Homemade Corn Flakes

About ten years ago, Honeyville Grain had a sale on dent corn. (Dent corn is not sweet corn, like the vegetable side dish. It is the hard, dry grain that cornmeal comes from.) I bought one hundred pounds of it. I guess I was planning on a lot of cornbread. I'm not quite sure right now.

Anyway, we just don't eat that much cornbread. Maybe if we start having more chili.

So while surfing online a few months back and looking for breakfast cereal recipes, I came across this one for homemade corn flakes. Ah, a way to use some of that dent corn!

I watched this Youtube and found the guy a bit entertaining. But because he's British, everything was in metric measurements. So I made the conversions and here is the modified recipe:

Homemade Corn Flakes

1 1/4 cups cornmeal

1 1/2 cups cold water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine everything and mix until smooth. You may need to add a bit more water. You want a thin pancake batter consistency. Pour the batter onto four cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (Do not try to substitute waxed paper or foil. I already did, and it doesn't work at all.) The batter needs to be in a very thin layer on the cookie sheets to bake up nice and crispy. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and then remove from oven and allow to cool a bit. Then bake again at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. 

If you're really lucky, you get good corn flakes.

But there's the reality of having to get the consistency of the batter perfect, bake it perfectly, and being able to remove it perfectly from the sheet. I consistently had flakes that were too thick, so they weren't crunchy, or so thin that they shattered. To be fair, I also had some that were respectable in size. This batch will make enough for maybe four bowls of cereal. It will take at least an hour of baking if you are really efficient. It may not be a big deal when you have easy electricity, but if you're using any kind of alternative, it may be cost-prohibitive. Of course, you could use a solar oven, but then you also have to have the pan perfectly level. And if your sun oven is small, it's going to require a full day of baking. 

As far as the flakes that were the right size, the flavor was pretty spot on. Unfortunately, the texture just is not. Store-bought corn flakes are light and thin and crispy. And you just can't get that thin crispiness--and maintain the right size--doing it by hand. It would be a lot more difficult in challenging conditions.

Just so you know what I'm basing this comparison on, I made the DIY stuff and tasted it fresh out of the oven after it had cooled down. It was then compared with a jar of corn flakes I came across a few months ago, and which was vacuum-sealed in a canning jar in 2009. Yep, ten years ago. I added a little bit of milk and sugar to each.

The ten-year-old stuff is the hands-down winner again.

So yeah, you can DIY the corn flakes and spend a lot of time and get a sub-par product that will be okay. Or you can save yourself a lot of time and effort and just vacuum seal some. Oh, and I didn't even use an oxygen absorber.

Links to related posts:   

Homemade Wheaties  

Homemade Grape-Nuts  

Homemade Granola   

Homemade Muesli  

Breakfast Cereal Shelf Life 

For further information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BZivlZoHdo

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

Food Storage for Christmas--Does It Really Work?

Last year I wrote an article about giving food storage for Christmas.  And before you start thinking this is a terrible idea, let me explain.


When it comes to children, food storage for Christmas (FSFC) is never a substitution for gifts they would normally be getting.  No child is going to want gumballs or Oreos or Snickers in place of Legos.  But FSFC is a way to help teach children about preparing in a way they can more easily relate to.  They have their candy, cereal, and other treats, and they have complete control over it.  They're in charge of making it last.  Some children are going to go through it quickly.  That's only natural and shouldn't be a reason for disappointment on your part.  And some learn to make it last.  And you don't necessarily need to give all the children all the exact same items.  They can get different things and learn to barter.   

Pretty much, I think it works.  What's odd though, is sometimes the children forget about it.  I think it's happened twice over the past ten years.  (We don't do FSFC every year.)  And in the process of getting ready to move, I came across one of those boxes.

Lydia had misplaced hers.  It's easy to do when food is abundant and food storage is everywhere, including under everybody's beds. And so much is going on at Christmas, with family coming and going, lots of movies and late nights, sledding, extra time with family, etc. Lydia's box was from December 2013.

She had quart jars of the following items:

• Candy--M&Ms, Snickers, Butterfingers, Three Musketeers, Tootsie Pops
• Trader Joe's Oreo-type cookies
• Mouse turds
• Corn flakes
• Rice Chex
• Rice Krispies
• Pretzels
• French fries
• Dried cranberries
• Dried pineapple
• Homemade beef jerky

First off, two seals failed--one on the Trader Joe's cookies and another on one of the two jars of candy.  I will occasionally re-use canning lids that look like they're in good condition for vacuum sealing.  These two failed seals were from re-used lids.

Candy.  Peanut M&Ms--good.  I ate the whole little bag.  I couldn't quite call them fresh-tasting, but they were definitely good enough.  Queen of the Picky Eaters (QOTPE) said the candy all tasted off.  Nobody else had any problems and it all disappeared quickly.  The toffee in the Heath bar went kind of soft. 

The Trader Joe's cookies were bad.  Based on the smell, I wasn't even going to taste them.

Mouse turds.  OK, they're not actually mouse turds.  Someone said they're what Dairy Queen uses to make some of their Blizzard shakes, or something like that.  They're chocolate cookie bits that happen to look a lot like mouse turds.  My friend got like fifty pounds of them about eight years ago and gave me half, which I shared with a prepper friend and vacuum-sealed for my family.  I came across what I thought was the last jar last year, and it was still every bit as fresh as the day we packed it.  After my son's wedding in June, I was finally able to open this jar and test it as well.  Perfect. More than perfect.  I went looking for a way to buy more online, but couldn't find them.  I'll have to visit Dairy Queen and see if I can get some that way.

Corn flakes.  They were the same as they were six years ago.  They're better with sugar and fresh or freeze-dried strawberries and milk.

Rice Krispies.  I made Rice Krispie treats with these.  They were gone in an hour.

Rice Chex.  QOTPE said there was an off smell to them.  She made some Chex Muddy Buddies with them, and they were gone instantly.  No one else could detect anything wrong with the Chex.

Pretzels.  Just like from a freshly opened bag.

French fries.  I pressure can potatoes that have been cut for making French fries.  Anyway, no problem with these.  These French fries are fabulous.

Dried cranberries.  These got a bit hard.  And they somehow looked like the sugars had crystallized.  They didn't look all that appetizing.  They just looked kind of old.  I think all of that can be attributed to the fact that these cranberries didn't have any oil added to them.  (A lot of dried cranberries do have some oil added to them to keep them looking pretty and chewy.  But that oil also can go rancid.  Not tasty.)  Anyway, these cranberries were ok. 

Pineapple.  It turned a bit brown but tasted fine.

Homemade beef jerky (only salt and pepper added).  This was a bit off.  QOTPE couldn't eat it.  It wouldn't be my first choice in looking for a snack food, but it wouldn't be the last, either.

Like I said above, we've done FSFC a few times.  While there was one other occasion where a child forgot about his box, this is the only time it was totally forgotten about.  I wouldn't recommend storing any of these foods for five years; as QOTPE noted, some things didn't taste right.  But I thought everything should be tried, because truth be told, there may come a time when we're relegated to eating old food.  Well, we're preppers, so maybe not.  But other people might be.

If I were doing FSFC for younger children, I'd definitely throw in more treats--more sugar cereal, more gumballs, more candy.  I might use pint jars instead of quarts.  Tailor it for the recipient.  Whatever you do, don't put powdered milk in unless you're the Grinch.  It won't go over well.

Links to related posts:
Food Storage for Christmas
Canning Candy
Beef Jerky
Dehydrating Pineapple
French Fries
Vacuum-Sealed Breakfast Cereal
Preparedness  survival  emergency  bugging out in bug pack survivalist prepper freeze dried dehydrated food storage gamma lid bucket #10 can medicine supplies supply emergencies disaster natural civil war political unrest hyperinflation inflation canning jar Mylar oxygen absorber disease injury pneumothorax family children antibiotics alternative refrigeration solar communications salmonella pneumonia CPR medic mask gloves beans wheat rice oats corn oil coconut water purification filtration iodine pasta sugar salt iodized dry powdered milk mountain house essentials bread education home school vitamins skills chickens goats rabbits homestead redoubt American fuel wood ticks mosquitoes repellent disinfect sterilize Armageddon TEOTWAWKI SHTF WTSHTF societal collapse anarchy
© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

Amounts of Various Foods That Buckets Will Hold and How To Store Them

In reality, especially in a situation where society has collapsed for whatever reason, it is the women doing the cooking.  If you're in a larger group, more reality is that it's the older women doing the cooking.   And in reality, reality bites.  Those buckets get heavier as women get older and it gets harder to wrangle them.  

The grains and beans that emergency preparedness stores sell often come in six-gallon buckets.  And that sounds really great.  You get a lot of food, usually around forty-five pounds of wheat or beans in those buckets.  And then you think about hauling around one of those buckets.  It doesn't sound like fun.

Home Depot and Lowe's sell five-gallon buckets.  (Last I checked, they weren't food-grade.  But if you are lining your buckets with Mylar bags, then it's ok.)  When filled, they're still too heavy for me.  

We started off our married life with getting larger buckets from the hotel my husband worked at.  Then we got them from doughnut shops and grocery store bakeries.  And over the years, we've noticed that the buckets just keep getting smaller.  It's not necessarily a bad thing.  I just can't handle the larger buckets very well anymore, at least not when they're filled with food, other than oats.  So the five-and six-gallon buckets that used to hold wheat and beans are now used for oats and lightweight medical supplies.  

I much prefer getting the four-gallon buckets from the local doughnut shop.  It's a much more reasonable size for my physical capabilities which seem to be diminishing with the years. (And I'm not that old!  Yet.)  And because they're free, they match my financial capabilities as well.  If you're younger and larger, the larger buckets will work just fine for you.  They did for me for many years.  But if you've got a smaller frame or you're older, smaller buckets may be the way to go.  Use what works with your family and your storage plans.  

Keep in mind that some items are just better stored in cans or mylar bags, especially more expensive foods that spoil quickly with exposure to air or moisture, or things you really don't use very often.  For our family, that would include milk, powdered eggs, dehydrated and dried foods, and freeze-dried anything.

We use the buckets for our long-term storage foods like wheat, rice, flour, sugar, beans, and pasta.  The general rule of thumb is that each bucket will hold about twenty-five pounds of food. Of course, this varies slightly, but for quick mental calculations about how much food will fit, and how many buckets you will need, as well as figuring out how much space they will take, it works.  Each is also exactly twelve inches wide.  Most are HDPE (#2) buckets, but some are PP (#5), also a safe choice.  All are with gasketed lids. 

When filling buckets, tap them to settle contents down and fit more in.  It's essential to get them packed compactly and get as much air space out as possible for the oxygen absorbers to work properly.  So while it is definitely more convenient to just put twenty-five pounds of food in a bucket, regardless of whether the bucket is filled, it is better to fill the bucket completely and then add the oxygen absorbers so that all the oxygen can be removed.

For optimal long term storage, use Mylar bags inside your buckets.  Fill the Mylar bags with food, add the appropriate number of oxygen absorbers, and seal.  However, if you are really good about rotating your food, the Mylar bags are not necessary.  If your wheat, rice, oats, and beans are going to be used within five years, the Mylar isn't needed. 

The chart below provides estimates only for the amount of food that will fit in each bucket or can.  Your results will vary based on how much you are able to tap your buckets or cans and settle the contents.

Food	4 gallon bucket		5 gallon bucket		6 gallon bucket
	Pounds of food	Oxygen absorber capacity	Pounds of food	Oxygen absorber capacity	Pounds of food	Oxygen absorber capacity
Corn	28	1200	37	1500	45	2000 cc
Flour	26	1200	33	1500	40	2000
Popcorn	27	1200	33	1500	39	2000
Rice	26	1200	33	1500	40	2000
Wheat	28	1200	36	1500	44	2000
Quick oats	15	3000	18	4000	21	5000
Rolled oats	16	3000	20	4000	24	5000
Macaroni	17	2400	21	3000	25	4000
Penne pasta	10	2400	15	3000	20	4000
Spaghetti	23	2400	29	3000	35	4000
Black beans	28	2400	37	3000	45	4000
Kidney beans	28	2400	37	3000	45	4000
Lima beans	26	2400	33	3000	40	4000
Pinto beans	26	2400	33	3000	40	4000
Small white	28	2400	37	3000	45	4000
White beans	26	2400	33	3000	40	4000
Lentils	28	2400	37	3000	45	4000
Split peas	28	2400	37	3000	45	4000
Potato flakes	10	3000	12.5	4000	15	5000
Sugar	28	None	35	none	42	none
Brown sugar	23	None	29	none	35	none

 
Also note that if you live at an altitude above 4,000 feet, you need about twenty percent less oxygen absorber capacity.

STORING BUCKETS OF FOOD

Once you have more than a few buckets of food, you start wondering about where to put them all.  If you’ve got a large family and you’re storing food to last more than a couple of months, you’ve got a real conundrum on your hands.  

Keep in mind that your buckets will not last forever.  Sunlight (hopefully you are not storing your food in the sun, as that’s a really bad idea) and age will deteriorate plastic, as will putting excessive weight on the buckets.  

Under most conditions, buckets should only be stacked three to four high, with the heaviest buckets being on the bottom.  I do stack mine higher, but the higher ones contain only the lightest of items—medical supplies like gauze and masks, and fiber from my girls’ sheep and rabbits—all of which weight only a pound or two at most.  Yes, they could be stored in other ways, but the buckets are rodent-, moth-, and water-proof.  Actually, I guess I should say rodent-resistant.  We’ve never had any rodents chew through our buckets, or even make an attempt, but I have read of others having a problem.  

Because plastic is not completely impermeable, the buckets should not be stored directly on concrete.  If necessary, put some 2x4 boards underneath to raise them above the concrete. 

Links to related posts:  
Oxygen Absorbers  
HDPE and LDPE   
Long-Term Food STORAGE  

Bucket Wrenches 

 
For further reading:
https://preparednessadvice.com/food_storage/how-much-food-will-fit-in-a-5-gallon-bucket/

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/03/10/10-cans-and-5-gallon-buckets-how-much-can-they-hold/

https://s3.amazonaws.com/yohsresourcelibrary/how+much+will+it+hold.pdf

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information-center/packing-your-own-food-storage/how-much-food-fits-in-a-container

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information-center/packing-your-own-food-storage/using-food-storage-buckets-and-containers

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  
  10.30.21