How To Calculate Bread For A Year

In an effort to get some food storage in order I decided to figure out how much I would need to store of the ingredients necessary to make my homemade bread for an entire year.  (You can find my homemade bread recipe HERE).

I did this based around how many loaves of bread I want to make in a week.  Right now I make about two loaves of bread a week.  I am sure that would be more if we were living completely on what we store, but you have to start somewhere.

Below you can see the spreadsheet I created.

Change the Number of Loaves Per Week to Calculate the Amount to store for a Year
	1 Loaf		Loaves Per Week
			2
Wheat Flour	6.50	cups	676.00	cups	2,704.00	ounces	169.00	pounds
Gluten	0.25	cups	26.00	cups	130.00	ounces	8.13	pounds
Yeast	0.09	cups	9.75	cups	52.00	ounces	3.25	pounds
Honey	0.41	cups	42.64	cups	511.25	ounces	31.95	pounds
Oil	0.25	cups	26.00	cups	208.00	ounces	13.00	gallons
Salt	0.04	cups	4.33	cups	41.60	ounces	2.60	pounds
Water	3.00	cups	312.00	cups	2,496.00	ounces	156.00	gallons

The first column shows the ingredients based upon one loaf of bread.  In the second column you can put in the number of loaves per week and it will calculate the amounts needed in cups, ounces and pounds/gallons.

I found this to be helpful because some of the food storage calculators I have used had estimates that were too low for the honey, oil and yeast and none of them have recommendations for gluten.

If you think that it would be helpful to play with the spreadsheet to make your own calculations you can access it HERE.  You could even modify it to fit your own recipe by changing the amounts in the first column.

I would love to know what you think, even if you think I'm a bit nutty for putting this together.

How I Started My Food Storage: Part VI--Powdered Eggs

My sister told me this last week that she liked my posts summarizing my experiences with food storage.  So, this post is really for her.  Maybe it will help some of you too.

After I got the basics of my food storage in place with the food storage calculator I started to try and figure what else I should be storing.  It didn't take me long to get overwhelmed given the options that are available.  In order to try and determine what other things I want to have on hand I have made an effort to experiment a bit.  Hence, the Self Reliance Experiment.

After having done lived on our food storage twice now, I can honestly say there are a few things I can't live without.  The first (and the subject of this post) is powdered eggs.  I think I have been through at least three cans in the last two years.  And that's while also buying fresh eggs.

Powdered eggs are super handy.  While you can use them as scrambled eggs, we prefer fresh for that.  So, I use powdered eggs in everything else: cookie dough, pancakes, muffins, crackers, cakes, I've even used them for an egg wash to make chicken nuggets.

There are still lots of things I would like to try the powdered eggs in too: pasta, a breakfast casserole or quiche and meatballs.

So far I have been pleased with the results.  I did think the cookies were a little drier than with fresh eggs, but they still tasted delicious.  In fact, perhaps I will go make some right now . . . mmm . . . coooookies.

How I started my food storage: Part V--Sugar

Well, friends, this will be the last post in the how I started my food storage series.  I saved the best for last: sugar!

The food storage calculator I used as a reference point when I began my food storage journey 5 years ago suggests 40 pounds of sugar per person for a year supply.  I just use a 6 gallon bucket with a gamma lid.  At one point I had a back up bucket too, but that's now gone.  I should note, however, that if you like to can, especially, jam.  Store more sugar!

The suggested amount of honey at 3 pounds per person won't work for bread makers.  If you are going to be making a whole wheat bread recipe with honey (like mine) then you will need 33 pounds to make 4 loaves a week.  Thanks to my in-laws we have always had a full supply of honey.

I do have a few #10 cans of brown sugar in my storage, but I no longer buy the stuff since I can make it.  But this also means I need a larger supply of molasses.  One pound per person won't cut it.

I haven't ever put together a supply of sugared drinks or gelatin because I just don't use them.  But I have seen recipes on how to make fruit snacks from gelatin.  That could change my mind.

On to corn syrup.  Now I know that high fructose corn syrup has a bad rap, but I will make a plea for storing some corn syrup.  First of all, it's not the high fructose kind.  But more importantly there are a few handy uses.  The first is this pin:

Source: cometogetherkids.blogspot.com via Katherine on Pinterest

If your kids like to make bubbles as much as mine.  You will love this recipe for bubbles.

1/2 c. Dawn dish soap
1/2 c. corn syrup
2 1/2 c. water

Store some corn syrup.  Make your kids happy.

The second use for corn syrup is that adding a tablespoon to sugar based syrups (think home made maple syrup or even my vanilla recipe) will prevent it from crystalizing.  I  know.  Mind boggling.

So the last sugar item we store is jam.  Three pounds per person is not really enough for us.  I do, however, think measuring jam in pounds is less helpful than say, pints or quarts.  But that is beside the point.

This last year I canned 10 pints, 2 quarts and one 12 ounce jar of peach jam (and a few other jams).  We are down to our last 5 pints.  That's a lot of jam!  It's mostly my husband who loves it.  It's his mom's recipe.  He grew up eating it.  She once told me she canned 50 quarts a year!  Can you imagine?  In any event, we eat a lot of jam.  But then we make a lot of homemade bread.  The two seem to go together.

I hope all of this rambling about my food storage has been helpful.  Let me know if you have any specific questions.  Thanks for reading!!

How I started my food storage: Part IV--Cooking Essentials

In this installment of how I started my food storage I am taking up "cooking essentials" as they are listed in the food storage calculator.  If you are looking for something to purchase that will make you feel like you are making headway on your food storage, I suggest you start here.  These item are not expensive and once you check them off your list you will feel such a sense of accomplishment that you can move on to tackling something like wheat.  That's what I did.

You will need one pound of baking powder and one pound of baking soda per person for a year.  My only thought is that you might want to up your baking soda amount for cleaning purposes and so that you can do things like this with your kids.

It's pretty easy to get 5 pounds of salt per person.  You might, however, want to store more than one kind.  I use more kosher salt than table salt for example.  I also have some canning salt on hand.  But I am thinking of switching to Real Salt because of the trace minerals that are in it.  It's more expensive, but might be worth it.  Have you ever used Real Salt on a regular basis?

Just so you know the 1/2 pound of yeast per person is not really enough for bread making.  According to my calculations, I would need 2.5 pounds of yeast to make 4 loaves of bread a week.  So, for a year's worth I am going to have more on hand.

With regard to the vinegar, 1/2 gallon is not going to be enough if you do any amount of canning.  It's also a good cleaning agent.  I think you might have to decide on your own what is right for your family's use.  Another thought is you might want to have different kinds on hand.  I like to have white and cider in gallon jugs.  And smaller amounts of rice and red wine.  (That's red wine vinegar people.  Sheesh.)

With the exception of the salt, all of these things should be rotated regularly.  So it's a good idea to have the amount you want on hand and then purchase more as you use it up.  If you are a better record keeper than I you could keep track of how long it takes you to go through a box of baking soda for example.  Then you might be better able to determine how much you need.

How I started my food storage: Part III--Fats

I'm back with part three of how I started my food storage.  Today, I take up fats.

I have a confession to make.  Fats have never been my strong suit when it comes to food storage.  I have never had a year's supply on hand.  Perhaps part of the problem is that fats are by nature perishable.  Recommendations are that oil is only good for 6 months to a year.  This is not the kind of thing you can purchase and stick in your garage for 20 years.

Some of the other reasons that I found fats difficult is the list and amounts on the calculator.  Four pounds of shortening is just plain gross given that I try to avoid hydrogenated fats.  And two quarts of salad dressing is just silly when I prefer to make my own.  And there is no way I would go through two quarts of mayo.  If need be I can make that too so long as I have an egg.  I have yet to try it with powdered eggs, but you know I will.

So what have I done about fats?  I try to have a few months supply on hand of what I do use.  I like to cook with olive oil.  I use canola in my bread and for frying.  I keep butter in my freezer and we purchased some Red Feather canned butter--which is super expensive but awesome.  And I like to have several cans of spray canola oil for pancakes and my bread pans.  I don't skimp here either.  If the first ingredient on the can isn't oil, I don't buy it.  Some cheaper brands have the first ingredient as water.  Totally not worth the savings.

I will also let you know that I wanted to have a backup for spray oil in case I ran out so I purchased an oil mister.  I tried it on my bead pans and it was worthless.  I have no idea why.  So if you are thinking of purchasing an oil mister don't expect it to be useful for bread making.  I do like to use it for pancakes and french fries--it's easier to coat fries and uses less oil!

So how much oil should I store?  I am in the process of figuring that out.  I did some calculations and if I make 4 loaves of bread per week (I make about that now) it would use 1 and 2/3 gallons of oil.  That doesn't include any cooking.  But the recommendation is that you have 2 gallons per person for a year's worth.  I actually think that would be pretty close.  Plus I need to factor in olive oil and some other fats like peanut butter.  But you know, food storage is a work in progress.

Before I leave this fatty topic, let me say something about powdered butter and shortening.  I have used powdered butter, but have had mixed results.  See here and here for example.  My feeling is that it works ok for baking and some cooking, but not so much for anything else.  You can't spread powdered butter on bread.  The best use may be in a white sauce mix I have made.  I want to try it in a few more baking recipes, like applesauce cake--mmm  . . . applesauce cake.  I just lost my train of thought.

I suppose that this Self Reliance Experiment is a bit about figuring out what I want to store.  I use this as an opportunity to experiment.  I don't expect to have all the answers anytime soon.  Perhaps you can let me know what you do about storing oil?

P.S. I love butter.

How I started my food storage: Part II--Milk and Legumes

Well, friends, the journey continues.  If you missed the first installment of how I started my food storage, you can find that here.  I will also link to the food storage calculator again in case you want to refer to it.

Today I am talking about milk and beans.

The food storage calculator calls for 60 pounds powdered milk, 12 cans of evaporated milk, and 13 pounds of "other milk".  What is "other milk"?  Seriously, what other options are there for storing milk?  Sweetened condensed?  What am I going to do with 13 pounds of sweetened condensed milk?  Maybe one of you know?  Well, now that I have that off my chest . . .

I think milk was probably the most expensive of the items to purchase.  60 pounds per person is a LOT of powdered milk.  It took a while to get it all.  I made a trip to the LDS cannery at Welfare Square and dry packed several cases.  But it was time consuming.  Since I had the money at the time, I also purchased several cases from emergency essentials.  We are not using a lot of milk right now (I mostly put it in recipes) because I want my kids to drink whole milk, but we have it available.

Beans.  You'll notice that the food storage calculator has the beans divided up into several kinds.  I don't use lima or soy beans.  I figured that the details were less important that the totals: 60 pounds per person for a year.  That's the same amount the LDS Church recommends.  So I decided what kind of beans I thought we would eat and stored those.  Some I purchased in #10 cans.  I also got a 50 pound bag of pinto beans and put it in a 5 gallon bucket.  It's not sealed for long term storage so I really ought to get working on that bucket.  Plus I have canned cooked beans from the case lot sales.  Now I just need to find some more bean recipes.

How I started my food storage: Part I--Grains

A few weeks ago when I started this second round of the Self Reliance Experiment my sister wanted to know what I had on hand.  Her inquiry resulted in the post about my pantry.  But her real reason for asking was that she wanted to know what I had at the beginning so that she could compare that to what I had in the end and therefrom derive how much to store.

I elected not to indulge her for a few reasons.  First, accurate inventories are time consuming.  You saw that I would have to do this for my garage, my laundry room and my pantry.  Yikes!  Sorry, Sis.  The second reason that that such an inventory would only really help me.  It wouldn't do her much good at all.  I know for a fact that her family and my family eat different things.  But, I do love my sister and I have been trying to figure out what might help her and anyone else trying to get more food storage.

I thought about doing an instructional post to the effect of "Here are the easy steps you can follow to get your food storage."  But the truth is I am no expert and there are a gazillion sites that attempt to help people in that exact manner.  So, here is what I will do.  I will tell you about my food storage journey.  You can pull from it anything you find helpful.  And if you have specific questions, I will answer them as best I can.

I married my sweetheart in January 2007.  Five months after we were married we set a goal to have one year's worth of food storage purchased within a year.  Ambitious, I know.  But without children around to complicate things, it seemed doable.

The first thing I did was use this food storage calculator to figure out what we would need.  Now, there are plenty of things on the calculator that I have never bothered to store.  Mayo, for example.  We just don't use that much.  Or soy beans for that matter.  Who uses those?  So lesson number one: only store what you will actually eat.  But the calculator is a good guideline.  Especially the totals for the grain, legumes and milk.  And that is where I started.

For this post I will focus on GRAINS.

Wheat is obviously the biggest beast--300 pounds for 2 people!  I purchased several large buckets of hard white wheat from Costco.  But soon realized that these would not be the best for long term storage (i.e. 20 years) because they aren't packed in sealed bags with oxygen absorbers.

Second lesson: the price of food storage depends on how you purchase it.  Bulk food is the cheapest but is not properly packaged for long term storage.  You can purchase large superpails that are properly sealed, but they are more expensive.  Or you can package it your self at the LDS cannery.  It's a choice.  And it's a choice that has a lot to do with how long you are going to wait to use it up.

In order to have some wheat for the long haul, I also bought some hard red wheat in #10 cans from the LDS Church cannery.  I don't remember if I had 300 pounds of wheat within a year, but it was close.

Then I learned to make bread.  A necessary step to making your food storage useful.  So lesson three: learn to use what you store.

Flour is not something I was concerned about storing long term because I use it so often.  But 50 pounds is too much for one 6 gallon bucket, so I got two.  On one of the buckets I put a gamma lid.  My plan was to use everything in the one with the gamma lid, then to empty the second bucket into the first and refill the second.

Today, I only use the gamma lid bucket (no back up) because I go through white flour less often.  I try to use more whole wheat.

The food storage calculator calls to store 25 pounds of corn meal per person per year.  I never could figure this one out.  First of all who eats that much corn bread?  Second of all corn meal doesn't store long term.  So I opted to store popcorn.  Popcorn can be processed into cornmeal.  Heck, I've even done it.  Plus you have the added benefit of a snack anytime you want.

I also learned that popcorn is better for you than the commercial cornmeal because it is higher in protein and lower in starch than the corn used to make the store stuff.  As a result your corn bread should be less crumbly.  Just sayin'.

Oats is one of the places I splurged and purchased a large superpail of old fashioned rolled oats.  I don't remember why.  It was probably because I didn't think we would use that much oatmeal.  But then I learned to make granola.  Today I have a 6 gallon bucket with rolled oats and a gamma lid.  I think I bought 25 pounds 2 years ago which fit in two 6 gallon buckets.  I just barely opened the back up a few weeks ago.  I haven't yet busted open the superpail.  I figure since it will last longer it can sit in my garage.

I also have a case of quick oats in #10 cans.  And I have learned a recipe withe these for chewy granola bars and mini chocolate chips that are similar to the Quaker granola bars.  The kids love them.  I'll have to post it soon.

I don't think I have ever had the recommended amount of rice on hand.  100 pounds is a lot.  I do have a 6 gallon bucket with gamma lid.  I am sure I was planning on having a back up bucket or two but never got there.

Last grain is pasta.  Not really a grain, I know.  I do remember stocking up on pasta in that first year.  I don't know that I ever got to 50 pounds.  I didn't bother to package it for long term storage (like #10 cans) because I knew it would get eaten and I would rather rotate it.  In fact, none of what I stored is around today.  Now that I think about it I think there are a couple of cans of pasta in the garage . . . maybe that inventory is a good idea.  In any event, it's a handy thing to have pasta around, but it is also something you can make from scratch.  I've been meaning to try it with powdered eggs.  And when I do, you will of course, read about it here.

Maybe you and your family prefer grains other than those on the calculator.  Well, keep in mind the idea is to store 300 pounds per person for a year's worth.  That means if you eat lots of quinoa and not a ton of rice.  Swap them out.  There is no need to store things you don't eat.  Someday, I hope to add other grains to my food storage, like quinoa, teff, rye, oat grouts, buskwheat . . .

What grains do you like to have on hand?

My Pantry: Week 1

I thought it might be helpful for you to see what I have on hand for my grand SREII experiment.  While I haven't been stocking up just for this, I try to keep a well stocked pantry for both everyday use and long term storage.

I keep food in three places: my pantry, the laundry room and the garage (well, and the fridge, duh.)

THE PANTRY

I know it's not the tidiest pantry, but it works.  

Hanging on the door is a shoe organizer.  It's full of all the little things that make a pantry messy.  (And yet mine is still messy . . .)  I have things like seasoning packets, chocolate chips, gum, leftover Easter candy, etc.  I also have some rubber gloves and batteries in there.  Don't ask me why.

The top shelf doesn't hold a lot of food.  Mostly just cereal (which I don't buy a lot of.  My poor kids.)  It also has my rice cooker and crock pot.  Behind that are paper products and stuff.  Mostly stuff.

The next shelf down has a row of "cansolidators".  They take up a lot of room, but make finding cans easy.  It's a compromise.  The caned goods are pretty random--tuna, beans, evaporated milk, cream soups.  And I think there is a can of salmon in there too.  This shelf also has some homemade rice-a-roni, spices and other sundry things.

The middle shelf has boxed goods like cake mixes and crackers, as well as the stuff I use nearly everyday, like honey and oil.

The next shelf down has a bunch of #10 cans that are open and used less often.  Things like, powdered milk, popcorn, powdered eggs, dehydrated veggies, etc.  There are also some plastic bins with oats, rice and baking soda.

The floor has larger bins for flour and sugar.  The vinegar is behind the recycle bin.

THE LAUNDRY ROOM

We have some metal shelves in our laundry room that we use for canned good, both commercially and home canned.  When I stock up at a case lot sale the cans usually make it into the "cansolidators".  The boxes hold my home canned goods and empty jars.  You can see what I canned last year HERE.

THE GARAGE

The garage is the place I have all our long term food storage and backup of what's in the house.  I have large five gallon buckets full of white flour, sugar, brown rice and rolled oats, each with a gamma lid.  I also have buckets of hard red wheat, hard white wheat, pop corn and dehydrated potatoes.  The boxes are full of #10 cans.  Lots of milk, more wheat, quick oats, lentils.  There is other stuff too.  I just don't know what.

I'll have to do another post on what's in the freezer.