I don't have any ravioli or other pasta products in prep-stores; I make fresh homemade ravioli & pastas with my Imperia Pasta Machine:
Posted on 08/17/2012 8:16:52 PM PDT by Kartographer
Don’t want to stockpile 1,000 pounds of dried rice and beans? Want something that taste a little better then MREs? Want something that you don’t have to worry about rotating out?
One of the main problems with stockpiling survival food preps, is that people sometimes stockpile what they do not normally eat. So the food stocks sit in a closet, expire, and have to be thrown out. In the long run its easier to stockpile what your family normally eats so rotation is handled in a natural manner.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalistboards.com ...
If you look into it you will see that the soaking isn’t necessary, in fact that is how I cooked a batch of beans so quick that I didn’t get to add the salt until they were almost done.
I put them my pressure cooker, fired it up, and after it came to a boil and high pressure, I turned it off to let them (quick) soak for a few minutes, when I remembered them later, they were either cooked, or almost cooked.
Pre-soaking can save time, but isn’t needed.
People should also remember using their coffee thermos for cooking foods like wheat berries, it works on many things.
You didn’t mention salt so I guess that like me, you salt your beans before cooking, there is a myth that one shouldn’t salt before they are soft.
I don’t know; I’ve cooked beans without pressure cookers for 40 years and with a pressure cooker for 11 years, and if I don’t cook ‘em a while they don’t get done.
Just for kicks and giggles, I’ll try bringing them to pressure and then turning it off and see what happens.
Can I mail them to you for you to sample?
;-)
PS - About salt, I usually add a pinch when I toss them in the pressure cooker; if cooking without the pressure (like split peas and lentils), I add when 1/2 way done.
Bookmark
Bookmark
You haven’t noticed that the noodles in the chicken noodle soup get a little denser, less pleasant?
In my experience canned food lasts for many years, but that the ones with pasta in them don’t age well, they are totally safe, and eatable, but less palatable.
I think of that as Stalingrad level food store, where they were peeling the wall paper off to eat the flour paste glue.
Having plenty of rice and beans and flour gives you food, and I would rather be having to scrounge for plants and insects and rabbits, to keep me alive, than to have the weeds and grass and occasional rabbits, but no bulk foods.
I use crumbled Saltines in my soups for a little added 'crunch texture', so the noodles aren't a focal point. Next can of CNS I open, I'll try wo/ Saltines, and see specifically how the pasta has held-up over time.
The rice and veg soups are just as tender, as when new, it seems to me. I have some various 5-yr old dumpling soups that I'm going to sample, now that you've mentioned this. If they're getting 'starchy', I'll rotate them out and get more consommé and broth varieties for replacements.
Thanks for the tip.
The point was never that one shouldn’t adjust the cooking time to that particular batch of beans, but that the pressure cooker saves valuable time and fuel.
I know that if I am short of fuel, that I don’t need 40 minutes of cooking, and I sure don’t need 90 to 120 minutes.
Try bringing them to high pressure for 10 minutes or so, and then turn them off and leave alone for an hour or two, and see what the result is.
I hope you bring it up on these threads, it should be mentioned frequently until the word gets out, of course it doesn’t mean anything for the normal 2 or 3 year rotation.
To be on the safe side, now, this is just my opinion, I would not risk using a can that bulged or “erupted” as you say.
The “eruption” is most likely hydrogen. Most acid-metal reactions release hydrogen as a byproduct.
The problem being that you might believe cans never go bad, but they can and do. There might be imperceptible dents in them. The machinery that seals the cans is 99.999999...% good, but not perfect. And even though the heating/pressurized process of canning kills off the bacteria, it is one of those bell curve situations where once in a while, rare as it is, a botulism spore might survive.
Most food safety experts will actually lean in the other direction, saying if you have ANY reason to suspect the food might be contaminated, to pitch it.
The problem being that in fact most food poisonings will do no worse than give you a fever and a bad case of the runs, there are a couple of them, most notably botulism, that are so poisonous if you stirred the food while heating it and tasted it off the spoon, you’d be dead in hours. It only takes like nanograms of the stuff...
Remember? I am the guy (along with you and some others) trying to make clear that cans still go bad.
I just opened another exp-dated *2006* can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (add 1 can water) and tried the noodles; they’re firmer and a little more starchy than a relatively new can. No saltines this time. I have 2 more left; the few others are exp-dated *2009* and *2010*. All other (100+) Campbell’s soups are wo/ pastas or dumplings.
Other 100+ are Split Pea, Veg, French Onion, Mushroom, Tomato, Celery, Broccoli, Potato, Asparagus, Chick & Beef Broths, Bean, Lentil etc and exp-dated *2010*, with older others apparently rotated-out over past few years.
I opened an older exp-dated *2007* can of Campbell’s Chicken Rice Soup, and the rice is still tender; no starchy mouthfeel. The 15 remaining are exp-dated *2010*.
I also opened-up an exp-dated *2008* can of Progresso Chicken Dumpling Soup (no water; just heat) and it’s quite tasty and pasta is soft, as if it’s right-off the store shelf. 15 of those left. No hurry to rotate until mid-2013.
The 50+ dried soup mixes will keep fine for 10-12yrs, if stored cool and dry.
Just some quick observations.
Your idea about Maybe you could ask Kartographer to do a separate thread on soups? I’d be willing to contribute the above observations plus others as I rotate-out the remaining older soups, as there are probably other posters who could contribute too.
From upthread:
“my tomato sauce never goes bad...”
Now I am sure you know how to tell if something is bad or not. I tend to think most prepper types do. And I’m not arguing in any way that people shouldn’t be cautious.
What I’m mostly arguing against is the people who get all bent out of shape if something is a couple days past “Best used by...” date. Properly canned stuff can easily last five years and in many cases, much, much longer.
If a six year old kid can open a jug of milk and tell you it’s bad, why do so many adults need a date on the label?
To me, it’s a bigger problem than just a date on a label. It’s the whole mentality where people can’t seem to take care of themselves and need to be told something. A dependent class, of sorts. And who do they most times end up depending on?
Government.
If/when SHTF, I’ll be willing to contribute and work and help others out. But I ain’t gonna help slackers. You either (I don’t mean you personally) work and contribute something or you are on your own and will probably starve or freeze or die of cholera or somesuch.
Excellent post.
It isn’t just soups, Ravioli isn’t so great after a couple of years past it’s marked date.
Again, always edible, just not as tasty and pleasing, which is a shame.
That’s interesting about the Progresso dumplings, I wonder why they stay good?
I don't have any ravioli or other pasta products in prep-stores; I make fresh homemade ravioli & pastas with my Imperia Pasta Machine:
I have made pasta, but like most things I do, pasta, beer, marshmallows, canning, mayonnaise, candy, wheat grinding, sprouting, making cottage cheese and yogurt, getting coal and knife making, juicing and wheat grass juicing, drying, smoking fish, scratch baking, and so many other projects, I do them a few times just to play with it, and then get lazy, or sometimes it was just for familiarization, and then I pack away the materials as a prepper.
Sorry about the long delay, had to go do my day job thing.
We have whats called a Breakfast pack up here in Alaska, six cans, egg omelet mix, shredded potatoes, sliced strawberries,vegetarian bacon bits, pancake mix either blueberry or buttermilk and an instant oatmeal cereal I think.
That box retails for about $75 (Wasilla, Alaska), they had a Dinner Pack but it sold out early, they also had the buckets at the same price and as far as I can see the Breakfast pack is a great deal, I bought like 4 of them alone. I love the potato taste, feels just as good as peeling fresh potatoes and mashing them.
Also, your math leaves a lot to be desired.
Seriously about the potatoes? I thought they’d taste like cardboard like the instant ones.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.