Homemade Superpails

[kev]

Les talk about homemade superpails. Last week I ordered 5 - 5 gallon mylar bags, last weekend my wife and I picked up 40 pounds of pinto beans. Over the weekend we are probably going to pick up some rice, maybe 40 pounds or so.

This is the game plan so far:

Superpail #1 - Pinto Beans. Pinto beans are an excellent source of protien, websites like the CDC and world health organization rank pinto beans as some of the healthiest beans out there.

Superpail #2 - Rice. Just because.

Superpail #3 - Rolled oats. A buddy of mine is trying to convince me to buy a grinder with the different attachments, so that the oats can be ground or flaked for oatmeal or other purposes.

Superpails #4 - Bisquick. This was my wifes idea. She said that bisquick has so many uses in baking, that it should not be overlooked.

Superpail #5 - undecided. I might throw a bunch of smaller mylar bags in it and ship it to the camp for a backup.

I have a 10 pack of 2,000cc oxygen absorbers. The plan was to put 2 of the 2,000cc 02 absorbers in each homemade superpail, and then seal it up. If the 5th superpail is not made up, then I could lose 2 of the 02 absorbers.

Help me decide what should be in the 5th superpail.


The goal for the Homemade Superpails:

Is to have 4 or 5 at my home, and 4 or 5 at the camp, for a total of around 10. This is going to be my first try at making superpails, so its also going to be an experiment for me.

I want enough food at the camp, so that if my family and I have to leave our home, we will have several months worth of food ready for us.

Besides 5 gallon buckets full of food, I also have several 1/2 gallon mylar bags and several 1 gallon mylar bags on the way. I am hoping to store pasta, oats, pancake mix, other stuff,,,,,,, in the 1/2 and 1 gallon bags.

My wife has 3 grown children that live close to us, and a 4th that lives a few hundred miles away. With those 3 grown kids we have 8 grand kids. Then I have my grown and almost grown kids. So lets just add a total of 12 people, plus my wife and I, my dad, mom, brother,,,,,,, lets just round that to 20 people.

If I ever have to open a superpail under a SHTF situation, we might have around 15 - 20 people to feed in a worse case situation.

~~~ April 27 Update ~~~

The video about my first attempt at making a 5 gallon superpail

YouTube - Homemade 5 gallon superpails -...

[Allamakee County]

How about dried fruits in Pail #5? - Bagged individually by type of fruit: Cherries, cranberries, apples, bananas, raisins.

Also maybe some spices and seasonings.

[Allamakee County]

No wait, that's no good, your goal is to not waste those other two O2 absorbers.

Hmmm... How about 16-bean soup mix?

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I would not add any more bisquick, complete pancake mix is better for flapjacks and also does well to dredge stuff you are going to fry in (fish, okra, squash - etc).
self rising flour IMO is better for biscuits provided you have the shortening on hand (bisquick is basically just self rising flour with shortening already mixed in) but keep what you have, mixing with dried buttermilk (re-constituted) yeilds plenty acceptable biscuits.

[CRC]

If you are planning on getting a grinder then maybe whole wheat. If not, I'd think about maybe doing more beans; maybe navy beans or red beans? BTW, Bisquick keeps for a very long time in the freezer - but I wouldn't count on it for a long term storage even in a well packed mylar bag/bucket - it has fat in it and can start to taste kind of 'off' after a while.

[riverrat]

I did the same thing with my beans and rice except I did several 1lb mylar bags and packed them into the bucket.

[humanoddity]

I would have to say that in lieu of letting the O2 absorbers go bad, pasta is cheap and easy to pack. Just a thought!

[Perkolady]

What about popcorn? It could be ground into corn flour, or eaten as a snack.

[Meat Guy]

I would say wheat or honey. Both would be better.

[SkullyWV]

Originally Posted by kev

Les talk about homemade superpails. Last week I ordered 5 - 5 gallon mylar bags, last weekend my wife and I picked up 40 pounds of pinto beans. Over the weekend we are probably going to pick up some rice, maybe 40 pounds or so.

What happens when the pails are opened?
It will take some time to go through a 5gal bucket of rice.

I am doing exactly what you are saying in regards to locations and supply amounts.

The only difference is that I am storing in PETE bottles in 1 and 2 liter sizes with O2 absorbers. This method takes up more room and time, but allows small quantities of food to be used without the possibility of compromising the entire batch of sealed food.

These PETE bottles are mostly drink bottles that are rinsed once with water and then soaked overnight in potassium metabisulfite solution.

I fill the bottles with the dry goods using a funnel, leaving an inch at the top. I then insert one 100cc O2 per liter of bottle capacity.

In about an hour the bottles begin to collapse. This keeps them from rolling and lets me stack them on their sides on shelves. The smaller bottles will fit in 6-pack cartons and stack nicely.

[survivalistmomma]

If you have a vacuum sealer, you can seal up the extra 2 absorbers. If you have a small jar, like one that pimentos or mushrooms comes in, put your extra o2s in there and screw the lid really tight.

I have been using 2 O2s for oats, elbow macaroni, and other airy foods. I only use one for foods that pack densely, and I still get a nice hard brick top and bottom.

[kev]

Originally Posted by SkullyWV

What happens when the pails are opened?
It will take some time to go through a 5gal bucket of rice.

The homemade superpails are for a worse case situation, where I have 12, 15,,,, 20 people show up at my house and their hungry.

[survivalistmomma]

As a large family, popcorn is our main snack. I only buy chips for parties. We grind the same pop corn that we pop.

Pans for a camp fire:

http://www.campingblogger.net/camp-c...e-popcorn.html

[kev]

Storing pop-corn sounds like a good idea. Easy to store and makes for a healthy snack.

[survivalistmomma]

I get my popping corn at Sam's club. It is now $19 for 50#.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Marlin 45 carbine

I would not add any more bisquick, complete pancake mix is better for flapjacks and also does well to dredge stuff you are going to fry in (fish, okra, squash - etc).
self rising flour IMO is better for biscuits provided you have the shortening on hand (bisquick is basically just self rising flour with shortening already mixed in) but keep what you have, mixing with dried buttermilk (re-constituted) yeilds plenty acceptable biscuits.

Baking powder doesn't store too well and that's the weak link in any mix. Easier to just store the ingredients to make baking powder (baking soda and cream of tartar) and flour and make it on demand. That way when you need it, you know it will rise properly. I've had stored baking mixes offgas and not rise anymore.

[Kaydee]

What to put in the other "Super Pail"?

*More beans (black beans are super healthy as well, with higher protein and fat than pinto)
*More rice
*Wheat--grinder?
*Corn--again, grinder?
*Pasta--good choice, lots of kinds
*Powdered Milk
*Potatoes--dried, flaked, whatever you find to buy or have

If it was me, I would do pasta (I like to bucket and bag linguine since it packs tightly with minimal air space, is versatile and can often be found on sale) and skip the super-pail for the bisquick and do an extra beans or milk instead. Put the bisquick in smaller bags that can be rotated out of non-super pail buckets.

When I pack pasta like spaghetti and linguine I put a layer of paper towel in the bag bottom and along the edges of the noodles where they might poke the bag as a vacuum is drawn. I've had spaghetti poke holes in the bag before. The paper towel padding has kept it from happening again. Never had any problem with macaroni.

[TxHills]

In addition to my other buckets, I made one with elbow mac. In this one, I used 1 galolon mylars. You can used canned cheese/powdered cheese to make mac and cheese. Or, we make a goush with worcester sauce, hamburger meat, tomato sauce, chili powder, salt and pepper. If SHTF, we'd used tomato powder/ or sauce till it ran out, salt, pepper and chili powder. We keep worcester sauce and rotate it, but don't know how long it'd actually keep.
Just an additional possibilty to consider.

[kingsman]

I had forgotten that Baking powder was Baking soda and cream of tartar! Must get some...

[webfarmer]

Elbow macaroni!