tuna, chicken, green beans

Hmm....tomatoes, tomato paste, Rotel, garbanzo beans and black beans and tiny cans of Bush's baked beans when I just have to....tiny cans of Franks kraut for the same meal, pineapple, coconut milk, pumpkin, evaporated milk, condensed milk, tuna, sardines, anchovies....never soups, never green beans not any other vegetable but for occasionally beets for pickling.
Now you want to talk about things in jars, that's a whole "nother thing".

In addition to some home canned items, like tomatoes, peaches, green beans and soups, I have commercial tomatoes, an assortment of vegetables, some canned fruit, a few soups and tuna. And some emergency canned dog food too.

I don't stock up the way Grainlady does, but I can "go shopping" in the basement if I need too.

Store-bought canned foods would be tomatoes (ro-tel and crushed, mainly, a few cans of El Pato tomato sauce), coconut milk, pineapple, and hominy. I can buy dried posole, which I like, but I do like the convenience of the hominy when in a hurry. Sometimes I keep things such as water chestnuts around. Once in a while I purchase canned beans, mainly white beans, and others I just cook in the pressure cooker when needed.

I'm another that "shops" from my pantry. Canned beans, tomatoes, tomato sauces, soups, vegetables, fruit (cocktail, pears, peaches), tuna, salmon, clams, etc.

If we're only talking canned items, it's tomatoes, beans, tuna, evaporated milk and some soups.

Beans of all kinds, tomatoes, coconut milk and tomato soup.

Tomatoes in various varieties, mostly. A few cans of tuna. Evaporated milk. A few cans of this and that. Lots of bottles of sauces. Months can go by without me opening a can, thinking you don't mean soda pop. But I do use bottles regularly, everything from ketchup to Ginger Apple Teriyaki, occasional salad dressing (for when I don't have time to make my own). And jars of techinah, almond butter, sunflower seed paste, etc., which I guess are the modern version of cans. I could make my own, I suppose, but with the top quality jars why bother? And pickles. Jars of cucumber pickles, olives, hearts of palm...

Cans vs jars is a good thing to point out --- I consider it stilled "canned" if it traditionally also comes in cans but just happens to be in a jar. I separate bottles, such as soy sauce, hot sauce and Worchestshire.

I'll try to usually have tomatoes, olives, beans (currently garbanzo, red, black, canellini), tuna, coconut milk, Thai curry paste, pickles, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and often, some sort of jarred Indian curry base. DH would starve without soups and refried beans. Never any veggies or meat (I keep frozen on hand), Weather-based power outages aren't a big problem here.

Like Grainlady, I'm going to be a bit different. For canned foods from the store, it's tuna, peanut butter (OK, it's a jar, but still)), and Elery has to have olives and artichoke hearts. Yes, an odd collection of stuff, I know. I'm assuming you aren't counting pantry staples like flour and sugar...

I have a big organic garden and live in an agricultural community, so I can my own vegetables and local fruits, make pickles and relishes, jams and fruit butters, pack my own sauerkraut. I also raise beef, pork, chickens (for both meat and eggs) and have a relatively regular supply of venison and fish. I even make catsup, mustard and hot sauce when I get really ambitious, and roast my own coffee.

So, as others have said, I shop in my pantry. I always have dried or canned beans, as I grow both beans to shell and green beans for canning, and I do keep pasta on hand, but it's usually homemade and in my freezer. I make and can stock from chicken or beef bones too, and make my own yogurt, so a trip to my pantry and freezer, and I can pretty much always throw a meal together.

Annie

Just tomato paste, tuna and olives.

No soups or beans. I just can't bring myself to buy either. I cook beans from scratch the way my grandmother did. It's no trouble, hardly takes any time to pick them over, wash and soak. I always always soak - even lentils. I cook huge quantities for the freezer.

At any given moment I have from-scratch beans, black eyed peas and lentils - all divided into serving quantities

No can of beans will ever darken my doorstep!

Beans--Chili, black, baked, white, kidney, refried pinto & black beans, garbanzos, refried... plus, blackeyed peas & crowder peas if I can find them (not easy living in Wisconsin).

(I keep a variety of dried beans on hand--pinto, black, red, pink, cranberry, great Northern, navy, mayacoba, split peas, blackeyed peas, lentils (which I have decided that I DO NOT like)... The canned beans mostly are for recipes or, in the case of the refried pintos, for DS.

Canned fruit--peaches, pears, plums, apricots, mandarin oranges, blueberries, pineapple, fruit cocktail, tropical fruit salad, cherry pie filling, lone pint of home-canned blueberry pie filling and quart of apple pie filling that were gifts & I don't know what to do with.

Hominy, corn, creamed corn, turnip/ mustard greens, spinach, French style & home canned cut green beans, beets, German potato salad.

Artichokes, olives-black, green, anchovy stuffed-, peppers-jalapeno, green chile, red & yellow, mushrooms.

Tomatoes--sauce, paste, diced, crushed, whole peeled, stewed, Cajun, salsa, Rotel, spaghetti sauce, plus home-canned.

Milk--coconut, evaporated, sweetened condensed, crema, powdered.

Tuna, salmon, clams, anchovies.

Canned chunky style soups, Stokes green chile sauce w/ pork, home canned chicken broth & commercial beef broth and consomme.

Lone tin of some weird cheese packed in olive oil that I don't know what to do with.

Dog Food that gets augmented with fiber sources for Dog #1.

I'm going to cook the lentils for Dog #1.

Coconut milk, pumpkin puree, salmon or sardines.

Does Extra virgin olive oil in a can count? Besides that, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, sardines, salmon, anchovies, olives, beans, condensed milk, pineapple, coconut milk & the various odd lots I find on sale like cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, corn & mangoes in syrup & almost forgot catfood! Organic everything except catfood, fish & olives...

Oh & I prefer to cook beans fresh as well. I don't can, but I make big batches unseasoned (except for salt) &/or seasoned Southwestern style & freeze in 1 pint jars.

Wow! Many thanks to all of you for such a long list of great suggestions. You folks make me hungry!

I don't like beans, and am not too crazy about tomatoes, but I would try all other suggestions. In fact I am compiling a canned food shopping list based on your inputs.

Please make suggestions for food in jar too. I am really interested in learning your must have Jared Food.

Added: Apologize for my ignorant question, what's the difference between canned and jared food?

azmom, I would say that "jarred" food would include things like mayonnaise, spaghetti sauce, probably my beloved peanut butter. It's funny, I grow my own everything, nearly, but peanut butter either has to be local Cream-Nut with nothing but peanuts and salt or Peter Pan Honey Roast, with a lot of "stuff" on the label. Go figure.

I also find dried beans preferable to canned ones, but still can my own chili with home grown beans. I've also found that when I shell homegrown beans, I freeze them instead of drying them, if I have freezer room. They cook more quickly and are nice and creamy.

Annie

Must have jarred food:

peanut butter (natural, NEVER sweetened)

mayo (Hellman's only)

mustard (Coleman's mustard powder when available, or just Dijon)

There are a lot of different reasons for canned/jarred foods....convenience is the first one, but we have a group of items that are located in the 72-hour emergency food kit that don't require heating or refrigeration - or only minimal heating, or just add water. When you are without electricity for any length of time, you'll think about any number of canned/jarred foods you wish you had on-hand (and don't forget to have a manual can opener ;-). Choices from all the food groups. Many of these items are single-serving, or enough for two servings to avoid leftovers. If you need to keep leftovers during a power outage, be sure to have a number of Thermos bottles and only place HOT food in them for use later, don't place food that has cooled off in them. You can find lots of ideas if you do a search on "72-hour emergency kits".

After an ice storm that left us without power for a week, when the neighbors ran out of bread and peanut butter by day 2, only had scented candles for light, no battery-powered radio for local information, cell phone service was down, and were completely unprepared for such an event, they piled their two dogs into their car and risked life and limb driving on ice-covered streets/roads, over downed power lines and limbs, to get to Mama's house 30-miles away. Meanwhile, we had everything for just such an emergency, including water and all they had to do was walk across the yard and we would have hosted them.

I have meal plans and snacks based on emergency foods in the 72-hour kit. You wouldn't believe all the things you can make with a can of diced/sliced/whole potatoes - a great heat-and-eat emergency food item. I make Dijon Potato Salad with canned diced potatoes when I rotate them from the storage room to the kitchen/pantry. Canned beef and chicken are great emergency foods you can make many things with - any kind Mexican entrée, white chicken chili, bbq beef or chicken sandwiches, the base for soup. And I also store tuna, salmon and canned deviled ham sandwich spread. I can recommend Keystone canned meat products (I get them at Wal-Mart) because it is only minimally processed, no water or a lot of artificial ingredients added, and very low sodium, unlike a lot of other canned meat products. It reminds me of home-canned meat. All day flavor in soup when you don't have all day to make it.

Emergency meals like Quick and Easy Pot Roast combining Keystone canned beef, canned potatoes, and canned carrots. I also have freeze-dried potatoes and carrots that I can use instead of canned. I will donate these items to the Food Bank if we don't use them, and restock the kit once a year, or according to use-by dates.

As for jarred food (food that comes in a glass or plastic jar instead of a can) I make Meals-In-A-Jar using freeze-dried items from #10 cans. These are my "convenience" foods. I use a lot of recipes by Stephanie Petersen (aka Chef Tess Bakeresse). I especially like the single-serving meals hubby can take to work and add water and microwave. Everything from appetizers, breakfasts, casseroles, breads, to candy and desserts..... All vacuum-sealed in quart and pint jars.

http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/p/52-method-recipe.html

I'm confused. Was the intent of this thread to inquire about what we like to keep on hand in the pantry or for disaster preparedness?

I think the intent of this thread was what ever you want to make it. Obviously no one is confused but you.

Agree with keeping beans on hand.

cindymac - Thank you for Raincoast information.

grainlady - Kindly advise why you keep so much pumpkin on hand. Thank you.

I think the intent of the post was to discuss pantry staples kept on hand for quick meals. As threads tend to do, this one has gone from pole to pole, LOL.

Annie

About the only canned foods I use on a regular basis are tomato paste, tuna, salmon (I have a salmon cake recipe that does better with canned), and very occasionally tomatoes or beans, although I usually prefer dried if I have time to cook them. But otherwise really only the stuff in my hurricane rations and these days that's mostly stuff in vacuum sealed bags, or dried soup mixes. (I wish we only needed 72 hours worth for that, but here it was 11 days, 13 days, and 14 days after the last hurricanes.)

One related question: Normally I make my own mayo, but I would like to have a stock of the individual packets for post-hurricane use. Does anyone know where you can buy those in a reasonably sized box instead of one sized for a fast food restaurant?

Well, there are pantry staples, stuff you keep around to provide the staples of a meal, (which for me would be what I first mentioned) and then there are other things that are either for special or times when you unexpectedly need to "POOP" something, Pull it Out Of the Pantry. For example, I keep "jarred" kalamata olives, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and capers, which along with some cheapo spaghetti sauce and spaghetti, allows me to serve "Pasta Puttanesca" with special canned Italian tuna. All of those things can also jazz up a dish like a spread or pasta salad that is lacking oomph. I also have "bottles" of different vinegars in my pantry, which can be used to jazz up certain sauces or salads that end up needing something in the end.

special canned Italian tuna

What brand is this, please?

pink-

I keep so much pumpkin on hand because I purchase it when it's at rock-bottom prices (stock-up prices are $1 per can or less, .89 at Aldi) and stock up until I have enough for at least a year.

I use pumpkin puree at least once a month, or more. Some recipes only use a portion of a can, so I freeze the leftover in amounts for other recipes.

What I make: gluten-free pumpkin bars, added to oatmeal, made into pumpkin butter, gluten-free pumpkin bread, Pumpkin Chia Protein Cookies, pumpkin pudding, Impossible Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies, Creamy Pumpkin Mousse (GAPS, Paleo), Pumpkin Jello (a high-protein treat), Pumpkin Pie Gummies (also a high-protein treat), and for Christmas I'm making Pumpkin Protein Fudge (dairy-free, low-glycemic, high protein) ..... Pumpkin has so many health benefits and it's easy to incorporate it into our diet all year long, not just in November and December.

Home food storage is all about stocking up. You purchase at the lowest possible price in amounts you can realistically use. As another example - I buy most of the new crop nuts I use for a year in January when they are drastically reduced. I stock-up on condiments and pork n' beans when they are on sale during the summer (stock-up price is 50-cents for VanCamp's Pork n' Beans, sometimes they are 45-cents).

Besides having a strict food budget ($125/month for two adults) buying ahead at the lowest possible price is a way to make those food dollars go farther. I follow a plan similar to what is taught by the LDS Church, but tailored for our personal use/likes/needs.

I literally never need to run to the store because I'm out of something. I "shop" at home, as other's have mentioned. My menus are based on food storage and what's happening in the garden.

Our food storage is divided into three levels:

#1: 72-hour Emergency Foods (which includes canned food)

#2: Pantry Foods (6-12-months worth) These are foods used for making daily meals.

#3: Long-term Food Storage (12-months) - Includes #10 cans of freeze-dried foods, powdered foods, whole grains/seeds/beans

ALL food is rotated from the food storage room to the kitchen pantry. Some are specifically purchased to donate to the Food Bank.

-Grainlady

Cento tuna canned in olive oil. I read somewhere that imported Italian tuna canned in olive oil is the best. There may be other better brands, but that is the one I can commonly find.

Thanks, LP. Around here all I ever see is the sneaky Genova Tonno, which is really just Chicken of the Sea in disguise.

Writersblock, could you please share your salmon cake recipe? The one that does better with canned salmon? I could really use such a recipe. TIA!

Another who'd like recipe pls

Must have canned goods:

Black beans, black eyed peas, refried beans (black or traditional), low sodium veggie broth (well, I get this in the box these days), clams, sardines in water, sardines in extra virgin olive oil, canned pumpkin, stewed and diced tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, water chestnuts, sliced bamboo shoots, coconut milk, baby corn, quail eggs (yes, there's an Asian theme going here...), TJ's dark roasted coffees. Cat food.

Jarred (glass) can also be considered canned -- salsa, bruscetta, hearts of palm, capers, roasted peppers, and home-canned: applesauce, tomato sauce, pickles of various types (well, all are garlic/dilled, just different veggies and different amounts of heat), and a little leftover pork and beef from a pressure canning venture with a friend who has since moved out of area. (I can't pressure-can in this kitchen -- the upper cabinet overhangs too much.)

Down in food storage, lots of dried canned lentils and rice in #10 cans.

I'm not fond of canned tuna fish, many of the canned green veggies (mushy), or things with lots of sugar -- although there is honey and maple syrup here. Most pre-canned soups are heavily salted so I prefer to make my own.

I mostly follow the Paleo Salmon Cakes recipe from everydaymaven:

http://www.everydaymaven.com/2013/paleo-salmon-cakes/

only I don't use the same quantities that she does. I think it's very under-seasoned if you follow the recipe exactly. I generally just make a half recipe, but the only things I halve are the salmon, almond meal, and eggs. So if you make a full recipe, I would double everything but those.

And while it's not one of my favorite hot sauces generally, I keep a bottle of Crystal hot sauce for this. It adds enough warmth without making it too hot.

I'm not paleo but I do like this recipe a lot. I usually make a honey mustard sauce to serve with it.

EDIT I find they freeze better if you let them set up well in the fridge first, so that's one thing I disagree with. I usually just put them all into the fridge, then freeze the rest right before I cook the ones I'm using that day.

To me if it is in a jar it is canned too, my home canned green beans are in a jar and so are my tomatoes or tomato juice. I never call things jarred, to me that means, shook up! I keep a lot of canned stuff on hand, but if you are needing food that will require water to fix and cook, say the power goes out and no water on hand then you have to use water sparingly. So dry beans and things may not be the best for your situation. If you just want to have things on hand, just go for the foods you will like and use.

Sue

Sue, commercial products are different than home canned. There are things that come in cans, things that come in jars and things that come in bottles. Some come in all three. There's a big quality difference, however. A lot of products that come in metal cans taste metallic. Some products that come in transparent jars can suffer from light.

-Maybe we should call these pantry-ready foods, instead of canned, due to the many sources of packaging.

- Brits call home-canned foods - jarred, not canned.

- There are also methods for long-term food storage including dry canning in #10 metal cans (using special equipment), canning jars with canning lids, foil pouches, and PETE plastic bottles with airtight, screw-on lids, using oxygen absorbers to remove the oxygen from the containers, or a vacuum-sealer for jars and foil pouches. Oxygen absorbers protect the color of dried food when stored below 70°F., and protect food from oxidation degredation at ALL temperatures. This method is used for foods with 10% (or less) moisture content.

@ writersblock - is there a GFS store in your area? They stock supplies for catering/restaurant/institutional food service & you can buy pre-portioned condiments, along w/ all sorts of other foods, cooking, cleaning & serving items.

https://www.gfs.com/en/gfsstore/locator

If not, check local listings for retail restaurant suppliers...

Thanks, carolb. No, no restaurant supply stores of any sort around here, but I'll keep that in mind for the next time I'm in a large metro area.

Yes, the original intent is to keep some canned food at home to bail me out in case we have visitors with a short notice. Now the content of this thread is getting more, longer and richer, same as my shopping list. Again, many thanks to all of you for the great inputs.

Well, when you're talking short notice visitors, then be sure to keep a boxed brownie mix on hand. You'll always make someone happy with that!

Writersblock - Thank you so much for the recipe and the tips.

I didn't realize it was Paleo. I guess I can sub wheat flour for almond flour? Would it be the same quantity? Would it be less/more flour?

I'll add one more must-have ingredient, although I mentioned it above, and that's tomato powder. If you have tomato powder you can make tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato juice, pizza sauce, any kind of red sauce with a tomato base (including Sloppy Joes), and I've made ketchup with it - all by adding water - for sauce and paste - and some common pantry ingredients (spices, sweetener, vinegar, etc.) for the rest. It's the ultimate pantry food, especially for those of us with home food storage.

By storing tomato powder (once opened, I store the jar in-use in the dry environment of the refrigerator to keep it from caking since there are no ingredients in it to keep it free-flowing), I was able to free up a lot of space in my storage room by eliminating other canned tomato products that I make with tomato powder. Tomato powder has an indefinite shelf-life, while canned tomato products tend to have a shorter shelf-life than other canned goods due to the high amount of acid in them - not to mention the BPA from the cans. I store tomato powder, and dehydrated and frozen home-grown tomatoes. That's it. And make everything tomato-related from them.

You can buy it in a small bottle from the Spice House, but I purchase it in #10 cans:

The Spice House Tomato Powder

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/tomato-powder

Wintercat, you could, I guess, but I just use the almond meal because I like the texture it adds. I would do a one for one substitution or a little less. I just throw some almonds in the food processor to make the meal and leave it a little coarse.

It means different things for me and others...no biggie really. Home staples are necessary for many reasons. Daily life and being prepared for an odd day when nothing sounds good being busy...

Long term is about being prepared for a power outage, a freak storm, or often just your neighborhood is having issues...freak down power line, burst water pipe...

I do have a list of comfort staples, and a storm prepared list having been through 9-11, (my kitchen window over my sink had that horrific view)...then Hugo, then storm Sandy...and friends and family in NewOrleans and Miami...

For me it has been a tough 15 years past. Being prepared for any disaster or just daily life is part of our stock-up.

My pantry has a variety. I mostly shop in my freezer from garden harvest and things i dehydrated. In the pantry i stock italian tuna, canned salmon for cakes, (that is a good recipe posted above). Salt cod for cod cakes. I keep salt cod in the freezer. Rice pasta, lots of dried grains and beans...lentils etc. Tomatoes and peppers are frozen but cans are a good staple if you don't garden.

I have 1/2 loaves of good bread frozen. DH is the baker. Always have bread and croutons frozen. Even small desserts are frozen. I used to have on hand the Costco Giradelli brownie mix but never used it so i took it to my MIL for the grandkids. It is a good quick mix. If you purchase loaves of bread, freeze immediately one third of it so you always have a bit to take out in a pinch. (it thaws very quickly).

I would try and visualize 5 quick meals that you would like to serve in a pinch and have those ingredients on hand.

I think more of fridge crisper drawer staples like celery, parsley, carrot, cilantro, beets, leeks, fresh greens...collards, kale, and salad greens. Pantry with onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, variety of potatoes.

I do love my tomato powder!

Grainlady, please enlighten me:

"I store the jar in-use in the dry environment of the refrigerator to keep it from caking "

Are some areas of the fridge drier than others? The idea never occurred to me. Could you please explain?

Writersblock - thanks again! I'll follow your suggestion.

wintercat-

Humidity in the refrigerator (and freezer) is low due to the frost-free feature. I've seen other powdered products suggest storage in the refrigerator due to the low humidity so they don't clump, and that's where I got the idea from. Not everything has anti-caking ingredients in them, so dry storage works best. The powder is hygroscopic. In other words, it absorbs water present in the atmosphere and becomes semi-solid if enough moisture is available.

It's also a good idea not to leave the jar lid off in a humid kitchen for any length of time - get in and get out - just long enough to measure out the amount you need, and quickly replace the lid.

I also save moisture absorbers (those little "pillows") out of supplements I take, and I'll add a couple to the top of the tomato powder in the jar to absorb moisture from being opened. You can do that with other things, like powdered versions of spices (onion powder and garlic powder come to mind) that can clump or get hard from exposure to humidity. If it does get clumpy, just break it up with a spoon, or use a small hole grater or a microplane to grate it into a fine powder if it's a large clump.

Here's an example of the efficiency of tomato powder. I use 1 T. of tomato powder to make enough sauce for a 12" pizza. Mix with water (3-4 T.) for desired thickness (the sauce thickens after the water is added and you may need to add more after it sits for a minute or two after the first addition of water). Add a little sweetener, pinch of salt (optional), Italian (or pizza) seasonings (to taste), t. of oil, "shot" of vinegar.....whatever you like.

It can be used to color food as well, such as fresh pasta, bread dough, and enhance the richness of soup with a tomato base.

-Grainlady

Thank you so much, Grainlady! You're a mine of information!

Grainlady, you've just convinced me to order some tomato powder... I'd never heard of it nor seen it. Thanks.