It’s very easy to prepare food right now; you simply pull it out of the refrigerator or the freezer and toss the food in the microwave or cooking pan. You’ve got electricity for keeping your food cold, gas or electricity for cooking it, a automobile to induce you to the shop and a store to drive to if you wish to shop for a lot of food. No real skills necessary.
There are some skills that you need to learn now for making food for survival just in case SHTF. Your methods of preservation and cooking, and even preparing daily meals will change drastically and if you’re caught unaware, you’re going to be in a world of hurt fairly quickly.
Canning
This is most likely one of the simplest skills to learn though it’s time consuming and needs specialised equipment. Properly canned foods will last for years – there are records of food that’s been eaten fifteen years after it had been preserved, and sure there have been even longer periods.
The basic idea of canning is two-fold. Heat, beside salt or vinegar are generally used as a microorganism preservative, then the canning method seals the “sterile” food into the jar so that microorganism and air can’t reach the food to instigate the spoiling process. Of course, you’re not attending to add salt or vinegar to your jellies or fruits, but they’re usually used for vegetable and meat preservation.
Though you’ll can inside on a stove today, you’ll also do it over an open flame if required but it’ll take a large amount of fuel so it’s better to can it now and have it in your stockpile if you’re planning to bug in.
Some tips for canning:
Choose fruits and vegetables that are at the peak of maturity. You don’t wish any bruising or dangerous spots, either. For meats and low-acid fruits and vegetables, you need to use a pressure canner to avoid the risk of botulism. this is a wicked microorganism that affects your central nervous system. If your canned foods has any bubbles in it after you look into the jar or when you open it, or if the contents blow out of the jar when you open it, don’t eat it unless you want to put yourself in a world of hurt.
Make sure that all of your equipment is totally clean and free of harm. No chips, cracks or bends. Otherwise, your food won’t seal properly and you’re simply wasting it.
Dehydration
Dehydrating food has been used as a preservation method for eons. The concept is simple; remove the moisture from the food to inhibit the growth of microorganisms that cause spoilage. They can’t grow as rapidly without water but dehydrated food still spoils. It just spoils slower.
Dehydrated foods are lightweight and will last plenty long enough to induce you through a few of weeks without food. Some individuals actually mix the canning and dehydrating processes. Once they dehydrate the meat, vegetables or fruit, they then can them.
If you think that about it, this can be a very good plan because if SHTF, you’ll unseal the dehydrated foods, stash it in your pack and run with it. You’ve preserved the dehydrated foods so that it can later be used as a light, nutritive survival food later.
Now, we’ve got food dehydrators however to dehydrate food during a survival scenario, you’ll simply hang the food over a fireplace for many hours or maybe use the sun if you live in a hot enough location.
If you’re simply drying herbs, you only need to suspend them from a rope or string and allow them to dry. The same factor goes for peppers and different vegetables.
Grinding Grains
The time could return when we go back to trading agricultural products, or even you only have enough property to grow your own grains. In any case, you’ll need to know how to grind your own grains. You’ll get little hand-cranked mills or, if you only want a very small amount of one thing you’ll use a mortar and pestle.
Because home-milled flour still contains the natural oils in the seeds or nuts that you’ve used, you would like to use the flour up fairly quickly because it’ll go rancid. It’s best to simply grind what you need for a couple of days or a week and leave the rest in seed or nut form.
Measurements
How are you going to measure food if you don’t have measuring cups or spoons? Easy – use your hand! These measurements are, of course, rough but they’re much better than nothing. 1 cup is about the size of your fist. Your loosely cupped hand holds between 1 and 2 ounces of dried goods.
Your cupped palm holds about 1/4 cup. A dime-sized pile of salt in the well of your cupped hand is about 1/4 teaspoon, a nickel-sized mound is about 1/2 teaspoon and a quarter-sized pile is about 1 teaspoon.
Liquids can be a bit trickier; it’s best at this point to use percentages versus measurements until you can adapt your new life to a new measuring device. Of course, you can always use something that you know the measurement of such as a gallon jug, a 16oz glass or a 20oz water bottle.
The thing to remember when guessing at measurements is that it’s always possible to add more; it’s not usually so easy to remove something once it’s added.
Beware when do food for survival
- Don’t take short cuts, and use only clean water. Foodborne illness is not something that you want to deal with when you may not have access to medications or hospitals.
- Clean your area thoroughly if you’re cooking in a survival situation. Use bleach, especially when cleaning up after using meat.
- Always wash your hands before you begin cooking and between handling raw meat and any other food product.
- Use the reusable canning lids. That way, you’ll be able to continue canning food even if you don’t have access to a store to buy more lids.
Cooking and conserving food goes to be much more sophisticated if SHTF and you don’t have access to electrical, gas, stores and trendy conveniences. Your main priority goes to be sanitation because you don’t wish to make yourself or your family sick.
After that, several of the processes are going to be the same; you’re simply going to need to use completely different ways.
