The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

MingVase

I freeze butter and lard.

Serendipitious

CCW007 said:

-taff said:

Don't know but you can freeze butter...I usually have a few packs floating around. There are quite  alot of recipes for it if you do a search on google. I'd imagine you do like for like, so 4 fluid ounces. Might be wrong though....

Picked up 13 packs of reduced butter yesterday for the freezer, the woman on the till thought I was quite mad!

Well done. I'd have done the same!

In the run up to Christmas you often see double cream reduced. If it's cheap enough, I buy it and make butter, very easy to do and freezable.

prepareathome

I have baked in past using oil instead of both butter and eggs - this was years ago when high cholesterol first became news and DH had very high levels and he was adamant he was not giving up his pies, cakes, bread etc. I tried different oils to find the blandest (forget now which one) and he was happy and so was his body, his levels went down without ever taking statins.  Now of course its known eggs are not as black as they were painted then.  So, my prep recipe plans include oil for baking etc if my butter supplies run out or go bad - keep butter in freezer plus do have some ghee in for total emergency and he is climbing the walls for something pastry based or bread. 

-taff

Serendipitious said:

Well done. I'd have done the same!

In the run up to Christmas you often see double cream reduced. If it's cheap enough, I buy it and make butter, very easy to do and freezable.

I used to work in a creamery and usually once a year before Christmas a vat of cream would 'accidentally' be overwhipped...Lovely new butter for everyone

prepareathome

cuddlymarm said: - in Preparing for winter thread but my answer is better here:

Hi guys
I’m working on the theory that’s any preps and money I can save now will be there in case we need them. Hopefully not.

My preps over the years have come in handy for more personal emergencies - suddenly need to replace something or unexpected bill, sickness and not able to leave the house, family emergencies when suddenly having to feed and clothes external family members - stocks etc meant money was available from normal budget for extra things. 

When I first started preparing at home website in mid 1990s my idea was based on my own experience and nothing to do with what might happen in wider world just in my own family world.   That is why I choose that name it was all about how to cope at home during rough times or emergencies that can happen in any home even if the world in general is doing wonderful (not something that has happened in quite a while) Even if you have savings, you cannot always access them straight away and so to me preps are a form of saving.  Of course, when sudden price increases occur having stocks helps ease the pain.

To many still prepping is still seen as something outlandish yet it can be a big help and make some sticky times much easier.  To many, especially city dwellers think they can always pop out and buy what they need 24/7 nearly all year long - the posts on social media of empty cupboards when the first lockdown hit and people were too scared to go to shops (or in some places shops closed for a few days while they got themselves sorted to socially distance their customers) is proof how so many live wages to wage and never think that there might be a problem filling their cupboards again.  Even with that scare most are back with cupboards only holding food they need for the week or month and which are empty again day before next payday. 

I know I feel this way due to my childhood - my father controlled the money and gave my mother only enough to buy food for each day - she had to write down how much she spent and he checked prices every week to sort out how much to give her and I was given this task when I was 8 as mum had bad pregnancies so a few times we went two days without food just water from the tap and school spoke to dad about how hungry I was - nowadays social services would be called but not then ( late 1950s/1960s,  so once evening meal was eaten there was never anything except enough milk and oats for porridge and tea in the morning and although he earned well, he was an inventor so all money went to buy things for them so yes there were times we were hungry as for whatever reason mum could not go shopping and no family nearby to help - dad would happily not eat for a day or so as once his daily work was finished he would disappear into his work shop and that was him happy. 

So, I guess this has affected my whole life (my 4 younger siblings always have good stocks of food in as well although don't prep as I do). 

dreaming

Si_Clist said:

We've just realized that one eventuality we hadn't considered is being without hard fats, which if nothing else would mean no baking.  

Is it possible to make pastry with cooking oil instead, and if so, how much oil would roughly equal say 4oz Marg?

Many years ago when we were a skint family of four I used to make pastry with suet - I think I probably got the recipe from a Shirley Goode book but this looks the same https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/suet-pastry/ddlqzr62

Toonie

Si_Clist said:

We've just realized that one eventuality we hadn't considered is being without hard fats, which if nothing else would mean no baking.  

Is it possible to make pastry with cooking oil instead, and if so, how much oil would roughly equal say 4oz Marg?

The online PDF of the Be-Ro cookbook has a suet pastry recipe in (I've not tried it, but use lots of their other recipes).

https://www.be-ro.co.uk/Be-Ro/media/downloads/Be-Ro_website_recipes.pdf

Si_Clist

Thanks folks.  We'll have a bash at that pie crust recipe and see what else we can find on the internets.  Suet's out though as neither of us likes the taste unless it's in a pud which is drowned in custard.

We've frozen butter for years, but we don't count what's in the freezer as preps - only as a supplement to them that we can reckon on until the freezer packs up or we lose the electric.

It's a pity we can't get butter powder in tins like what the Yanks have ...

MrsCD

I just checked on Lakeland.co.uk but it looks like the Butter buds have been discontinued.😟
I wonder if you could make hot water crust pastry with vegetable suet instead of lard.

Shropshirelass

Olive oil makes beautiful sponge cakes, large cakes and cupcakes. It will store for ever, I think, but I buy in glass bottles, not plastic.
I use half lard/ half St@rk for pastry and scones, since our local supermarket had problems with their butter supply a few months ago (strange as the butter factory is only 25 miles away). I changed from Irish butter to English to reduce cost, with no difference in taste or quality that we can notice.
We still use butter on bread etc. Butter, lard and St@rk will freeze.
I have been looking to reduce the cost of baking, but also it was not always allowed to buy more than two of any single article, and I have been cutting down on number of shopping trips.