Useful equipment for food storage preparedness

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I get mine at Cabellas or Sportsmans, but I'm sure Amazon has them. They come in different sizes...breakfast sausage, bratwurst size, salami size...
They even sell vegetarian casings made of ??? for vegetarians who would stuff them with ????
Making sausages is a lot of fun, but remember to add fat.
 
Amish Heart said:
I bought my grinder at Sportsmens Supply. I use it for grinding meat. It has a sausage filling attachment on it for when I make bratwurst in casings.
My handcrank kitchen aid has a meat grinder attachment to it, too.
A wondermill for whole corn and whole wheat is on my wishlist. I do have a grain mill handgrinder, and a wondermill is electric, but no problem running it with a battery and inverter.
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I saw a food processor attachment and a "proofer" warming attachment today at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
 
Oh. I forgot about my kraut making supplies. Have that too. Crock and weightstone and it works great. Also have a very large crock and paddle butter churner, and 3 of my grandma's old meat crocks she kept in her basement, from the 1920's. I also have a smaller butter churner in a quart sized mason jar to do by hand. I do make my own butter now, but I use an electric mixer because I can. Churning by hand works well if you have a few people to take turns. That's how we make ice cream. We have a hand churner and take turns.
 
Amish Heart said:
I bought my grinder at Sportsmens Supply. I use it for grinding meat. It has a sausage filling attachment on it for when I make bratwurst in casings.
My handcrank kitchen aid has a meat grinder attachment to it, too.
A wondermill for whole corn and whole wheat is on my wishlist. I do have a grain mill handgrinder, and a wondermill is electric, but no problem running it with a battery and inverter.
Click to expand...
I love my meat grinder attachment on my kitchenaide. I have processed a deer for sausage using it but I did wear something out in it. I took it to one of the guys at church to fix it for me. His dad said he had never known anyone who wore out a kitchenaide. Well he knows one now. Now we have a bigger meat grinder to process large amounts of meat and I only use the kitchen aide for smallbatches, grinding up veggies so hunny can't see them and grinding lard for reandering. Maybe it being hand cranked would help though.
 
Weedygarden said:
...Soda bottles: In the beginning of my food storage, I saw many people talking about using large soda bottles for storing rice and beans and other food. I understand that the plastic is thin enough to allow slow air passage, compromising the ability to protect it...
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Years back a public water utility used polyethylene (PE) water lines to their customer's houses. Over a period of time one customer complained of a petroleum taste to the water. Long story short turns out the customer parked their car in the yard over their water line, car gas tank had a slow leak, gas soaked to the water line and the PE adsorbed it. How deep the water was wasn't mentioned. Yea, I would steer away from soda bottles for long term storage.
 
The Lazy L said:
Years back a public water utility used polyethylene (PE) water lines to their customer's houses. Over a period of time one customer complained of a petroleum taste to the water. Long story short turns out the customer parked their car in the yard over their water line, car gas tank had a slow leak, gas soaked to the water line and the PE adsorbed it. How deep the water was wasn't mentioned. Yea, I would steer away from soda bottles for long term storage.
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My home was a HUD and had been vacant for a while before I bought it. There were many aspects of that that were good for me, price being the best. In that period of time of it being vacant, it had been broken into and metal stolen--copper pipes and door hinge pins. Before HUD closed on my home, they had replaced the pipes with dark plastic pipes. My guess is that that was polyethylene pipes.
 
Peanut posted this in the Preparations Update thread today so I went looking.

Peanut said:
. . . I look but couldn't find such a critter as a tutorial on rings, lids and jars. A tutorial would be great for reference for folks fairly new to canning or as a refresher. Any of our resident pro's willing to write one and start a thread on the subject?
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This thread on Food Storage from a couple of years ago has some great information so I thought I'd tag onto it with some info on lids. Sharon from Simply Canning has a lot of good info on her blog about all aspects of canning. Here's what I found about lids.

Complete Guide to Canning Jar Lids, how do they work? What do you do? (simplycanning.com)

Reusable Canning Lids are a hotly debated item. Are they really safe? (simplycanning.com)

Someone on the forum posted about an article on how to use Tattlers (sorry, don't remember who) and I saved the links because it's a really good article.

Thy Hand Hath Provided: Canning Applesauce with Tattler Reusable Lids (for the first time): Part 1

Thy Hand Hath Provided: Canning Applesauce with Tattler Reusable Lids (for the first time): Part 2
 
Terri9630 said:
I've never heard of this.

Hand Crank Kitchen Aid Mixer, Off-Grid, Nitrogen Ice Cream
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This is why I love this site, all these wonderful threads!

We didn't get electricity at our place in Appalachia until I was 4-5 years old, and I can fondly remember having the job hand cranking something like this with my mouth watering. The price tag keeps me from buying one just for "old times sake."

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A garden & manual canning tools. Wood working tools for making spoon & bowls out of wood.
I know how to make/clean clay & make bowls, then fire them, but I do not have the sit up, instead I collect Cast iron containers.
 
joel said:
A garden & manual canning tools. Wood working tools for making spoon & bowls out of wood.
I know how to make/clean clay & make bowls, then fire them, but I do not have the sit up, instead I collect Cast iron containers.
Click to expand...

I have started collecting some tools for carving wood to make spoons, bowls, etc. Hope to try a couple things this year. I'm wanting to get a lathe, but undecided whether to get a small lathe to do bowls, ornaments, etc with, or a larger one I could do table legs and such with as well. My dad has a old shopsmith and I used it to turn a glued up a 8" oak table leg for a table I built. Leg turned out good, but I didn't make the top thick enough to make it look right. Kinda out of balance if you will.
 
I've been interested in getting more info on the Presto Electric Pressure Canner and found some videos. I'm very interested in other opinions on this. Has anybody used one?

Rosered Homestead shows scientific testing and explains the results. She had a fail on some meat sauce but said she changed the recipe so that may have been why.
(806) Testing the Presto Digital Canner - YouTube

This video shows how to use the canner.
(806) Presto Digital Pressure/Water Bath Canner Overview - YouTube

Here are the instructions that come with the canner.
02144_4008_121C.pdf (gopresto.com)
 
Produce bags. We buy rolls of plastic produce bags from the grocery store. For processing moose burger n such. No blood leaks. We keep a roll next to the paper towels. Use them every day. For left overs just slip the dinner plate in the bag. Open up a block of cheese, put it in a bag. Lots of uses.
And they aren't real expensive. And last for years. For like $25 bucks a roll.
We have had a roll in our home for many years. If you haven't tried them i would suggest it.
 
So what happens when its freezing out n you have canned goods or cans of food. And it will freeze if your not there to stoke the fire ? Storing canned food long term in freezing conditions.
I have this sinario at our remote cabin. I brought food in such as dinty moore stew or beans. Hauling them back out is not an option, not worth it.
To carry them through or over winter put them in the lake. I have a nylon bag. And a small pond. On the cans scratch the product name on the can or play food roulette. Beans or pears? You can put the canned foods in the bag n then place it in the water deep enough to not freeze in. You have to chip it out if you want it. But it will be fine. For me its good until next season. And I don't waste it. It takes a lot of effort to get anything remote like that.
 
Don't waste your money on any Presto pressure canner or cooker.
I bought one and the gasket lasted less than 2 years. The replacement gaskets lasted less than that.
The All American canners can be used for both canning and cooking. You will never have to replace a gasket! They use a metal to metal seal.
 
CalicoKatie said:
I've been interested in getting more info on the Presto Electric Pressure Canner and found some videos. I'm very interested in other opinions on this. Has anybody used one?

Rosered Homestead shows scientific testing and explains the results. She had a fail on some meat sauce but said she changed the recipe so that may have been why.
(806) Testing the Presto Digital Canner - YouTube

This video shows how to use the canner.
(806) Presto Digital Pressure/Water Bath Canner Overview - YouTube

Here are the instructions that come with the canner.
02144_4008_121C.pdf (gopresto.com)
Click to expand...

I have one. I like it, I use it once a week to can the dogs rice with no failures yet.
 
SheepDog said:
Don't waste your money on any Presto pressure canner or cooker.
I bought one and the gasket lasted less than 2 years. The replacement gaskets lasted less than that.
The All American canners can be used for both canning and cooking. You will never have to replace a gasket! They use a metal to metal seal.
Click to expand...

I have several AA canners and love them but as with all the other canners they add heat and humidity to the house when I'm trying to cool it. The electric canner doesn't, after venting for 10 minutes. I've been using the electric one for small batches and use the AA's for large batches when we harvest the garden.
 
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