Book Review: "Making the Best of Basics" by James Talmage Stevens

I recently purchased Making the Best of Basics by James Talmage Stevens at a used book store. The book was notable because it has a large section on cooking using common long term storage foods; most especially, wheat.

    As way of background, the typical advice today is to store what you eat, eat what you store. There are several reasons for this: 

• If you store what you eat, you will actually use it; and, therefore, if you are operating under the FIFO (first-in, first-out) principle, will naturally cycle through your storage so it doesn't go rotten, rancid, or otherwise become unusable.
• Because you are used to eating what is in your storage, you don't run the risk of having someone in your household unable or unwilliing to change their diets to other foods following a disaster (something that could particularly be a problem with children or seniors).
• You will know how to prepare meals using your food storage because you have experience with those foods.

    While many today view this as storing boxed, canned, and frozen foods, so that your storage is reminiscent of what you might see in a grocery store aisle, this has not always been the case. Historically, the advice was to focus most of your food storage efforts on bulk foods that could last 10, 20 or even 30 years, with a goal of having enough food on hand to feed your family for at least a year. It was fine to have a well supplied pantry (or freezer) of foods you typically ate, but you also wanted a long-term food storage for surviving a longer term disruption such as the aftermath of a nuclear war, civil war, or some other apocalyptic disaster.

    Long term food storage focused on what were considered the "Basic 5". Although I've seen a few variations on this list, it generally included:

1. Grain (e.g., whole grains such as wheat or rice, or some version of processed grain that can last a long time such as dried pasta);
2. Powdered milk;
3. Salt;
4. Sweeteners (honey and/or white sugar); and,
   
5. Dried legumes (beans, peas, etc.)

This is not enough by itself, so other items (that don't last so long) also needed to be part of your storage: items such as oils of some sort (e.g., cooking oil, butter), spices and herbs, and perhaps leavening agents. It was also intended to be augmented by canned fruits and vegetables or fresh produce from a garden.

    There were and continue to be good reasons to focus on these bulk foods for long term food storage. First, particularly with larger families, it is more economical to purchase a year supply of the "Basic 5" than a year supply of commercially prepared and packaged foods. Second, until recent decades, commercially canned goods didn't really have a very good shelf life--certainly not near as long as home canned goods, let alone the decades that the "Basic 5" would last; and even though commercial canned goods last much longer than they used to, they still do not rival the "Basic 5". And, third, the "Basic 5" take up less space than an equivalent amount of canned or commercially packaged food.

    But there is a very real problem with the "Basic 5" food storage plan: most people don't actually use many of those items for day-to-day meals and so they don't know how to use the "Basic 5" to create meals. In fact, the characteristics that make the "Basic 5" so good for long term food storage also make them difficult to use on a day-to-day basis if you don't know what you are doing.

    And that is what brings me back to Making the Best of Basics. Originally published in 1974, it has been through many revisions and reprintings. The version I have is the 10th edition which was first published in 1997. I checked on Amazon, and this appears to still be the most recent edition.

    The chapters (and topics covered) are:

1. What is Family Preparedness?
2. Basic In-Home Storage.
3. In-Home Storage Problems and Solutions.
4. Water--the Absolute Basic.
5. Wheat--the Basic Grain.
6. Basic Whole-Wheat Bulgur Cookery.
7. Basic Whole-Wheat Flour Cookery.
8. Basic "WheatMeat" Cooker.
9. Basic Sourdough Cookery.
10. Basic White Flour Cookery.
11. Basic Triticale Cookery.
12. Basic Dairy Products from Powdered Milk.
13. Basic Honey Use.
14. Basic Self-Health with Supplementation.
15. Basic Sprouting and Kitchen Gardening.
16. Basic In-Home Drying of Fruits and Vegetables.
17. Energy and Fuels Storage.

There also a couple Appendices ("Websites of Preparedness Suppliers" and "FEMA National Emergency Management System"), an Index, and a "Supplement" with a compendium of preparedness resources. The latter is a list of preparedness supplies by state with codes to tell you whether they are a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer, as well as to what chapter their products are applicable. Appropriately enough, the Supplement pages are marked with yellow to make a "yellow pages" section at the back of the book.

    The first chapter, as you might expect from the title, offers up an explanation of prepping and why you should prep. It is, however, very short. 

    The next chapter--"Basic In-Home Storage" is much longer (over 30 pages) and explains how to plan your food storage--that is, approach the process of food storage in a systematic and organized fashion--including lists of items to store and tables to help calculated how much of each to store based on family size. In this regard, it is notable that it covers more than just food, but also things like medicines and first aid supplies, vitamins and other supplements, fuel and camping gear, toiletries, condiments and seasonings, etc. 

    Chapter 3--"In Home Storage Problems and Solutions"--addresses the mechanics of storing food for an extended period of time. It does this by addressing common problems and possible solutions. It also goes over the shelf-life of various foods.  Chapter 4 is somewhat similar, but in the context of storing water. And Chapter 5 is also similar, but concentrating on storing wheat. 

    The bulk of the remainder of the book covers special topics on how to use certain items in your long term storage, particular the primary grains you would be storing, not all of these methods being obvious or well known. Chapter 6, for instance, discusses using wheat berries in cooking without first grinding them into flour, including a larger number of basic recipes. And Chapter 8 addresses using a ground flour to produce a wheat substitute for meat. I've seen this briefly discussed in other prepping books, but not to the detail here.

    Chapter 10 on using white flour addresses the situation where someone chooses to store processed white flour rather than (or in addition to) storing wheat and grinding your own flour. Apparently one of the best uses of white flour is to dust garden plants to keep pests away!

    And its not just tribbles that like triticale. Chapter 11 starts off discussing the benefits of triticale (a crossbreed of wheat and rye) before getting to recipes for using it.

    The chapter on using powdered milk is interesting because it has quite a bit on making yogurt, including plans for a simple yogurt maker (although it does use a lightbulb as a heat source) as well as many recipes for yogurt. But the chapter also addresses how to make a basic cheese with powdered milk.

    Chapter 15 on "kitchen gardening" is almost completely about growing and using sprouts. 

    I've seen (and even have a few) other cook books oriented toward the prepper that discuss using food storage, but I believe that this is one of the most thorough books on cooking using long term storage items. And by including the advice and tables on how to go about starting a food storage program and expending it to one or more years' worth of storage, it is more comprehensive than the other books I've seen on the topic.

    I wish I could say that I've had a chance to try out the advice in the book, but I have unfortunately not had time to do so. But within the last year I've reorganized much of my family's long term storage to make it more accessible, partly with the hope to start using and cycling through the grain and other items of storage. That is what drew me to this book, so I have high hopes that it will be a useful reference.