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! Read more!

Building our Food Storage, Making Jar Bread

I've been working very hard on our food storage, making it a point to build in variety and work with whatever comes my way. I watch the Wednesday ads for inexpensive meat ($.49/lb for chicken leg quarters has been the best deal so far), and am cultivating relationships with small, local produce farmers and/or vendors. I have a source for grains at reasonable rates, and have been dehydrating dairy products since I started working on this. (And I've managed to can & dehydrate a supply of meat & cottage cheese for our animal friends, as part of this adventure.) My goal is to accumulate a well-balanced food supply that we can rotate naturally (except maybe the freeze-dried fruits & veggies) because it consists of things we enjoy.

What I didn't expect was the positive effect all of this has had on the way I feed us now. I've always been pretty careful with both the quality and cost of what we eat. But the impact of having jars of healthy, homemade food ready to pop open at a moment's notice has been amazing. And not only that, but I'm actually enjoying more treats, because I have canned fruit ready to enjoy either out of the jar or as part of something fun. It is so satisfying to be learning to be more self-reliant!! I wish everyone was willing and able to "take charge" of their food. We'd all be happier and healthier!

I tried making "jar bread" tonight. You make the bread dough (or muffins, or brownies, or whatever) and let it rise for the final time in greased (shortening only), straight-sided pint jars. Pop on a sterilized lid as soon as it comes out of the oven and wait for the "plink". Baked goods prepared this way can be stored for several weeks at room temperature. A one-loaf bread recipe (3 cups of flour) made 4 pint jars. I did have to cut off the tops of 3 of them, and I only heard one lid snap down, so we'll see... I also tend to be a lot more sensitive to food that's a little "tired" than most people, so we'll see how this works for me. I guess I'm gearing up for trying one of my solar ovens, because cooking in mason jars is ideal in a solar oven. I do still need to finish assembling them, but once I do, they should be fun to learn to use!! Read more!