Food Hints from Wendy DeWitt

FOOD HINTS
Baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cocoa. These are SOME of the items you don’t need to (or shouldn’t) can. Keep them in their original containers or you can place them in buckets with lids.

Brown sugar 2 Tbs. Molasses + 1 cup white sugar. Mix with pastry blender until blended.
Also, vacuum seal regular brown sugar to keep it fresh for years.

Butter or margarine...almost! 1 pound shortening (butter flavored works well) ½ tsp salt, 1&2/3 c condensed milk
Whip the shortening and the salt until light. Add the condensed milk a little at a time and blend.

Butter bottled (Google "bottled butter") Real butter is best but margarine works too. Heat pint jars in the oven @ 250 for 20 minutes. Heat lids in boiling water for 3 minutes. Slowly stir and melt the butter in a pan. After it has boiled for 5 minutes, stir and then scoop the butter into the hot jars. Use a funnel to keep butter off the rims. Place the hot lid and ring on the jar and wait for the "plink." Shake jars several times over the next 15-20 minutes. The separation will stop. While still slightly warm, put the jars in the refrigerator. Check every 10-15 minutes, shaking jars each time. Eventually the butter will harden. Leave in refrigerator for one more hour. Bottled butter can store on your shelf for at least 3 years.

Cheese Canned cheese. (Go to internet-grocer.com for details on this cheese.) It’s a Kraft Velveeta type cheddar that comes in a can. $3 for an 8 oz can. Minimum 5 year shelf life. Call Phyllis @ 1-903-356-6443
Corn syrup 1 c sugar + 2 c water Cook in canning jar in solar oven about an hour or until thick.

"Eggs" from unflavored gelatin (Knox) Buy in bulk at bulkfoods.com In all the recipes in this book I have substituted unflavored gelatin for the eggs. The gelatin is less expensive than powdered eggs (as little as 3 cents per "egg") has an indefinite shelf life and works well in all the recipes I’ve tried. I used unflavored gelatin that was over 20 years old and it worked perfectly. 1tsp gelatin= 1 egg 1 oz gelatin=12 tsp 1 pound gelatin=192 eggs.
Making one egg: Combine 1 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin with 3 Tablespoons of cold water and stir until dissolved. Then add 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of hot water and stir. When using your own recipes, decrease the liquid called for in your recipe by about 1/4 cup to compensate for the added water from the "egg." I have already done this for the recipes in this book.

Eggs (storing fresh eggs for up to 1 year) Rub warmed mineral oil on your hands and coat the entire surface of the fresh egg with the oil. Replace egg in the egg carton with the point down. In cold climates they can be stored in a cool, dark place, but I keep mine in the refrigerator and rotate once a year.

Jar cakes & breads Breads, cakes, muffins, cornbread, brownies, cookies, cinnamon rolls sealed in jars. This is a great idea for food storage and the solar oven, but you must be very sure to boil all your jars and lids to be sure they are free from bacteria! They can also be washed and then sanitized in your solar oven. Jar Foods are cooked in canning jars WITHOUT THE LIDS in your solar oven or a regular oven. The food will slip out of the jars easily if you use the straight sided "jelly jars" but any kind of mason jar will work Using a pastry brush, grease the insides with shortening (no Pam or Baker’s Secret) fill it ½ to 2/3 full with your batter or dough and bake as usual. (Let your breads raise in the jars and then bake.) Some foods rise more than others, so practice with these amounts so you don’t waste space in your jars. If it bakes too high, cut the top of your bread or cake off before sealing the jar. Just be sure your jar edge is clean and your lids are hot! Immediately after the food is cooked, place your heated lid on the hot jar and tighten with the ring. (Use hot pads!) Within a few minutes, the lid will "plink" and the food will be sealed. This food can sit on your shelf with no refrigeration or freezing for several months. (The more moist the recipe, the better. Applesauce cakes are great.) With this method, you can cook jar foods on your bright sunny days and have fully cooked foods waiting on your shelves for that occasional rainy day. It’s also great for those cloudy days when there’s not enough sunshine to bake but it’s perfect for simmering soups and stews. You can simmer your chili in the solar oven all day and before dinner, pop in a jar of precooked cornbread to warm it up. Try warming up a jar of chocolate cake for dessert! This method of baking has been done for years, but lately there has been some discussion as to it’s safety. Because the eggs were exchanged with unflavored gelatin in all of these recipes, it is unlikely that the ingredients used could support bacteria if prepared and cooked properly. If you feel at all uncomfortable with this method, don’t use it.

Milk Powdered milk: If you have electricity, powdered milk is best if you use warm water, mix with a blender and chill overnight.

Buttermilk 1 c water +1/3 c dry milk + 1 Tbs vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit 5 min.

Condensed milk ½ c hot water, 1 c sugar, 1/4 c dry milk, + 1 c water. Place in canning jar with lid and shake until thoroughly blended.

"Eagle Brand" 1 c hot water, 1/3 c corn syrup,1 2/3 c sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, pinch of salt, ½ c butter, 2 c dry milk. Place all ingredients except "butter" in canning jar with lid and shake until well blended. Gradually add the butter and shake each time until well blended.

Evaporated 1 c water + 2/3 c dry milk, Skim 1 c water + 1/4 c dry milk, Whole 1 c water + 1/3 c dry

Milk on the shelf Technology has now given us the opportunity to buy real milk that sits on the shelf. It has at least a 1 year shelf life. One brand is Parmalot. It comes in quart containers and is available in whole and 2%. for $1.44. (I only drink skim, so it tasted like canned milk to me.) The shelf milk I like is vanilla soy milk @ about 90 cents/qt.at CostCo. Rice milk is good too.

Peanut butter 2 c peanuts and 4 Tb honey OR 2 ½ c peanuts and 2 Tb butter - salt to taste Blend until smooth. This really needs an electric blender but it can still be done without one.

Rice RANCID RICE? = AIR OUT 2 DAYS & RINSE WITH WATER

Shortening I have substituted shortening for the oil in all my recipes because it has a longer shelf life. Oil has about a 2 year shelf life, unopened shortening has 10 years. If you can still find the hard lid shortening (not foil lids) they have an indefinite shelf life. Store shortening in a cool, dark place. Opened shortening has a one year or less shelf life. After opening a can of shortening, you may want to transfer it to mason jars and vacuum seal it for a longer shelf life. Remove the air pockets in the jar or melt it, then vacuum.

Tomato powder ½ cup powder mixed with 1 cup water = 1 c tomato sauce. Less water makes tomato paste and more water makes tomato juice.

Vacuum sealed foods (Sealing foods in your old jars using the Food Saver)
Many high oil or high sugar foods cannot be stored in the regular #10 cans because they eat away at the metal. (Chocolate chips, nuts and raisins for example.) You can significantly increase the shelf life of many foods by using a Food Saver and Jar Sealer attachment to vacuum out the air. Put your ingredients in a jar, put the lid on, place the jar sealer attachment over the lid and start the machine. If a jar won’t seal, try heating the lid in boiling water or changing jars and lids.) The jar can be opened and resealed over and over . If you take the lids off carefully, the lids can be reused many times. We have sealed nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, brown rice, cornmeal, candy bars, egg noodles, poppy seeds, dried apricots, malt-o-meal, cookies, granola bars...just about anything and they last for years. We have raisins that were a little sugary but still edible after 20years. It’s difficult to give an exact shelf life of these foods because, so far, nothing we’ve sealed correctly has gone bad. Don’t vacuum fine powders. They gum up the works of your machine. If you want to seal powders, put them into a plastic bag, express all the air out, place it in the jar and seal. A Food Saver will cost at least $100 in stores. Try E-Bay for a much better deal, around $25. Be sure it has the port on top of the machine that uses the jar sealer attachment. Jar Sealers come in regular and wide mouth and can be purchased at Wal Mart type stores ($10) or everythinghome.com.

Water I store mine in the 55 gallon plastic barrels and add 1 tsp of household bleach for every 5 gallons of water. 2 - 3 of these barrels per person will fill most water needs for cooking.

Yeast Yeast has an indefinite shelf life in your freezer...one year on the shelf. ALWAYS test your yeast before adding it to your dry ingredients. Add the yeast to warm (not hot) water and wait a few minutes. The mixture will start to bubble and smell good. Add this to your dry ingredients.