Meals in a Jar (4 page)

Washington State University makes and sells a natural (unprocessed) canned cheese called Cougar Gold, which keeps very well in cold root cellar temperatures. You can also dehydrate cheese and then grind it into cheese powder, or you can store cheese cubes covered in oil in sterilized canning jars. Please refer to current USDA guidelines for food preservation.

Processed cheese food such as Velveeta and Laughing Cow brand cheeses are also good shelf-stable choices.

For canned cheese:

4 pounds mild cheddar cheese

16 wide-mouth quarter-pint jars

Sterilize jars and lids and start a water-bath canner heating with water. Grate the cheese and heat in a pot over low to medium heat until melted. Divide the cheese among the jars and top each with 1/8 inch of oil from the melted cheese. Wipe the jar rims with a paper towel moistened with vinegar. Add jars to the water-bath canner, bring to a boil, and process thirty minutes. Remove and let cool completely. Wipe the jars clean.

Cheese can also be waxed or vacuum-sealed. This greatly extends the shelf life of cheese. To wax cheese, you must buy a specialized cheese wax, which can be found online or at cheese-making specialty shops. Melt the wax and brush on three or four coats of wax to cover the cheese completely. To vacuum-seal cheese, cut it into 4-ounce cubes, place in small vacuum bags, and vacuum-seal.

Clear Jel

Clear jel is modified cornstarch that is able to withstand the heat of pressure canning. Clear jel may be added to foods before they are canned. It is available for purchase online.

Eggs

Some of the recipes in this book call for whole egg powder, which must be purchased. I know of no way to successfully dehydrate eggs at home because raw egg is perishable and would be subject to bacteria in the time it took to dehydrate. Commercial egg powder is freeze-dried, which makes the process safe. Egg powder mixed 1:2 with water reconstitutes into a product which is much like fresh, beaten eggs. Cans of whole egg powder are available online and at home stores like Walmart. Each can contains the equivalent of about 156 eggs. So although a can of egg powder costs more than fresh eggs, when you consider it contains thirteen dozen eggs, the price is actually much better. Powdered eggs will last about three years unopened; 1 tablespoon egg powder mixed with 2 tablespoons water is the equivalent of one egg.

Greens: Chard, Spinach, and Kale

Greens offer the most nutrition by weight of any food on the planet and are fabulous in soups or stews. You can add greens to ready-made meals if you dehydrate them first. Dehydrating greens couldn’t be easier: Be sure to wash them well and blot dry with paper towels, then simply spread them over a dehydrator tray and dehydrate for six to nine hours. I like to grow my own in my garden, but you can watch for them to go on sale and buy a bunch, or purchase them in large quantities at a club or warehouse store. Once dried, vacuum-seal or dry-pack them (seal food in a metal can, typically a #10, if you have access to a can sealer), or keep them in resealable zip-top bags for packaging into ready-made meals. Dehydrated greens also make good snacks if you coat them lightly in olive oil before drying and season them well to add salt and flavor.

Milk

Dry milk is used in a variety of recipes as a substitution for fresh milk. Usually 1/3 cup of dry milk stirred into 1 cup of water will produce 1 cup of milk.

Shortening / Oil / Butter

Recipes that call for cooking something in a small amount of fat will often call for a small amount of shortening to be wrapped in plastic wrap and included in the bag. Shortening has a very long shelf life, with estimates ranging from nine years to indefinite. If you prefer not to use shortening, you could substitute oil and either plan to have it on hand or tuck small bottles into your tubs of ready-made meals or you can use coconut oil or ghee. Whatever you choose, be sure to package or wrap it well so it doesn’t melt out and over your dry ingredients. Many grocery stores carry tiny 2-ounce disposable containers intended for taking salad dressing in a lunch bag. These work well for fat or oil too. And if you don’t care for the taste or fat profile of shortening, you can also substitute coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature, tastes delicious, and also has a long shelf life. It will melt on a warm day so be sure to package it well.

For baking with shortening, cooks have been using butter-flavored Crisco with great results for decades. Butter-flavored Crisco is available in cardboard cans and also packaged in 1-cup cubes. The cubes are quick and easy to measure and vacuum-seal.

Some recipes call for ghee, which is clarified butter. Often used in Indian cooking, ghee has delicious flavor, a very high smoke point, and keeps at room temperature for years. Ghee can be purchased commercially prepared, or home-canned into sterilized jars. The USDA has not yet published guidelines for home-canning ghee, but since the ghee is not truly canned (that is, it’s not processed in either a water bath or pressure canner), they may never do so. Ghee has been prepared and used for generations in India.

To prepare ghee, sterilize quarter- and half-pint jars by boiling and then dry them. In a large pot, melt 2 to 4 pounds butter. Allow it to boil. It will boil rapidly at first and then slow its pace. Foam will float to the top, form a thick layer, clump into solids, and fall to the bottom. It will then foam in clearer bubbles, and at this point it is ready to package. Use a ladle to pass the liquid through layers of cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer set on a canning funnel to filter the ghee and fill the prepared jars, leaving the solids behind in the pot. Leave 1 inch of headspace in each jar. Wipe the jar rims with vinegar-moistened paper towels. Let cool completely and then seal tightly.

You can allow your ghee to cook slightly longer to give it the deliciously nutty flavor of browned butter. You must watch it closely to ensure it doesn’t become too brown and bitter.

Sour Cream Powder

Sour cream powder can be mixed with water (1 part water to 2 parts sour cream powder) to approximate fresh sour cream. Sour cream powder is delicious stirred into soups and paired with milk as a substitution for fresh cream in recipes.

Tomato Products

Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato juice are so widely available in cans, it is simple to just buy them on sale at club or warehouse stores to add to your ready-made meals. If you do, please include a can opener in each of your tubs of weekly meals. Alternatively, if your garden, farm stand, or neighbor has gifted you with a glut of tomatoes, can those up for inclusion in your ready-made meals. Tomatoes keep beautifully in retort pouches for easiest portability, and also keep beautifully in classic, reusable canning jars. Pint jars are about equivalent to a 14.5-ounce can of store-bought tomatoes, although they hold about 16 ounces and, a 1-quart jar would stand in for a 28-ounce can and hold about 32 ounces. You can also slice tomatoes, dry them in your dehydrator, and then crush them into tomato powder for use in recipes.

Powdered Vanilla

Powdered vanilla, or vanilla powder, adds amazing flavor to sweet things such as baked goods and pastries. Powdered vanilla can be a bit expensive, but you only use a tiny amount and it yields wonderful flavor. It will make the difference in your food, and your
child’s eyes will light up as they tell their sleepover guest, “Wait until you taste my mom’s pancakes!” It will make your family love to eat your ready-made meals.

I buy powdered vanilla online at
Amazon.com
and choose the sustainably grown raw variety. There is a less-expensive kind available, intended to be added to lattes to add vanilla flavor without adding alcohol. If you choose this variety, you might like to increase the quantity you use. The raw ground beans are a stronger concentration and require only a tiny pinch in each bag. If using the other powdered vanilla, you might use 1/4 teaspoon per 4-serving bag.

Equipment

Vacuum-Sealer / Jaw-Clamp Sealer

A bag sealer is a must-have. Ideally you need one that will seal vacuum bags and retort pouches and will also have an attachment to vacuum-seal canning jars. You can often find vacuum-sealers at thrift stores and garage sales. If they have the tiny round port, they will likely accept the vacuum tube with the can-vacuuming attachment. I use a Weston 2300, which unfortunately doesn’t come with that attachment, but it does seal retort pouches and is a champ with vacuum bags. Be sure to test a single retort pouch in the pressure canner sealed with your vacuum-sealer to ensure the seams will hold before you seal a whole batch of food to can. If the seams of your test pouch don’t hold, increase the headspace and/or widen your seal.

You can also seal retort pouches with a “jaw” clamp-style sealer, which is available online. You can also use a household iron to seal retort pouches and Mylar bags.

Dehydrator

Dehydrators can also be purchased at thrift stores and garage sales. If you decide to buy a new one, I prefer the Excalibur, which is widely believed to be best. If you already have one, or buy one used, make a note of where the fan is. If it is at the bottom of the unit, you’ll need to dehydrate a single food at a time to avoid mixing flavors and scents. With the Excalibur, the fan is at the rear so you can vary the ingredients in the trays without blending scents and flavors. With all types of dehydrators, spread the food to be dried, and use a low temperature (120°F or less) and rotate your trays at least once, halfway through.

Water Filter / Bottled Water

Ready-made meals do require water. If your circumstances might make water scarce, consider packing bottled water in your meal kits. In my area of the country, it rains quite regularly, and if filtered and boiled, the rainwater easily becomes potable. My family keeps a Berkey water filter for just this purpose. We also catch rainwater from the roof and store it in a tank. In case of drought, there are many lakes near us. But if you live in an arid climate, plan to have your own water available for both cooking and drinking.

Roaster Oven

A roaster oven is a tabletop appliance that makes it possible to cook large quantities of food at once using moist heat, also called braising. Roaster ovens come in sizes from 5 or 6 quarts all the way up to an 18-quart capacity to accommodate a very large turkey. Roaster ovens are wonderful for cooking large, inexpensive cuts of meat and poultry, and the long, slow cooking time transforms even the toughest cuts into tender, flavorful deliciousness.

Rocket Stove

I always want to be prepared to cook in a disaster or no-power situation, and I like to use a rocket stove. A rocket stove will burn twigs and sticks and creates a very hot fire quickly with readily available fuel. You can make a rocket stove from cans, or buy one. I use one made by StoveTec (
www.stovetec.net
).

Solar Oven

Solar ovens are great for cooking any time you have sunshine and they can be left to cook unattended. They can reach temperatures upward of 300°F depending on the available sunlight. Not to state the obvious, but they do stop working once the sun goes down, so if a solar oven is your main cooking appliance, you might choose to serve your big meal earlier in the day and plan a lighter meal at night when your oven likely won’t be working. Good solar ovens include the Global Sun Oven (
www.sunoven.com
) and my favorite, the Sport (
www.solarovens.org
).

Wonder Oven

A wonder oven is an insulating device that insulates a hot pot of food so well that the retained heat will finish the cooking. A wonder oven looks a bit like a bean bag chair, only smaller, cube shaped, and with a lid. It is actually filled with polystyrene balls, just like a bean bag chair. To use a wonder oven, heat a pot to boiling on another stove or fire, or rocket stove, and then nestle your
hot pot and lid into the wonder oven to finish cooking over the rest of the day. It works like a no-electricity-needed slow cooker, using retained heat to slowly cook your food over several hours. Plan for food to cook for about twice as long as in a traditional slow cooker. You will get delicious results without having to attend to the food, and it is easier to hide from the dog, because you can cook with the stove inside on a table or counter. The best wonder ovens are made by my friend Angie Jerome at Eco Wonder Oven (
ecowonderoven.com
). You can also make one yourself if you have the patience to deal with polystyrene balls. Patterns are available online.

Supplies

Vacuum Bags

Vacuum-sealer bags can be bought online or even at Walmart. Good vacuum bags are at least 3 millimeters thick. Consider also getting some rolls of vacuum material so you can create bags of any size. Many of the meals in this book require smaller packets of ingredients like dry milk. Vacuum bags are great, except for fragile foods, such as some types of pasta, which would be crushed during sealing.

Canning Jars

Canning jars can be bought everywhere from the grocery stores and your local hardware store to thrift stores and garage sales. If you buy used jars, be sure to check the opening of the jar, skip any with chips on the edges, and plan to buy new lids and rings for them.

Retort Pouches

Retort pouches are specialized bags that can be used for pressure canning in lieu of glass jars. They are lightweight and shatterproof, although they can be punctured. Retort pouches can be purchased online from Optimum Preparedness (
www.optimum-preparedness.com
). They come in 1-quart, gusseted pouches, but can be cut to a smaller size if desired.

Mylar Bags

Mylar bags are very lightweight, but tough and very durable—a perfect solution for sealing together several components of a ready-made meal. Mylar bags don’t stack well, so consider storing filled Mylar bags in plastic bins or buckets. This also adds another layer of protection against rodents and other pests. Rodents have been known to chew through some incredibly dense materials.