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What's in Your Cupboard?

Table salt is bad for preserving as the anti caking agent reacts with the acid when you add it to vinegar, I'm not sure but I seem to remember the anti caking agent used is sodiumferrocyanide which sounds like it would be worth avoiding even in small amounts. I avoid the additives in salt by always checking the packaging.
 
Well, I won't bother with that then!:D Preserving is the main reason I store a lot of salt. In the kitchen a lb of salt will last more than a year so I'll stick with raiding the sea salt. But I get what you say, it doesn't have to be sea salt that's stored.
 
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Salt for preserving will become a valuable commodity amongst communities in a post SHTF world. Unless there is gas or electricity refrigeration will be a distant memory, even with power I'm guessing it will be a luxury.
It's impossible to emphasise enough how much importance refrigeration has to our modern lifestyle but it's right up there with running water and mass transport.
 
You're not wrong. I started moving away from freezing as a preservative a few years ago. We still freeze some, but that's because we prefer the taste and texture over other methods. After an event I am happy in the knowledge that I can preserve a harvest without it.
 
A use sea salt and normal salt lol.
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has anyone tried building themselves an ice house/cold store.

Seen some on Pinterest where people have buried old deep chest freezers to save on the build time.

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I wasn't thinking of the old style ice house; north fasting, set into the soil and harvesting ice in winter/early spring to last through spring into summer. Could also use the latent heat of evaporation to draw heat away in summer months to prolong the process.

Jamie Oliver's mate Jimmy did an interesting traditional Christmas show where he showed them storing root veg in an earth and straw hump.

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I keep a decent stock of mackerel fillets in olive oil (Waitrose essential) good for omega 3,and the excess oil can be used for fire lighting in challenging conditions:thumbsup:
 
38thfoot said:
I wasn't thinking of the old style ice house; north fasting, set into the soil and harvesting ice in winter/early spring to last through spring into summer. Could also use the latent heat of evaporation to draw heat away in summer months to prolong the process.

Jamie Oliver's mate Jimmy did an interesting traditional Christmas show where he showed them storing root veg in an earth and straw hump.

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Ah Got you. No experience of that at all. If you have access to John Seymours Complete Book of Self Sufficiency he describes storing root veg like that, it's known as clamping. It was still popular with farms until the 60's. If, like me you were around then, you might remember the long mounds on the lee side of hedges in the fields.
 
Pilchards are also a good option, cook your 20p noodles, mash up pilchards and add to noodles, add curry powder or Chili powder to taste.
 
MikeR said:
I have a book by Alys Fowler called Abundance.
In it she suggests burying a dustbin or plastic barrel to use as a mini root cellar. I'm planning on burying a 45L barrel to give it a try.
She also writes for the Guardian and has detailed how she stores roots in a dustbin here.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/04/garden-get-ready-for-winter-alys-fowler
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I have a GALVANISED bin,coated on the outside with bitumen and buried in a permanently shady spot, buried to lid- level.It holds at a steady 9°c in the Summer.EU law on food temperature states a maximum of 8°c,so as an emergency fridge its OK,but as a 'clamp' its spot on.
 
Really interesting to hear what you are storing and why. I have now added sea salt to my list alongside ordinary salt as I can see both have their place. I haven't started storing yet because as I mentioned I'm living temporarily in Belgium and don't move into my forever place in Cumbria until July. I do however have a stash of tinned baked beans (63 tins) and 3 months supply of Oxo cubes and gravy granules because I can't get them in Belgium. I also have a reasonable stock of spices and have this is my list of must have bulk supply of spices, cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, basil, thyme, cayenne, curry, cinnamon. Although there are many more spices I could add to the list, these would be my must have's. I like spicy food and use these spices almost on a daily basis along with stock cubes when cooking and it's amazing how versatile they are.
 
Denidoom said:
Really interesting to hear what you are storing and why. I have now added sea salt to my list alongside ordinary salt as I can see both have their place. I haven't started storing yet because as I mentioned I'm living temporarily in Belgium and don't move into my forever place in Cumbria until July. I do however have a stash of tinned baked beans (63 tins) and 3 months supply of Oxo cubes and gravy granules because I can't get them in Belgium. I also have a reasonable stock of spices and have this is my list of must have bulk supply of spices, cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, basil, thyme, cayenne, curry, cinnamon. Although there are many more spices I could add to the list, these would be my must have's. I like spicy food and use these spices almost on a daily basis along with stock cubes when cooking and it's amazing how versatile they are.
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The herbs, spices and stock cubes will help brighten even the blandest diet. Dried food like rice, lentils etc can use all the flavour you can give them.:thumbsup:
 
ystranc said:
The herbs, spices and stock cubes will help brighten even the blandest diet. Dried food like rice, lentils etc can use all the flavour you can give them.:thumbsup:
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Very true! Thinking about it, there are three other ingredients that would be 'must have's' from a cooking/flavour perspective, onion, carrot and celery. Now I'm thinking it would make good sense to dry these and keep in large quantities for adding to cooking. Add these three along with a stock cube and or spices to rice when it's boiling and you get quite a tasty dish, add some chorizo and you have something even better. I know the onion and carrot can be dried but not sure about the celery. Maybe the answer to the latter is celery salt, that makes three types of salt for my list :)
 
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