Preparedness food supplies

[Admin]

Seems pretty self explanatory, but lets talk about the best foods for storage in preparation for Z-day.

MRE's are a great idea, but they're certainly not the only option!

Let's talk canned food recipe's and how to make flat bread on rocks...

[moneymike2009]

during the revolutionary war George Washington was held up in a fort with his men they ate flower and water cakes for months. in the past when i use to  leave home for months at a time . i got in trouble with the law alot. any way in the woods I'd catch craw fish and boil them in a beer can.  they scream win you do that . that's the best i can do with a recipe but spam comes with akey and has a long shelf life.

[Admin]

Yeah, one of the staple foods of the civil war (on both sides) was called "Hard Tack" and it's recipe goes something like this:

1 handful of flour, 1-2 pinches of salt, and just enough water to make it a paste, cook it in a cast iron skillet, or on top of flat rock over a fire.

It's not very tasty, but we're talking about survival, not gourmet eating...

You can mix it up a little bit by adding a little bit of corn meal to the mix.

I'll post more recipes for things later tonight...

[bruce]

get your self a food dehydrator and start drying out fruits, meats and whatever else you like and pack it one of those vacu sealers. this stuff should keep for a while. also start "canning" your owns fruits and veggies. I have a recepie somewhere for "pemmican" it a conglomeration of many different items that is hearty, nutritous and keeps for a long time. I'll have to find it and post it later. I like MRE's too, the military versions are WAY better than the civillian versions

[Admin]

Another Recipe

Flat bread (called by various names, depending on the culture that makes it..)

3 cups flour (corn meal, etc)
2tsp salt
4tbsp oil (vegetable, olive, pretty much anything but motor oil)
1/2 cup water.

Mix in a medium bowl, adding flour or water until you achieve the consistency of dough.

make balls 2 inches in diameter

Roll out on a flat surface (you can use anything relatively round and smooth to roll it, just be sure it's clean.) until about 1/8 to 1/4" thick

brown in a hot cast iron skillet.

Serve with your favorite filling, anything from meat to veggies to fruit preserves go well.

If eaten without filling, this should still be enough to feed 3-4 people, depending on caloric needs.

These keep fairly well, so make up a batch whenever you have cooking equipment available to you, and store the leftovers in a plastic bag, and carry them with you. (Or store in a cool dry place if you're hunkered down somewhere)

More to come this week

[oldnick]

I'd suggest everyone become familiar with the Universal Edibility Test to determine if an unknown plant is safe to eat:

http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/survival-use-of-plants_s1.htm#uet

(note: this is also an acceptable test to use on your mother-in-law's cooking)

[Admin]

I'd suggest everyone become familiar with the Universal Edibility Test to determine if an unknown plant is safe to eat:

http://www.survivaliq.com/survival/survival-use-of-plants_s1.htm#uet

(note: this is also an acceptable test to use on your mother-in-law's cooking)

Thanks for the great page there, this is exactly the kind of stuff we need to know!

Anyone who saw this, but didn't go look at the link, I think you'd be doing yourself a favor to go and print that page out, and add it to your "Z-Day" portfolio... it just might mean the difference between a full belly and an empty one if worse comes to worst.

[Robin Holmes]

Honey's always a good one. Never goes bad. Crystalizes, yes. But heat it up, and you can still use it.

[OVERKILL]

Honey's always a good one. Never goes bad. Crystalizes, yes. But heat it up, and you can still use it.

 My Ol' Pappy told me that when it crystallizes, heat it up and add a little water to get it to it's former consistency. He said once it was boiled it wouldn't crystallize again.

 Brown sugar keeps well too. If it hardens up, a little while in an oven at low temperature will return it to it's granular form.

 I've helped my Ol' Pappy can beans, tomatoes (maters ) and numerous other things. We put a teaspoon of salt in every quart jar (non iodized salt, I think it's specifically sold as canning salt). For small runs he has a wire rack that only holds about 7 jars sits into a large pot that goes on the stove. Mostly we have a large "wash tub" that holds 30 or 40 jars wit a couple of old towels used to place between the jars so they don't rattle against each other and break (the same purpose as the wire rack). Whether you can inside on an electric range, or outside over an open fire like me and Pap, you fill the tub or pot with water and bring to a boil, I believe you let it boil for about 6 hours, but I'll check with Pap. When you set them aside to cool you will hear them pop, that's the lids sealing. Tomatoes are skinned and boiled in a large pot to make tomato sauce, when they are boiling we pour them into jars and seal them while still boiling. If I can remember correctly he told me salt wasn't absolutely necessary, but it did help preserve them longer, even though ours is mostly just to get through the winter.
 You can also dry most fruits and vegetables, Shuck beans is the one we mostly do. To do very large amounts we lay the picked, cleaned, strung and broke green beans out in a layer on a bed sheet. The bed sheet is lain on a car hood or metal roof of a shed, as the hot metal helps them to dry faster. Once dry Pappy puts 'em in the freezer and says they need to stay in there a couple days, but I'm not sure why.
 Canning would be better if you don't see yourself with a ready water supply (i.e., walking a mile or two to fill containers) but dried goods take up less space and would be better if you expect to have a convenient nearby source of water.