Getting in food storage

Apologies for the long delay. I truly cannot do it all, and that means I cannot always blog.

I have been feeling more concern about food storage for some time. I have written about food storage many times before, but it has been a while.

We had a fair amount stored, but the years of unemployment put a dent into it. As we saw pandemic-related supply chain issues, we became more aware of the need to at least stock up on something when it was available. 

You may be aware that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting gas prices. What may not yet be obvious is that with Ukraine as a major world wheat supplier, continued conflict is likely to result in a wheat shortage. Here is a recent thread:

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1543326461737803776

Add to this that labor shortages are getting worse and fuel prices affect transport... this is a good time to lay in supplies, even if it is not as good a time as last year or before.

It can be intimidating. I am going to go over my latest plans, and how some of the fine-tuning has happened, hoping that helps generate ideas for others. It does not have to be any one way. Remember, in the 70s it was common to have large containers of wheat where you needed a special tool to get the lid off, and then you would still have to mill the wheat yourself. That is only one option, and probably not the best for most people.

I came up with this:

30 boxes of pasta
60 cans
8 cooking oils
6 salts
4 baking powders
4 baking sodas
bin of bulk (flour, sugar, rice)
2 cases of ramen
4 tubs peanut butter
some stuffing and gravy and things

My first note here is that this starting plan is essentially dinner for three months. This is not a plan where there are three square meals a day for an entire year; I would be hopelessly flummoxed trying to do that.

Thinking about only three months and wanting some variety, I thought about one month's worth of pasta, one month's worth of soup, and one month's worth of things requiring more cooking but not necessarily complicated, so like rice or pancakes or casseroles. I envisioned getting those big Costco bags of sugar, flour, and rice, one each.

The "cans" initially included some Chef Boyardee products, but after getting some I realized they didn't taste that good, and hey, we already have pasta. However, we periodically like to eat Spaghettios (Franco-American) with Ritz crackers (because of the movie Overboard), so those are still part of it. Otherwise it is mainly Progresso soups and similar.

Notice that one box of pasta is sufficient for a meal, but one can of soup is not. Honestly, the can totals probably need to be upped, to where it is somewhere between 90 and 120 cans, and those are for main courses. A later stage is going to be adding canned fruits and vegetables for variety.

The can number also does not include cans of cream of chicken or mushroom soup, which will be part of some rice preparation. It is important to think about seasonings. You can eat plain rice, but if sometimes you can make it with broth, or cream of chicken, or saffron, or tomato sauce and Mexican spices, that is going to help.

There was another stop and wait moment. I can make lots of things with shelf stable flour, sugar, and baking soda/powder, but there is usually something perishable needed, like eggs or sour cream or butter. This made me think that perhaps I should be thinking about mixes that are add water only. 

I am often irritated when I look for recipes and keep getting results that use Bisquick instead of telling me how much flour and soda to mix in. Suddenly I started to see the value of those types of mixes. 

That also reminded me that you can make cakes with just cake mixes and soda... no eggs:

https://www.allrecipes.com/article/soda-cake-mix/

I also remembered that you can substitute apple sauce for cooking oil, but the cooking oil has a good shelf life and is already part of the plan.

There will continue to be adjustments.

One thing that has also come up is rotation, which is partly a matter of remembering to do it, but that can be aided by how you store your components. One cupboard in our kitchen has generally held one box of baking soda and one can of baking powder. The full supply can fit, and be in a row where replacements go in the back. Not everything will be that easy, but when something is easy, it's nice.

The most important point, though, has been that starting with some ideas has led to others. We learn by doing. Part of that comes from discovering flaws, but you can find the solutions with the flaws.

If you are at a point where you eat out (or order in) a lot, food storage may seem impossible. You could get one of those kits, available from Costco or Amazon or lots of other places, just to have. Occasionally eating from the kit instead of ordering, maybe you will find that you hate it, but then you will know. Obviously, it makes more sense to start with the kit that has 120 or 150 meals than the one with 2160 servings. 

Maybe instead you will realize that some of the things that you are ordering are things that you could reasonably cook yourself, and you buy some of those foods too. That can also be fine.

It takes time to work out what works best for you and your needs. Needing that time -- along with the current state of the world -- is exactly why you should be thinking now.