Key Points:

• The ingredients in Step 7 are all the necessary fats, oils, sugars, milk, and miscellaneous that you need to put food storage meals and recipes together.
• Purchasing these items when on sale, then rotating through your stored supplies can save you time and money.
• Find ways to use these ingredients in your everyday cooking, start learning how to make things from scratch. Check out our “Using Your Long Term Storage” video for some ideas on how to do this.
• Determine the quantities of each food item you will need to store. For more information, see BabyStep 4.

Fats and Oils:

• Salad Dressings can be store bought and stored, or you can make your own oil and vinegar-based, or mayonnaise-based dressings with items you have on hand in your food storage. Be aware of expiration dates on store bought salad dressings.
• Cooking Oil such as canola, or vegetable oil can be used in most bread recipes. Unless they have been specially treated, *unopened* cooking oils have a shelf life of about a year.
• Shortening has a longer shelf life than oils, it is reasonable to expect an unopened metal can of shortening to have a shelf life of eight to ten years if kept reasonably cool, particularly if it has preservatives in it.
• Mayonnaise can be used in baked dishes, pasta salads, salad dressings, and much more. Although it isn’t necessary to sustain life, it sure makes things taste better. Mayonnaise has a shelf life of 2-3 months.
• Peanut Butter provides protein and monounsaturated fats (the good fat). Peanut butter has a shelf life of 6-9 months.

Sugars:

• Powdered Fruit Drink comes in many different flavors and can be used in daily use and in times of emergency as stored water can have a funny taste. Powdered drink mixes can be stored for up to 3 years if unopened.
• Brown Sugar can be used in many baked goods and even some bread recipes. It can be stored up to 6 months. Be careful to seal it tightly between uses if you have opened your sugar .
• Molasses and Corn Syrup are used as sweeteners in many recipes. Store according to your families needs. Molasses may be something you have never used, nor ever will use. If this is the case, don’t feel the need to store it.
• Flavored Gelatin is used in molded desserts and salads and to thicken cold soups.
• Jams or Preserves is covered in Baby Step 8 (Fruits and Vegetables)
• Granulated Sugar is used in almost all food storage recipes and is very important to store. Sugar has a shelf life of 20+years.
• Honey is another sweetener found in a lot of food storage recipes. Honey is more expensive then sugar and usually acts as a substitute for sugar in breads. Some people feel it is healthier to use honey than sugar.

Milk:

• Nonfat Dry Milk is much cheaper then regular milk. To make your nonfat milk taste better, try adding 1 tsp of sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla to a gallon. This tip is from the author at everydayfoodstorage.net. She let us taste it at her house and it was actually GOOD!
  
• Evaporated Milk can be stored in cans, or made from nonfat dry milk. To make a 12 oz can of evaporated milk from dry milk, mix 1-1/2 C. Water and 1/2 C. + 1 T. Dry Powdered Milk and blend very well. For more tips on using dry milk to make sweetened condensed milk and buttermilk click here.

Miscellaneous:

• Baking Soda, Salt and Baking Powder are used in most recipes and if unopened have indefinite shelf lives.
• Active dry yeast is the form of yeast most commonly available to noncommercial bakers, as well as the yeast of choice for situations where long travel or uncontrolled storage conditions are likely.
• Instant yeast appears similar to active dry yeast, but has smaller granules with substantially higher percentages of live cells. It is more perishable than active dry yeast, but also does not require rehydration, and can usually be added directly to all but the driest doughs.

Our Approaches:

I have pretty much been a slacker on step 7 so far. It’s not as fun and rewarding to learn to use these items in my cooking so I haven’t felt the urge to do it that much. Now that I have a handle on the other steps this is one I’m going to make more of an effort on (and yes I will most likely start with powdered milk!)

This step seems to fulfill a lot of the baking type person’s needs. I am not a huge baker, but let me tell you this – I am shocked at how much powdered milk I end up using. I use it in some of my bread recipes, I use it in my fruit smoothies, I use it as back up milk for when I run out. I use it in puddings and pudding pies. I would have never guessed before starting all of this how much I would use powered milk. This step is more like a list of things to make sure you have. They aren’t the main ingredients.

Resources:

What Can You Do With Your Food Storage - article showing the types of foods you can make as you add more ingredients to your food storage supplies
Everyday Food Storage - excellent recipes available online, and some great tips!
Marlene’s Magic with Food Storage - there are some great recipes in this book
Emergency Essentials - long term foods available in their store or online
Honeyville Food Products - purchase long term foods online