Considering the pantry

As the great social intelligence test and herd culling experiment continues, I find myself considering the wisdom my grandparents displayed in a well stocked larder and pantry.

Whilst this post and the planned set of posts that I will file under pantry will seem somewhat, … “apocalyptic” … , I will urge you to consider our current state of affairs and consider doing a little less “Just In Time” shopping.

From wikipedia:

A pantry is a room where beverages, food, and sometimes dishes, household cleaning chemicals, linens, or provisions are stored. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The word “pantry” derives from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis, “bread”.

Now suppose I had a home, and suppose that home had a cool dark dry basement, what would I stock there, how would I stock it, and how long could I expect it to last. (What is my rotation schedule? I will also restrict my comments to items of culinary use.)

With all that I will speak about, storage is key. For dry and canned goods, a pantry’s temperature should fall between 50 degrees and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Pantries should be clean, dark, dry and cool.

Next is containment, ideally we are talking airtight, light blocking containers. Yes, you will need to label the container with the contents, but you were going to do that anyway since you were going to add a date to the container.

I shall not get into portioning into single use amounts, vacuum sealing those into vacuum bags and storing the bags into large airtight and sealable containers. No matter how you store, you will need to ensure dry conditions.

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Note foodstuffs that contain natural oils or fats, (Whole Wheat Flour, Brown Rice, etc) will go rancid, the most you can expect is two years.