Dead Bread

Fresh bread molds fast. Frozen bread lasts longer. Dried bread even longer. Sometimes it is called "rusk" bread. I go to a local food bank and get free bread. I dry it in a simple solar dryer. It make great toast, and preserves well. The question is how long will it keep, and what else can be done with it. Let's see... bread crumbs ... not exactly survival stuff... meat extender... better.... pet food with some meat oil... can you bake with it again, aka think of it as hard flour... It's free, it's preservable, what else can be done with it, 'cause I gotta lot of it...

In a survival situation once you run out of your stash of bread it is unlikely that you will produce any more unless you live in a rural area with a favourable climate . It would be possible to stockpile flour. However yeast has a limited shelf life and obtaining and storing wheat would be difficult. Should have ready access to basic ingredients I would recommended that you bake Damper.

you could use it as bait for pidgeon hunting/trapping

Leave a little out every day and just sit and wait...the birds will eventually get bolder and bolder as they come to expect a free feed, then *blam!* ...wood-pidgeon pie for tea!

There are a couple of different routes you can take.

First off, crackers.

A type of unleavened bread, have air in them because of baking powder instead of the aciton of yeast. Crackers don't generally mold as long as they are kept dry--they just get stale. In a sealed container, their life goes a year or so. I'm not a big fan of hors d'ovres, but it's nutritious and won't upset your stomach if your eating a lot of strange food.

I'd say Matzoh bread is the ultimate cracker. It isn't risen at all. I've had to eat some that was 3 or 4 years old, and frankly, I couldn't detect much difference between that an "fresh" matzoh bread. Which isn't meant as a compliment for either sample. But it kept my bloodsugar up and I didn't hurl.

Second: Make your own.

Flour goes bad quickly; 6 months or so. But wheat and rye grains, in raw form, last for thousands of years in a dark dry place. Indeed, grain found in the funeral offerings in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt was planted and harvested in the 1930's, and produced valuble hybrids introduced into modern wheat varieties.

Contrary to what some have posted on ATS, wheat is incredibly easy to grow. You can sow it with not farm implements, and you don't need to hoe it or anything. It will produce a crop with as little as 14 inches annual rainfall (not enough to gather for seed, but something you can eat). And is not a hybrid--you can save your seed and plant it next year. After 3 years or so, it will begin to decline, unless you exchange seed with a neighbor or something. (or save seed for more than a single subsequent year)


Third: yeast

Yeast is not a problem. Sourdough is made from natural yeast in the air. Real sour dough can be pretty strong, and may take some getting used to if al you've ever eaten is storebought 'dead' bread. I had friends who made sour dough in college. The main thing you'd need is milk and sugar. But canned milk or goat milk would suffice Every day you "feed" the "mother" batch, and take a little away to make rolls or loaves or whatever. A friend in college had a "mother" that was 4 years old.

The "mother" loves heat--great for a time when your refrigerator and a/c have quit cooling your home.

If you make sourdough now, before econo-hell hits, you'll have a mother when the world goes to hell. That means you'd probably get a week of bread with no additional milk supplies. With canned milk, or a goat, you'd go indefinitely. And fresh bread will probably be a product in high demand once the supermarkets empty. To say the least.

And if the collapse never comes, you get cheap, chemical-free fresh bread. With corporate loaves costing in the direction of 3 bucks now, that's saying something.