The Joys of Jar Bread

This jar bread business is a great discovery!! It's very easy to do, but you might want to consider substituting unflavored gelatin for eggs, if your recipe calls for them. (see "everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com for more information.) You just make your recipe, divide it into an appropriate number of clean, greased, straight-sided canning jars (pints, usually, but half-pints and quarts can also be used), and bake as usual. Take the jars out of the oven and put the sterilized lids and rings on one at a time. (I had to cut the tops off two of my loaves, but that's probably because I added dried fruit & so increased the volume.) As they cool, the lids will form a vacuum seal and "plink" down. The beauty is that these baked goods can be stored on the shelf -- no refrigeration needed! From the research I've done, it could be as little as a few days or weeks, and up to a year. (Google "jar bread" for more information.) If you're planning to store your baked goods long-term, I would definitely consider substituting gelatin for the eggs.

This method has several benefits to be enjoyed now: I can bake a good bit of bread whenever I have time & am inclined, and store it until I need it; it will stay fresher because it's stored in something besides a loose ziplock bag (you can never get all the air out), I can re-seal it each time I use it (using the cannister setting on my FoodSaver); it doesn't have to take up a lot of room in the fridge or freezer; and finally, there are only 2 of us, so the smaller loaves mean the bread will be much fresher whenever we're inclined to open it up & use it.

And, as Sister DeWitt points out in her excellent video, in more challenging times, things can be baked in a solar oven on clear, sunny days, and stored until they're needed -- even without refrigeration. Come to think of it, that's a good idea whether we have electricity or not -- nice alternative to heating up the kitchen (and using all that energy) in the middle of summer!!

So whether times are challenging or not, with a little advance preparation, we will always have fresh, homemade bread, as well as pre-cooked meat, on hand, and ready to put together a quick meal at a moment's notice!