 pounds of salt and 60 pounds of sugar per person. (“Sugar” here means any kind- granulated, brown, powdered, maple syrup, honey, molasses, corn syrup, sweetened gelatin mixes, jams, jellies, syrups, etc.) In a day when we’re constantly reminded to eat less sugar and salt, why is storing so much of each recommended?

For multiple reasons. The first is for cooking; both make things taste better. Both sugar and salt can be used to preserve food. Sugar is used in canning fruits and making jams, jellies, and syrups. In addition to this, they can be stored indefinitely without spoiling, and being able to have them in high-stress situations has a both a physical and a psychological affect. They’re also very affordable. Your year’s supply of salt can cost less than $5, and 60 lbs of sugar starts at less than $20 if you hit the right sales.

But isn’t that a whole lot of sugar?

Yes and no. It’s a lot of sugar! – but considerably less than the average American eats each year. The most reliable numbers I found – published in July 2019 by the USDA— indicates we consume an average of 73 pounds per year. (To get this number, combine data from Tables 51, 52, and 53). 60 pounds will fit in two 5-gallon buckets, and will allow for up to 1/3 cup per day. Store any kind of sugar you'll want to use. I store pretty much all of them.

Last week I posted a link to the Wooden Spoon Cooking School info and and recipes; the same one is useful this week. It's on oats, honey, and sugar. It includes information and recipes for cooking with honey, as well as for using molasses-- including a simple recipe for Baked Beans. Page 14 has instructions for replacing table sugar with honey in recipes, and the reverse.

Salt is important for basic body functions, which is why it’s an ingredient in liquid electrolytes. (See here for how to make your own.)

Salt is an amazing preservative. It’s used to make brine to preserve or pickle, used dry on meats to cure them, and used along with dehydrating to preserve meats. It’s also useful for saline rinses for stuffy noses, and a good brine makes the best roast turkey of all.

Because of all this, I store extra salt. It’s cheap, takes little space, and is endlessly useful.

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Week 33- Using and Storing Oats

11/23/2019

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To help with building your year's supply (this is Week 7 of 26 of building a year's supply), see this chart.

About ten years ago, the Church had a pilot program called the Wooden Spoon Cooking School, designed to teach people how to use their basic food storage items. The segment on oats has lots of great recipes, including Craisin Oatmeal Cookies, Oatmeal Bread, Oatmeal Spice Cake with a coconut-nut topping, No-Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies, Oatmeal Pancake Mix, Granola Bars. See here.

Rolled oats, quick oats, oat groats, steel-cut oats, and oat flour are high in many vitamins and minerals, including zinc, vitamin E, beta-glucan, and B-vitamins. They also contain soluble fiber, which is a prebiotic (=sets up conditions for probiotics to thrive), reduces cholesterol, and improves regularity. They have a great balance of amino acids (proteins), including a good amount of lysine.

Oat groats are the whole kernels
Steel-cut, or Irish, oats, are coarsely chopped groats.
Rolled oats are regular oats are old-fashioned oats; they are groats that are steamed and flattened. They take 5 minutes to cook, and hold their shape and texture better. They are chewier in cookies. Use either one in recipes.
Quick oat or minute oats are groats that have been flattened more, and take 1 minute to cook.
Instant oats have been precooked. They have the least nutrients.

About 15 pounds of rolled or quick oats will fit in a 5-gallon bucket. How long do they store well? As always, this depends on your storage conditions. Overall, they store longer than flour, but much less than whole wheat kernels. In my cool, dark basement, oats stored in 2.5- and 5-gallon buckets- with no treatment to remove oxygen- are still completely fresh after 3-5 years. I’ve used some that were 10 years old; they’re distinctly less fresh, but are still usable. (Lightly toasting them in a pan or oven helps remove some staleness.) And if they’re stored oxygen-free in a can or bottle, they can stay fresh for 30 years or more.

The classic use is, of course, oatmeal. I’m sort of OK with oatmeal, but it’s not my favorite. Once a week is about all I want to handle. But—and this was a big thing for me—it turns out the texture makes all the difference. I’m not a fan of thick and gluey, but do like soft and billowy. The standard recipe says to use 1 part quick oats to 2 parts water, but that’s pretty thick. I like it much better when cooked with a 1:3 ratio- 1 part oats to 3 parts water or milk. Or orange juice. Or a mixture of the two.

Of course, there’s also overnight oatmeal in lots of flavors. Check out this list.

Substitute up to half of the flour in pancake, muffin, or quickbread recipes. Use 2 cups of oats in place of each cup of flour. (A recipe calling for 2 cups of flour could be changed to 1 cup flour and 2 cups of oats.) See here for some options.

Since oats don’t have gluten, you can only replace up to ¼ of the flour with oats in yeast bread recipes.

Add a handful of oats to soup or stew to thicken it.

Use in meatloaf or meatballs to make them more moist.

You can even toast rolled oats and bake them in a pie—Use a pecan pie recipe, and replace the pecans with oats. I’ve seen it called both “oatmeal pie” and “mock pecan pie.”

You can make your own granola or 'honey clusters of oats.'

Make Instant Oat Packets.

Use oats in a crust instead of graham cracker crumbs.

There’s a coconut-oat crust here:

Use a blender to make oat flour; there are suggestions for using it in this post.

One option is these gluten-free chocolate fudge banana muffins.

Stir into Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Bars.

Just-the-Best-Breakfast Cookies-- Two cookies are about the same nutritionally as one homemade, normal-sized muffin, and much better for you than commercially-made muffins.

Use in the topping for Apple Crisp.

What is your favorite way to use oats?

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Week 32- Storing grains and more – dry pack and vacuum method

11/16/2019

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To help with building your year's supply (this is Week 6 of 26), see this chart.

How do you keep your dry foods safe? That depends on a number of factors, including the local climate, humidity levels, if your storage area is cool and dark or not, and how long you need to store it.

One good option is the ‘dry pack’ method.
You pack (or pour) dry food into an airtight food grade container.

There are better and worse ways to do this. (See here for ALL about it!)

Several years ago I attended a class at a local grocery store where the teacher showed us how to extend the shelf life of dry foods. Some of those foods were wheat and rice, but she included chocolate and nuts. You can store peanut M&Ms?! She said this was an experiment, but they’d stored beautifully for a year and she didn’t know how much more to expect.

She used glass canning jars, lids, and a seal-a-meal (vacuum packaging) attachment for canning lids.

I don’t have the attachment, but discovered something else that works-- oxygen packets! A 300cc oxygen pack will remove oxygen from filled containers up to a gallon in size. The cheapest way I’ve found to buy these is through the Church’s website, in quantities of 100. If you’re buying them elsewhere, know that a 100cc oxygen pack is powerful enough for any container of one quart or less.

Oxygen packets are little squares—about 2” across and mostly flat—that contain iron powder. Oxygen crosses through the packaging material, where it causes the iron inside to rust. This permanently locks up the oxygen.

Oxygen packets are recommended for dry-pack canning for two reasons-

their use quickly removes oxygen that could keep insects alive in what you’re storing, and
removing oxygen extends the shelf life of a food.

Three things, more than any others, shorten shelf life of foods once moisture has been reduced--oxygen, light, and heat. If you can remove the oxygen, the food will last longer. This is especially true if you store it someplace dark or cool, and preferably both.

But removing oxygen also creates a vacuum, which can seal the jars for you. No seal-a-meal vacuum attachment needed.
I’ve been dry-packing food in glass canning jars, as well as PET and PETE plastic bottles, for about ten years.
PETE plastic bottles include those you buy juice in. Check the bottom of the bottle, and if it says PET or PETE, you can use it. You can also use food storage foil pouches, which can be cut to whatever size you like, and sealed all the way around.

Make sure your containers are clean and dry, then fill most the way with whatever food you’re placing in it. Add an oxygen packet, screw on the lid, label, and store somewhere cool and as dark as you can find. (I like to run a band of masking tape around the lid edge, so I can tell at a glance later if someone opened it—a real possibility in a houseful of children!)

Simple, right?

But dry-canning in glass jars—vacuum canning-- has been a game-changer for me. You can use any size of canning jar, from the little 4-oz ones to the big 2-quart size.

Here’s how I do it:
Get jars, lids, and rings ready- they need to be totally clean and dry.
Get your food ready- totally clean, with moisture levels below 10%
Get your oxygen packets ready- keep them in their sealed package or airproof jar until the last minute.

Fill the jars up to the neck only, or a little below the neck. You’ll need a little bit of extra space in there, and overfilled jars don’t seal well. Set a new lid and ring (band) to the side of each one. Wipe off the top of each jar, to be sure you have a clean surface for the lid to seal to. Open up the oxygen packets, and, working quickly, drop a packet into each. Quickly top each jar with a lid and screw the band on. Label each jar with the contents (if not obvious) and the date (always).

Oxygen packets will start to absorb oxygen immediately, and you don’t want them using up all their power before they’re in the jar! You can tell the packets are working because they warm up.
Store the leftover packets in a glass jar with a lid and band firmly screwed on. They’ll be ready the next time you need them.

The oxygen packets will do their job in the food jars over the next 48 hours, dropping the oxygen content down to .1%. As this happens, suction is created inside the jar, making the lid seal. It’s not as secure of a seal as you get with regular canning (steam, water bath, or pressure), but it almost always holds. Avoid bumping the tops of the jars, since this can knock lids loose. Leave the bands on for at least the full 48 hours. You can leave them on the whole storage time if you like.

I’ve have learned a few things along the way.

Removing oxygen makes a huge difference, and I can even store foods with a high fat content (peanut M&Ms!) for a few years without them going rancid.

When storing my homemade tomato powder the first year, I used oxygen packets with some jars, and not with others. Dried foods are listed as ‘best within a year,’ though that depends a lot on storage conditions. Two years later, there was a visible difference between the oxygen-free tomato powder and the untreated powder. The ones with oxygen removed were still as brightly colored—and nicely flavored—as at the beginning, while the others had lost both color and flavor.

How long does sealing and removing air extend shelf life?

That depends.

When stored in my cool, dark basement, nuts have remained great for about 5-6 years. I recently opened two jars of walnuts canned in 2010! One jar had remained sealed, but the other hadn’t. While the sealed-jar nuts were definitely better three years ago, they were still in the realm of ‘OK’. Barely. But the ones that had lost their seal? Awful.   Really, truly awful. The smell of rancid oil assaulted my nostrils as soon as the lid was lifted, and those nuts—stored side-by-side with the other jar—were several shades darker. (I gave those to the chickens. Not sure whether they got eaten or not.)   So the moral of the story is to ROTATE your food. Use it. I try to store the right amount of food to be able to go through it in the next two years, and that would have been great. Try to use any high-oil-content food within at least five years.

But low-oil foods like rice and wheat? They’ll store nearly indefinitely. 20, 25, 30 years or more are the estimates from BYU’s food studies. But still rotate using it.

Things I’ve successfully home dry-packed (stored in airtight containers with oxygen packets)
→Rice
→Vegetable powders- tomato, zucchini, pumpkin, beet
→Citrus sugar (dried zest from orange, lemon, or lime, added to sugar and run through the blender to form a powder. I use it in place of orange or lemon extract.) https://www.theprovidenthomemaker.com/1/post/2010/10/garden-seeds-homemade-orange-flavoring-and-easy-marmalade.html
→Dried candied orange peel (also used to flavor recipes- see the same link as citrus sugar)
→Thoroughly cooked and dried crumbled sausage (all dry packed foods MUST be below 10% water content, or you risk botulism)
→Raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, pecan meal, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, pistachios, smoked almonds, honey-roasted peanuts …
→Sesame seeds, flax seed,
→Spices
→Bridge mix
→Trail mix
And probably more that we’ve long since eaten and forgotten about.

I don’t dry-can dried fruit, because it lasts a few years anyway, we’re pretty good at rotating through it, AND I haven’t wanted to do the measuring and weighing to determine if the moisture content is low enough to dry-can it safely.

The things people usually dry can at home are wheat, rolled oats, beans, lentils, rice, etc.

So why did I put these other things in jars with oxygen packets?

There are 3 typical reasons- (1) something was at a really good price and I wanted to have it last, (2) I naturally had a lot of that thing, or (3) I was curious to see if it would work!

In the case of all those nuts and seeds, there used to be a local nut packaging company that only allowed its wholesale customers to keep any particular product on the shelf for six months. Whatever didn’t sell in that time was returned to the company, who would resell this ‘expired’ product for $1 per one-pound bag… no matter if the bag contained gummy bears or macadamias. Most of the time the nuts were still very good—depending on how and where the store displayed them—in a hot window or on a cool, darker shelf. As you can see from the photo and list of things I’ve vacuum-canned, my friends and I took full advantage of this!

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Week 31- Storing and Using Wheat

11/9/2019

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To help with building your year's supply (this is Week 4 of 26), see this chart.

If you’ve looked at the Year Supply food list at the link above, you’ve likely noticed that there are more wheat and other grains than any other food there. (If you can’t eat wheat, try this list for gluten-free storage and adapt as needed.)

Why such a focus on grains?

They’ve been known since ancient times as ‘the staff of life’—something to lean on, to support you, especially when you’re going through a rough spot. They can be eaten cooked whole, coarsely crushed and cooked, ground into flour and made into limitless cooked and baked foods including breads and pasta.

"There is more salvation and security in wheat than in all the political schemes of the world, and also more power in it than in all the contending armies of the nations.". – apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, 2:207

Wheat is the plump seed of a grass. The kernels contain protein, fiber, antioxidants including Vitamin E, and an assortment of minerals—selenium, manganese, phosphorus, copper, and folate. The uncooked kernels contain about 11% water, 10-15% protein, 60-65% carbohydrates (90% of which is starch), 11% fiber, and 2.5 % fat.

Almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and starches are found in the bran and germ of the wheat; white flour is stripped of these. To help, white flour is enriched with vitamins and minerals, but natural whole wheat, properly prepared, will always be better for you.

If you’re storing wheat, what can you do with it?

Many people who store wheat also buy a grain mill, so they can make fresh flour out of the wheat kernels. Fresh flour smells and tastes so good! It makes more flavorful bread, too.

If that’s what you’re doing, there’s a tutorial here on the differences between types of wheat—red vs white, hard vs. soft.

Here’s helpful information to use if you’re substituting whole wheat flour into regular white flour recipes: Cooking with Whole Wheat Flour.

But what if you don’t have a grain mill? Or maybe you do, but want more variety in what you do with your wheat.

Wheat can be sprouted. Wheat sprouts have Vitamin C and a whole host of vitamins that weren’t there before sprouting.

Sprouted wheat, stopped and dried at the right stage, can even make malt. Diastatic malt is used in small recipes to get the bread to rise better.

Wheat can be cooked and eaten as a hot cereal, or substituted in recipes in place of rice, hamburger, or nuts. Here are a bunch of ways to use cooked wheat kernels.

You can even make really good wheat bread without a mill.

What else do you wonder about wheat?

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Week 34- The Importance of Storing Sugar and Salt

Week 33- Using and Storing Oats

Week 32- Storing grains and more – dry pack and vacuum method

Week 31- Storing and Using Wheat

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

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Week 34- The Importance of Storing Sugar and Salt

Week 33- Using and Storing Oats

Week 32- Storing grains and more – dry pack and vacuum method

Week 31- Storing and Using Wheat

Need a Search bar?One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this-- www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.Author

Archives

Categories

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

Author