This report was originally published by Lisa Egan at Tess Pennington’s Ready Nutrition
Tess is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint: How To Survive ANY Disaster.
You’ve likely got a nice supply of canned goods in your pantry and food storage inventory, but how long do those products truly last?
Will they still be safe to eat when a disaster arises and you need to start popping those cans open and consuming their contents?
“Best by”, “sell by”, “use by”, “best before”, and expiration dates are all terms used on food packaging, and they are often a source of confusion.
Here’s what those commonly used terms actually mean, according to the USDA:
- A “Best if Used By/Before” indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
- A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.
- A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula as described below.
Regarding infant formula, the USDA elaborates:
Federal regulations require a “Use-By” date on the product label of infant formula under inspection of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Consumption by this date ensures the formula contains not less than the quantity of each nutrient as described on the label. Formula must maintain an acceptable quality to pass through an ordinary bottle nipple.
The “Use-By” date is selected by the manufacturer, packer or distributor of the product on the basis of product analysis throughout its shelf life, tests, or other information. It is also based on the conditions of handling, storage, preparation, and use printed on the label. Do not buy or use baby formula after its “Use- By” date.
In other words, the only items required by federal law to be labeled for expiration are infant formula and some baby foods. All of the other labels you see on foods have been placed there voluntarily by manufacturers.
Unless a use-by or best-by label is followed by the words “for safety,” these dates refer to the quality of your product. There’s no need to panic if you’re a few days past the use-by date.
Dating is for quality, not safety. However, if a calendar date is used, it must express both the month and day of the month (and the year, in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products). If a calendar date is shown, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date, such as “sell by” or “use before.
According to WebMD, “The actual term “Expiration Date” refers to the last date a food should be eaten or used. Last means last — proceed at your own risk.” Expiration dates are rarely found on canned food.
Companies use these labels to protect the reputation of their products, which makes sense – they want consumers to see and consume their food when it is as fresh as possible.
There is no standardized rule that determines which types of products get best-by, use-by, and sell-by stamps. Food manufacturers conduct their own shelf-life studies and indicate the quality timeline of their products based on that data.
Even though there is no uniform or universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States, the dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states. Some states also mandate pulling dairy from store shelves on the expiration date.
Unfortunately, dates on labels often mislead consumers into thinking food magically becomes dangerous to consume on those dates – resulting in a lot of perfectly good food being tossed into the trash.
Understanding that the dates applied to food are for quality and not for safety can help you avoid wasting food – and your money. Keep in mind that regardless of the date, you should always evaluate the quality of a food product prior to eating it.
If you’ve opened the product already, the dates no longer mean much. Once you open a can or package, things become a little less precise because the food is at risk of being contaminated by you or the environment. This is something the date on the packaging can’t account for. Some product labels provide timelines for consumption after opening – look for phrasing like “After opening, use within 7 days.”
Smell and taste can be good indicators of contamination, but are not foolproof: organisms that cause food poisoning are invisible and don’t always cause odors and other obvious signs of trouble.
Here are some additional things to know about canned food.
What do those cryptic codes on canned goods mean?
Each canned food manufacturer has a unique coding system, as the Canned Food Alliance explains:
Some manufacturers list day, month and year of production, while other companies reference only the year. These codes are usually imprinted on the top or bottom of the can. Other numbers may appear and reference the specific plant manufacturing or product information and are not useful to the consumers. If you have specific questions about a company’s product, most manufacturers offer a toll-free number to call for questions about canned food expiration dates.
These codes are primarily for tracking purposes. All food companies in the US are required to follow a strict Food Safety Plan which includes continuous monitoring of food safety functions:
The codes you see on the top/bottom of a food can dictate many tracing items which potentially include Plant Location, Production Line within that Plant, Lot Codes Related to the Food Producers Food Safety Scheme, Supplier of Food Ingredients, Country of Origin of Food Ingredients, Production Date, and Possibly the Can Manufacturer.
How long do canned foods last?
The answer to this question depends on where the food was canned.
Was the food canned at home (your home, or someone else’s)? Or, was it canned at a commercial factory?
Commercially canned food can last several years past the expired dates printed on the cans. According to the Canned Food Alliance, “The general rule of thumb is that canned food has a shelf life of at least two years from the date of purchase.” Writing your purchase date on canned good labels is one way you can track this yourself.
While it can retain its safety and nutritional value well beyond two years, canned food may have some variation in quality, such as a change of color and texture, beyond that time frame. “In fact, canned food has an almost indefinite shelf life at moderate temperatures (75° Fahrenheit and below),” according to the Canned Food Alliance.
Home canned foods are another story. We usually advise readers to use home canned goods within 12 months of the canning date, but the storage life can be prolonged by many years if they remain sealed and stored properly.
Dangers of Improperly Canned Foods
A danger all canned foods pose is from the Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which causes botulism. You cannot see, smell, or taste botulinum toxin – but taking even a small bite of food containing this toxin can be deadly. Most cases in the United States come from home-canned vegetables, reports the CDC:
From 1996 to 2014, there were 210 outbreaks of foodborne botulism reported to CDC. Of the 145 outbreaks that were caused by home-prepared foods, 43 outbreaks, or 30%, were from home-canned vegetables. These outbreaks often occurred because home canners did not follow canning instructions, did not use pressure canners, ignored signs of food spoilage, or didn’t know they could get botulism from improperly preserving vegetables.
The CDC recommends boiling all home-canned foods for 10 minutes before consumption to reduce the risk of infection.
Outbreaks are rare, but the botulinum toxin is generally considered to be the most poisonous substance in the world, and one gram could kill as many as 10 million people. A few years ago, we shared the tragic story of Mike O’Connell, a man who took shortcuts when canning some elk meat and became infected with botulism. Despite proper diagnosis and administration of an anti-toxin, O’Connell became paralyzed. He had extensive rehab and was eventually able to walk again with the aid of a cane.
What is the best way to store canned food?
Proper storage of home-canned foods can help you reduce the risk of serious illness. Store home-canned foods for recommended times only. After preparing safely, label and date the jars and store them in a clean, cool, dark place. For best quality, store between 50°F and 70°F. Can no more food than you will use within one year unless directions for a specific food give other advice. The National Center for Home Food Storage Preservation provides more detailed guidance here: Storing Home Canned Foods.
Store commercially canned food at 50 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in a dry, dark place. Humidity can speed up deterioration. The FDA notes that taste, aroma, and appearance of food can change rapidly if the air conditioning fails in a home or warehouse.
Canned food as old as 100 years has been found in sunken ships and was found to be still microbiologically safe! Now – we certainly don’t recommend keeping canned goods for 100 years, but this is a powerful example of how well canning can preserve food.
The best way to avoid canned food spoilage is to rotate your food stores. Do an inventory check every 6 months to make sure that canned goods, preserves, and other storage items are within their expiration dates. When organizing food reserves, place the item that has the earliest expiration date in the front so that it is used first. FIFO is a well-known acronym used in the restaurant business. It means, “First In, First Out.” This is a great acronym to use when organizing food storage and is the best way to have the freshest foods available in the event that a long-term disaster occurs.
How to tell if your canned food is safe for consumption
If you are concerned your canned goods have expired, the best way to test them is to use your senses.
How does it look? How does it smell? Do you hear anything when you open the cans?
Before you open a store-bought or home-canned food, inspect the can for contamination.
Suspect contamination if the can is leaking, has bulges, is swollen, or looks damaged or cracked. If you think the food might be contaminated, do not open the can – toss it in the garbage.
Even cans that look fine on the outside might have contaminated food inside. Suspect contamination if the can spurts liquid or foam when you open it, and if the food inside is discolored, moldy, or smells bad.
Obviously, cans bulging with bacteria growth should be discarded, no matter when it was canned at home or what the manufacturer’s expiration date says.
Here are 10 signs your canned food has gone bad:
- Bulging
- Streaking
- Hissing
- Bubbling
- Leaking
- Rusted
- Discolored
- Dented/Damaged
- Smells
- Looks Moldy
Remember: When in doubt, toss it out!
Additional Articles:
Creating a Family Preparedness Plan
Short-Term Emergency Checklist
Emergency Evacuation Checklist
5 Ways to Keep Your Vehicle Ready For Emergencies
Checklist for Preparing the Home Exterior For a Disaster
(Sign up for our FREE newsletter to get the latest prepping advice, gardening secrets, homesteading tips and more delivered straight to your inbox!)
Additional Resources:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary
The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way
SAS Survival Handbook, Revised Edition: For Any Climate, in Any Situation
Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.
Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals.
Visit her website at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.
Do the canning yourself and you know it’s right.
Do it yourself so it’s done right.
I have eaten many canned goods years past exp. date, still good but not as tasty…
I have also drank home canned moonshine that was years old and it was as good as new! 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI
Real moonshine is “hot” at over 130 proof. It won’t go bad! I’ve drank 60 yr old moonshine that was smooth as spring water and just fine. Enjoy!
I dump my old shine, heads and tails into the next wash to bump up my abv.
Tails ya… heads???
I always collect the tails and the heads (190-205 deg) and then the ‘hearts’@ 190-205 deg which is about 30%. I collect the heads and tails aka “the feints” and save them up for special runs known as the “Queens Share”. Been adding solid copper scrubbies in the column and also upping abv as a semi-reflux and have seen improvement and smoothness. But they have to be pure copper and no Chinese crap. You can clean them soaking them in a bowl of white vinegar.
Sorry meant to say heads @ 175 to t0 185 deg.
And always remember to dump the foreshots.
As a rule for every 4 gallons of mash I cut the first 8oz. off the top and save it. I re run it when I have a bunch saved and make fuel out of it. I cut the run when it is 60 proof and save the tails and rerun them for a high abv. neutral spirit. Reflux colums are ok if you are not making flavored stuff. Otherwise they cut the flavor you want down (wheesky, fruit, etc.) but do give you a higher abv.
Hey G, Do you put a “Born on Date” on your Shine? lol If opened too early, it will still be wet behind the ears..
Ya lol. I let it age at least a week before drinking it!
I finally got my old Honda trail 90 up and running. Not a real powerhouse but EMP proof and super MPG. A good little get around vehicle when gas is scarce and has a hi-low transmission and will go many places.
I’ve eaten canned ham 5 years after purchase. Couldn’t tell it from one right off the shelf. Same with many other commercially canned foods. Even tomato sauce.
WTF? A prepping article???
haha, right?
How special.. 🙂
yep, I’d regard th rare productive, helpful, non fear mongering/non BS article “special” indeed.
yep, I’d regard the rare productive, helpful, non fear mongering/non BS article “special” indeed.
Amen, Genius. Finally a useful article.
CHECK YOUR store bought canned goods!!
— I have found very small holes, almost imperceptable around the top lid of where the can is opened.
— Always wash the tops and bottom before opening.
Closely inspect by running you finger nail along inside edge of top where your can opener opens can lid. The holes are VERY small that I have found. Found on SEVERAL cans of big brand sloppy joe canned mix sauce. VERY DANGEROUS.
Wondered if the defect is from the Grocery Store?
Or from the Manufactuer?
Or maybe some entity trying to take Americans out?
I know for a FACT that Law Enforcement assets are being used to round up patriotic Americans.
People are rounded up on a made up pretext and warrant issued for you. Police used to Arrest you.
Once you are in custody:
— No phones calls allowed by you. Any calls are routed within the facility. None go to outside world.
— No Attorney.
— No Bail.
— No contact allowed to your family or friends.
You are Disappeared. Read that AGAIN. No one knows where you are. This happens at what is called Regional Correctional Centers. Chicago also has a black ops site where people are dissappeared, NO DUE PROCESS. Jailers killed people there.
———-
Harvey County Regional Correctional Facility
Located in the city of Newton Kansas.
60 miles north of Wichita Kansas
———-
They have been MURDERING and DISAPPEARING Americans for many YEARS.
— Are these Activities FED sanctioned. US Government Approved?
— Are they done by Drug Cartel?
— Are they being done by a Foriegn Government?
— Are they being done by local Law Enforcement CRIMINALS just for personal profit?
People are being MURDERED at Harvey County Correctional Facility in Newton,Kansas.
Prisoners assets confiscated.
Prisoners ID being redistributed and issued to foriegn Nationals.
Prisoners body parts/organs are being harvested for black market transplants.
This post will likely get shadow banned.
But every word is FACT. No one will stop the Murderers by jailers, judges.
—You damn well ALWAYS have a cell phone on you and call your family IMMEDIATLY if you are pulled over by Police. Your LIFE depends on someone who cares about you knows where you are.
Otherwise. You leave the house. Police pull you over and arrest you. And no one hears from you again.
I’m glad you mentioned that the actual incidence rate of botulism is extremely LOW as to just about be negligible. People are entirely too concerned.
I would love to see a great article on preparing fat for making pearl lard and standard lard and cracklings. This is the most likely fat a prepper would use under SHTF situations.
Pearl lard is the ideal everyone tries to achieve for use in baking and that fat is taken from around the kidneys. Otherwise the lard can taste “off” and can only be used to either boost calories or for frying. If you make the mistake, then your family will not be happy. Generally pearl lard looks whiter as well.
The very best home canners make their own lard. I’ve even heard of people canning bacon.
Some people can rabbit with the bones and then when they want to use it, the bones easily fall out and this is supposed to increase calcium levels…which is a big nutritional issue under collapse conditions.
Obviously canning was the preferred method for fat rich salmon when they had their “runs”.
Dehydration can only happen when the fat is removed or else it goes rancid. That means a huge loss of calories as fat calories are double those of carbs or protein. This is why pemmican was such a big deal as in stages you could later render fat and combine it with jerky.
It’s great to see an actual practical ancestral skill article.
By the way, regarding infant formula, I know for a fact that due to heavy regulation of both condensed, ready to use, and powdered infant formula that when the lab tests it during processing and canning, that is tested for nutritional levels and with an acceptable range.
Then it is tested later to ensure it still is within range.
Almost always it tests in the high range to make sure that even up to the expiration date that it is more than adequate.
So if the date is a little iffy, it probably is fine. I would be willing to bet that even a year out of date that it is fine due to this fudge factor in the range.
Due to where I live, I keep a very large stash of commercially canned goods( as I type, my shop is shaking from the leftover winds and rain of Hurricane Lane).
Many of my canned goods are WAY over date. All the Tomato stuff is history, so we don’t buy it any more, we can grow tomatoes year round so that is not a problem.
Other canned fruits don’t do well either, but we grow enough Avocados, bananas, Citrus, and pineapple to cover those bases so I’ve quit buying canned fruits.
Canned meats seem to do OK, Spam, tuna, sardines, chicken, Bacon,
et al seem to hold up well over the years.
Canned potatoes do well but are pricey. We have figured out to grow them in Hawaii, so we will start to reduce the canned stash.
Most all canned veggies hold up pretty good.
Canned soups also do well but I only keep two or three types on hand.
The author has very good advice, about bad cans,
except for the rusted, virtually everything here oxidizes, so
follow all the other rules and you be OK.
We don’t do traditional in home canning as we have year round gardens, and it is time and energy expensive. so I won’t comment on that.
The one thing I haven’t adapted to is the food you stash away is food I don’t regularly eat. I eat Spam once in a while, but I prefer ground sausage or ham slices. Canned green beans are OK but fresh ones readily available are much better. So I don’t cycle through the SHTF stash as quickly as I should. But such a stash needs to be established.
There is a religion(not mine) that holds that you need to keep a years worth of food on hand. That is fine, but do you really think they live on all that canned freeze dried vegetarian stuff?
My $0.02.
I had a friend in that religion and live near a bunch of them too and maybe 15% of them prep at all. Higher than average but don’t think they are all into it. His pastor (or whatever they call him) said that if shtf they are all to bring in their preps for redistribution! He said f-that!
If you do home canning and worry about spoilage try adding a little colloidial silver to the cans. I have done it but I have no idea if it worked because nothing was ever spoiled?
I also added colloidial silver to my aquarium when the fish looked sick or some died and it worked!
Sorry to rattle on but one more thing. If you have a cellar or underground food storage and have mold issues I have the cure! I made a mix of colloidial silver and portland cement and plastered the walls and floor and cieling with it. NEVER did I have mold again! Also get a fine mist spray bottle or vaporizer and put colloidial silver in it. If you get bronchitis or lung issues just inhale the mist a few times a day and you will be amazed!
And mix a paste of colloidial silver and baking soda for a super effective natural deodorant. If you hunt it will mask your smell too. Cheap and better than charcoal based shit, in fact better than anything. Try it!
I like your ideas on colloidal silver.
I used to get fever sores on my lip, whenever I came down with a virus. It came as the gift of a kiss from my God Mother when I was a child. Who knew back then. Amazing how this virus has receptors for sensing other viruses that cause you to cough and sputter, it comes out like a spring blossom, thereby assisting it’s spread.
Anyway I had tried everything the drug store sells, and nadda. I started looking on line using the words cure in my search, and found ProsurX. Yup it’s basicly a colloidal silver compound with a few extra herbs. It ain’t cheap, but I’m down to maybe one outbreak every two years and when treated aggressively they last but a half dozen days instead of weeks. It’s also supposed to be affective against genital herpesvirus.
Part two, I told my kids about it, they didn’t need it, but my son had been working out in a gym. Off of the equipment he got a bizarre yeast/bacterial infection on his back. Everything the doctor prescribed failed, then he remembered what I said about ProsureX, he didn’t buy it, but did more research. He found a coloidal silver based soap on Amazon, and within three months was free of the infection.
Colloidal silver works. Find some good YouTube’s on the subject and write down step by step, how to make it correctly. Buy two 99.999% pure silver coins, and the few other chemicals and components like a solar panel to drive the process. It ain’t rocket science.
Fever blisters are caused by a variant in the Herpes Simplex virus. As you say, it’s not the same as genital Herpes. A large portion of the USA passes this Herpes variant to others and that is how it is transmitted.
When at the doctor’s office, if you tell them you get fever blsters a few times a year, and if they have samples, they may offer them. Valtrex works on either kind.
Regardless, several years ago in the UK they discovered a mild electric current of very low milliamperage will stop the viral outbreak. Then years later a researcher discovered that certain wavelengths of LED light also stop the viral outbreak and very effectively.
It’s a relatively new form of therapy. They have effectively treated some foot injuries or ailments suceessfully, and now they have been experimenting with healing hearing loss and Alzheimers. Look up LED light therapy. No one knows why it works.
An old ancestral cure for fever blisters is to take an inexpensive aspirin tablet and wet it and then make a paste and put that on the fever blister. This helps a lot of people.
What happens generally is stress and or cold weather will cause a drop in the immune system and allow the virus that stays dormant to go active. Patients report a slight tingling sensation as this happens, like to feel it coming on, and that is when you start treatment whether aspirin or otherwise. You nip it in the bud before the viral count is high enough to cause the formation of the blister to form.
PTPO, there are no 5 nines fine coins. Canadian maples are 4 nines. I use 14 gauge silver wire which comes in 5 nines. I like the idea of solar powered! I usually use a 30 volt DC transformer with 1.5 amps of power. You can get 5 nines silver wire on ebay but it is a lil pricey but will last a looonnng time. When I make colloidial silver for topical or plaster I add a pinch of sea salt to make it work faster, otherwise I never use salt for anything I am using internally.
Oh and always use distilled water! At the health food store I found a 500ppm. silver ointment. Works great!
It should work a lot better than soap because you don’t rinse it off right away too.
Rellik, did power go out there? How much impact did Lane have on the island?
IN,
We lost power only briefly hour or so each time.
I received 28 inches of rain on my property in a little over 24 hours. Max wind of 30 kts.
After 18 years I pretty much have control over my drainage so I have around $500 of gravel to replace.
Some places flooded but they ALWAYs flood and everybody knows where they are. The usual places had mudslides. You live in rural Hawaii with all the risks and benefits that entails.
Sheesh that’s a lot of rain, did ya put on your snorkel and fins? Glad you made it through it.
Look into getting purple yam if you don’t already it is the perfect plant for island life you only need one living stem to fill a yard full.. talk to some Philippines you know about the camote. We grow them here in Ohio and my wife is Filipino they turn out great and grow really easy https://m.ebay.com/itm/Dioscorea-alata-purple-yam-ube-plant-/232868903771?oid=332712707941
Rellik,
Where you are there’s good solar power, do you have enough, with batteries to keep just a refrigerator and freezer running 24/7, if so that’s golden. You own the world.
With a freezer you can long term store flour and other dry goods. They have an expiration date, seal them with a vacuum sealer, and tag them with the date. Seal date – expiration date is your grace period. If the SHTF and you can’t keep the freezer running, tag that date. Original ex date – stored date + defrost date = current expire date. I have things like olive oil, flour, powdered gravy etc in my freezer. I use this stuff and rotate it by date. It’s ready to use.
Ham slices, hmmm have you ever had true “Taylor Ham”. Ahh but you’d need a freezer. I digress.
In my long term stores I have whole grained wheat and others, they are good for 25-30 years. After buying some I took a can of wheat and made many loaves of bread with it, a lot of work, but it was amazing.
The opened can sat unused for about six years. I spread some this spring in a garden, and damn if I didn’t have like 80% germination. Mountain house is really quality stuff. Of course as it went to seed the deer came and ate it.
Note to self, some stored wheat is a great way to attract deer in the SHTF, have extra crossbow bolts or .22 LR and a solar charger for the night vision scope.
I always found it interesting that the number one choice of deer poachers is a Ruger 10-22 with .22LR hollow points. Huh, interesting.
PTPO,
PV system I designed will run my two houses, and a 2400 sf wood/metal/auto shop. One house will need propane periodically.
I just need Hurricanes to quit beating on me to start to install PV system.
I dry can goods, but have a budget line for a vacuum sealer and Nitrogen.
I have about #300 of wheat berries spread between white and red, so I can make a lot of bread.
As for Mountain house stuff, my pigs would like it, I don’t.
As for guns and stuff, if you know how many guns and ammo you have
you don’t have enough.
I never poach, don’t need to. Most people here would think
I’m operating a ranch. I’m not, but my neighbor has around 2,000 head of cattle and various other critters. We barter.
rellik, this may sound like a silly question, but when did they start calling them Hurricanes in the Pacific, I may be wrong but it seems they were always called Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Typhoons in the Pacific. What say you? Trekker Out
International date line 180 degrees West Longitude.
On one side( the west) it is a Typhoon,
on the East side it is a Hurricane.
South of the equator they are all Cyclones.
Some arbitrary naming scheme.
They are all windy and wet.
Of all disasters I’ve lived through,
I’m trying to think hard of what kind of
natural disaster I haven’t lived through,
or very near to, I’d rather have windy and wet.
Descent your hands with mint or unscented castille soap. Human scent carries as well as our cooking odors. Putyour huntin coveralls in a cloth bag that has dirt in it. Your clothing will have an earthy smell then.
Then place cracked corn and salt block out as licks. Deer love both. You are liable to get other mammals licking as well.
If you have a stream or pond, then try there as they have to come in to get water. Ideally it’s abutting a forest into a meadow as a transition area with cover and they will come in furtively.
That’s how to get deer or if you just enjoy feeding whitetails.
The next article should explain how to preserve “brass, copper, and lead” in fat 50 cans, so It’ll last for decades. That kind of info just might be helpful to people who have never “preserved” those kind of items before.
If you were in the service and over seas you know that months past the date didn’t matter. All our food was past date.
Qd,
In 1976 I was eating C Rats dated 1953, and other than the Ham and eggs they were just fine. C rats Ham and eggs are about the most disgusting thing you could come up with. I figured out a way to heat them up, then, and only then were they palatable.
C-rats were probably more organic than MRE’s. Look up the shelf life of MRE’s and read the ingredients. It looks like something out of Dow Chemicals dumpster. Hot weather drastically reduces MRE life. I bought some years ago then found all this out and gave them away. Preps are all freeze dried/dehydrated. We open them from time to time and they are good. Just remember when opening a can of spiced things to turn it upside down and shake it because all the spices settle to the bottom. I have seen people beech about the taste because they do not have the smarts to do that….
Or store the can upside down. Which also enables you to easily tell if it is still sealed…no mess on the shelf then it is sealed
MRE’s have a very short shelf life, like five years, no prepper should buy them. The military can afford to trash and replace them. We can’t.
MRE’s are also huge on fat. They are meant for high calorie energy for soldiers, intended for short term battle field use. Long term you will get diarrhea from them, and they will do more harm than good.
You’d be better off with a five year expired sealed box of Bisquick that was stored in a cool dry environment.
Yum! C-Rats! Punch two vent holes in the top of the main course with your P-38 and burn it in the box to heat it up. There was a way to set it up so that the box was like a little, self-consuming rocket stove. Ham slices were the best. Four round, tasteless crackers in a can of their own with another tiny tin of either peanut butter or jelly enough for maybe two crackers. What to do with the other two? One had to be creative. They clogged you up pretty good though. If you were lucky, you got a can of fruit cocktail or peaches for dessert. Used to be that you’d get a sample pack of four cigarettes in your C-Rat box to get you in the habit. Usually they were OMG-awful, unfiltered Pall Malls or Lucky Strikes but I smoked them and enjoyed them anyway.
I only ever got the Main courses as they came in cases. We used to trade for the good Entrees. None of the nice little boxes, with the crackers, fruit, and cigarettes. I was not in a war zone, but a base recovering from a super Typhoon, where nothing worked for months, except us and airlift aircraft.
I still smoked back then and Lucky Strikes were one of my favorites,
although I was a Camel smoker as a rule. Glad I gave the habit up almost 40 years ago.
Genius, I use baking soda for deodorant also, but
without the silver. Haha Guess you have mold
growing there???? ( kidding ? )
Aluminum causes cancer so I quit buying deodorant.
Small pinch of baking soda is good for tooth paste.
Stinky shoes? Yep… baking soda.
Also works for laundry.
Good article…. most of us “old timers” all know about this stuff…but
the “younger sprouts” probably don’t.
Your go to deodorant is apple cider vinegar with the mother. The pH being acidic makes a hostile environment for bacteria. The mother has other bacteria which competes crowding out the unhealthy stinky kind.
Stinky bacteria is what makes sweat stink. Perspiration does not ordinarily smell. Proprionic bacteria is the culprit. Now that is bad and is partially responsible for historical and persistant boils on the skin. Under poor sanitation, you family could end up with persistant infections this way and that creates terrible medical instability.
The only time sweat smells otherwise is when fasting as the body will attempt to expel toxic residue under those conditions. Try it sometime. Go on a vegetable and nonstarchy fruit diet for a week. Your sweat will smell as you are purging it through your skin.
While learning how to make vinegar with culture, you might as well make pectin as our ancestors did from apples. You’re going to need this to make your preserves to “set”. Otherwise you will have very liquidity fruit and sugar will be very “dear” and in such short supply unless you planned for it.
Otherwise all you have is using cornstarch to firm up fruit in a pie.
You can also soak pine needles in rainwater and make a solution to use as a cleaning agent and deodorant.
If on the coasts, slowly dry out seawater, so you have sea salt. A little will also prevent this bacteria. For everyone else salt is so difficult to acquire that this is unlikely a solution.
We have canned since our parents quit. Right now we are working on our 2012 Tuna. Eating it that is. We have a couple of hundred pints of green beans going back 5 years or so. If your home canned goods lose their seal, trust me, you will know it. One nice thing about canning your own, no one shits in your food and no mice or other rodents. Think I’m kidding? Take a look at who works in the canneries. If you follow the rules in canning—no worries. Try some of your own canned soups in quart jars Yes, they have to be pressure cooked but so what. Set aside a weekend. On the down side, it’s hard work not even counting growing the food! Other down side, it will take away from your commenting time on survival websites!
I can everything I grow, from tomatoes to blackeyed peas. Even corn.
You will be in the kitchen for longer than just a weekend. I start canning home grown produce in June and I’m still canning today.
Then in a few months, I’ll begin the meat canning.
been pressure, and dry canning for years. just finished up late 90’s pumpkin. have 2 rooms full of canned goods. the new pull top cans do not last as long so remember that. wife just did a batch of salsa (all home grown of course.).
ten years ago we ran into some bad times and lived on our stash for almost a year before our situation changed.
dry canning the pasta, rice and stuff eliminated bugs or rodent damage. We don’t store dry beans. we prepare, cook and can them.
long grain rice is cooked then dehydrated and dry canned.(homemade minute rice). Saves prep time for meals and you don’t loose any to bugs or rodents. Was a great article in Countryside magazine a few years back on dry canning real butter so it didn’t need refrigeration.
prepper food is no good if you wont eat it.
Cit,
Why don’t you dry can the beans?
I keep my beans and rice in 5 gallon buckets,
in mylar bags, with oxygen absorbers. Seems to work OK.
We freeze our brown rice.
Butter, I keep powdered for cooking.
I have some Ghee stashed away but rely
on the freezer for most long term
regular butter storage.
I still depend on things like reefers and freezers,
but if I ever can get these darn Hurricanes to quit
showing up, I’m starting on my solar installation which
gives me a power source for appliances. I now know
where to put the drainage system at.
relik 3 reasons. beans get old and get crunchy/hard. also I live in the desert SW and water could be a premium.Plus they are now ready to eat no more prep needed. We are running 2 big chest freezers as well. I have back up power supplies for them.
Soak your beans for 24 hours. Toss the water. Put in fresh with some baking soda. Even old beans can be eaten with patience.
You toss the water because it contains both chemical elements that cause the skins to be impenetravke AND causes flatulence.
If your beans are very old, you can either grind them or soak them for 48 hours to germinate them. What that does is significantly boost the nutrition especially with vitamins. Then as above, toss the water and soak in this baking soda water.
M,
ThankX!
You are more than welcome, Sir. I can tell you have a good heart, are very knowledgable and wise, pragmatic and a veteran, a devout Christian. You likely know where the term “Sir” comes from and certainly deserve it.
For everyone else.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir
1297 and seigneur is the origin of the term.
In medieval times, you would have been such a person.
Just kick the can down the road. Everybody else does.
_
. . .that’s what scripture recommends. . .
There are very specific reasons I discuss a need for articles on how to can things like bacon. It’s a major point of interest in the prepper community. Likewise, if you do any searching at all, you will see articles on canning butter.
Now why is that? Well both are common ingredients in American diets BUT the genuine reason is under survival conditions, your family needs FAT to survive. The doubling of calories in FAT is what saved our ancestors during times when food stores were low:
1. Like when cooped up in a cabin during winter and people are inclined to eat more
2. Or during the early spring when few wild edible plants are available and have but a scant amount of calories.
3. Times when neither game animals or fish or livestock are available as either they are too small or are carrying offspring and thus can’t be harvested
Now why can’t you just can these items safely? Either the canning is insufficient to actually be undergoing a canning preserving process, or if doesn’t kill microbes or pathogens, or it does not safely ensure that decomposition is not halted. And there are guidelines for food safety regarding if the product is actually edible.
I know you can tough it out. I have eaten disgusting things in survival class. So what?
Universities with large agriculture departments like Clemson spend money on research to have experiments done to prove the feasibility, safety, and have microbiolgists and nutritionists test the canned or preserved food (like dehydrating and smoking and brining and pickling and fermenting).
That is what is needed. Actual microbial testing to identify what colonies are produced or contained in the food. Actual analysis of the carbs, fat, proteain, vitamins, and mineral content in the food after a year, 3 years, 5 years, etc.
Practically anyone with a lick of common sense can pressure can food and most things will be okay and not have botulism spores in them. Botulism is near negligible based on statistics.
But we do not have data on nitrate based meat like bacon nor have any evidence that canning butter or cheese is effective. Yet there are numerous videos on these as well as well meaning articles where they did the work to produce canned food and it tasted “okay” but is it safe, microbe free, and has nutritional value? Nobody knows.
The issue is some university scientists in an agricultural research program, do not want to stick their necks out in a five year study to prove it. They do not want to tarnish their reputation. Yet the most useful thing they could do is ensuring foods with high levels of lipids are safe.
For all the talk about colloid silver, we do not have any scientific evidence that it is effective. That’s the problem. It might be very effective. There are lots of ancestral cures that use herbs like grapefruit seed and olive leaf that allegedly kill microbes but no one is doing serious research to prove it.
That’s a shame because in a time when the dollar lost half its value since 1990 and when Obamacare has all but destroyed affordable healthcare in America, and when we have massive deficit spending, then frugal practical nutritional solutions are needed to restore the health of our citizens.
The average person is so disconnected from what their ancestors did, that they are near helpless in times of hardship…let alone when the SHTF. And the politicians who are supposed to shepherd and lead the people, just enrich themselves, when a wise practical prepper, who became a politician, could instead enact pragmatic common sense frugal policies to encourage growing gardens, raising herbs, raising small scale livestock and aquaculture (like tilapia), foster apiaries, and so easily turn this debacle around.
Simple home canning is a start. Frankly dehydrating produce alone could vastly reduce food waste that just ends up being tossed and filling up landfills. Since you cannot dehydrate meats and fat bearing fish without massive loss of calories, then canning will always be part of the repertoie.
Read nutrition labels carefully. Freeze dried foods notoriously are packaged with very LOW calories. They already are outrageously expensive but if you are relying upon them, and then discover that the nutrition is inadequate, it will cause starvation and WEAKNESS.
Try this. Spend a week only eating freeze dried food and doing strenuous activity. It won’t work. If it did, the military would in a heartbeat switch to it versus MREs. Freeze dried foods have a tiny role for hunting parties when the SHTF and that is about all. Fat goes rancid quickly in freeze dried foods.
Backpackers popularized freeze dried foods due to low weight. But ask ANY Appalachian Trail thru-hiker. The ones going the LONG distance ALL eat voraciously with high fat foods to have the energy to do it.
This is why military grade MREs (canned food) not only aims for 2000 calories a day,but might contain 3100-3700 calories per day. The exertion requires a canned food rich in FAT as that can be easily heated, has the nutrients, is safe, is low in microbes, is edible.
If you are canning then consider that under disaster condition, your family might need 1.5 times the normal amount due to exertion.
Why is anyone storing food they don’t eat?
And if they store food they eat, why are they storing it without rotating it for continuing freshness?
I guess I don’t understand “prepping”.
Anonymous; Good point. I think a lot of people don’t can their own stuff and buy cases of food for storage in time of emergency. It makes a whole lot more sense to grow your own veggies that you like and can a bunch of it. My wife and I put up about 60 pints of green beans over the last few days. We have a bunch more to do. When you do the math 60 pints is only one pint per week for a year. And no we don’t just do beans. Our pantry is large and stays mostly full of canned goods and 5 gallon food grade buckets with these neat spin off lids we found, I think at Winco for things like oatmeal, beans, rice, etc. Some of the things we can like stewing chicken , is far better when eaten at a later date than fresh. If you cook off and can your layers when they have lived their useful life you can make some of the best enchiladas you will ever eat. It just makes me feel good inside to look in a full pantry. As much food as we keep stored, if the flow of food ended it would disappear really quickly. Then too there is always friends and family. If you don’t want to turn anyone who shows up away at gunpoint what will you do? So many problems and questions beyond just having stored food.
So will the colloidial silver help with the God awful itching I have all over my wee-wee? It’s burning and it’s like pissing razor blades and when I wake up in the morning, the poor mushroom cap, well is completely glued to my inner thigh – is that normal and a good thing? You guys ever date any of the ladies of the day from say Back-Page or even Craig’s List by chance??
I had a can of 2007 soup recently and it was fine. I go by what type of lid is on the can. If a can has a pop top pull ring tab I’ll go out 2-3 years and if a can needs an opener I think it is indefinite and use the sight and smell test.
Agreed.
Just opened several cans of green beans with a 2012 expiration date. They were fine. Maybe some lost nutritional value. But still very much edible. Cans are kept in a dry, cool, dark basement.
Mal
Y’all,
Our experience with storage of food has been an eye opener for us. We still have some cans of coffee from Y2K that we still try occasionally. They have lost a lot of that deep smell when you crack the can. Still tastes like coffee. (note: I’m not a coffee connoisseur and would not know great coffee, if it spanked my tail.) The “brick” of coffee that I’m drinking today has a best by of 2012. Like rellik has stated, we have quit stocking a lot of stuff because it does go bad with time.
Beef will pick up a metallic taste a few years past the date. Chicken has not… Go figure. It’s those tins of stew beef from Brazil. I now can my own beef, since the wife got me an All-American canner.
I have tried canning hot dogs, bacon, hamburger, Johnsonville sausage, pork loin, regular sausage (patties and ground) and hams. Despite what Joo-tube say’s, canning some stuff, SUCKS… 🙁
Hot dogs become Vienna sausages. Bacon strips become bacon bits. Hamburger is very soft on mouth feel. (not bad for taco’s and such) Beef and pork cuts turn out the best if you want instant stew beef, or pork that can be used for BBQ or sweet and sour rice type dish. Sausage patties turn out ok, just not as good as doing it fresh. The ham is great to add with beans. The canning process breaks down the bonds that make meat tuff, so you end up with mushy meat.
If the power ever goes out long term, we would can everything. Until then, I’m back to vacuum packing the meat for the freezer. I’m using London broil from 2014. As long as the seal stays intact, no freezer burn. 🙂
Campbells chunky soup will also pick up the metallic taste. We don’t stock tomato paste any longer but will stock pasta sauce, in jars only. We still have Chef Boyardee products that we are going thru. Some is now dark when opened. It gets tossed, and we’ll try another.
It’s a learning experience and sometimes it has bit us in the tail, having to throw away stuff we paid money for. I’d rather learn this now, than when it really matters.
We can butter for cooking. (not great tasting for spreading on toast.)It works out to about 2 sticks of butter per pint jar. Using up the last of the 2012 jars now. I’m still using DAK hams with a 2014 date. Cut it up into chucks and brown them for omelets.
Time to start the day y’all.
Enjoy the weekend. 🙂
We eat you Americans for breakfast at everything. Prepping make no difference. Haha ?China number 1
Another way to preserve food is by pickling it..I like to pickle eggs,corn,kraut,cabbage,etc..Nothing beats a couple pickled eggs when you are on a hangover..Well,that and some homemade tomato juice,lol..
“Woman Caught Smuggling Enough Fentanyl on a Bus to Kill 1.5 Million People”
Please go to DailySheeple.c o m for the Full story.
This is what the “Dreamers” have planned for YOU.
Note: In Houston Texas this deadly drug was put on paper fliers that were put on police cars. Luckily the plot was found out early.
But lesson is that YOU should also be careful what you handle with bare hands. Apparently this dope is contact enabled. (Maybe someone here can better explain? Not my area of knowledge.)
“La Raza” is a Mexican org that is trying to overthrow America. The LEFTIST, COMMIES, NWO, Drug Cartels, are ALL working towards a VIOLENT take over.
YOU have been warned!
But few of my posts are allowed on the net. Not here. Not anywhere. NET is scrubbed.
America was taken over, over 100 years ago. Fake money hegemon, et cetera. [Money fake, hegemon real].
Whites have not been running things since.
The socialist school monopoly was in place mid-nineteenth century.
Free America was stillborn- by 1803 ’twas illegal to criticize the government [Alien and Sedition Act(s)].
The Anti-Federalists told us what would happen if the Constitution were accepted. . .
If you have been a prepper for at least five years (and I have been one for many many decades), then you have probably run into the overly zealous one who make total unsubstantiated claims based on hear-say.
For example, fat will fall apart and go rancid quite easily in five years when canned, but that doesn’t mean you should eat it. Is it edible? Well, I guess as it’s digestable and excretable. But that isn’t technically edible. Bacon being smoked and full of nitrates may sort of hold together up to five years after canning, but falls apart as the fat disintergrates and will often crisp up. Again we have no data on the microbiology that proves this is safe.
Italian carbonara is one my favorites but why push it if canning bacon more than a year???
Take flour for example. You really shouldn’t grind up wheat into flour in LARGE amounts because the shelf life due to oxidation is 6 months in the refrigerator and 12 months in the freezer. Why? The oils turn rancid in the flour. The reason you put flour in the freezer is there are always moth larva in it, as some of you have found out, and this is why when you walk down grocery aisles you see the fluttering wings of pantry moths. Those pheremone kits work wonders by the way.
Under survival conditions, your flour is going to not last very long as it’s exposed to higher heat.
So while yes, you might be able to get flour to rise that is expired and make bread with it, it would taste AWFUL.
Yet people routinely will eat way expired C rations just to show off. Well, it ain’t smart.
Some goofy new prepper reads some outrageous claim about decades old pemmican being edible. Well, maybe if you can stomach it, but technically it’s rancid.
Way back during the crusades, pilgrims to the Holy Lands as well as crusaders carried panforte. It’s the original Italian fruitcake and it is vastly superior as a survival bread as tastes good. The trick was it is dosed with brandy. This Christmas, why not try making a batch, and if you like it, give it away as a present? It’s typically hearty with fruit and nuts and often now has chocolate or even coconut in it.
You would find that the LDS settlers used a kind of survival fruitcake as well, but it contained grasshopper or crickets that had been dried and added to boost the nutrition. They learned that from certain Native Americans.
There are some crazy folks who have fruitcakes dating back to the Civil War and have eaten them, but of course they are technically horrendously rancid…but digestable.
Don’t make yourself sick. Under survival conditions, vomiting and diarrhea can kill you if you have santiation issues or water problems.
http://www.elsiemarley.com/panforte.html
Here is a pretty good recipe for panforte. I would douse it with a little brandy at the end. Let that dry, then dust it with powdered sugar.
For a variation include pecans. They add a delicious sweetness. If you like a buttery taste, add macadamian nuts.
Cardomon is essential as it’s the delicious spice that is most often in doughnuts. Some people brew Sri Lanka (Ceylon) tea with cardomon.
Honey should be added as it’s antimicrobial and helps keep it fresh.
Once you make it, your family is going to ask that you make it regularly. It’s an ideal camping food as it has a dense amount of calories with carbs and protein and fat.
It may be too chewy for older relatives.
It sone of those recipes where if you dehydrate your fresh produce around the homestead, then you could incorporate just about any fruits or even carrots.
Old foods are bad for the liver… if you want to eat half rotten food, go for it… and then have a liver transplant– to each his own. I prefer fresh, wholesome food, personally!!
Anonymous:
I think you have missed the point. The exchange here about pushing the limits of canned food safety is so that we can make a better judgement of what to eat if we are facing starvation. No one wants to eat old food, at least I don’t.
If you are really worried about your liver, skip the cigarettes and booze. (Not you personally.).
Also, remember that Tylenol and alcohol cause liver failure. And, of course, never drink alcohol if you are or may be pregnant. Most of the damage is done to the unborn during the first couple of months.
Possibly, the fashionable fad of females intoxicating themselves, during their reproductive years, is why there seems to be an increase of really stupid people. (Again, not aimed at you personally.)
_
To all,
The liver is a gland. If you don’t entirely destroy it, it will heal if you stop the bad things you are doing to it. Trick is to catch it in time. Drinking is OK, Drinking too much is not. Tylenol is like a fifth of whiskey a day. I stay with Aspirin.
My God-Daughter was a Fetal Alcohol syndrome baby. She was adopted when quite young and raised by good people. She has some
interesting problems, but overall is more normal than a lot of other kids I’ve seen that were raised by health nut, helicopter parents. I’m biased of course.
plus 1000 on the home canning. And grandee is right, you put up food all summer and fall. Enough to get you through to the next year’s harvest and the next fall’s butchering.
Over the years we’ve developed a plan for canning. We grow a garden every year but we rotate the main crop year to year. Say we grow tomatoes as a main veggie. We grow enough to last three or four years canned into tomatoes and sauce and juice. The next year we may grow enough canned beans to last three or four years. Spinach, beets, cukes, cauliflower, cabbage and collards are done the same way. You can often grow two gardens yearly depending on the climate where you live (NE mainland here).
Mainstays, like potatoes, we grow every year and keep in the root cellar. We have some canned up, but I was never that impressed with home canned potatoes.
The cauliflower and cucumbers can be pickled in various ways and canned. Horseradish and garlic can be ground up and mixed with vinegar to preserve The cabbage can be canned and also made into sauerkraut.
Peppers, onions, parsley mustard and other herbs are good to go in your dehydrator.
If you keep chickens, there are ways to keep enough eggs to last during the moulting or when you need to cull the flock down to overwinter with minimal feed (this pertains to colder climates) WITHOUT refrigeration. I have tied the mineral oil one and it works.
Beef,chicken and pork can all be canned, of course. I like to take beef hearts and pickle them and can them. Regular beef canned lasts years if done correctly. The butcher is just looking for someone to take beef hearts off his hands. Our dog also eats them as a main dish…UNpickled of course.
Get some Morton cure and try your hand at making cured meat. Or you can use salt petre but you need to know the correct amounts or you can poison yourself.
It’s all a learning process and it takes a while to gather up all the needed things for food preservation that our great grandparents had on hand every day.
If you think that a SHTF situation involves root hawg or die, you need to bone up on food growing and preservation or you will starve. SHTF will happen some day…who knows when.
Another good skill to learn is tobacco (regular or wacky)growing. A stovetop still and a cast iron bathtub for the gin are essential preps. I myself like to make wine and keep several gallons brewing at all times.
Good luck and get crackin’.
Billions will be liquidated in the coming collapse. Try not to be one of them.
Maybe Patriot Nurse can tell us if a pressure cooker sterilizes everything just as hospital instruments? Can you sterilize bacterial contaminated food and still get some value?
Your pressure cooker is essentially an autoclave and that is what they use to sterilize medical items. They generally use phenol to chemically treat items in case of accidents. That is the old school ingredient in early disinfectants. Obviously you can use weak bleach (hypochlorite). Phenol shouldn’t be used on human tissue.
To also ensure protection against prions (which are not killed by autoclaving) you add copper ions as that has efficacy.
We generally have few information on thermophiles. Those can withstant autoclaving.
All American is a great brand for pressure canners.
Besides the regular jar canning, they make and sell a manual aluminum can sealer for #10 & #12 cans (same as a 2lb. or 3lb. coffee can). Can do 150 cans per hour. No special training required. Would be great if you had a freeze drier. They have come down in price. Also, the can sealer is under $400. Check the prices of regular commercial can sealing machines. Thousands.
Does not work with stainless steal cans. But, I’m thinking $30,000 for a Church or a communal garden might be doable. Also, if you want to go into business selling grandma’s speacial sauce. Did anyone happen to have seen that movie “Fried Green Tom-a-toes”?
_
Alert. True Pundit is reporting that the girl friend of the Las Vegas shooter claims she was working for the FBI. Marilou Danley says she was employed by the FBI. Danley also claims she helped Stephan Paddock load all those magazines. Hmmm.
Him,
I just went to your source, the only thing of interest
that I could not have found on Drudge is Sen. McCain is
dead.
Drudge,
Has the McCain news also.
Good riddance, I hated that RINO traitor bastard McCain. Won’t miss him one bit.
Dang Mac,
I’ve been in Mod for over 10 hours. 🙁
That’s a first. Most of the time the posts are immediate this past several years.
Is it because I made a reference to YouTube? and who owns it?
Also, I hope that McStain is talking to Kushiel right now.
Lets try this from above and see if it posts just as quick. 🙂
Y’all,
Our experience with storage of food has been an eye opener for us. We still have some cans of coffee from Y2K that we still try occasionally. They have lost a lot of that deep smell when you crack the can. Still tastes like coffee. (note: I’m not a coffee connoisseur and would not know great coffee, if it spanked my tail.) The “brick” of coffee that I’m drinking today has a best by of 2012. Like rellik has stated, we have quit stocking a lot of stuff because it does go bad with time.
Beef will pick up a metallic taste a few years past the date. Chicken has not… Go figure. It’s those tins of stew beef from Brazil. I now can my own beef, since the wife got me an All-American canner.
I have tried canning hot dogs, bacon, hamburger, Johnsonville sausage, pork loin, regular sausage (patties and ground) and hams. Despite what (CENSORED) say’s, canning some stuff, SUCKS… ?
Hot dogs become Vienna sausages. Bacon strips become bacon bits. Hamburger is very soft on mouth feel. (not bad for taco’s and such) Beef and pork cuts turn out the best if you want instant stew beef, or pork that can be used for BBQ or sweet and sour rice type dish. Sausage patties turn out ok, just not as good as doing it fresh. The ham is great to add with beans. The canning process breaks down the bonds that make meat tuff, so you end up with mushy meat.
If the power ever goes out long term, we would can everything. Until then, I’m back to vacuum packing the meat for the freezer. I’m using London broil from 2014. As long as the seal stays intact, no freezer burn. ?
Campbells chunky soup will also pick up the metallic taste. We don’t stock tomato paste any longer but will stock pasta sauce, in jars only. We still have Chef Boyardee products that we are going thru. Some is now dark when opened. It gets tossed, and we’ll try another.
It’s a learning experience and sometimes it has bit us in the tail, having to throw away stuff we paid money for. I’d rather learn this now, than when it really matters.
We can butter for cooking. (not great tasting for spreading on toast.)It works out to about 2 sticks of butter per pint jar. Using up the last of the 2012 jars now. I’m still using DAK hams with a 2014 date. Cut it up into chucks and brown them for omelets.
Time to start the day y’all.
Enjoy the weekend. ?
Oh yea!!! 🙂
That will throw the ol’ monkey wrench into a comment. 🙂
My coffee was in those huge containers I bought years ago when the coffee scare was announced..that turned out to be nothing; so I opened the cans, put in mason jars and sealed.
Haven’t tested it yet..I drink instant since it’s just one coffee drinker in this house.
But, I bet it will taste like freshly opened coffee.
By the way, I have a few cans of chef-boy-ardee and opened one just to test the taste–tasted great. The BB date was Dec. 2014!!!!! And, the lid was a pop-top.
I was surprised about that.
I have tomato sauce that is years old-still taste great–no metallic taste and I mean they are many years old.
Hey JayJay,
Yea, I’m pretty much it for drinking the pot every day. I take the last of it to work in a travel mug, even though the company provides free coffee for everyone.
This Chef Boyardee is a “LOT” older than that. It is marked with the julian date code instead of Best by: 🙂
Were talking early 2000’s
I don’t care. I had to open 3 cans of Hormel chili this morning for the loaded hashbrowns just to find a good one still. 🙁
I forgot to add that the dates on the chunky soup is 2005.
Have to get the Lamb chops on the grill.
Y’all play nice now. 😉
Off Topic. However that sack of shit Traitor McCain has finally died. Good Riddance. Wa Hoo
No shit.
If only the Arizona idiots that kept voting him in would do the same?
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/liver_biliary_and_pancreatic_disorders/liver_anatomy_and_functions_85,P00676
The liver is NOT a gland.
It is an invaluable organ that creates enzymes that performs an enormous amount of metabolic functions, filters the blood of toxins and drugs and things it deems to not properly be there.
While I see no problem in a glass of wine every once in a while, I drink less than a glass of wine a month, and by that I mean a tiny glass.
Ethanol flows rapidly into the bloodstream and is one of the few substances that readily crosses the blood brain barrier. That is why it so quickly makes you inebriated. The liver immediates sees it as a toxin and since enzymes are made which can detoxify it, your body has a coping mechanism thhaat can vary based on ethncity. This is why Asians and Native Americans can become terrible alcoholics as their bodies make less of this enzyme.
All kinds of things damage liver function because they are in effect poisons. In Germany, in cases of severe life treatening poisonings, like from bad mushrooms, they give doses of milk thistle. I know that works as someone who I met was dying due to be a lifelong alcoholic and not given much time to live. I suggested milk thistle, and their health rallied for a month, and they had time to make their peace with YHWH and with their family.
The liver cannot just cope and regenerate if you keep harming yourself by overindulgence.
A small amount of red wine is actually good for your heart. But routinely drinking too much of any substance containing ethanol harms your entire body. It directly damages the liver, the kidneys, the heart, and the stomach, and the esophagus, and the brain. Walk among the homeless and you will encounter lots of alcoholism.
If you have such poor coping mechanisms that you have to drink ethanol routinely, you are sick and self-medicating. You need to quit if you feel that everyday drinking is normal. You are stressed out and tranquillizing and it is not working. Most typically, you have an unresolved spiritual problem.
It’s worse than smoking.
Ethanol might be a good trade item when the SHTF, but in history is was a terrible trade off in valuable crops to be a bootlegger. It’s only valuable if trade is safe as a concept and that is largely contigent on transportation and population density. And none of these are truly possible when the SHTF.
If you don’t know the water content when making ethanol by distillation, ask anyone who has taken organic chemistry about how the “come over” temperataure of your ethanol can vary. What you acquire by distillation, unless PRECISELY controlled and measured with a very accurate NBS TRACEABLE THERMOMETER will likely contain other harmful alcohols. That causes blindness and other health issues and that repeats over and over in history.
This is why our ancestors did NOT largely distill but instead fermented. And when they made a batch of raisin wine, it was a small batch. And if they wanted to increase the ethanol content, they froze it.
The reason so few were alcoholics in rural areas was they didn’t waste their time and money on foolishness. It’s a poor trade off of resources.
The same is true of tobacco. They grew it and used a tiny amount and traded the rest. It was like cash and since it has a medical value for things like a toothache, then it would a waste to just smoke it…like burning CASH.
Even the wealthy did not smoke packs of cigarettes per day.
This is the problem in America when people have adopted outrageous coping mechanisms to deal with stress.
Compared to our ancestors who made a tiny amount of wine after harvest and then it was quaffed at festival time, and finished until next year. They didn’t drink it all the time. If you were daily drinking even wine, your neighbors knew it and avoided you…as you were an unreliable person.
As soon as we had grocery stores and liquor stores, then Americans got kooky ideas about routinely buying out of season crops made into products. Our ancestors had limited canning and bottling ability. They mostly dried crops, pickled, fermented, smoked, and then when annual harvests were done, they ran out and there was no more.
A smart housewife was a homemaker when she carefully managed these crops as food stores in her pantry and root cellar. And by doing so, she could plan for a special cake at Christmas, some baked goods at holidays and birthdays, or not and her family was miserable.
This is why when canning became widespread, it was a huge bonus. The main goals were to preserve food stores for say two years such that if the various crops failed, she still had planned enough to feed her family diverse foods that were nutritious. She wasn’t storing food for five years as she didn’t have the pantry space or a large enough root cellar. Remember that homes were much smaller and shared typically across three generations.
If she had that much excess, she likely had converted too much produce or meat instead of selling it so they could improve the homestead with an addition, another well, hardware, clothing, buy equipment for the farms, buy more livestock, get another horse, etc.
1.Bulging
2.Streaking
3.Hissing
4.Bubbling
5.Leaking
6.Rusted
7.Discolored
8.Dented/Damaged
9.Smells
10.Looks Moldy Describes old Traitors like McCain and Hellery to a T LOL
here’s a tip, Never buy tuna in the foil pouches to store, for some reason the canned stuff lasts forever but the foil pouches do something to the tuna that when you eat it, if its over 6 months old, you get terrible cramps and diarrhea..this has happened to me several times before I learned, and the stuff looked and smelled and tasted Ok but definitely was not ok.
already gone,
Thanks for the heads up.
I’m running some tests on the retort packages of tuna.
I’ve placed them in the freezer to see how long I can get out of the tuna that way.
I’m wanting to do a 5 year sample and every year after that, to see if there is a change in taste/texture.
I’ll take your advice and if the symtoms show up, I’ll know why.
Thanks again. 🙂
Talked to a friend today that had a weekend visit with someone that works at Weather Mountain. He is a prepper, has a high security clearance so could not say much at all, but what he did say was that we will not survive for long what is coming. He questioned my friend about her prepping, to which she was vague with some of her answers and said get away from towns. They talked about a lot of things for hours, guns, prepping, but mostley about President Trump. Right now Trump is fighting multiple wars, the ones you hear about on TV and the important ones where he is trying to build our military as fast as possible, and make us as safe as possible. We are a divided nation now so when shtf, your neighbor is less likely to come to your aid, you will be on your own.
Contrary to popular belief, smoking “whacky weed” is harmful as it is an hormone disruptor and if you are a guy, especially an idiot millennial, then abuse of it causes gynecomastia! Weird. Not only that, but in a study just released in last 72 hours, smoking it ages the brain 2.5 years by reducing blood flow.
Potheads are idiots.
There is a small amount of evidence that oil made from it mighthave beneficial medical effects, but without any serious medical research and tests, it’s pure speculation with a scant amount anecdotal evidence.
Honestly, I’m wondering if some of you folks ever crack open a book?
I crack open books daily–and I take hemp oil EVERY day in a capsule I fill along with DE in capsules.
Not really productive to come here and insult the readers.
…and where js the PROOF it’s valid? There isn’t any. All there is…is anecdotal jawbonin’.
Well, teaching others to smoke weed or grow it is IMMORAL.
What does Jesus think about that? You’re making your brother and sister to stumble.
It’s proven to not be safe. If you want moobs go on ahead but it’s weird. If you want early onset demetia…go on ahead.
Show me a pothead and their primary attribute is laziness and stupidity.
. . .perhaps laziness and stupidity made them go to pot. . .
You pothead clowns are a riot. Admit that it’s mary jane or else do not baffle with BS about hemp. They are NOT the same thing but you want to push it.
Okay, if it works, what is the dosage? By what proceedure to ensure concentration? How many times do you take it and in what manner? What about polypharmacy? What are the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics? What the mechanism of action? What are the contraindications? What interactions? How is it metabolized? What pathological conditions does it alleviate?
If you can’t answer these questions, then how do you know it is effective?
That is the difference between pharmacology and active ingredients and herbal medicine that is backed up by historical evidence largely by osteopathic medicine versus allopathic medicine.
Otherwise you are jawbonin’.
. . .strange choice of words. . .you don’t claim to be actually reading the books. . .
Strange choice? Those are pharmacology terms that you learn in graduate school. Talk about reading books. Buddy, I had to read lots of very technical books.
I kept chucking out a lot of expired dry staples and canned goods – so I cut down on how much I stashed and shifted to a larger stock of Freeze Dried foods with much longer expiration dates. I justify the higher price by having a much lower spoilage cost.
To make an excellent batch of chilli, get some masa flour (masa harina) and put in some. The corn taste adds a delicious flavor that is mild, unique, and thickens it. This is same flour used to make tamales. I reckon you could take some corn meal and pulverize it in the blender and get the same effect.
A small amount of good strong coffee brewed up and added likewise is very good. A tiny amount of cocoa powder also is peculiar but delicious.
I prefer using pinto beans instead of kidney while some purists never add beans at all. It stretches the chili and is flavorful and nutritious. Saving pennies adds up.
Ideally you’re supposed to make it with beef tongue which is far better than ground chuck.
I made vegetarian chili using a meat substitute and I thought it was gross but the vegetarians liked it.
If you like Mexican food, and grow lima beans and pumpkins, the Mayan people of the Yucatan peninsula use pumpkin seed as a spice. It seems weird but combining it with lima beans is quite delicious.
If you grow zucchini and have a pecan tree, those two for some reason go very well together.
Tried storing peanuts in red plastic gas cans , they have plastic taste, does anyone know what it is and how toxic?
Peanuts are natural phytoestogens. In fact they make extracts of them to treat women with hot flashes who have gone through the natural change or who have had hysterectomies.
Now on top of that, many plastics have estrogen-like compounds. Plastics will naturally off-gas and you will smellthos residue, but especially when affected be heat, this accelerates this process. This is why you NEVER should heat up food in plastic.
Soybeans are also natural phytoestrogens.
Guys have to be careful, especially if carrying around a pot belly. Belly fat naturally produces estrogen as well. That is why middle age spread happens as a women’s body tries to cope with estrogen loss, and why men get soft by getting fat. If getting lots of these phystoestrogens and estrogen-like compunds, they will cry at the drop of a hat.
I would eat them sparingly as they taste off and are not good for you. You did this to protect them from rodents, right?
Native Americans, say the Cherokee in North Carolina, will boil peanuts as a treat. You might see if that helps.
Maranatha , what are you a walking talking encyclopedia? Thanks for the effort, and info.
I ate a can of Progresso Creamy Tomato Basil soup with an ‘expiration date’ of Jan 2010 just yesterday and I’m still here!
Watch out for delayed reaction.
If you have chosen to live in the desert regions, I got to ask…why? Why would you intentionally choose a region known to have insufficient rainfall. That is a lack of basic common sense regarding a bug out location.
Did tribes elect by virtue of birth to live in less than optimal places? Yes. In anthropology you can find people in extreme weather and growing seasonal brevity but it likewise SEVERELY reduced tribe size. It means no buffer whatsoever as the limit on rainfall or cold meant vastly reduced harvest, livestock, wild game, wild edibles, even many health issues. A single bad year could wipe you out.
I don’t understand how you can be a prepper if you are ignoring the primary issues for human habitation like that. Indigenuous people did dwell in the desert regions around water and adapted to largely subsistence hunting, trapping, and fishing in the far north. But they often died.
There are optimal places in the world like the Central Plateau of Costa Rica where it is eternally springtime and the political climate is safe. But it’s not America. And though they are safe, it’s tentative and contigent upon EVERY nation around them. In the seventies and eighties, many Americans fled there. Now they go to Equador.
Kauai, an island in the Hawaian chain has perpetually good weather but owning real estate in prohibitive for most.
Western Kentucky is not expensive, has no nuclear power plants, has lots of preppers, the soil is fertile and suitable for crops and livestock. There are lots of wild edibles and good trees for a variety of reasons. The weather is mild enough in Winter and not beastly hot in summer as it is further south. You can grow two cool weather “fall” crops and one summer crop especially with cloches or inexpensve plastic sheeting. There is plenty of fishing and hunting here. The only negative is a remote chance of a reactivation of the New Madrid fault which mildly affected rural regions.
KY historically was a Dixiecrat region after the Civil War. That means very conservative Democrats. But after Ronald Reagan, and the subsequent Republican Revolution, is largely Republican in ethos, save the crazy liberals in Louisville and Lexington. The rural people are very conservative in ethos.
Pick some region that in history worked well and has low population density and ideally river traffic for trade and an additional means of travel. That is what our ancestors did.
I can see why many people moved west of the Mississippi. But ethnic conflict is certain if the SHTF in many of these places. And annual rainfall is historically an issue of greatly reduced growing seasons. And now, your state governments have been corrupted.
M.
“Kauai, an island in the Hawaian chain has perpetually good weather but owning real estate in prohibitive for most”.
You describe most the other Islands also.
I have land on the Big Island, but If I were Filthy rich I’d buy Molokai land.
Only place in Hawaii that has good farming, sailing, fishing, and hunting all in the same spot.
Yep. I wanted to visit Molokai. The only negative is historically it was used as a leper colony. Leprosy is a mysterious disease. We really know very little about it.
I visited Kauai and thought it was a paradise. Good friendly people too, especially in the very rural regions. We drove around and avoided the touristregions…mostly using the isolated hidden beaches that locals used.
I wanted to visit the orchid section on the big island of Hawaii, but there wasn’t time. I only got to see the Kona Coast so I really missed out on exploring.
Kentucky today expected 94°. I already watered my neglected plants. These sprinkles we got help, but 94° is not good.
I like it here because I can run errands and see no hispanics– illegals.
I only was aware of a few and even they moved to the city in Tennessee I moved from 11 years ago and illegals over-taking all the jobs in the factories was one reason.
Russian, Ukrainian, people of the baltics that survivied BRUTAL comie takeovers, can help you survive difficult times. People of Africa also have something to teach you.
– – – Grow Potatoes.
– – – Grow Sweet Potatoes
– – – Grow Yams
Also:
Grow onions
Grow garlic
If your circumstances allow:
Keep Chickens.
Keep Goats.
Keep Bees.
Learn NOW how to Grow-Keep/Store-Prepare meals with the afore mentioned. You MUST learn and PRACTICE BEFORE needed. Your LIFE depends on gaining useful growing skills.
It is not easy. Takes work. But it will be worth your time and is MUCH more helpful than following politics or bitching about politics.
ONLY YOU CAN SAVE YOUR FAMILY. Not Trump. Not FEMA.
There is you. There is God. God helps those that helps themselves.
Unplug from your screens-phones-computer.
Grow potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Good Luck. Good Day. May God Bless your efforts.
John,
Why goats?
as opposed to cattle and pigs?
How to properly make goober peas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2jhGqt5Xug
Soak the green ie unroasted raw peanuts until they sink. Spice them up to for variation.
Goober peas, taters, amd corn pone kept the confederate soldiers alive. That and hardtack and lard. They were set if they had bacon and some vegetables to stave off scurvy.
If y’all will store up lentils, these easily hydrate versus beans, which comes in handy. And they soak up spicy flavoring to make some Indian curry. That and some rice or flatbread is stick to your ribs food and dirt cheap.
Even folks that are broke can just store lentils and rice and flavorings and have an emergency food supply for any budget. It will be missing vitamins and minerals so you need to address that.