I finally got around to going to an Indian market this week and I bought Ghee, which is just clarified butter. They sell it in all kinds of sizes so I just bought a small one to try it out. It doesn't last a super long time (expires in about a year) but it does NOT need to be refrigerated, even after being opened. YIPPEE!! The day after I bought it I tried it on toast. It tasted just like the butter that I used to can myself. Completely edible, even on toast. It does have an extremely low melting point so it tends to turn to liquid even just sitting on my counter in mild temperatures. You can keep it in the fridge which keeps it in a solid state, but it isn't necessary to refrigerate it.
Another option that I think I have already mentioned is the Red Feather canned butter from Australia. It's about the same price and, remarkably, is literally butter spread in a can. I've tried it and it taste great, just like butter spread you would buy from the store. The upside to this product is that is has a very long shelf life (15+ years) BUT, once it is opened, it must be refrigerated. Could be a big problem since the chances of us having to live off food storage and STILL having electricity seem small.Anyway, I'm super excited about finding Ghee. There's no way I can store a whole year's worth because my family eats so much butter, and Ghee expires in just one year. That means we would have to use it exclusively in order to rotate it and it's far too expensive for that. My 8oz jar was $3.95. I will have to just store enough that we will be able to have butter when we really need it, but still I can't tell you how excited about this I am. If you could see me right now I'm doing the happy dance!
I am SO glad that this worked out for you. I know how much you LOVE butter! :)
ReplyDeleteSo funny - every time I see the canned butter at the grocery store out here I think of you. You're awesome!
ReplyDeleteLOL - How much do they charge for it out there? I'll be in Utah in June for EFY.
ReplyDeleteWe tried the canned butter once when we were camping and it was great. Of course when your camping you don't really have a fridge. So we just left it covered in a shady spot. We used it the whole weekend no one got sick or had ill side effect because of it. It the same with real butter is should be refrigerated however is ok on the counter for a few days. My thoughts are also that the can is only 12 ounces not quite a pound. My family of 5 go through about that much in 3-5 days if you include baking. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteYes that is the problem with all the butters I have found. Prohibitively expensive. You would definitely have to use powdered when baking and only use the canned butter for things like toast, or other items when powdered can not be substituted.
ReplyDeleteHi from Germany!
ReplyDeleteI hope you realize that the dates on cans and jars are more for inventory turnover than for actually quality degradation. I am in the process of rotating my storage after a long while of not really using it and in the meantime, most of the cans and jars are out of date. However, so far everything is just fine and tasty with no true off or tinny taste except for some cans of meat that were around 6 years out of date. Of course I dispose of bulging cans unopened. Otherwise everything is fine including the ghee and olive oil I stored. Also simple bags of potato flakes and noodles are just fine too after years.
I am sure that it has also helped that most of our stuff is in a cool basement and many prayers have been said over it.
Zeer pots are great "refrigerators" and easy to make with the right parts on hand. If you use two terracotta pot--one smaller than the other--and sand you can make a cooler that will keep food for days, even a week or more.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/296/1/Cooling-food-without-electricity.html
It will keep butter and other things cool nicely.
When we ate our gfood storage I found that quite a few things were still good that were past the expiry date. Some things were definitely not good though.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to keep in mine is that even though the food might be edible, it may have lost a significant amount of nutritional value if it's been in storage a really long time. Full stomaches but not nutrients isn't good either.