Preparedness–Week 2–Fat

Hey everyone! How did it go with the peanut butter? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about you can read my original post here.) Here we go with this week’s assignment!

Fat is your friend.

At least in cooking it is. It’s pretty hard to cook without using oil, butter or shortening. Those are one of the Big Four must-have items in anyone’s food storage. No matter whether you are trying to stockpile for a year or are just hoping to get a couple of week’s worth of food, you need fat.

This week we’re going to concentrate on oil and shortening. Get whatever oil you prefer. Make sure you don’t get just olive, though, because that tastes awful in baked goods. I like to split my oil up between olive (my preference for cooking), coconut and peanut.

Also get some shortening. I rarely use shortening because, well, it doesn’t taste that great (although it does add volume and a nice texture to some baked goods when it’s combined with butter. Like in snickerdoodles. My recipe here is excellent.) But it’s very smart to have on hand as a substitute for butter. It stays good for over a year, whereas butter must refrigerated and it lasts for only a couple of months.

The problem with all items that are high in fat is that fat becomes rancid with 18 months. Sometimes earlier. So nuts, chocolate, oil, peanut butter and anything else that’s fatty will need to be rotated regularly. Fortunately these are the best-tasting items so using them up is not a big problem. We just need to be aware.

I recommend half a botttle of oil per person, and half a can of shortening per person. So if you’ve got four people in your family, you’ll get two bottles of oil and two cans of shortening. If you have enough room in your freezer I’d recommend getting some extra butter, too. It freezes beautifully.

Remember to Get it done! It’s not about looking for deals or comparison shopping; It’s about buying a few extra items every time you go to the grocery store.

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7 thoughts on “Preparedness–Week 2–Fat

  1. I didn’t get to the store this week because there was no time and then the snow hit… but I’m adding peanut butter AND shortening/butter to the list for this week, assuming I can make it THIS week as well. It WILL get done, one way or the other!

  2. I’m so glad you’re doing this preparedness series! It’s just the kick in the pants I needed to get going! Thank you! I’ve got my peanut butter, oil and butter….and I’m sharing the weekly reminder with my married kids! We all need to be prepared. Thanks again!

  3. I’m pretty sure my olive oil has just turned. I’m super sad. I bought the really nice, expensive EVOO in the tins from Italy. I’ve kept it dark and cool, but I guess it was bound to happen eventually. WAH!

    I’ve heard that coconut oil lasts for a super long time, like years and years, without going rancid. Can you verify this??

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