Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition [Survival Today

Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.

To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.

How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)

Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)

Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)

Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)

40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)

Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)

5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)

* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance

GRAINS, FLOURS AND LEGUMES
For Storage

ABOUT GLUTEN:

As you read through the grain descriptions below you will

come across frequent mention of “gluten”. Gluten is a combination

of proteins found in some grains which enables the

dough made from them to rise by trapping the gases produced

by yeast fermentation or chemical reaction of baking

powder or soda. The amount of these proteins varies depending

on the species of grain and varieties within a species.

Some grains such as rice have virtually no gluten at all and

will not produce a raised loaf by itself while others like hard

winter wheat have a great deal and make excellent raised

bread. As a general rule yeast raised breads need a fair amount

of gluten to attain good dough volumes while non-yeast raised

breads may need little or none at all. Whether gluten content

is of importance to you will depend upon the end uses you

intend for your grain.

Some of the common and relatively uncommon types of grains

are listed below.

AMARANTH:

Amaranth is not a true cereal grain at all, but is a relative of

the pigweeds and the ornamental flowers we call “cockscomb”.

It’s grown not only for its seed, but for its leaves that

can be cooked and eaten as greens. The seed is high in protein,

particularly the amino acid lysine which is limited in the

true cereal grains. It can be milled as-is, or toasted to provide

more flavor. The flour lacks gluten, so is not suited for

raised breads by itself, but can be made into any of a number

of flat breads. Some varieties can be popped like popcorn,

boiled and eaten as a cereal, used in soups, granolas, and the

like. Toasted or untoasted, it blends well with other grain

flours.

NOTE: Like some other edible seeds, raw amaranth contains

biological factors that can inhibit proper absorption

of some nutrients. For this reason amaranth seeds

or flour should always be cooked before consumption,

whether for human food or animal feed.

BARLEY:

Barley is thought by some to be the first grain intentionally

cultivated by man. It has short, stubby kernels with a hull that

is difficult to remove. Excluding barley intended for malting

or animal feed, this grain is generally consumed directly by

humans in two forms. Most common is the white, highly processed

pearl barley with much of its bran and germ milled off

along with its hull. It is the least nutritious form of barley.

The second offering is called pot or hulled barley and it

has been subjected to the same milling process as pearled,

but with fewer trips through the polisher. Because of this,

it retains more of the nutritious germ and bran, but does

not keep as well as the more refined product without special

packaging. Unless you are prepared to try to get the

hulls off I don’t recommend buying unhulled barley. Although

it can be milled into flour, barley’s low gluten content

will not make a good loaf of raised bread. It can be

combined with other flours that do have sufficient gluten

to make leavened bread or used in flat breads. Barley

flour and flakes have a light nutty flavor that is enhanced

by toasting. Whole barley is commonly used to add thickness

to soups and stews.

Recently, a hull-less form has become available on the

market through a few suppliers. This is whole grain barley

with all of its bran and germ intact and should have the

most nutrients of any form of this grain available. I don’t

know yet how suitable it is for long term storage.

BUCKWHEAT:

Buckwheat is another of those seeds commonly considered

to be a grain, but which is not a true cereal. It is, in

fact, a close relative to the docks and sorrels. The “grain”

itself is a dark, three cornered seed resembling a tiny

beechnut. It has a hard, fibrous hull requiring a special

buckwheat huller to remove. Here in the U.S., buckwheat

is most often used in pancakes, biscuits and muffins. In

Eastern Europe and Russia it is known in its toasted form

as kasha. In the Far East, it’s often made into soba or

noodles. It’s also a good bee plant, producing a dark,

strongly flavored honey. The flour is light or dark depending

on how much of the hull has been removed before

grinding. Dark flour is much more strongly flavored than

lighter flour, but because of the high fiber and tannin content

of its hull, which can interfere with nutrient absorption,

it is not necessarily more nutritious. Buckwheat is

one of those foods with no middle ground in peoples opinions

— they either love it or they hate it. Like amaranth,

it’s high in lysine, an amino acid commonly lacking in the

true cereal grains.

CORN (maize):

Corn is the largest grain crop in the U.S., but is mostly

consumed indirectly as animal feed or even industrial feedstock

rather than directly as food. As one of the Three

Sisters (maize, squash and beans) corn was the staple grain

of nearly all of the indigenous peoples of the American

continents before the advent of European colonization. This

American grain has an amazing variety of forms. Major

classes are the flint, dent, flour, and popcorns. To a certain

extent, they’re all interchangeable for milling into meal

(sometimes known as polenta meal) or flour (very finely

ground corn, not cornstarch). The varieties intended to be

eaten as sweet corn (fresh green corn) are high in sugar

content so do not dry or store well relative to the other

corns but instead are usually preserved as a vegetable.

There are a number of lesser corn varieties with specialized

uses that do not lend themselves to direct food use,

but these are seldom found in the open market.

As a general rule of thumb, the flint varieties make better

meal as they have a grittier texture than most other

corns. If meal, hominy and hominy grits (commonly

called just “grits”) are what you are interested in then

use the flint type if you can find a source. If you intend

to make corn masa for tortillas and tamales, then the

flour corns are what you want, but these are fairly

uncommon on the commercial market so the dent corns

are next best. Yellow dent seems to be the most commonly

available and will work for almost any purpose

except popping.

Popcorn is for snacks or used as a cold cereal after popping

or can be ground into quite acceptable meal. In my

experience I have found it difficult to hull popcorn with

alkali treatment for making hominy (posolé, nixtamal)

though your mileage may vary. Popcorn is one form of a

whole grain available to nearly everyone in the U.S. It is

so common a snack food, particularly at movie theaters,

fairs, and ball games, that the smallest of towns will often

have at least one business selling it cleaned, dried, and

ready to pop in twenty-five or fifty pound bags. Popcorn

is harder than other varieties of corn so if your mill is not

of the heavy duty sort you may want to consider cracking

the kernels into coarse pieces first then grinding into finer

textured meal. The Family Grain Mill states that it should

not be used to mill popcorn at all and the Back To Basics

mill should not be used for any great quantity. All other

manual and electric mills that I am aware of will mill popcorn

without problem.

Once you’ve decided on your preferred corn type you

may also be able to choose your preferred color. There

are yellow, white, blue, red, and multicolored varieties. The

yellow and whites are the most common by far with the blues,

reds, and parti-colored varieties mostly being relegated to

curiosities, though the blue and red corns have been gaining

in popularity these last few years. These would be worth investigating

if you can find a good source. It should be kept in

mind that white corn does not have the carotene content (converts

into vitamin A) of yellow corn. As vitamin A is one of the

major limiting nutrients in long term food storage, any possible

source of it should be utilized. For this reason I suggest

storing yellow rather than white corn. Additionally, much of

the niacin content of corn is chemically bound up in a form

not available for human nutrition unless it has been treated

with an alkali. This is really of importance only if most of your

sustained daily calorie intake will come from corn, but grits,

hominy (posolé) or corn masa (for tortillas and tamales) are

traditional uses of this grain and can go a long way toward

increasing the number of recipes you can make with corn.

Give them a try, they’re quite good.

Any grain as widely grown as corn is naturally going to be

processed into many products. Here are a few suited for use

in home storage programs.

Corn Meal (polenta meal): This is simply dry corn ground

into a meal. Corn meal intended for polenta may be found in

either a coarse or a fine grind. In the U.S. corn meal for making

corn bread and most other uses is typically ground to a

fairly fine meal. Very finely milled corn is often used for breading

foods to be fried and is known as corn flour to distinguish

it from coarser meals. This sometimes causes confusion because

corn starch (see below)is also known as corn flour in

Great Britain - a very different product and not really interchangeable.

The germ of the corn kernel contains about twice the oil content

of wheat and is highly susceptible to rancidity once the

kernel is broken in the milling process. Because of this most

commercially available corn meal will have had the germ and

hull removed to extend shelf-life then nutritionally enriched to

make up for some of the vitamins and minerals lost with the

grain germ. This is desirable for the miller and the grocer, but

for the diner it comes at a cost of flavor and some of the

nutrition of the whole grain. Some grocers may offer a whole

grain corn meal that keeps the grain germ and bran which

gives a superior flavored product and retains the full nutrition

of the grain but makes for a more perishable commodity. If

you go this route be sure of your product’s freshness then

store it in your refrigerator or freezer.

The grocer’s corn meal is mostly milled from yellow or white

corn, but some suppliers are now offering blue or even red

corn meals. The flavor of the degerminated yellow and white

meals are largely indistinguishable from each other, but blue

and red corns are interestingly different. Might be worth investigating

if you can find them.

Storage life of degerminated corn meal is about one year in

average conditions in store packaging and a good deal longer

if you repackage it for long term storage. Whole grain meal is

good for about four weeks on the shelf, months in the refrigerator,

and several years in the freezer or if carefully put up in

oxygen free packaging. If you have a grain mill I recommend

storing your corn meal in the form of whole corn and milling it

as needed. This is what we do, milling a few weeks worth of

meal at a time then keeping it in the freezer until needed. The

fresh whole grain meal has a much fuller corn flavor than the

degerminated meal from the grocery store.

Hominy (posolé’): This is corn with the hull, and possibly

the germ, removed. Hominy cooks faster than unhulled whole

corn, is easier to digest, and in some circumstances the alkali

peeled varieties can present a superior nutritional profile to

whole corn. There are two methods of producing hominy:

Mechanical dehulling in a wet milling process or by treating

with one of a number of various alkalis such as industrial lye

(sodium hydroxide), wood ash lye (mostly potassium hydroxides)

or by using some form of lime (calcium hydroxide).

Dry lye peeled hominy is now seldom found for sale, but

canned white or yellow hominy is still common across the

Southern U.S. and many other areas as well as in Latin American

groceries. Generally speaking hominy produced using lime

is known by its Spanish name – posole’ – but this will not

always be clear on labels. I have seen can labels of lime peeled

hominy simply called hominy. Whether this is important to

you depends on the particular flavor you are trying to achieve

in the dish you are preparing. Freshly hulled corn using the

lime process that is to be ground to make masa (dough) for

corn tortillas is called nixtamal. Dry posole’ can be found in

Latin American groceries or ordered from the Internet in nearly

any color that corn offers. There’s a world of things that can

be done with hominy other than simply heating it up and serving

with butter and salt. A few minutes spent searching the

Internet will produce dozens of recipes using hominy as a

major ingredient. It’s an excellent ingredient in hearty soups

and stews.

Hominy Grits: Usually just called “grits” this coarsely ground

meal can be either simple whole corn ground coarse or corn

that has been hulled in a process using a form of lye to

make hominy then dried and coarsely ground. Grits produced

from lye peeled corn typically cook faster, have a

longer shelf life, and presents a different, possibly superior,

nutritional profile than the whole grain product. Grits

produced from whole corn take much longer to cook,

have a short shelf life if not refrigerated or put up in special

packaging, a superior flavor to the lye peeled product,

and retains the nutrition of the whole grain. Very coarsely

ground grits is also known as samp.

Hominy grits in the U.S. must be enriched like many other

refined grain products and are now typically industrially

produced. They are usually what you will find at your local

grocers. Whole grain grits are primarily the product of

grist mills making stone ground products and are often

found in living history demonstrations, heritage fairs, pioneer

day celebrations, and so on. Both yellow and white

corns are commonly milled for grits and which one you

should buy probably depends on what you ate growing

up. If you’re indifferent as to the color of your grits then I

suggest buying yellow corn grits as the beta carotene content

of yellow corn can be converted by our bodies into

Vitamin A whereas white corn has none.

Masa Harina: In Spanish “masa” means “dough” and

“harina” means “flour” which is a straight forward description

of what masa harina is: A lime peeled corn that has

been dried and milled into meal to be made into tortilla

dough. It’s flavor is distinctively different from either corn

meal or hominy grits and is used in making tortillas, tamales,

and many other Southwestern, Mexican, Central and

South American dishes. Can often be found in mainstream

grocery stores and grocers catering to a Latin American

trade. Will store on the shelf for about a year and even

longer if refrigerated or put up in good storage packaging.

If you have a mind to try making your own tortillas you

will save yourself much time and effort by using a tortilla

press. These can be found in some groceries catering to a

Latin American clientèle or ordered over the Internet.

Corn Starch: A common starch used as a thickener. Made

by a roller milling process removing the hull and germ leaving

behind a nearly pure starch. Storage life is indefinite if

kept dry. In the United Kingdom and some other areas it

is known as corn flour which occasionally causes confusion

with very finely milled corn also known as corn flour

here in the States. The two products are largely not interchangeable.

MILLET:

Millet is an important staple grain in North China and

India, but is little known in the U.S, where we mostly use

it as bird feed. The grain kernels are very small, round,

and usually ivory colored or yellow, though some varieties

are darker. A lack of gluten and a rather bland flavor may

account for the anonymity of this cereal. Millet has a more

alkaline pH (and a higher iron content) than other grains

which makes it very easy to digest. A major advantage of

millet is that it swells a great deal when cooked and supplies

more servings per pound than any other grain. When

cooked like rice millet makes an excellent breakfast cereal.

It has little gluten of its own, but mixes well with other

flours. Adding whole millet kernels to the dough can add a

pleasant crunch to your home made breads.

OATS:

Though the Scots and the Irish have made a cuisine of

oats, it is mostly thought of in the U.S. as a bland breakfast

food. Seldom found as a whole grain, it’s usually sold

processed in one form or another. Much like barley, the

oat is a difficult grain to separate from its hull. Besides its

longtime role as a breakfast food, oats make an excellent

thickener of soups and stews and a filler in meat loafs and

casseroles. Probably the second most common use for

oats in America is in cookies and granolas. A little creative

thought can really increase their culinary range.

Listed below are the forms of oats found in the U.S. Rolled

and cut oats retain both their bran and their germ.

Oat groats: These are whole oats with the hulls removed.

They are not often found in this form, but can sometimes

be had from natural food stores and some storage food

dealers. Oats are not the easiest thing to obtain a consistent

grind from so producing your own oat flour takes a

bit of experience. If you have a roller mill or attachment

you can produce your own oatmeal using whole oat groats.

Steel cut oats: Also known as Irish, pinhead or porridge

oats. They are oat groats cut into chunks with steel blades.

They’re not rolled and look like coarse bits of grain. Steel

cut oats can be found in many supermarkets and natural

food stores. They take longer to cook than rolled oats,

but retain more texture. They need oxygen free packaging

to be kept at their best for long term storage.

Rolled oats: These are also commonly called old fashioned,

thick cut or porridge oats. To produce them, oat

groats are steamed and then rolled to flatten. They can

generally be found wherever oats are sold. They take slightly

longer to cook than do the quick cooking oats, but they retain

more flavor, texture and nutrition. This is what most people

will call to mind when they think of oatmeal.

Quick cooking rolled oats: These are just steamed oat

groats rolled thinner than the old fashioned kind above so

that they will cook faster. They can usually be found right

next to the thicker rolled oats.

Instant rolled oats: These are the “just add hot water” or

microwave type of oat cereals and are not particularly suited

for a storage program. They do, however, have uses in “bug

out” and 72 hour food kits for short term crises.

Whole oats: This is with the hulls still on. They are sold in

feed & seed stores and sometimes straight from the farmer

who grew them. Unless you have some means of getting the

hulls off, I don’t recommend buying oats in this form. If you

do buy from a seed supplier, make certain that they have not

been treated with any chemicals that are toxic to humans.

QUINOA:

Quinoa is yet another of the grains that is not a true cereal.

It’s botanical name is Chenopodium quinoa (pronounced

“keen-wah”), and is a relative of the common weed

Lambsquarter. The individual kernels are about 1.5-2 mm in

size and are shaped rather like small flattened spheres. When

quinoa is cooked, the germ of the grain coils into a small “tail”

that lends a pleasant crunch when eaten. Some forms of this

grain have a bitter tasting water soluble component that should

be removed by a thorough washing unless this was already

done by the processor as most of the quinoa sold in the U.S.

apparently has. There are several varieties of quinoa that have

color ranging from near white to a dark brown. The larger

white varieties are considered superior and are the most common.

RICE:

Rice is the most widely consumed food grain in the world

with the U.S. being the leading exporter of this important staple,

though we actually only produce about 1% of the global supply.

The majority of the world’s rice is eaten within five miles

of where it was grown.

Much like wheat and corn, rice comes in a number of varieties,

each with different characteristics. They are typically divided

into classes by the length of their kernel grains; short,

medium and long.

Short grain rice: The short grain variety is a little softer and

bit moister when it cooks and tends to stick together more

than the longer rices. It has a sweeter, somewhat stronger

flavor than long grain rice.

Medium grain rice: The medium grain variety is not very common

in the States. It has flavor like the short variety, but with

a texture more like long.

Long grain rice: The long grain variety cooks up into a drier,

flakier dish than the shorter types and the flavor tends to be

blander. It is the most commonly found size of rice on American

grocery shelves.

Each of the above may be processed into brown, white, parboiled

or converted, and instant rice. Below is a short discussion

of the differences between the various types.

Brown rice: This is whole grain rice with only the hull removed.

It retains all of the nutrition and has a pleasant nutty

flavor. From a nutritional standpoint it is by far the best, but it

has one flaw: The essential oil in the germ is very susceptible

to oxidation and soon goes rancid. As a result, brown rice

has a shelf life of only about six months unless given special

packaging or storage. Freezing or refrigeration will greatly

extend this. It’s possible to purchase brown rice from long

term food suppliers already specially packaged in air tight

containers with an inert nitrogen atmosphere or you can do it

yourself. In this kind of packaging, (if properly done), the

storage life can be extended for several years.

Converted rice: Converted rice starts as whole rice still in

the hull which undergoes a process of soaking and steaming

until it is partially cooked. It is then dried, hulled and polished

to remove the bran and germ. The steaming process drives

some of the vitamins and minerals from the outer layers into

the white inner layers. This makes it more nutritious than polished

white rice, but also makes it more expensive. Its storage

life is the same as regular white rice.

White rice: This is raw rice that has had its outer layers

milled off, taking with it about 10% of its protein, 85% of its

fat and 70% of its mineral content. Because so much of the

nutrition is lost, white rice sold in the U.S. has to be “enriched”

with vitamins to partially replace what was removed.

It stores very well and is generally the cheapest form of rice

to be found in the market place making it a very common

storage food.

Instant rice: The type of rice is fully cooked and then dehydrated

needing nothing more than the addition of water to

reconstitute it. In a pinch, it’s not even necessary to use hot

water. It’s not particularly suitable for inclusion in storage programs,

but may have a place in “seventy-two hour” and

other short-term emergency kits. The white variety is by

far the most common, but in the last few years instant

brown rice has made an appearance on the market.

RYE:

Rye is well known as a bread grain in the U.S. It has dark

brown kernels longer and thinner than wheat, but less gluten.

Rye flours can be found in varying stages of refinement

from dark whole grain flour to semi-refined medium

to pale fully refined offerings. Bread made from this grain

tends to be dense unless gluten is added (often in the form

of a lot of wheat flour). German pumpernickels and Russian

black breads, made with unrefined rye flour and molasses,

are two of the darkest, densest forms of rye bread.

Many sourdoughs are built upon a rye base with a resulting

interesting, intense flavor.

SORGHUM:

Sorghum is probably more widely known here in the States

for the syrup made from the sweet juice squeezed from

the stalks of some varieties of this grain. Also known as

“milo”, it is one of the principle cereal grains of Africa. Its

seeds are somewhat round, a little smaller than peppercorns,

of an overall brown color with a bit of red and

yellow mixed in. The varieties called “yellow endosperm

sorghum” are considered to have a better taste. It is a

major feed grain in the Southwestern U.S. and is where

the vast majority of the national production goes. Like

most of the other grains, sorghum is low in gluten, but the

seeds can be milled into flour and mixed with higher gluten

flours or made into flat breads, pancakes or cookies. In

the Far East, it is cooked and eaten like rice, while in

Africa it is ground into meal for porridge. It’s also fermented

for alcoholic beverages.

TEFF:

Easily the smallest of the grains, teff kernels are only about

1/32nd inch in diameter. The name itself means “lost” because

if dropped on the ground, it’s too small to recover.

It’s been very little known until recently, but has been a

staple grain in Ethiopia for nearly five millennia. Small

amounts are now being grown in South Africa and the

United States. This grain ranges in color from reddish

brown to near white. It has a protein content in the 10-

12% range, good calcium and a useful source of iron. It is

traditionally used in making the Ethiopian flat bread “injera”,

but has no gluten content of its own. It’ll combine

well with wheat flour though and has something of a sweetish

flavor.

TRITICALE:

Triticale is not a creation sprung from the smooth brows

of Star Trek script writers. It is, in fact, a cross between

durum wheat and rye. This youngest of grains combines

the productivity of wheat with the ruggedness of rye and

has a high nutrition value. The kernels are gray-brown,

oval shaped larger-than-wheat and plumper than rye. It

can be used in much the same way as either of its two

parents. It will make a raised bread like wheat does, but

its gluten is a bit weak so wheat flour is frequently added

to strengthen it. Because of the delicate nature of its gluten,

excessive kneading must be avoided.

WHEAT:

The most widely consumed grain in the United States and

along with rice and corn one of the three most widely grown

in the world. Wheat is also one of the most intensively

processed to turn into food of all the grains. It comes in a

number of different varieties each more suitable for some

purposes than others based on its particular characteristics.

The most common classifications of these varieties

are based on their respective growing season, hardness

of kernel, and color of their bran layers - spring or winter,

hard or soft, red or white.

The hard wheats have kernels that tend to be small, hard

in texture, and with high protein (primarily gluten) contents.

As a general rule, hard varieties have more protein

than soft varieties. Yeast raised breads that need a lot of

gluten are where it’s at for the hard wheats.

The soft wheats have kernels tending to be larger, plumper

and softer in texture than hard wheats. As their gluten content

is lower they are primarily used in biscuits, pastries,

quick breads, some pastas, and breakfast cereals where

a higher gluten content would contribute an undesirable

tougher texture. Soft wheats do not produce as fine a loaf

of yeast raised bread as high gluten hard wheat, though it

can still be used for yeast breads by combining with higher

gluten flours or using methods suitable for its protein level.

Many traditional European yeast raised breads are made

with lower protein flours.

Durum wheat also has a very hard kernel and a high protein

content, but of a somewhat different nature than the

other hard wheats. Durum is not primarily used for breads

but is instead consumed mostly in the manufacture of pasta

where it lends its characteristic yellowish color to the finished

product. There are some specialty breads that call

for durum/semolina flour so it can be used for bread making

even if it’s not best suited to the task.

Winter wheats are planted in the Fall, over winter in the field,

grow through the Spring and are harvested early the next

Summer. Spring wheats are planted in the early Spring and

are harvested the following Fall. Red wheats comprise most

of the hard varieties while white wheats comprise most of the

soft. Recently, hard white wheats have been developed that

are very suitable for yeast raised bread making. Some feel

the hard white varieties make a better tasting whole wheat

bread than the hard reds and I am inclined to agree. When

milled, whole grain hard white wheat flour looks somewhat

like unbleached refined white flour in appearance.

The hard red varieties, either spring or winter, are commonly

chosen for storage programs because of their high protein

content which should be no less than 12% with 14% or more

being excellent. The hard white spring wheats are still relatively

new and not yet as widespread but are steadily growing

in popularity. They have the same excellent storage characteristics

as the hard red wheats and should be selected

with the same protein contents as well.

With so many different varieties of wheat it should come as

no surprise that there are a number of different types of wheat

flour offered to the home baker. Distinguishing between the

array of products available through both retail grocery stores

and commercial supply houses catering to bakers nearly requires

the knowledge of a professional baker or a cereal chemist

and would take up page after page to explain it all. Instead

I will briefly cover only those flours or flour products that one

can usually find in supermarkets in the U.S. and elsewhere. If

you need more advanced knowledge in order to purchase

through commercial or institutional food channels I recommend

taking your questions to the Usenet newsgroups

rec.food.baking, sci.bio.food-science, or alt.bread.recipes

where you may be able to get answers from professionals in

the field.

All Purpose Flour: Of all the flours in the retail market allpurpose

flour is the one most subject to major differences

between brands, regions of the U.S., and/or other nations.

This refined flour is typically made from a blend of hard and

soft wheats with a protein content that can range from as low

as 8% to as high as 12%. The regional brands of the Southern

U.S. have traditionally been on the lower end of the protein

scale. This is due to the fact that historically only soft

wheats were grown in the South and the resulting flour was

best used is in making biscuits and other types of non-yeast

raised breads that did not require high gluten levels. The regional

brands of the Northern U.S., and Canada are typically

at the high end of the protein scale at or approaching 12%.

This is because hard wheats are primarily northern grown

and are well suited to making yeast raised breads which need

higher gluten levels as were customarily made there. The national

brands either differ by region or are in the 10-11%

range in an effort to try to satisfy all markets.

In the U.S. all-purpose flour is enriched and can be had either

bleached or unbleached and may possibly have small

quantities of malt added as well (see below about enrichment,

bleaching and malting).

As the name implies all-purpose is meant to serve as a general

all-around flour from which you can make anything from

cakes and pie crusts to sandwich bread. So far as it goes you

can, but it’s a lot like one-size-fits-all clothing in that chances

are it won’t work as well for a given project as a flour milled

with that particular use in mind. The lower protein all-purpose

flours sold in the Southern U.S. will produce a more

tender biscuit, cake, or pie crust than the higher protein allpurpose

flours of the Northern U.S. and Canada, but unless

you use some special techniques (like how true French bread

is made) it won’t produce a very satisfying loaf of yeast bread.

The flours in 10-11% range try to strike a happy medium

between the two, but still won’t serve as well as flour produced

specifically with a given end use in mind. If you want

to limit the number of types of flour you put into your storage

program I’d recommend going with the 10-11% flours and

either plan on adding gluten as needed to make the best yeast

raised breads or cornstarch to produce more tender cakes

and pie crusts.

In the United Kingdom and Canada all-purpose flour is oft

times labeled as “plain flour”, “top patent”, “general purpose”,

or “family flour.”

Bread Flour: A refined white flour with a higher protein (gluten)

content than most all-purpose flours to achieve better

performance in making yeast raised breads. Protein levels

should be at least 12% with 13-14% better still.

As this is a refined flour in the U.S. it will be enriched with

added vitamins and iron, and can be found either bleached or

unbleached. Because it is intended primarily for use in yeast

raised breads this flour will usually have other additives such

as small amounts of malt to improve yeast performance and

vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to improve dough volume and texture.

Some bread flours may also be treated with potassium

bromate to improve gluten qualities, but concerns over

possible toxicity of this additive is leading to its diminished

use.

A high gluten refined bread flour is commonly added to

whole wheat doughs to strengthen them which can improve

loaf rises and volume. Bread flour is most commonly

used in the production of yeast raised breads, pizza

crusts, and some specialty baked goods. In Great Britain

bread flour is often labeled as “Strong Flour” meaning it

has a high protein content.

Whole Wheat Flour: Real whole wheat flour should include

100% of the bran and germ so read your ingredient

labels carefully to be sure this is so. This flour is mostly

milled from hard red wheats, but whole grain hard white

flour is available from some mills and will produce a bread

that looks closer to refined white bread if that is what you

are accustomed to eating. Protein contents can vary, but

as most whole wheat flour is used in yeast bread making it

should be at least 12% with 13-14% being better still.

This is good because the bran and the germ can interfere

with good gluten development as the dough is mixed and

kneaded. Some do not mind this while others strengthen

their flour by adding vital wheat gluten or high protein refined

bread flours to achieve the rise and volume they are

accustomed to in yeast breads. Approximately 90% of

the total protein of a kernel of wheat is gluten with the

remaining 10% other proteins being mostly found in the

grain germ. Refined flours have had the germ removed so

a statement of protein content can be taken as an indication

of that flour’s suitability for making raised yeast breads.

With whole wheat flours one must remember that ten percent

of non-gluten germ proteins and judge that flour’s

protein content accordingly. Whole wheat flour milled from

lower protein soft wheats may be offered as “whole wheat

pastry flour” so be sure of what you are buying. Some

whole-wheat flours are also enriched.

Whole wheat flour may also be called “Graham Flour”,

sometimes simply “Stone Ground Wheat Flour” and in

Great Britain, Canada, and Australia may be known as

“Whole Meal Flour.” In Britain there is also a “Brown

Flour” which is midway between whole meal and white

flour in that it retains about 85% of the wheat kernel rather

than only the 72-75% that is typical of refined white flours.

The real disadvantage to storing whole wheat flour is that

like other processed grain products that includes the oil

rich germ it wants to go rancid. How fast this can happen

depends upon temperature, moisture, etc, but four to six

weeks is generally enough time for rancidity to become

noticeable. One can, of course, package the flour in good

containers with oxygen absorbers and the like, but better

still would be to buy the flour in the form of whole wheat

berries and mill them yourself. This is exactly what I and

many other folks with food storage programs do. Baking

with fresh, whole wheat flour is something of an art so the

time to get good with it is right NOW while you can toss

your failures to the chickens rather than having to eat them

regardless because you can’t afford to waste the food.

Vital Wheat Gluten: Sometimes labeled as simply

“wheat gluten.” This is the purified gluten of hard wheat

extracted from flour. It is generally 75-80% protein and is

used to strengthen weak or whole grain flours for making

yeast raised breads or made into “seitan” a wheat protein

meat substitute. Somewhat confusing the issue is “High

Gluten Flour” which is available in some markets. Careful

investigation is needed here because this flour can range

from a mere high gluten bread flour (approx 14%) to a

gluten enriched flour typically 40%+) all the way up to

purified wheat gluten (75%+). Be clear as to what it is

you’re buying and if you’re not certain contact the manufacturer.

If your whole wheat bread is not rising for you as

much as you’d like then an addition of a few spoonfuls of

gluten or some high gluten flour may perk it up a bit.

Cake Flour: Typically the lowest protein content (6-8%)

flour available to the home baker. This highly processed

flour will make the tenderest cakes, cookies, and biscuits

but performs poorly for yeasted breads. The flour is nearly

always bleached (chlorinated) both to give it a bright whiteness

and to improve its moisture holding capacity for cakes

calling for a high ratio of sugars or fats. Unless you make

a lot of cakes this is a rather specialized item to store.

Pastry Flour: Similar to cake flour, but generally slightly

higher in protein, not chlorinated, and may be found

bleached or unbleached. Used to produce tender pie crusts,

biscuits, etc. Very similar to the regional all-purpose flours

of the Southern U.S. Can also sometimes be found in a

whole-wheat version as well. In Great Britain, Canada,

and Australia may be known as “soft flour.”

Semolina/Durum: Produced from durum wheat this flour

is typically high in protein, 12% or more, enriched, unbleached

with a distinctive pale yellow color. Texture depends

largely on brand and can range from fairly coarse

to bread flour fine. Most commonly used in the production

of pastas, noodles, and couscous, but some specialty

bread types call for semolina flour. May also be known as

“alimentary flour”, “macaroni flour”, or “pasta flour.” Farina,

a coarse meal used as a breakfast cereal, is made from durum

wheat.

Self-Rising Flour: This is ordinary refined and enriched allpurpose

flour to which approximately 1.5 teaspoons of baking

powder and 0.5 teaspoons of salt have been added to

each cup of flour. This flour has its fans, but it’s not well suited

to long storage as the baking powder wants to go flat over

time even with special packaging. Nor is it suited to making

yeast raised breads. Most self-rising flours are in the mid to

low end of the protein scale (8-10%) because this is where

chemically leavened quick breads perform best to achieve

good rises and textures. You can make your own self-rising

flour by adding in the requisite amount of double acting baking

powder and salt mentioned above which is what I recommend

doing rather than trying to store the ready-made product.

Self-rising flour is sometimes known as phosphated flour

(for the baking powder used in it) and in Great Britain,

Canada, and Australia may be known as “self-raising flour”

or “raising flour.”

Instant Flour: This specialized flour product is also sometimes

known as “shaker flour” for the shaker can in which it’s

usually found This is a low-protein flour in a granular form

processed for easy and rapid dissolution into hot or cold liquids

for making sauces, gravies, and batters. A fairly specialized

item which any worthy cook can use ordinary flour to

replace.

FLOUR TREATMENTS AND ADDITIVES

Flour milling companies (and home bakers) use a variety of

additives and treatments in their flours to improve or suppress

a particular quality in their product. If you read the package

labels carefully you can discern quite a lot about what

has and has not been done. Here are a few of the more common:

Enrichment: U.S. law (and some other nations) requires that

refined flours which have had their bran and germ portions

removed to be “enriched” by adding back a portion of the

niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid, and iron that were lost in

the refining process. Some milling companies go even further

by adding vitamins A & D as well. There are various opinions

about the value of this enrichment, but it’s there. It has no

affect on the taste, color, texture, caloric value, or baking

qualities of the flour. Outside of the U.S. refined white flours

may or may not be enriched so study your package labels

carefully if this concerns you.

Bleaching: White bread and white cakes come by their snowy

beauty thanks to bleaching. This is a process by which the

yellowish carotenoid pigments that naturally occur in wheat

are bleached white in order to improve the appearance of the

flour and perhaps to change some of its physical characteristics

as well. This would occur naturally by itself were the refined

flour allowed to sit around for several months, but it’s

an uneven process and time is money to the milling companies

who cannot afford to have large stocks of product sitting

around in their warehouses for long periods of time.

Beyond making naturally off-white flour snowy in appearance

bleaching can perform several other functions which the

individual baker must decide if they are important to his needs.

Until fairly recently much refined flour was also “bromated”

using potassium bromate both to lighten the color, and to improve

the qualities of the gluten. Concerns over the toxicity

of this chemical has led to its gradual decline or outright ban

on its use. Other bleaching agents are now used such as chlorine

gas, chlorine dioxide, benzoyl peroxide and possibly others

as well. Flours treated in this fashion will often exhibit

improved loaf volume, finer grain, and look better in the finished

product.

Cake flour is generally chlorinated not only whiten but also to

improve its moisture holding ability when used in cakes with

a high ratio of sugar and fat to flour. This bleaching also further

tempers the already low gluten of the flour to produce

the tenderest possible texture.

For the folks who do not care to buy bleached flours, small

amounts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) are often added as a

dough conditioner and yeast nutrient. Home bakers often add

their own vitamin C to their breads when they make them for

the same reasons. A mere 1/8 tsp of ascorbic acid per cup of

flour is all that is necessary.

All bleached flours must be so labeled in the U.S.

Malting: Many bread flours and some all-purpose flours will

have small amounts of malt, malted barley flour, malt flour, or

diastatic malt added to them. This additive improves the performance

of the yeast by providing enzymes which speed the

conversion of some of the flour starches into the digestible

sugars the yeast use as fuel which can improve both the rise

of the dough and the flavor of the finished product. The malt

can also serve to improve the appearance of the bread when

baked and lengthen its shelf life. You can add your own

diastatic malt in the ratio of about 0.5-1.0 teaspoons for

every three cups of flour.

Organic: This is flour produced and processed under the

guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Organic

foods program. Most of the basic flour types (allpurpose,

bread, pastry, etc.) can be found in organic forms

though you may have to search a bit to find them.

Pre-Sifted: This is flour sifted at the mill before it was

packaged. Supposedly this means you do not need to sift

it again at home, but many feel that due to settling during

transport and storage if the recipe calls for sifted flour it

should be done again.

Other Additives: There are many other potential additives

that you may potentially come across in flour which

would require more space than is possible here to cover

them. Most are for use within the commercial/industrial

baking fields and you would need to contact the supplier

to determine precisely what it is they can do for you.

STORING FLOUR PRODUCTS

As already mentioned above whole wheat flour wants to

go rancid rather quickly after it has been milled. Once

ground it will stay fresh for about four to six weeks sitting

on your room temperature kitchen shelf. In a sealed container

in the refrigerator the flour will stay good for a year

or so. In the freezer it will keep for years. Personally, I

think it best to store your whole wheat flour in the form of

wheat berries and only mill as much flour as you will use in

a week or two and keep that in the refrigerator or freezer

until you do. If for some reason you cannot do this then

buy the freshest product you can and package it well in

Mylar bags, glass jars, or metal cans with oxygen absorbers.

Due to the fine texture of flour it will not gas flush very

well at all.

Even the refined white flours have limited shelf-lives. In

spite of what some would have you believe they are not

“dead foods.” The bran and germ may have been removed,

but a minute portion of the germ oils will remain as well as

the naturally occurring enzymes found in the grain. Refined

white flour won’t noticeably go off on you the way

whole wheat flour will, but given sufficient time and exposure

to heat and atmospheric humidity the protein content

of the flour will slowly breakdown. Your first indications

of trouble may be a slowly developing musty smell or de44

graded dough performance – poor rises and bad loaf volumes.

In a sealed, air tight container you should easily

achieve six months to a year at room temperatures. Sealed

containers in the refrigerator or freezer will last for at least

several years. If you want your white flour to stay at its

best for the longest possible time then package it in Mylar

bags, glass jars, or metal cans air tight with oxygen absorbers.

At a decent storage temperature sealed in a low

oxygen environment you should easily achieve five years

of shelf life or more.THIS MANUAL MAY BE SOLD AT COST ONLY - AND IS NOT TO BE OFFERED FOR RESALE.

From LDS Preparedness Manual

LEGUMES

If you’re willing to spend what it takes on preserved meats

and dairy products it’s not necessary to store legumes at all.

But most people do choose to keep a selection of beans,

peas, and lentils in their larders either for reasons of economy,

because they like them, or both. There are few non-animal

foods that contain the amount of protein to be found in legumes

with the varieties commonly available in the U.S. ranging

from 20%-35%. As with most non-animal proteins, they are

not complete in themselves for purposes of human nutrition,

but become so when they are combined with the incomplete

proteins found in grains. This is why grains and legumes are

so often served together the world around.

The legume family, of which all beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts

are a part, is one of the largest in the plant kingdom.

Because of this and the many thousands of years of cultivation

and development that man has given them on several

continents the variety of edible legumes available to us is huge.

Both their appearance and their names are colorful and varied.

They range from “adzuki beans”, a type of soybean from

the Orient, to “zipper peas”, a common field-pea here in the

Southern U.S. Their color can range from a clean white, to

deep red, dull green to flat black with thousands of mixtures

and patterns in between.

In spite of this incredible variety, many legumes are largely

interchangeable in cooking, although some dishes just wouldn’t

be the same if a different type were used. Below is a partial

list of common legumes.

ADZUKI BEANS:

These small, deep red beans are very popular in Japan, China

and other Asian nations, but are not as well known in the

U.S. They are actually a cousin of the soybean and are commonly

used in producing sweet bean paste for Chinese buns

and other dishes. Pressure cooking will sometimes impart a

bitter flavor so they are best presoaked then boiled in the

conventional fashion. Their flavor is somewhat milder than

kidney or small red beans, but they can serve as an adequate

substitute for either in chili and other dishes in which those

beans are commonly used.

BLACK BEANS:

Also known as “turtle beans”, they are small, dark brownishblack

and oval-shaped. Well known in Cuban black bean

soup and commonly used in Central and South America and

in China. They tend to bleed darkly when cooked so they

are not well suited to being combined with other beans,

lest they give the entire pot a muddy appearance. The

skins of black beans also slip off easily so for this reason

they are generally not recommended for pressure cooking

for fear of clogging the vent. This can be lessened by

not presoaking before cooking.

BLACK-EYED PEAS:

Also known as “cowpeas” or “field peas” there are many

varieties these peas eaten across the Southern United

States, Mexico, and Africa with black-eyed peas being

the most commonly known in the U.S. The coloring of

field-peas is as varied as the rest of the legume family,

with black-eyed peas being small, oval shaped with an

overall creamy color and, of course, their distinctive blackeye.

Dried field-peas cook very quickly and combine very

tastily with either rice or cornbread and are often eaten as

Hoppin’ John every New Years for luck. They’re also reputed

to produce less flatulence than many other beans.

CHICKPEAS:

Also known as the “garbanzo bean” or “cecci pea” (or

bean), they tend to be a creamy or tan color, rather lumpily

roundish and larger than dried garden peas. Many have

eaten the nutty flavored chick-pea, even if they’ve never

seen a whole one. They are the prime ingredient in hummus

and falafel and are one of the oldest cultivated legume

species known, going back as far as 5400 B.C. in

the Near East. Chickpeas tend to remain firmer when

cooked than other legumes and can add a pleasant texture

to many foods. I like them in red spaghetti sauces in

particular and they are often used in Spanish cuisine in a

tomato based sauce. Roasted brown then ground they

have also served as a coffee substitute.

FAVA BEANS:

Not as well known in the U.S. as in Europe and the Mediterranean

favas are also known as “broad beans” or “horse

beans” being broad in shape, flat and reddish brown in

color. This is one of the oldest legume species in European

cultivation, but it does require more effort to consume.

The hull of the bean is tough and not conducive to

being tenderized by cooking so is often peeled away. The

skinless bean falls apart so is made into a puree. A small

number of people with Mediterranean ancestry have a

genetic sensitivity to the blossom pollens and undercooked

beans, a condition known as “favism” so should avoid

consuming them.

GREAT NORTHERN BEANS:

A large white bean about twice the size of navy beans

they are typically bean flavored and are frequently favored

for soups, salads, casseroles, and baked beans. One of

the more commonly eaten in the U.S. Milled into meal

these mild flavored beans can be included in many baked

goods as a protein booster or used to thicken soups and

stews.

KIDNEY BEANS:

Like the rest of the family, kidney beans can be found in

wide variety. They may be white, mottled or a light or

dark red color with their distinctive kidney shape. Probably

best known here in the U.S. for their use in chili and

bean salads, they figure prominently in Mexican, Brazilian

and Chinese cuisine.

LENTILS:

Lentils are an odd lot. They don’t fit in with either the

beans or the peas and occupy a place by themselves. Their

shape is different from other legumes being roundish little

discs with colors ranging from muddy brown, to green to

a rather bright orangish-red. They cook very quickly and

have a distinctive mildly peppery flavor. They are much

used in Far Eastern cuisine from India to China. Next to

mung beans they make excellent sprouts though their peppery

flavor tends to strengthen somewhat so are best mixed

with milder sprouts.

LIMA BEANS:

In the Southern U.S., they are also commonly called “butter

beans”. Limas are one of the most common legumes,

found in this country in all manner of preservation from the

young small beans to the large fully mature type. Their

flavor is pleasant, but a little bland. Their shape is rather

flat and broad with colors ranging from pale green to speckled

cream and purple. They combine very well with rice.

MUNG BEANS:

Best known here in the States in their sprouted form, they

are quite common in Indian and other Asian cuisines and

are a close relative of the field peas (cowpeas). Their shape

is generally round, fairly small with color ranging from a

medium green to so dark as to be nearly black. They cook

quickly and presoaking is not generally needed.

NAVY BEANS:

Smaller than Great Northerns these petite sized beans are

also sometimes knows as pea beans. They are the stars of

Navy and Senate Bean Soups, favored for many baked bean

dishes, and are most often chosen for use in commercial pork

and beans. They retain their shape well when cooked. Ground

into meal they can be added to many soups and stews without

overpowering them.

PEANUTS (Groundnuts):

The peanut is not actually a nut at all, but a legume. They are

another odd species not much like the more familiar beans

and peas. Peanuts have a high protein percentage and even

more fat. Whatever their classification peanuts are certainly

not unfamiliar to U.S. eaters. They are one of the two legume

species commonly grown for oilseed in this country, and are

also used for peanut butter, and boiled or roasted peanuts.

Peanut butter (without excessive added sweeteners) can add

body and flavor to sauces, gravies, soups, and stews. Many

Central and South American, African, Chinese, and Thai

dishes incorporate peanuts so they are useful for much more

than just a snack food or cooking oil.

PEAS, GREEN OR YELLOW:

More often found as split peas though whole peas can sometimes

be had. The yellow variety has become somewhat uncommon

but has a milder flavor than the green types which

well lends them to blending inconspicuously into other foods.

Probably best known in split pea soup, particularly with a

smoky chunk of ham added. They are also used in Indian

cuisine, especially dals. Whole peas need soaking, but split

peas can be cooked as is. Split peas and pea meal makes an

excellent thickener for soups and stews. Because splitting

damages the pea, this more processed form does not keep

for as long as whole peas unless given special packaging.

PINK AND RED BEANS:

Related to the kidney bean these are smaller in size but similar

in flavor. The pink bean has a more delicate flavor than the

red. The are both often favored for use in chili and widely

used across the American Southwest, Mexico, and Latin

America. They can add nicely to the color variety in multibean

soups.

PINTO BEANS:

Anyone who has eaten Tex-Mex food has likely had the pinto

bean. It is probably the most widely consumed legume in the

U.S., particularly in the Southwestern portion of the country.

Stereotypically bean shaped, it has a dappled pattern of tans

and browns on its shell. Pintos have a flavor that blends well

with many foods. When ground together with great northern

or navy beans they make my favorite homemade version of

falafel. When milled into a meal pintos will cook in mere minutes,

making a near instant form of refried beans.

SOYBEANS:

The soybean is by far the legume with the highest protein

content in large scale commercial production and it’s amino

acid profile is the most nearly complete for human nutrition.

Alongside the peanut it is the other common legume oilseed.

The beans themselves are small, round, and with a multitude

of different shades though tan seems to be the most common

that I’ve seen. Because of their high oil content, they are more

sensitive to oxygen exposure than other legumes and precautions

should be taken accordingly if they are to be kept for

more than a year in storage, especially if they are to be processed

for soymilk or tofu. Although the U.S. grows a large

percentage of the global supply, we consume virtually none

of them directly. Most go into cattle feed, are used by industry,

or exported. What does get eaten directly has usually

been intensively processed. Soybean products range from

soymilk to tofu, to tempeh, to textured vegetable protein

(TVP) and hundreds of other forms. They don’t lend themselves

well to merely being boiled until done then eaten the

way other beans and peas do. For this reason, if you plan on

keeping some as a part of your storage program you would

be well served to begin to learn how to process and prepare

them now while you’re not under pressure to produce. This

way you can throw out your failures and order pizza, rather

than having to choke them down, regardless.

THIS MANUAL MAY BE SOLD AT COST ONLY - AND IS NOT TO BE OFFERED FOR RESALE.

From LDS Preparedness Manual

Do you REALLY have a year’s supply?

Just how big is a Year’s Supply of food? As explained on the previous page, our Church is suggesting

the following minimums for each adult:

400 lbs. Grains (17.5oz / day)

60 lbs. Beans (2.6oz / day)

10 quarts Cooking oil (0.87oz / day)

60 lbs. Honey (2.63oz / day)

8 lbs. Salt (0.35oz / day)

16 lbs Powdered milk (0.70oz / day)

14 gallons of drinking water (for 2 weeks)

So, just how much is this?

Two 5 gallon buckets will hold about 75lbs of wheat, rice or other grains.

This means you need 11 buckets of grain for each person in your family.

If you store all your grains in #10 cans...

Wheat, Rice, Corn, etc..

You would need 64 cans or 10.5 cases per person.

Pasta

You would need 32 cans or 5.25 cases per person.

Rolled oats

These are lighter but bulkier, so they require more storage containers and space.

You would need 124 cans or 21 cases person.

Beans

A 25 lb bag of beans will about fit in a single 5 gallon bucket, with a little space over, so 2 buckets would

hold a one person supply, or 12 -13 # 10 cans or about 2 cases.

Daily Food

Dividing 400lbs by 365days, equals out to 1.09589lbs, or just over 1 lb of grain, per person, per day. That

is approximately 2 cups of unground grain to cover your breakfast lunch and dinner.

Dividing 60lbs by 365, this works out to 0.16 lbs of beans per day, or 2.6 oz—approximately 3/4 cup.

The other foods listed would also need to be used in limited amounts.

This is not much food, folks. Get the basics, then immediately begin to add more kinds of grain,

soup mix, canned and/or dehydrated vegetables and fruit, etc to add variety and provide more than the

minimal survival diet.

As an example, the minimum recommended amount of grain, when ground and prepared will yield about

6 small biscuits or a plateful of pancakes. Its enough to keep you alive, but a far cry from being satisfied

and not hungry.

Inventory Worksheet

GRAINS = 400 lbs per adult

_____ Barley

_____ Cereal

_____ Corn (meal or Dent)

_____ Cous Cous

_____ Flour (4lb/can)

_____ Millet

_____ Multi grain soup mix(5lb/can)

_____ Oats, rolled quick(3lb/can)

_____ Oats, rolled regular(3lb/can)

_____ Popcorn

_____ Rye

_____ Sprouting Seeds

_____ Wheat(6lb/can)

_____ White Rice(6lb/can)

Pastas

_____ Macaroni(3lb/can)

_____ Noodles

_____ Spaghetti(4lb/can)

MILK / DAIRY = 75 lbs per adult

_____ Brick cheese

_____ Canned Milk

_____ Canned sour cream

_____ Cheese spreads

_____ Condensed milk

_____ Dried cheese

_____ Dried eggs

_____ Infant formula

_____ Non-dairy creamer

_____ Non-fat dry milk(4 lb/can)

_____ Powdered cheese

_____ Powdered sour cream

CANNED or DRIED MEATS

(20 lbs per adult)

_____ Bacon

_____ Beef

_____ Beef jerky

_____ Chicken

_____ Clams

_____ Corned beef

_____ Crabmeat

_____ Deviled meats

_____ Fish

_____ Ham

_____ Hamburger

_____ Lamb

_____ Lunch meats

_____ Mutton

_____ Pepperoni

_____ Pork

_____ Tuna

_____ Salmon

_____ Sandwich spreads

_____ Sardines

_____ Sausage

_____ Shrimp

_____ Spam

_____ Treet

_____ Turkey

_____ TVP- Textured vegi Protein

_____ Veal

_____ Venison jerky

_____ Vienna sausage

FRUITS and VEGETABLES

90 lbs Dried, 370qts canned, 370Lbs

fresh

Fruits

_____ Apples (2lb/can)

_____ Applesauce

_____ Apricots

_____ Peaches

_____ Berries

_____ Cherries

_____ Coconut

_____ Currants

_____ Figs

_____ Fruit cocktail

_____ Grapefruit

_____ Grapes

_____ Mandarin oranges

_____ Nectarines

_____ Olives

_____ Pears

_____ Peaches

_____ Pineapples

_____ Plums

_____ Prunes

_____ Raisins

_____ Tomatoes

BEANS & LEGUMES

(90 lbs per adult)

_____ Beans, pink(5lb/can)

_____ Beans, pinto(5lb/can)

_____ Beans, white(5lb/can)

_____ Lentils

_____ Nuts

_____ Peas

_____ Sprouting beans and seeds

_____ Soybeans

SPICES / CONDIMENTS

_____ Almond extract

_____ Allspice

_____ Baking chocolate

_____ Basil

_____ BBQ sauce

_____ Bouillon cubes / granules

Beef, chicken, onion, vegetable flavors

_____ Cayenne pepper

_____ Celery salt

_____ Chili powder

_____ Chives

_____ Chocolate chips

_____ Chocolate syrup

_____ Cinnamon

_____ Cloves

_____ Cocoa

_____ Coriander

_____ Cumin

_____ Curry

_____ Dill weed

_____ Garlic salt

_____ Ginger

_____ Gravy mixes

_____ Herbs

_____ Ketchup

_____ Lemon extract

_____ Lemon / lime juice

_____ Liquid smoke

_____ Majoram

_____ Maple extract

_____ Nutmeg

_____ Onion flakes

_____ Onion salt

_____ Orange peel

Remember, these are quantities
for EACH adult person.

JUICES/BEVERAGES = 25 lbs

_____ Apple juice

_____ Apricot nectar

_____ Baby strained juices

_____ Cocoa drink mix(4lb/can)

_____ Cranberry juice

_____ Dried juice mix(6lb/can)

_____ Grapefruit juice

_____ Grape juice

_____ Kool-aid

_____ Lemonaid

_____ Orange juice

_____ Pineapple juice

_____ Plum juice

_____ Prune juice

_____ Punch crystals

_____ Soft drink mixes

_____ Soft drinks

_____ Tomato juice

_____ V-8 juice

FATS / OILS = 20 lbs per adult

_____ Butter

_____ Cooking oil

_____ Lard

_____ Margarine

_____ Mayonnaise

_____ Olive Oil (extra virgin)

_____ Peanut butter

_____ Powdered butter

_____ Powdered margarine

_____ Powdered shortening

_____ Salad dressing

_____ Shortening

AUXILIARY FOODS

_____ Baking powder

_____ Baking soda

_____ Cake mixes

_____ Calcium supplement

_____ Casserole mixes

_____ Chow mein noodles

_____ Cookies

_____ Cookie mixes

_____ Cornstarch

_____ Crackers

_____ Cream of tartar

_____ Hot roll mixes

_____ Hydrated lime (for tortillas)

_____ Instant breakfast

_____ Instant yeast

_____ Iron supplement

_____ Marshmallows

_____ MREs

_____ Muffin mixes

_____ Non perishable pet foods

_____ Pancake mixes

_____ Pastry mixes

_____ Pectin

_____ Pie crust mixes

_____ Pie fillings

_____ Pizza mixes

_____ Plain gelatin

_____ Rennin tablets

_____ Salt

_____ Sourdough starter

_____ Survival bars

_____ Tofu Solidifier

_____ Vitamins and minerals

_____ Whipped topping mixes

Vegetables

_____ Artichoke hearts

_____ Asparagus

_____ Beans

_____ Beets

_____ Broccoli

_____ Brussels sprouts

_____ Carrots (3lb/can)

_____ Cauliflower

_____ Celery

_____ Corn-sweet

_____ Green beans

_____ Hominy

_____ Mushrooms

_____ Okra

_____ Onions (2lb/can)

_____ Parsnips

_____ Peas

_____ Peppers

_____ Pickles

_____ Potatoes, flakes (1.5lb/can)

_____ Potatoes, pearls (3lb/can)

_____ Pumpkins

_____ Rhubarb

_____ Rutabagas

_____ Salsify

_____ Sauerkraut

_____ Soups

_____ Spinach

_____ Squash

_____ Sweet potatoes (yams)

_____ Tomatos

_____ Tomato powder

_____ Turnips

_____ Water chestnuts

_____ Oregano

_____ Paprika

_____ Pepper

_____ Poultry Seasoning

_____ protein supplement

_____ Sage

_____ Salad dressings

_____ Salt (5 lbs per adult)

_____ Sauce mixes

_____ Seasoned salt

_____ Spaghetti sauce

_____ Soy sauce

_____ Steak sauce

_____ Tarragon

_____ Thyme

_____ Turmeric

_____ Vanilla extract

_____ Vinegar

_____ Worcestershire sauce

SUGARS = 60 lbs per adult

_____ Corn syrup

_____ Hard candy

_____ Honey

_____ Jello

_____ Jelly or jam

_____ Maple syrup

_____ Molasses

_____ Pudding, chocolate (5lb/can)

_____ Pudding, vanilla (5lb/can)

_____ Sugar (6lb/can)

Note:

For an average adult Female - multiply the weight by 0.75

For children ages 1-3 multiply by 0.3, 4-6 multiply by 0.5, 7-9 multiply by 0.75

For adults engaged in manual labor multiply by 1.25-1.50

From LDS Survival Manual
THIS MANUAL MAY BE SOLD AT COST ONLY - AND IS NOT TO BE OFFERED FOR RESALE.

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