07:57 – Embarrassing prepper moment. While I was doing laundry yesterday, Barbara asked me to bring up some food from downstairs. Canned chicken, spaghetti sauce, applesauce, cream of mushroom soup, and beef broth. I got everything but the last item, which we’d run out of. ARRRGGGH.
Not my fault, as it turns out. We buy most soups and similar canned goods at Costco or Sam’s Club in shrink-wrapped cases of 8 or 10 cans, but neither of them carries Campbell’s Beef Broth, which Barbara prefers. She buys it at the supermarket when it’s on sale, usually ten cans at a time. Those come upstairs with the other supermarket stuff when she returns from the supermarket and are put on the upstairs pantry shelves. So I never did have any beef broth stored downstairs. I didn’t run out of it. I never had any to start with.
Unbelievable!
You had no beef broth!
Making it from scratch creates some wunnerful stuff but it’s kinda tedious and takes a while, same with chicken and turkey stock.
Sunny with blue skies today, could hit the 20s! Mrs. OFD off to Syracuse, NY, later; a five-hour drive. Princess back to Montreal this afternoon. OFD back to quiet, orderliness, and stability.
Eh? Throw the bones into the crock pot, fill with water, cook on low 12-24 hours, pour through a colander into the storage container. Human time involved is maybe 20 minutes, including cleanup.
Yeah, but then you need to pressure-can it, which is extremely tedious, not to mention expensive. At less than a buck a can for Campbell’s Condensed Beef Broth, it’s just not worth it to make our own. I’ll tell Barbara that the next time it’s on sale she should pick up 20 or 30 cans instead of 10. Either that, or just buy it every time it’s on sale until we have a reserve built up.
Good point on the time-consumingness of canning, but it’s not an issue here. I’ll make a gallon of broth from a turkey carcass, and easily use it all before it goes bad. And that’s assuming my mother-in-law doesn’t confiscate half or more, which she usually does.
Of course, but I’m looking at things from a prepper perspective.
I have certain challenges to overcome in prepping, in a material sense. These challenges are commonly known as my wife and mother-in-law. They constantly dip into the items I set aside, whether food or the 36-pack of toilet paper. I could put the stuff in a locked room or build a cage in the garage, but that means either that no one can get to the supplies in an emergency if I’m not there, or that they can get into them when it’s not an emergency. Not related to prepping supplies, but I’ve previously put money and a key in a sealed envelope with instructions that it was for emergency use only, only to find it opened the next time I looked; the “emergency” that came up was apparently “it was convenient”.
I’m not reciting all that in a play for sympathy, but as a suggestion for a book section on prepping in the face of obstruction.
It sounds like if you’re not there it’s not going to matter anyway.
“…but as a suggestion for a book section on prepping in the face of obstruction.”
There probably ought to be a short section or mention of this sort of “obstruction” from other parties in a household not really committed to the prepping thing, but such a short treatise could easily be expanded into a multi-volume exposition of this across all fields of endeavor in the course of humanity.
Starting with Eve and the “talking snake,” as the comedic atheists like to describe that incident.
It’s 50F in Vegas. At this rate, I’ll be able to prep in my garage. Thank you Climate Ejaculation!
My wife is making chicken broth just now – she likes cooking, and the difference to the commercial stuff is worth it. She then freezes what we aren’t going to use soon.
A chef we know boils the stuff down until (when cooled) it forms a thick jelly, which he cuts into pieces and puts into a plastic container. Apparently the stuff is so concentrated that it keeps for months in the refrigerator (I expect he puts a fair bit of salt in it).
Should I ever actually get my storage room finished (the misadventures continue, but I think I found a solution for the most recent one), I intend to encourage the family to use the stuff. That way (a) they’ll be involved and somewhat appreciative of having their own in-house store and (b) the stuff will turn over, rather than just growing old.
I like Mr. SteveF’s slow cooker method for doing the stock, but from I understand and have experienced, the best stocks are done by roasting the bones in a hot oven for a while and then you proceed with the simmering and veggies and so on. I’ve also heard of the reduction to jelly consistency and freezing it in ice cube trays. This is all swell, but for long-term prep storage, we’d have to be doing stock and canning of same pretty much all the time to build up an appreciable storage of it. Cheaper and faster just to do the already-canned route like Dr. Bob is doing. I dunno if Campbell’s is the best for this, though; Cooks Illustrated has consistently recommended the Swanson brands of stock. For those not familiar with the CI Empire and Emperor Christopher Kimball’s long rule of same, they do very extensive and thorough testing of EVERYTHING, from soup to nuts, including recipes in multiple formats, and all the usual (and some unusual) kitchen tools and gear.
Mr. Kimball runs the HQ from Brookline, MA, but lives a good part of the year in his southern VT childhood hometown out in the sticks, on a farm. He looks like Caspar Milqetoast but is evidently tough enough to do a lotta farm work and hunts regularly.
lol LAPD snipers deployed at the Oscars to protect our all important film stars. lol I wonder what all those libturds who abhor “guns, guns, guns” think of that?
It’s known as “cognitive dissonance,” which they always accuse/d us right-wingers of, for years. They can hold two mutually contradictory beliefs in their pin heads at the same time; guns for us: bad. Guns for peeps in uniform: good. Especially if controlled by them or their annointed, like Dear Leader Obola.
Which is why we have rich celebs and politicians with CCW permits (simply handed to them, as in the case of Senator Boxer of Kalifornia and many others) and/or their own personal security details. But OFD and Mr. SteveF and MrAtoz should wait for the cops to save us and otherwise keep our grimy reichwing-nut mitts off guns.
Yup, sure will; when seconds count, etc.
The Colt 45 revolver was both known as the peacemaker and the equalizer. To deny the rest of us, the rabble, access to this and other guns would be breaking the peace and our equality. Since they are are better than us, in their minds, they have no problem with breaking this pact of the USA Constitution.
Walked two miles tonight in Norman in 23 F weather with a stiff wind. Three shirts, two vests, a hoodie, two pairs of sweat pants, and my long scarf. I think that I will wear two pairs of socks tomorrow night.
I like Mr. SteveF’s slow cooker method for doing the stock, but from I understand and have experienced, the best stocks are done by roasting the bones in a hot oven for a while and then you proceed with the simmering and veggies and so on. I’ve also heard of the reduction to jelly consistency and freezing it in ice cube trays.
There are two classes of stocks. Brown stock is made with roasted bones. Any properly made stock will jell because you want to extract the collagen from the bones. It’s necessary if you want to get that silky smoothness in sauces. (Butter also helps with that.)
“It’s necessary if you want to get that silky smoothness in sauces.”
Gospel truth, as also seen at Cooks Illustrated and the French Chef, RIP, Julia.
“… they have no problem with breaking this pact of the USA Constitution.”
Birdcage liner since the events of 1787 in Philadelphia.
“Walked two miles tonight in Norman in 23 F weather with a stiff wind.”
Well, you had the right attire but didja remember your Peacemaker?
Well, you had the right attire but didja remember your Peacemaker?
Nope. The conference is in a federal facility, grounds and all (around 30 acres), the NCED. Any possession of a weapon is a mandatory 2 to 5 year sentence. Even unloaded and in the vehicle.
Things are really wrong when they can make laws like this.
Agreed. You’re an American citizen and should be able to carry anywhere at anytime. Period.