# Bread in an emergency



## sinbad (Oct 27, 2009)

As a prepper I storee some food ..etc. but the other day I was thinking about bread. Storing bread is not practical. We sometimes store it in a freezer for a few weeks but not longer than that. I wish to know how do you manage your bread need ion an emergency ? 

Do you plan on baking your own ? 
Is there a link that can help ? 


I remember in Boris Yeltsin time there was a confrontation with some parliment members and the Russian army surrounded the paralment building for weeks and the members inside were reported as "prepared" ... TV showed lots and lots of bread with them. I was wondering how they planned to keep all that bread fresh ? Now, I think it was because Russia is a cold country, so bread does not go bad quickly. 

Any thoughts ?


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## PamsPride (Dec 21, 2010)

We store bread in the form of ingredients and recipes!


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I make my own and have quite a bit of ingredients put aside. Anything from pita, tortillas(corn and flour), bagels, bread, rolls, croissants almost anything really.
I don't care for the texture of breads that have been frozen and then thawed, you can only toast them or french them.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Buy Wheat Berries and a hand grinder... make your own flour as needed, then bake your own bread. Properly stored Wheat Berries can last a long time.

I just got my first bag of them a week ago and tried my first grinding followed by baking. I'm sure I did something wrong as I did not get the rise I was expecting (and that the recipe alluded to) but taste was still good.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

Supermarket foods with the longest shelf life ? - Survivalist Forum



> B & M Brown Bread
> Shelf Life After Packed: 3 years from date packed
> Date on Item is: date packed
> A8E20 16oz (A is month, 8 is 2008 ... 1/98 packed)
> ...


BuyTheCase: Shop for B&M

$2.79 each if bought by the case of 12 ($33.49) cheapest I've seen elsewhere (Amazon) is $3.51 each for 6 pack ($21.05)


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Bake some an hard tack. Nice thing bout hard tack is it'll keep real long time an other then soakin it so it gets soft it be ready ta go.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Do like my aunt,mix all the dry ingredients,one pan at a time,vacuum pack then dry freeze them for a few weeks and transfer them to a bug/rat proof ammo can.

then you can just add eggs and milk and pan bake it.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

mmm mmm mmm, nothing says "break yer teeth" like some hard tack :lolsmash:

but yeah, HT will keep (dry) for :dunno: (a long time)

consider this amusing anecdote, dating back to the American Civil War, which about sums up the prevailing attitudes towards the fare. Preface this bit with the realization that food rations during the war often arrived in bad shape, some having sat around in dark, damp places for many days or weeks.

First Soldier: You know what? Today I was eating my hard-tack when I bit into something soft!
Second Soldier: Well, what was it, a worm?
First Soldier:: No! It was a ten penny nail!

Australian Hard Tack (Anzac)

Anzac Biscuit Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
I cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
4 oz butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (add a little more water if mixture is too dry)

Anzac Biscuit Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (or approx 375 degrees F).
Grease a biscuit tray or line with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
In a small saucepan over a medium heat (or in a microwave proof jug or bowl in the microwave), combine the butter and golden syrup until the butter has melted.
In a small bowl, combine the boiling water and bicarbonate of soda.
Add the bicarb and water mixture with the melted butter and golden syrup.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix thoroughly.
Dollop teaspoonfuls of the biscuit mixture onto the greased baking tray.
Don't forget that the biscuits WILL spread during baking, so make sure you leave room for them to spread!
Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from oven.
Allow the Anzac biscuits to cool on the tray for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

(eggs were scarce in WW1, notice there are none in the recipe)

http://www.everything2.com/title/Hard-tack


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

CulexPipiens said:


> Buy Wheat Berries and a hand grinder... make your own flour as needed, then bake your own bread. Properly stored Wheat Berries can last a long time.
> 
> I just got my first bag of them a week ago and tried my first grinding followed by baking. I'm sure I did something wrong as I did not get the rise I was expecting (and that the recipe alluded to) but taste was still good.


When I use my own wheat that I grind I have found that it needs a much longer raise time than what is called for. The longer it goes the better the gluten and the better it will rise in the oven properly.
A fun thing to try is to just mix part of the home ground flour in the water to make a slurry and put it in a cold spot to rise over night and the next day you add the rest of the ingredients and then let it rise normally once and then punch down and do the second rise and bake. I'm pretty sure that it is called "making a sponge" in baking.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Here be a basic hard tack with the exception a some added seasonins fer flavour, none a which affects storage, plus there ain't much in it ta spoil.

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f36/made-more-hard-tack-5458/


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## carolexan (Dec 28, 2010)

As a child this was my favorite bread.

This is my family's recipe for Flour hoecake. Cut shortening into flour with a fork. Pour milk in and stir until wet. Pour bread mixture into a greased cast iron fry pan and fried on top of your stove on low heat. It will require turning (use a plate the size of the skillet to turn) once after about 15 or 20 minutes in order to brown both sides. Fried bread should take up to 30 minutes to get done completely. Stick a fork or knife into the center to test to see if it is done and if it comes out clean, the bread is done. It taste just like a biscuit, YUM!!

Flour Hoe Cake

2 cups self rising flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lard vegetable oil maybe use


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## nj_m715 (Oct 31, 2008)

Pancakes, waffles and biscuits are fast easy to make "bread". Sourdough looks pretty easy too but I haven't tried it.


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## SaskDame (Aug 27, 2010)

I like the hard tac recipes. Looks like a good item for the car. Keeping something to eat in the car with a good storage life (a year or two) in extreame temps is challenging. I tend to forget to rotate these until they are icky.


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## sinbad (Oct 27, 2009)

Thanks everyone

Here is an article about one of our popular busicuits called (Kleija) .

Desert Candy

I don't know if it is originally from central Saudi Arabia or from Iraq but I love it anyway. It is a bit hard ( not too hard). I leave some in my office emergency cache.










I like the type in the picture which flat like waffle but some hard core Kleija enthusiasts call this ( Holland waffle ) and do not consider it real Kleija because real kleija made in central saudi Arabia is hollow and maybe empty inside but some types are stuffed with dates

Here's the kleija stuffed with dates










It would be an excellent survival food.

My father told me that about 70-80 years ago, camel caravans travelling to Makka for pilgrimage (1000 miles trip one way) were loaded with this food for breakfast meals and snacks.


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## nj_m715 (Oct 31, 2008)

I like walmart pop tarts and granola bars for the car or work stash. Cheap, long lasting and tasty. Sure I try to rotate them, but at a buck or 2 a box I can toss them out without feeling bad if I forget about one.


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## Lonewufcry (Jul 26, 2010)

CulexPipiens said:


> Buy Wheat Berries and a hand grinder... make your own flour as needed, then bake your own bread. Properly stored Wheat Berries can last a long time.
> 
> I just got my first bag of them a week ago and tried my first grinding followed by baking. I'm sure I did something wrong as I did not get the rise I was expecting (and that the recipe alluded to) but taste was still good.


we had the same issue and we were told to use some dough enhancer and wheat gluten. and believe me it will rise.


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## efbjr (Oct 20, 2008)

*Neat idea...*



Emerald said:


> When I use my own wheat that I grind I have found that it needs a much longer raise time than what is called for. The longer it goes the better the gluten and the better it will rise in the oven properly.
> A fun thing to try is to just mix part of the home ground flour in the water to make a slurry and put it in a cold spot to rise over night and the next day you add the rest of the ingredients and then let it rise normally once and then punch down and do the second rise and bake. I'm pretty sure that it is called "making a sponge" in baking.


A bread machine cookbook I have suggested adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the mixture. (You can also use orange juice). This somehow :scratch causes an increase in the gluten production and gives a nice loaf of bread.  You cannot taste the juice.


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## Frugal_Farmers (Dec 13, 2010)

Here is our reccomendation:

1. Buy bulk wheat--we have both hard red and hard white.
2. Get a good mill and grind your own flour as needed.
3. Store all other baking supplies as needed.
4. Go to this website for some GREAT information on emergency breads:
http://www.preparedpantry.com/downloads/Emergency_Bread_Guide.pdf
Have fun


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*bread and other processed foods in emergencies*

I think this is a great question. I am probably way over the top, but I think of TEOTWAWKI literally. I would like to suggest that you research and think outisde the box we have been living in for a few decades. Think back to the days before we had processed food. But, a good lesson is to go to the store and notice that most of what is in the grocery stores is highly processed food. Think of the possibility of no more chips, sodas, boxes of foods, bags of food. You get the idea. But just noticing how much highly processed food there is in the store is a lesson in itself.

Bread--if you are planning on eating bread that you have stored, I don't think you can do that and have good bread for very long. For the long haul, you have to consider storing the essence of bread--wheat, oil, salt, yeast, and as a previous poster said, gluten and dough enhancer.

If the idea of making your own bread is not in your thinking, maybe you could start with a bread maker to get in the groove of it. You could be making all your own bread now. If you don't have time to knead and to let it rise, consider the breadmaker as a possibility. You dump in the ingredients and the breadmaker does the real work.

I actually met a Mormon man who bought lots of wheat many years ago and he does the breadmaking in the family--grinds the wheat, and makes the bread. It is work, but the rewards can be great too. I saw a video of a man who makes a loaf of bread every morning for his family.

We have been lulled into a dangerous situation, having everything prepared for us. There are people who think that warming something up in a microwave is cooking. The people who are not used to real cooking are going to have a hard time of it WTSHTF.


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## CountryLifeNaturalFoods (6 mo ago)

CulexPipiens said:


> Buy Wheat Berries and a hand grinder... make your own flour as needed, then bake your own bread. Properly stored Wheat Berries can last a long time.
> 
> I just got my first bag of them a week ago and tried my first grinding followed by baking. I'm sure I did something wrong as I did not get the rise I was expecting (and that the recipe alluded to) but taste was still good.


If you need a great place that will deliver wheat berries to your door for free, checkout countylifefoods.com. We offer free shipping anywhere in the lower 48 for orders over $399 (or over $99 for smaller sizes). Additionally, you can get 10% off $750+ orders or 15% off $2,000 orders. Here are the kinds of things we carry: 

Hard red winter wheat wheat berries
Bronze chief (red) wheat berries
Prairie gold (white) wheat berries
Organic soft white wheat berries
Organic prairie gold wheat berries
Organic hard red wheat berries
Organic einkorn wheat berries
Here's a link to checkout the wheat berries we offer!


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