Posted: 4/1/2008 10:24:29 AM EDT
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I'm kind of divided on buying large cans for the cost savings VS many smaller ones due to the large cans possibly going rancid before they are all used up. Thoughts? |
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Some related questions: is there one oil known for long shelf life? is there a method of cannign oil that is known to be superior? Is there a method of obtaining oil from sunflower seeds or other that is reliable? to answer the original question, I buy as large as I can afford and toss/replenish when it goes rancid. |
| ALL oils have short shelf lives as far as a "prepper" is concerned. I keep no more than 5-6 months of cooking oil on hand at a time. It is at the top of my list for things to buy ASAP if the balloon goes up. Crisco has the longest storage life I believe, some people say they get a year out of it easy. |
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Interesting thread. I just did a search to find out how long olive oil should stay fresh. The answers I got surprised me in that you can expect to have it fresh for up to 2 years if stored sealed and in a cool dark place. One person said up to three years. I have been buying one liter bottles lately but I guess I should be storing them in a cool dark place. |
| Often times you can get the 1/2 gallon cans at Cub (grocery store.) The cans help with keeping the light out and I have heard both Alton Brown and Giaa De Laurentiis (foxy italian food network host) say that the oil and can are not reactive or produce ill-effects. |
actually not, it's a trans fat and therefore very, very bad. But SHTF fat is fat. |
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I buy the 35 pound jugs of oil at Sam's. To rotate oil. Every year I deep fry two Turkeys at Thanksgiving. Save the used oil and do another bird at Christmas. Then buy a new jug for storage. Last year, I traveled to family and didn't cook. After 18 months the cheap oil is still as clear and fresh as new. |
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(there was a discussion about this in the food group a bit ago - might be worth a search). The approach most have gone to is rotating stored oils with your normal food purchases. Go to wally world and look at the expire dates on the various containers of oil. Generally, of types of oil I would want to use on a regular basis, olive oil has the longest shelf life. i have about a `1.5 to two year supply that a rotate. |
there was a informative and well written posting some where in the archives...on Olive Oil Olive oil has been found in Egyptian tombs 2000 years old, still edible, Honey has been found as well..all stored in wax sealed terre cotta jugs (or comparable clay of some sort), stored in cool dry places that inhibit the growth of molds, natural pure virgin olive oil should last damn near for ever,, if you set it near the water heater, stove, refer, under the sink,,it will spoil the bottom shelf of the storage cabinet where it is'nt effected by sun and huge tempature variables it will last longer than any of us for certain..  canola oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil and corn oil all good for at least 3 years and probably 5 all told coconut oil,,not sure on storage but AI dont care for it personally.. rancid oil,,has a taste that is a kodak moment for certain,,you will know and it smells dead as well...Oil goes bad slowly until it reaches a point of no return and the change will be overnight. there is a new thread in my Chef Sticky on olive oil,,check it out CHEF |
At an estate sale, I bought a box lot of ancient kitchen tools, included were two unopened #10 cans (kind with 2 metal ends) of Sur-Saving, pre-creamed animal shortening (read, cheapo LARD). They appeared at least 25 years old. I opened one and used some for pie crusts, and it seemed good as new ! In fact for pies it works real well. It been open 6 mos. in frig with plastic lid, and still seems unchanged and as lovely (choke) as fresh lard ever was 
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Autualy that ain't necessarily so. From Wikipedia: a study in the 2004 edition of Clinical Biochemistry found that coconut oil, especially virgin coconut oil, lowered cholesterol, in particular LDL cholesterol, while raising HDL. Another study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined two indigenous populations whose food energy was 63 and 34% derived from coconuts and found no elevated risk of vascular disease.[9] There is also plenty of other info attesting to the health benefits. A fast google search will reveal them to you. Decide for yourself. I do find it interesting that coconut oil started getting a bad rap when the farm industry really started to push their product (corn oil) into the market. And considering the long shelf life and the very small amount required(a little does go a long way) vs corn oil. These are pluses for the SHTF pantry. Full of win as far as I'm concerned. |
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I hope this will qualify as "update - page 1!" I wanted to contribute to this thread, so I bit the bullet and went to a horribler, horrible place...wal mart. yea, I did it. So anyway, I did a little survey of oil, rice - the shelves were fully stocked. Rice was 2.7 cents per ounce at it's cheapest large bag price. Oil. This seems to be broken down into three groups - "fresh" Crfisco and Wesson, "who knows" oils made by generic brands, and the olive oils which were crazy expensive. Crisco. Dated "best used by" two years from now. This was by far the most favorable choice for this reason. Cans and liquid. (include wesson in the liquid analysis here) both were dated through March of 2010. Large cans were 9.7 cents an ounce, while gallon bottles were 7.8 cents an ounce. now, the "who knows" oils made by generics. These can be had for as little as 4.7 cents an ounce...(at this rate, soon Diesel will cost more) haha. Problem was, these cheap oils were only dated for 12 months out. I will pay more for some assurance of long shelf life. Last, the Olive oils. Dear Lord these must have little gold chips in there...the cheapest generic brand was over 20 cents an ounce and had a date same as crisco. There were various other brands of virgin, extra virgin, young innocent virgin and I think young blond innocent virgin. This was real expensive. So I get to the check out and people are looking at me since I ended up buying a lot of oil. A LOT. like enough to draw a warm oil bath for a young olive skinned extra virgin. Or enough to give a warm oil rubdown to a team of virgins, and the extra virgins that travel on their chastity bus. So that's the story I decided to go with, but instead I chickened out ...that's right, i just said it was frying a bunch of chickens. You know how sometimes when people look at you, you can almost read their mind like there is a teleprompter on their forehead? right, like that....well, no one was going for the story about me frying a bunch of chickens, so I reverted to my story about how the world was going to end, that the S was going to hit the F, threw in a "Red Dawn" reference, and then the clerk let out a real nervios laugh. I just gave the "gotcha" look, the "haha" point, and shook my head at her that she actually believed the SHTF stuff. Damage: $75 bucks worth of oil. |