Posted: 9/23/2012 5:53:59 AM EDT
| I've started adding to my long term food supply and was wondering if I do a few buckets with mylar of White and or Wheat Four what can I do with it. Meaning, the SHTF and I've got just the flour can I make bread with it or do I need other ingredients? |
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With flour, you are pretty much making bread products
i.e. bread, flour tortillas, pie crusts, pancakes, etc. - and yes you need other ingredients as well. (or make paste) We store wheat berries over flour for a couple of reasons. 1) It stores longer. 2) More versatile. Examples: You can cook and eat the wheat berries much like you do rice, You can grind them into flour, You can crack them (cracked wheat) You can grind them coarse to make cream of wheat cereal, You can grow wheat grass with the berries. We store oat groats (basically oat berries) for similar reasons. ETA: Hardtack is as simple as flour and water. |
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Sounds like you got some homework to do. You mean like posting a question so I can learn or is there another method I should try? Not to speak for Kibby, but I think he meant you should start looking for recipes that use flour, see what is needed to prepare them and try them to see what you like. Same kind of suggestion as: Quoted:
<snip> OP My not so humble opinion would be to learn what to use something for before storing a bunch of that thing. I think we are trying to be helpful, not be mean or smart-assed, but your OP leads one to believe you are going to buy it, store it and forget about it until needed. Making bread from scratch takes practice. Same as I would not want to have to learn how to swim after I fall off a boat. |
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I bake my own bread almost daily now.
While you can make flour-only breads, I'd suggest you stock up on (and rotate, in the case of the yeast and cornmeal): Yeast Salt Sugar Cornmeal alternate flours, such as rye flour, and seasonings such as caraway seeds, go a LONG way towards making thing less monotonous. I would also advise buying a pizza stone. These really improve the quality of homemade bread by leaps and bounds, and will help if you end up using alternative fuels for cooking as well. (In a survival situation, you can get away with using an upside down ceramic or terra-cotta tile.) Lastly, one book, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" has virtually everything you need to know to bake insanely good bread –– stuff that beats the best artisan bread from the store at $10 a loaf. |
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In addition to the above, my wife bakes all her loaf bread in cast iron loaf pans.
Her grandmothers advice was - "the heavier the pan, the lighter the loaf". So far, it has been sage advice. 
ETA: Come to think of it, my wife makes flour and corn tortillas on a cast iron comal, works for them as well. |
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Quoted: I've started adding to my long term food supply and was wondering if I do a few buckets with mylar of White and or Wheat Four what can I do with it. Meaning, the SHTF and I've got just the flour can I make bread with it or do I need other ingredients? might want to practice now  |
| My food preps are in stages with one stage indeed being buy and forget such as about 80 various MH #10 cans. The flour I'm talking about would be for this stage too. Of course I have searched for 'recipes that use flour' but they include just about every recipe under the sun. So, I guess I was asking if flour alone is enough to make anything or are other ingredients would be required. I get that if I had yeast, sugar, etc. I could do more but its not what I'm asking. |
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I've started adding to my long term food supply and was wondering if I do a few buckets with mylar of White and or Wheat Four what can I do with it. Meaning, the SHTF and I've got just the flour can I make bread with it or do I need other ingredients? Flour in general has a pathetically poor shelf life, measured in months not years. Save your money and time and don't do it. |
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I've started adding to my long term food supply and was wondering if I do a few buckets with mylar of White and or Wheat Four what can I do with it. Meaning, the SHTF and I've got just the flour can I make bread with it or do I need other ingredients? Flour in general has a pathetically poor shelf life, measured in months not years. Save your money and time and don't do it. Not entirely true. If you compare it to storing wheat berries then yes it's shelf life is short. If you do decide to store white flour, in Mylar with O2 absorbers, it can last up to five years. |
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They are saying 30 years http://www.thereadystore.com/food-storage/supply-size/valuebuckets/saratoga-farms-white-flour-valuebucket.
Not true? |
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My food preps are in stages with one stage indeed being buy and forget such as about 80 various MH #10 cans. The flour I'm talking about would be for this stage too. Of course I have searched for 'recipes that use flour' but they include just about every recipe under the sun. So, I guess I was asking if flour alone is enough to make anything or are other ingredients would be required. I get that if I had yeast, sugar, etc. I could do more but its not what I'm asking. This is where you lose me. With no other ingredients, you simply have flour, which is rather dry to eat by itself. Put it the oven, and I suppose you have toasted flour.... still rather dry to eat by itself. Quoted:
They are saying 30 years http://www.thereadystore.com/food-storage/supply-size/valuebuckets/saratoga-farms-white-flour-valuebucket. Not true? I think they are being very optimistic and frankly, I would not want to open that flour 20+yrs from now to find out. ETA: The LDS who I trust more, list flour sealed in #10 cans w/O2 absorbers as a shorter term storage item (10yrs) |
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They are saying 30 years http://www.thereadystore.com/food-storage/supply-size/valuebuckets/saratoga-farms-white-flour-valuebucket. Not true? I'd like to know more about this advertisement as well. I did a ton of research before making my decision about flour and the best info I could find pointed to about a five years shelf life when stored properly. |
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My food preps are in stages with one stage indeed being buy and forget such as about 80 various MH #10 cans. The flour I'm talking about would be for this stage too. Of course I have searched for 'recipes that use flour' but they include just about every recipe under the sun. So, I guess I was asking if flour alone is enough to make anything or are other ingredients would be required. I get that if I had yeast, sugar, etc. I could do more but its not what I'm asking. This is where you lose me. With no other ingredients, you simply have flour, which is rather dry to eat by itself. Put it the oven, and I suppose you have toasted flour.... still rather dry to eat by itself. I took it more as what is the bare minimum of ingredients that I need to make bread. Nothing fancy, just plain old bread. Flour, water, ?, ?. |
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This is where you lose me. Not sure why :) I prep for up to 2-3 weeks SHTF. I also prep for up to one year SHTF. Lastly I prep for Nuke Winter type of stuff. In this last unlikely even I have MH cans with everything from Chicken to Strawberries. From the above link they have stuff such as Oatmeal which I think would be useful. They also have flour which promoted the question. Remember, that when I break into these preps I already ate my dog so its the final defense before eating my own toes. Naturally I fully expect my grandkids to find this stuff in 30 years and think how crazy I was but nevertheless........... |
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My food preps are in stages with one stage indeed being buy and forget such as about 80 various MH #10 cans. The flour I'm talking about would be for this stage too. Of course I have searched for 'recipes that use flour' but they include just about every recipe under the sun. So, I guess I was asking if flour alone is enough to make anything or are other ingredients would be required. I get that if I had yeast, sugar, etc. I could do more but its not what I'm asking. This is where you lose me. With no other ingredients, you simply have flour, which is rather dry to eat by itself. Put it the oven, and I suppose you have toasted flour.... still rather dry to eat by itself. I took it more as what is the bare minimum of ingredients that I need to make bread. Nothing fancy, just plain old bread. Flour, water, ?, ?. Thanks! 
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They are saying 30 years http://www.thereadystore.com/food-storage/supply-size/valuebuckets/saratoga-farms-white-flour-valuebucket. Not true? I'd like to know more about this advertisement as well. I did a ton of research before making my decision about flour and the best info I could find pointed to about a five years shelf life when stored properly. Yeah, says Up to a 30yr shelf life in red. Under features and specifications it reads 20-30yrs I guess my questions to them would be - how did they arrive at that shelf-life? what testing has been done? and 20yrs from now, who is standing behind the product if it isn't any good? |
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This is where you lose me. Not sure why :) I prep for up to 2-3 weeks SHTF. I also prep for up to one year SHTF. Lastly I prep for Nuke Winter type of stuff. In this last unlikely even I have MH cans with everything from Chicken to Strawberries. From the above link they have stuff such as Oatmeal which I think would be useful. They also have flour which promoted the question. Remember, that when I break into these preps I already ate my dog so its the final defense before eating my own toes. Naturally I fully expect my grandkids to find this stuff in 30 years and think how crazy I was but nevertheless........... The reason you lost me was the sentence I highlighted: So, I guess I was asking if flour alone is enough to make anything or are other ingredients would be required.
(sorry, water is an ingredient) Flour and water will make paste and if heated, hardtack. I, myself, would not put flour away and expect it to have any nutritional value in 20-30yrs. Lets face it, bleached, white flour barely has any nutritional value now. 
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I'm too lazy & busy to read all the responses, but the #1 rule of stocking up applies here... store what you eat and eat what you store... it's just that simple... what do you use flour for right now?
Many here have started making our own bread... I can't remember the last time I bought bread from a store... there are several reasons for that... #1 we know how to make bread so we're not trying to learn how to do it and trying to improvise ingredients etc all in a stressful situation. If you know how to do it now, you can probably do a decent job at it later even if you're missing a certain ingredient or you're in a great deal of stress etc... #2 Flour doesn't last very long (a few years) in storage so it's best to keep rotating it out. The best way to do that is to use it... to make bread etc... |
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This is where you lose me. Not sure why :) I prep for up to 2-3 weeks SHTF. I also prep for up to one year SHTF. Lastly I prep for Nuke Winter type of stuff. In this last unlikely even I have MH cans with everything from Chicken to Strawberries. From the above link they have stuff such as Oatmeal which I think would be useful. They also have flour which promoted the question. Remember, that when I break into these preps I already ate my dog so its the final defense before eating my own toes. Naturally I fully expect my grandkids to find this stuff in 30 years and think how crazy I was but nevertheless........... That is what most of us are hoping for.
If you don't want to get into baking your own bread NOW, your storage space, $, and time would be better served by storing pasta. Bleached white flour isn't worth storing in large quantities, IMHO. Good luck. |
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I'm too lazy & busy to read all the responses, but the #1 rule of stocking up applies here... store what you eat and eat what you store... it's just that simple... Actually no its not, but thanks anyways OH, please enlighten us then... I'd be interested to know what you have to say as you're clearly the one that is coming here asking questions about what flour is used for... 
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You start out admitting you are too lazy & busy to read all the responses and then go ahead and post a detailed reply which has zero to do with what I'm asking about. Duh for 'store what you eat and eat what you store' but if you were not too lazy and busy you would have noticed that I was asking about very long term food storage such as MH. You may have MH items in your daily diet but I don't, as I'm sure most don't. If the lights go out for a few weeks or even a few month I do not plan on busting open my MH type items. This is my third level of food preps as I mentioned before, too bad you were too lazy & busy to notice it.
Again, for the too lazy & busy: this question relates to very long term buy and forget food storage. While looking around I found the Ready Store claiming up to 30 year self life for Flour. Add these tidbit together and you have why I asked. Enlightened? |
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Maybe this'll help:
Your First Loaf - A Primer for the New Baker Courtesy of The Fresh Loaf website. |
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You start out admitting you are too lazy & busy to read all the responses and then go ahead and post a detailed reply which has zero to do with what I'm asking about. Duh for 'store what you eat and eat what you store' but if you were not too lazy and busy you would have noticed that I was asking about very long term food storage such as MH. You may have MH items in your daily diet but I don't, as I'm sure most don't. If the lights go out for a few weeks or even a few month I do not plan on busting open my MH type items. This is my third level of food preps as I mentioned before, too bad you were too lazy & busy to notice it. Again, for the too lazy & busy: this question relates to very long term buy and forget food storage. While looking around I found the Ready Store claiming up to 30 year self life for Flour. Add these tidbit together and you have why I asked. Enlightened? First of all, your condescending attitude isn't getting you very far here... take a chill pill, you asked a stupid question, expect a bit of grief in the responses to your stupid question. The length of storage doesn't even apply to your OP. You're asking what you can use flour for and what other ingredients you would need to use it... that question is irrelevant to the length of time you plan to store said ingredient. Now lets back up a few steps, get down off your high-horse and think about this. If you simply read my comment, "store what you eat and eat what you store", then you will see exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't use flour in your normal everyday life already then why are you storing it? Obviously because you plan to use it. If you plan to use it then when is a better time than now to learn how to properly use it? Starting to click now? Are you starting to understand my comment? I'm not saying you have to eat the MH flour you plan to store for 30+ years, I'm saying, start buying normal flour today and using it so you know how t use it. Incorporate it into your short-term preps and use that as your rotating stock... |
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http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348515163&sr=8-1&keywords=Artisan+Bread+in+Five+Minutes+a+Day
Thanks for the bread baking book lead. I plan on getting it and making some bread! |
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http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348515163&sr=8-1&keywords=Artisan+Bread+in+Five+Minutes+a+Day Thanks for the bread baking book lead. I plan on getting it and making some bread! You're welcome. It's really an awesome book, I had made bagels, soft pretzels, and a half-dozen loaves of rye bread within the first two days. (Don't forget the pizza stone.) It's pretty cool knowing you can have some pretty awesome "comfort" foods and really tasty breads from just a handful of ingredients out of stored food. I've even done whole wheat bread starting with a #10 can of wheat I'd bought back in 1998, ground in a mill, and baked. Bread baking is a great skill to have, hard to imagine going hungry once you know how. |
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I have about 120# of White Lilly and King Aurthur flour in vacuum sealed bags. The White Lilly has been on the shelf in a closet for about two years now and with a little sifting, it works fine. That's as long as I can vouch for. I have the wheat berries and a Grainmaker mill but for the first year or two of a long term calamity, I have confidence that my store bought flour will do nicely.
I vacuum seal the whole five pound bag but wouldn't want to seal more than that in a single bag. The flour might have to be resealed if you have more than five pounds at a time open. What I've read is that oxygen absorbers need moisture to work. Moisture and flour might not get along well. |
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Most traditional bread recipes involve yeast. Time is required for yeast to work it's magic. Quick breads made with baking powder and can be put together in minutes.
As far as quick bread, a good biscuit is a southern staple. Bannock can be made in a pan. Yeast breads are a little trickier. The easiest bread recipe i've seen is the New York times no knead version. Here's a similar version on youtube. A ten year old could follow it. Mix it up tonight and eat fresh bread tomorrow. To me, the interior texture is a little "gummy" but the crust is outstanding and it's still delicious. Easy Bread ETA: LDS claims a ten year shelf life of white flour. If anyone knows, I'd bet on them. |
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If commercial yeast supplies cease to exist, try making your own 'sour dough' starter; the stuff keeps refrigerated (must be 'refreshed' from time to time) or for non-refrigerated, must be tended to on a regular basis. I have used my own 'creation' for years now baking almost every bread related item without commercial yeast (doing/practice is the key to understanding the dynamics of this stuff - not to mention eating the final product).
Mine began as a mixture of sugar, commercial yeast, flour and water mixed together as a light paste. I left it out open for about one week (maybe 10 days) to 'capture' local wild yeast (it is all over the place - please no bad jokes about this as we are talking about edible stuff - maybe a bad reference but you get the message). We here could live on our out put and use wheat products as a basic food source. If/when things go south, you and yours will not fuss too much in a prolonged period about 'store bought' food stuff - the ability to feed yourself will be priceless even if you must fix all from scratch assuming you are neither lazy or stupid. Just saying ............... |
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I have been interested to see how long plain white flour would last.
I have a 25 pound bag which is 2 years old. Just made some flat bread with it a couple days ago.....still fine. OP, also don't forget youtube. Some good vids on there for bread. we make middle eastern style flat bread 60 seconds or so in a hot pan 60 seconds or so on a hot stone in the oven done..... ETA middle eastern bread part 1 Part 2 |