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These two boxes were side-by-side on our kitchen countertop and they illustrate the difference in volume of a ready-to-eat food and a basic ingredient
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I made some quick calculations to estimate the space requirements to store three weeks worth of food for one person. A few items from three different classes of foods were selected to illustrate trends.
Cooking from scratch vs. convenience foods
Patrice Lewis over at Rural Revolution wrote a great post about the Importance of Scratch Cooking.
In her post, she talks about why basic ingredients are better choices for storing in your pantry than convenience or ready-to-eat foods. In a nutshell, basic ingredients are shelf-stable, inexpensive and versatile.
Additionally, basic ingredients are compact relative to the fluffy, air-filled ready-to-eat confections that have packaging that is designed to crowd competitors off of the store shelf.
Sticking with the FEMA recommended three weeks of food, 3000 Calories per day of Jiffy Mix (and nothing but 100% Jiffy Mix) takes up very slightly less than one cubic foot and cost you $52 at Walmart.
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This "milk-crate" is used to transport firewood in from the kindling pile.
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To help you visualize that, the standard "milk crate" has interior dimensions of 12" by 12" by 10" tall or is 0.83 cubic-feet. A standard bushel is 1.25 cubic feet.
Store-brand oatmeal takes up 2.1 cubic-feet and would cost you $56.
3000 Calories a day for
21 days of lard (and only lard) requires 0.3 cubic-feet, wheat berries
requires 0.8 cubic-feet and one-pound boxes of dried spaghetti requires
1.0 cubic-feet.
3000 Calories a day for 21 days of Kellogg's Corn Flakes (and only Corn Flakes...no milk or sugar) or Rice Crispies would require 6.6 cubic-feet of volume and cost you $178. While that sounds expensive, the same number of calories from McDonalds (Egg-McMuffin meal with extra Hash Browns and a Quarter Pounder Meal for lunch and dinner every day) would cost $504.
For canned goods, Chub Mackerel (a fatty fish) requires 3.6 cubic-feet, Chili beans require 3.8 cubic-feet and Beef Stew requires 4.4 cubic-feet.
Summary
This short post is a good illustration of how "preparing" is a life-style and not a hobby you can pick up and put down.
Preparing meals from basic ingredients is not only less expensive than meals from ready-to-eat ingredients, they are also more compact and use less space in your pantry. Furthermore, you have more control over how much sugar, salt and other ingredients go into your mouth and the mouths of your family.
This is fit in a big plastic tub & can be put aside in case of an emergency.
ReplyDeleteThis list was from September 11th, 2021
30# of white rice in six 5# bags @ $3.62 ea
12 cans of chili @ $1.36 ea
12 cans of beef stew @ $1.74
4 cans of chicken meat @ $2.18
2 cans of tuna fish (larger cans, like the canned chicken meat) @ $1.98
30 cans of vegetables @ 0.52
Bullion cubes, 2 @ $1.88
Salt 0.48
Sugar, $2
Pepper, $1.87
Garlic powder and assorted other spices, $2 total
sm cooking oil. $2.13
$80.16 is what it all came too.
I really should add 30 cans of fruit too...
Consider adding 9 pounds of lard or butter or 3, 48 oz bottles of your favorite vegetable oil.
DeleteThe issue with butter/oil is shelf life, it goes rancid. Consider clarified butter/Ghee in cans for long term storage or vegetable shorting kept frozen.
DeleteJiffy mix requires eggs and milk to make even basic breads.
ReplyDeleteThey also add bulk, even if in dried form
That might be true to make delicious pancakes and biscuits but for basic bannocks or dumplings that is incorrect.
DeleteDoes Jiffy go rancid like some other baking mixes after a year or so? Not sniping , just curious.
DeletePart of the rational for buying what you eat and eating what you buy is that it makes FIFO inventory easy. Pull the current inventory forward and load the new purchases at the back. If you are using the double-buy method to build a buffer, then the amounts that build up should be fairly proportional to what you regularly use and "old" inventory is less of an issue.
DeleteA couple of the weak points is that there are some very low-use items that will stick around forever. How many pounds of dried mango will you use in a year. Over time, the weird stuff can crowd the high-runners off of the shelf.
You are absolutely right. I guess baking mixes are just not something that we use a lot of around the Rancho. I make bread weekly from the regular ingredients.
Deletevacuum packing with an oxygen absorber will greatly reduce the chance of anything going rancid due to residual fats from the wheat. Won't make it last forever, but it will last a long time...
DeleteOf course, that is assuming you aren't rotating, but simply long term storing
There are arguments both ways in deciding whether convenience/scratch. Additional labor and time, more complex ingredients, higher level of skill needed and often a longer amount of time needed are factors that need to be considered as well when looking at the scratch process. I won't deny that it can produce a superior product, but other factors may influence your particular mix of emergency supplies.
ReplyDeleteRice, beans, dehydrated vegetables, beef tallow. Add dehydrated meats. Compact and nutrient rich.
ReplyDeleteHere on "El Rancho de Patitos de Goma"
ReplyDeleteThis is a family of 5, with VERY LARGE boys (like 6"2' - 220 big) We store both pre-made and raw / scratch ingredients. As far as pre-made suff goes, it's mostly things like cans of Hunt's pasta sauce or pre-cooked canned beans for days when we are just too tired or too sick to cook. 99% of the time we cook from scratch.
We tend to cook from scratch as well, using some canned and boxed ingredients (much less so). I cannot imagine simply having everything out of a box or can and just microwaving.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Where does 3000 calories come from? I'll assume it is to support a fair amount of manual labor.
ReplyDeleteReader B suggested it in the comments of an earlier post.
Delete2000 Calories per day is the arbitrary number used by the USDA in the nutrition labels that are mandatory on manufactured foods. That is a decent number for a person of modest size working in a heated office.
In the factory we figured an additional 150 Calories an hour based on 50% walking content. Working seven hours will add another 1000 Calories. So will shivering in a cold room.
Most people will struggle to physically work seven hours day-in and day-out, at least at the start.
Another factor to consider is waste. Food gets burned. Food spoils.
Chuckling, also I'd strongly prefer to have TOO MANY Calories on hand.
DeleteMight have to add water to the soup as company's coming.
Military calories for soldiers in a warzone is around 3K. And most of us lose weight over a few weeks.
Great post, Joe. Many people don’t realize the food value and versatility of basics.
ReplyDeleteI use a vacuum sealer for some foods, it seems to prevent freezer burn, keeps out doors from other foods, and I can package a large roast or chicken in smaller quantities.
I also got the attachment for sealing mason jars, and vacuum sealed several jars of flour, sugar, salt, Jiffy, raisins, corn, etc. No air leaks, no spoilage.
Southern NH
Grrr… keeps out odors from other foods.
DeleteSNH
A SNIP from a posting I did some years ago. Prices went up when I did an extra pair last week.
ReplyDeleteMercy Buckets
I am going to copy and paste his message to me. It took me a second because I just got home from work and I am tired but you will see some abbreviations in here. WM= WalMart and GV= Great Value, their In House brands.
I’m sure you can substitute anything that meets the same requirements from any supermarket brand.\
2 X 5 gallon Buckets and lids = 9.28
2 X 8 pound dried GV pinto Beans = 11.96 100 calories per 1/4 cup dry (or about 1/3 cup cooked) 8 grams protein x 206 servings = 20,600 calories and 1,648 grams protein
1 X 20 pound GV White rice = 8.98 160 cal per 1/4 cup dry (or a bit over 1/2 cup cooked) 3 grams protein X 202 servings = 32,320 calories and 606 grams protein
6 X 12 ounce GV luncheon loaf various flavors = 13.08 180 calories per 2 oz serving, 7 grams protein X 36 servings = 6,480 calories and 252 grams protein
26 oz container Iodized Salt 54 cents
3 oz black pepper 2.68
2 oz jar chili pepper (pick the spice you like here) 3.98
4 pounds pure cane sugar 2.08 Calories NOT Counted just flavoring for Japanese Sweet Beans, Sweet Rice and so on.
16 oz cooking oil 2.00 (Get the BEST Bottle you can leaks suck) Calories not counted just needed for cooking say refried beans and such.
130 count adult multivitamin 4.88
120 count 500 mg Vitamin C 3.96
25 +25 Beef and Chicken Bouillon cubes 3.76
Box of 100 black tea bags 1.00
Total cost 68.36
Total calories 59,400 /2,000 calories per day adult = 29.7 Man-days
Total Protein 2,506 / 30 days = 83 grams protein daily WELL over min needed here.
I like Rob's list, but I would also add dried beans, lard, and flour. I have 30 days of Mountain Home freeze dried meals for emergency use also.
ReplyDeleteInstead of Jiffy Mix I recommend complete pancake mix. In addition to pancakes the same mix can be used to make biscuits or...about anything. For me it has the advantage that since I USE it throughout the year, I can easily rotate it.
ReplyDelete