Skunkabily,<br><br>Long post follows:<br><br>I'm trying to remember what your goal is - IIRC, you're building a modest stock of emergency preparedness supplies with consequences of natural disaster (e.g. earthquake) as one of the contingencies you're attempting to be prepared to cope with. I seem to recall that based on advice you rec'd here, you recently stocked something like Sterno and a Sterno stove as your emergency preparedness stove. (More on that later.) I hope that I've recalled this correctly... if not, cease reading.<br><br>It was based on my recollection of all the above that I stated that flour may not be very critical to your preparations. Something simpler, like modest amounts of Bisquick or Krusteze is a little more appropriate for your goals than flour, IMHO. (Thanks, Hikerdon - I strongly agree that Krusteze is the best of the "add water" ones out there; couldn't remember the brand name at the time I posted the first reply). <br><br>If my recollection of your goals is correct, I reiterate what I stated initially: Flour by itself is not important. How are you going to make what with it in an emergency? I suppose you could make various pan breads (e.g. pancakes, fry breads, etc.) over a Sterno stove. Dumplings are certainly feasible, but much more involved than that is going to run you out of Sterno in quick order as well as drive you crazy trying to improvise.<br><br>I eat lots of bread. The entire family does. It's not a meal without bread. My luxuries on extended backpacking trips are not candies, GORP, gourmet coffee, etc. - it's that bag of hard rolls that I somehow manage to stow and carefully ration out. I miss them when they are, too soon, gone. At home I bake bread regularly. Except for cakes, I am the flour user in our family (wife can make bread, but it's a time thing for her - she uses a bread maker; I do it by hand). All the kids are competent at a variety of bread-making tasks - manually or bread-maker. I make the pancakes, scratch bisquits, soda breads, etc. Obviously, I am a fan of wheat flour (and rye and corn meal and oatmeal and...). I am embarrassed to say how much flour we keep in stock in our cold room... let's just say that it doesn't come in 5 lbs packages.<br><br>Grains are fundamental foodstuffs. Chris & Hikerdon should chime in here, but IIRC, wars in Europe were limited to how much grain (historically wheat primarily, with rye a significant contributor) was in stock to fuel the armies and advances were limited by the advances that could be made by the mobile bakeries, not the foot soldier's pace. Adults can survive on bread alone (it takes a bit more than us meat-and-fat eaters realize, but not all that much in terms of poundage of hard wheat). hehe - no scripture quotes, please - off topic. Not until the arrival of that South American plant, the potato, coupled with the invention of canning, were invaders partially freed from the constraints of the mobile bakeries. Yet even as recently as WWII, the major European combatants were significantly (even exclusively at times) fueled by fresh baked bread.<br><br>In another part of the world, rice played (plays?) a similar role, but I am not as familiar with the overall nutritional impact of rice (it has some protien nutritional shortfalls by itself as compared to wheat - hence "beans-and-rice" synergistic type combinations are more favorable to those who need more protien, such as growing children). See things like "Diet for a Small Planet" if your inquiring mind wants to know more...<br><br>Wheat, rice, barley, rye, corn - ah, yes, corn. Hmmm. Tasty. Terrible for an exclusive diet, nutritionally speaking. Important to North Americans, but not as a stand-alone food stuff like wheat and (I assume) rice. Barley and rye are a bit more primative grains than wheat and for various reasons probably were cultivated earlier than wheat. Not so important now, nor as readily available at as low a cost as wheat or rice. Only wheat has significant amounts of the protienacious "glue" that binds things into what we recognize as "bread", which is why "cornbread" is at least half wheat flour... I think that cornbread without wheat flour is usually called a "corn tortilla" in our part of the world... and for all I know, even those may have a little flour in them.<br><br>I hope I'm not triggering a long discussion about all this - hopefully just corrections to any errors I've posted... and I'm not a vegetarian; I'm an omnivore.<br><br>So... is that wheat product we call "flour" important? Heck yes! Should it have a prominent role in your stockpile? I don't believe it should. I think for your goals, you should focus mostly on more nutritionally concentrated foodstuffs that require fairly simple preparation before eating.<br><br>I agree with Hikerdon - learn to use flour. In your everyday life. Heck, just learn to cook - it's part of eating, and only dead folks don't eat. Great book he suggested, BTW - a veritable classic and easy to use. As for your stockpile... flour is not an ideal component for a short term. <br><br>Long term... well, you need to be able to STAY to use those long-term supplies, eh? It's a whole 'nother topic. There are tons of resources you may look through for those long-term kinds of preparedness. The Mormons are perhaps the "best" single source of info on that topic, but certainly not the sole source of info. A rock-bottom cheap "it will keep you alive" long-term stockpile of food prominently features wheat (flour if stored carefully) - along with other basic compents such as oil, salt, etc. Not a fun diet. Serious stockpilers divert efforts to what they normally eat (within reason) and eat thru the stocks in the course of a year (eat the oldest stocks and replace). It's very tedious until the habits develop and it takes more storage space than you have - and it's too time-consuming without the right storage conveniences (like shelving that allows access to front and back of the shelves for simple "new to the back, eat from the front" schemes). Not to mention that it can be expensive for one person - an ounce of tuna fish in a small can costs more than an ounce in a large can.<br><br>It seems to me that a significant portion of your stockpile should include "grocery store backpacking" type foods or freeze-dried (I think freeze-dried are too expensive, tho). For sure you should have enough packable foods to be able to walk far enough away from an all out catastrophe to be safe and then wait for the FEMA-type responses to become effective - perhaps a weeks worth. While you will not starve in a week's time, it gives you a lot more options "just in case".<br><br>As for cookery - the darn stove thing re-visited - when the discussion got insistent, I dodged some insistent posts instead of posting directly to the topic. I did not and do not agree with some of the advice nor the "reasoning" that accompanied some of it ("I use this and you should because..."). Sterno is OK - much better than nothing, and Chris kind of dug me out of feeling compelled to participate with that suggestion. But prepare your meals for two days with it and draw your own conclusions. I think it has some drawbacks based on my experiences with it. Doesn't even do a great job of boiling water, IMHO. A can of it in a "Be Prepared" pack for a variety of uses is one thing; planning to use it 30 days to wait out a disaster is another thing altogether.<br><br>What I would have suggested (and may have already) is not something I use or own; it's what I believe is most suitable for what you say you wish to be prepared for - and I'm factoring in what I know of your location, experience, safety, convenience, suitability, cost, availability, versatility, etc. - it's NOT what I would choose for *myself* where I live with my skills, circumstances, etc. There is such an obvious genre choice, I smack my forehead in disbelief. <br><br>There are other decent choices I know of that I will try to "rank order" for you as well (and Sterno is one of them), even though one stands out. Email me offline if you wish to investigate my suggestion; the stove thing seemed to have potential to draw some hot flames, which is why I lurked some of that discussion instead of posting. OTOH, I don't know everything by a long shot... pretty much everyone here has given you great suggestions.<br><br>Sorry for the long post, but I am trying to keep your stated goals - as I recall them - in mind. Hope this helps.<br><br>Regards to everyone who slogged thru this messy post! Tom