Cheap Chow

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Hey McKids! Have you been raised all your life thinking that food comes from the drive through window? Do you grocery shop in the campus bookstore and 7-Eleven? Is your idea of home made food baking a cake from a box? Have you or your family just been dumped onto the street with no cash, or did you run out of cash on a trip across the country? No problem! This section will teach you tips on how to cook food for yourself, your family, your commune, your protest team, or your whole neighborhood with what is available. Also included are tips on getting ingredients or pre-cooked foods, as well as tips on living independently of the pre-packaged, super-processed existence that is the Amerikan food market.

Some of these recipes are designed to easily feed many members of the underground at a low price. By avoiding expensive processed packaged foods, trace back of labels and cartons is reduced, leaving less of an evidence trail, and also benefiting your health. Moreover, you reduce unnecessary use of cardboard, plastic bags, and inks. If your food comes from your own greenhouse, field, or pet chickens and goats you won't rely on the cruel and fragile CorpGov food supply chain.

Contents 1 A Few Helpful Hints on Cooking 2 Planning Meals 3 Spanish/Latin American 3.1 Spanish Beans and Rice 3.2 Tortillas 3.3 Masa 3.4 Tamale 3.5 Refried Beans 3.6 Spanish Rice 4 Pan-Asian, Wok-Cooking, and Rice 4.1 Wok Cooking 4.1.1 Tools in Order of Need 4.1.2 Stir Fry 4.1.3 Water Fry 4.1.4 Deep Fry 4.1.5 Steaming 4.1.6 Cleaning and Seasoning Your Wok 4.1.7 Flavor 4.2 Edamame 4.3 Rice 5 Pasta/Italian 5.1 Egg Noodles 5.2 Garlic Bread 5.3 Jewish Noodle Cake 5.4 Italian Red Sauce 5.4.1 Tomato Paste 6 Misc. Meal Staples and Snacks 6.1 Potato and Roots 6.2 Potato Pancakes 6.3 Tough Meat 6.4 Popcorn 7 Soups 7.1 Lentil Soup 8 Oats and Grains 8.1 Energy Bars 8.2 Whole Kernel Wheat 8.3 Oatmeal 8.4 Simple Cookies 8.5 Biscuit Mix 8.6 Bread 8.6.1 Sourdough Bread 8.6.2 Steam 8.6.3 Pizza 8.6.4 Store Loaf 8.6.5 Pita 8.7 Cake 8.8 Hardtack Crackers 8.9 Baking Powder Substitute 9 Pie 9.1 Pie Shell 9.2 Mock Apple Pie 10 Cheese and Dairy 10.1 Cheese 10.2 Sour Cream 10.3 Yogurt 10.4 Parmesan Cheese 11 Drinks 11.1 Fruit Juices 11.2 Tea 11.3 Coffee Substitute 11.4 Lemonade 11.5 Smoothies 11.6 Apple Wine 11.7 Avoid 12 Using Old Cookbooks 13 External Links

A Few Helpful Hints on Cooking

Keep any loose clothing away from open flames, wash everything (especially your hands) that comes in contact with the food, always wash your hands after touching raw meats and eggs while cooking, use oven mitts, be careful how you handle anything sharp, keep a fire extinguisher handy, and remember that "Baking Powder" and "Baking Soda" are two completely different things (as are "Cream of Tartar" and "Tartar Sauce").

Grease and oil fires cannot be put out with water (It will actually make them worse by spreading the grease or oil over the surface of the water). If you don't have access to a fire extinguisher, be sure to keep a decent supply of baking soda or sand on hand whenever you cook, to control these fires. If need be you can also put them out by cutting off their oxygen supply, such as placing a lid on the pan. Always be careful of your appliances. Regularly check for gas leaks, holes, stripped cords, or other hazardous malfunctions. You may also want to see Low Impact Crashing for tips on living on your own and Farm It for tips on growing your own produce.

For consistency purposes, when reading the following recipes:

• tbs represents tablespoon(s)
• tsp represents teaspoon(s)
• qt represents quart(s)
• gal represents gallon(s)
• lbs. represents pounds
• oz represents ounce(s)
• c represents cup(s)
• C represents temperature in Celsius
• F represents temperature in Fahrenheit

Planning Meals

If you will be feeding a group it is useful to know some ways to get your crew to fill up on the cheap stuff so you can save on the expensive stuff. If possible start your meals with bread and simple soup, then let everyone fill up on the cheap starch like potato, rice, or easy steamed vegetables, finally serve the more expensive protein and fats. Many dishes can be served on a bed of rice which will absorb the gravy or drippings and prevent the waste. Make an attempt to serve meals that combine dark leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, healthy fats, and protein as well as meeting daily minimum calories for the work being done but not so far over that your group gets that All-American fatbody look. The kitchen is an egalitarian place and everyone is expected to take their turn, so if you are not cooking you should be cleaning up.

Spanish/Latin American

Spanish Beans and Rice

Beans and rice are complete protein food with plenty of carbohydrates and a little fat too, if this is all you can afford you will do fine, plus it packs well dry for traveling. For road rations if you get the chance boil up the beans and rice on a stove until soft, drain, and dry at around 200F(100C) for around an hour spread on an oven pan, it should dry into hard brittle clumps, these will soften much more quickly than raw beans and rice, then you can add flavorings. If you are really pinched for time fry the beans in a pan for a bit, this makes it soften much faster in a boiling pot. A bit of hot sauce makes the basic recipe interesting, or...

Making Spanish rice gives this complete but boring vegan food a little kick.

• Soak your dry beans overnight, pre-boiling while you prep the rice speeds things up
• Stir fry the rice until you see a little browning on the tips or edges
• Add tomato sauce, beans, salt, and your favorite spices
• Slow cook until beans are soft or pour hot into a Thermos and let the stored heat soften the beans

Tortillas

Find out if there is a Latino supermarket or open air market in your area. These types of places will often sell large amounts of tortillas in various sizes for very little money. They are tough, flexible and a good source of starch that you can wrap almost anything in. A good idea is to combine leftover foodstuff into various chili-like recipes or stir-fries and wrap them in tortillas. This also can cut down on mess (no plates) if your eating on the run, or simply don't have the resources (water) to clean dishes all the time.

People in Mexico have been making the corn tortilla for generations from dried ground corn masa:

• 4 cups masa or corn flour
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 2.5 cups hot water

Flour Tortillas are also enjoyed in Mexican cuisine.

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil, lard, or shortening
• 1 cup warm water

Roll or tortilla-press both types into thin discs and stack either floured or between plastic. Cook on a barely smoking hot, dry fry pan, and flip every 30 sec until it puffs a little and brown marks start to show.

Masa

for masa you will need:

• 1 1/2 pounds (1 quart) dried white field corn
• 2 tbs. "cal" slaked lime (mineral not the citrus fruit)

Wash the dried corn and drain. Mix the lime into 2qt water and boil until dissolved. Boil corn 2 min. for tortilla flour or 15 min for tamale masa. Place corn in colander and rub between hands under flowing water until hulled and white; if you don't clean the corn kernels well they will have a disgusting lime flavor. Grind or crush the corn in a mortar or grinder. Make several of these batches and freeze them flat in tied plastic shopping bags.

Tamale

Hard work and long preparation but a good cheap way for a poor sympathizer to feed a hungry squad of activists. Don't waste your time on a small batch- the same effort goes into a huge batch. These are portable in their husk and save well if sealed in a freezer, as one batch can last a week or two.

Boil just expired meat(or however you got it) for two hours until very soft (if meat is your thing) and save the stock for a soup. When done, shred meat with your hands. Substitute shredded TVP, spicy stir fry, sliced mushroom, or tofu for the meat to vegify the recipe. Experiment, but don't boil them. Knead in 1/2 cup oil, 6 Tbs chili powder, 3 Tbs cumin, 1 Tbs black pepper, and 2 Tbs salt that you have been warming (not frying) in a pan. You can experiment with the chili powder if you are fickle with spiciness.

Put corn husks into warm water to soften for two hours. Now put the 2 lbs. of Masa in a large bowl and add the following: dry 3 Tbs paprika, 3 Tbs salt, 1 Tbs cumin seeds, 3 Tbs Chili Powder, 3 Tbs fine dried garlic. Mix well dry and add 2 cup oil. Take about 1/2 cup of this dough and spear it into a corn husk, add 1 Tbs meat and wrap up fold over the end. Steam the whole batch for two hours, when done the dough should be firm.

Refried Beans

Get a sack of dried pinto beans, rinse and remove pebbles, add to a kettle of cold water, and soak overnight. Add 1/4 onion chopped, 1 crushed jalapeño pepper, 4 Tbs salt and 1 tsp garlic (crushed and shelled). Bring to boil and simmer for 1/2 hour. Place 1/4 cup oil into your wok. When the oil is hot but not smoking, start frying the beans. They only need 3-4 min in the fry until they are easy to smash, then add hot water to this mash until it is your preferred refried bean thickness.

Spanish Rice

(From CrimethInc's "DIY Guide II")

• 1/2 lb rice
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, in small pieces
• 3 tomatoes, in slices
• 2 peppers, in small pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• Dash of Salt
• 2 cups of warm water

Heat a skillet and add the oil. Wash the rice and let the grains simmer in the oil until they're almost dry. Add the onion, tomatoes, peppers, some salt and the bay leaf: stir everything well and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Now add 2 cups of warm water and the curry powder, again stir well. Cover the skillet with a lid and let the dish simmer on very low heat. Wait until the rice is tender and most of the water is absorbed; this usually takes at le3ast half an hour. Add some more salt in the end if you think it meeds more, and if you lie spicy food you can add more curry powder than indicated.

This will feed 3 people, simply multiply the proportions if you cook for more. Take notice of the space in your skillet when you mulriply, you might meed to use 2 or more skillets.

Pan-Asian, Wok-Cooking, and Rice

Wok Cooking

Our friends in China have long been enslaved by successive forms of government. Their poverty survival can be a lesson to us, especially how they cook in a fuel and food efficient style using the traditional wok. As the wok is probably the most versatile tool you can carry for cooking, unless you are a solo backpacker it is worth the weight in your gear.

Forget what you are used to eating in Asian restaurants, these menus full of fried sugary treats are typically reserved for the past and current privileged class. Instead we will focus on the cooking style which is centered around preparing whatever food is available.

Tools in Order of Need

Look at an Asian market for best prices

• uncoated carbon-steel wok (non-stick coating burns/wears out quickly)
• wok spatula/shovel, steel
• cutting board
• bamboo chopsticks
• bamboo stackable steamer
• carbon steel chopper cleaver (sharpens better than stainless) and cutting board or mat
• fry skimmer (metal web ladle)
• bamboo wok scrubber brush
• serving ladle

Stir Fry

Add a few tablespoons of peanut or other high temperature oil to the bottom of a seasoned wok, heat until a drop of water sizzles. Add hard vegetables which require the most cooking first like garlic or onion, as these cook you can add vegetables, spices, and meats in order of their required cooking time. Don't overload the wok to where the heat source doesn't support a sizzle sound. Get the hottest flame possible and cook quickly; constantly turning the mix. At the end about 30 seconds before you kill the flame you can add sugar and soy sauce. Serve over noodles or rice.

Peanuts and cayenne peppers are often stir-fried separately before a fancy meal. Be sure to have a powerful stove or stir frying won't work quite right, air blown charcoal, a powerful gas or electric stove top, or a mountaineering stove work well but a hot plate is on the weak side. Flat bottom woks are for electrical stoves and round bottom with a wok ring are used with gas.

Water Fry

A quarter cup of water and a lid are usually enough to quickly thaw and cook medium size frozen meats in your wok. As the water boils off break up the meat and add oil, spices, and vegetables to finish the cooking. Quicker from frozen but not always as tasty as fresh stir fry.

Deep Fry

Oil intensive but tasty, it will help you get enough fats for the week if you have abandoned a western diet. Tempura batter is a mix of icy water, flour and egg. Filter with paper towell or a piece of cloth and save the cooled used oil in a jar for later reuse.

Steaming

A bamboo or metal steamer can be used to steam fish, meat, vegetables and even small breads and cakes quicker than a traditional oven. An alternative to bamboo is to use a perforated steamer disc and the wok lid to keep the steam in, tilt the lid or get one with a vent so there is room for steam to escape.

Steamed buns are made by making a sweet bread dough and adding a tablespoon of stir fry to a disk of risen and punched down bread, bunch to the bottom and pinch shut, put the ball on a piece of baking paper or foil and let rise again in a warm place for 30 minutes, steam for 15 min. hom-bows can be wrapped in cling-wrap plastic after steaming and frozen, to reheat microwave in the plastic, steam heat, or put under your jacket and eat warm.

Cleaning and Seasoning Your Wok

Clean with hot water and a wok brush, do not use soap as this will strip the nonstick seasoning coat of cured oil. To season stir fry a meal of non disintegrating vegetables with a tablespoon or two of peanut, canola, or other high temperature oil, some meat is ok after the veggies are beginning to soften, potatoes will break up and stick to your wok and are best steamed, boiled in soup or deep fried as chips/fries.

Flavor

Experimentation will lead to success with Asian food. Use fresh or dried garlic, ginger root, black pepper, anise, cinnamon, cloves, soy sauce, white pepper and whole cayenne pepper or whatever sounds good to you. The Thai add lemon grass, coconut milk or meat, peanuts, and curry, best served on rice noodles. Look around at the local herbs at the roadside for other flavors. Restaurants put in a little corn starch (1tsp.) in the last minute of stir-fry to thicken watery sauces.

Edamame

You can buy frozen, prepackaged bags of shelled or unshelled soy beans, called edamame. For under three dollars you can have a pound of one of the best sources for near-complete protein (it contains most of the various proteins you can't produce on your own). You just bring 6 cups of water with a pinch of salt to a boil, add the edamame, let it boil again for 5-7 minutes, and then drain. Rinse with cool water and then add salt (preferably rock salt). You may need to add more salt later. Buying the pre-shelled edamame saves you money, as you get a pound of just the beans, not a pound of both beans and shells.

Rice

Rinse large sack rice in cold water several times while agitating until water comes clear for better flavor, fill water about 1.5 cm over the level of the rice inside a pot, make a depression with your finger in the center, cover with the lid and run up to boiling. Once a boil is going, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 min. The rice should have holes with very small bubbles popping from them when you open the pot. Mix and serve in about 5 min with a protein food. Short grain rice prepared like this is perfect for making sushi rolls wrapped in dried seaweed sheets.

Fried rice is made by stir frying one cup dry rice with 1 tablespoon oil until it has a little bit of brown color on the edges., mix in two cups water and let it boil down. Stir-fry some veggies and an egg in a separate pan. Once the veggies are just a little before being perfect, add your cooked rice with some oil and a teaspoon or more of soysauce. Stir and mix in the pan until golden brown. This is a bit quicker recipe than the regular rice.

A good recipe is cook the rice, brown ground beef (hamburger, about 1 lb to 1 c of dry rice) and mix together with sauces and seasoning, such as jalapeño salsa which can be got in cans.

Pasta/Italian

Pasta is cheap and is used in many easy recipes. Pasta in soup, cakes and traditional noodle and sauce dishes are all good for stretching your budget. Get vegetable or whole wheat pasta if you can. It's not much more and a whole lot healthier.

Egg Noodles

The following is taken from the Wikibooks Cookbook:

• 1 whole egg
• 1 cup flour
• 2 to 6 tablespoons of water
• 1-2 teaspoon of olive oil (optional)

On a smooth surface, heap flour. Push a hole in the center of the flour (it should look like a volcano). Break egg into flour (add oil now if you choose to do so - it will change the flavor and texture). Either knead with hands or mix with a fork. Slowly add water one teaspoon at a time while kneading the dough. You probably will not need all six tablespoons of water (though you may possibly need more). Knead dough until it has a consistent texture. Divide dough into manageable sections. Select one section at a time and keep the rest covered. Roll each section to desired thickness and cut into noodles with a knife. These noodles can be laid out to dry for later use or dropped immediately into a boiling pot of water. Cook to taste. They are good with a variety of sauces.

Garlic Bread

Any white or wheat bread (including day old hot dog rolls) can be garlic bread. Mix softened butter, chopped garlic and (optionally) some chopped parsley or any other green herb, and spread the bread with this. Place on aluminum foil and warm in an oven until the butter melts, or flip the bread face down and fry it with buter and garlic in a pan.

Jewish Noodle Cake

From the dirt poverty of the Polish ghettos to the near starvation of turn of the century Jerusalem this is a cheap and exotic way to cook your noodles. Boil up and drain spaghetti or whatever pasta is on sale, add a few eggs to bind and sugar or salt to match your tastes. For sweet kugel, add dried fruits and raisins. For real Jerusalem kugel flavor boil and drain 250 grams of spagetti type noodles, in another pot evenly pour 3/4 cup sugar into 2/3 cup pre-heated oil (when you start to see heat waves in the oil) and let cook until you see browned sugar begin to rise and bubble from under the white (about 8 min watch carefully or it will burn), mix the drained noodles into the cooked sugar/oil mix and add 2-3 eggs mixing in 1/2 tsp salt and between 1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp black pepper. Bake either mix in covered pan at 250F for 30-40 min.

Italian Red Sauce

For good general use pasta/pizza sauce mix, start with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and quickly fry some smashed and shelled garlic in it, add tomato paste, pepper, basil, oregano, salt and a some red wine or real grape juice; mix and simmer until thickened and tasty. Most of these herbs can be seeded and grown like wild weeds; maybe you can hide other weed in with them! This sauce can be diluted with water for soup: add pasta or small dough balls and veggies, then season to taste.

Don't get stressed if you only have some dumpster veggies and 20 minutes to cook everything, ripe or overripe tomatoes with the bad parts cut off can be added to an onion or garlic stir fry and smashed with your fork when they get really soft, this improvisation will work as a great substitute for most Italian dishes and pizza, much tastier than the canned tomato paste, add other spices to your preference.

Tomato Paste

Tomato paste for storage or big cookups can be made from your greenhouse tomatoes, Cut an X in the bottoms and drop into boiling water for 2-3min, then dump drained tomatoes into cold water to help peel skins, cut out seeds, boil chunks with 1/2tsp salt per Liter for an hour. Stir to avoid burning, crush then strain, cook for two to three hours on low stirring until a thick paste. This is great to freeze in plastic bags or preserve in jars, see Farm It.

Misc. Meal Staples and Snacks

Potato and Roots

The potato and most vegetables can either be microwaved after poking several times with a fork for around 8 min or more or boiled for 20-30 min. Easy to carry once cool eat like an apple with pepper, Tabasco, or soy sauce. One of the cheapest meals you can buy.

Don't waste money on instant mashed potatoes unless you are backpacking. You can skin and boil several potatoes together until they are soft and mash them yourself. Once mashed, you can add salt, pepper, and/or butter to taste. Mashed potatoes go well with gravy made by cooking scrap meat in water and then adding cornstarch or any other thickening agent and pepper. Try to eat the skins which contain most of the vitamins.

Small whole potatoes are boiled in a can or pot with your stinger for about 20 minutes, watch the water level

Potato Pancakes

(from CrimethInc's DIY Guide II)

• 3 medium potatoes
• 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute (beaten well)
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• Cooking oil

Optional ingredients for flavor:

• Salt, Cayenne pepper, Soy sauce

Peel and shred the potatoes. Put the egg (substitute) in a large bowl, together with the onion, flour and pepper. Add the shredded potatoes and mix everything very well. Take a skillet and ad some oil, put it on medium heat. Scoop a spoonful of the mixture on the skillet and sahpe oit into a patty - cook until crisp and brown on both sides.

Tough Meat

Roadkill, meat scraps, or cheap meat is often very tough and stringy. If meat is your thing here is a way to make it edible even if you can only afford junk. From 60-65C (150F) the collagen that makes tough fibers in meat converts to gelatin soft and tasty, at higher temperatures above 100C (210F) the cellular sugars and amino acids combine which toughens up forever and is difficult to chew and digest. Getting over 70C (160F) will kill bacteria. Overnight heating a stew just below boil or roasting in the oven at the indicated temperatures will both preserve moisture content and soften the meat. If you are feeling fancy you can torch off or grille the meat to give it a outer crust.

Another method is to use a "meat tenderizer mallet", which is a small metal or wooden hammer with a flat face that has lots of little pyramids on it. It looks like a tiny version of a medieval weapon, but you can use it to break up the fibers of tough cuts of meat.

If possible cook your meat or poultry over rice and veggies or stew it so you will not waste any fats or juices.

Ground meat (beef or turkey) can be extended by kneading wheat germ into it.

Popcorn

If you grow or buy in bulk, popcorn is a cheap and easy snack. Try mixing in spices, adding dry whey, and/or using a bit of oil to make the stuff stick.
Carmel corn is made by heating up butter (or oil) and melting in brown sugar. Add a tablespoon of each until you have the right consistency. It helps to have a friend mix with a spoon while you pour.
Popcorn can also be eaten as a cereal, just like the pilgrims did! Add milk and sugar if you want to give it a try. Stale popcorn also works as a cereal.
An air popper can be run for a long time by dropping a little corn in every thirty seconds or so. This is good for large popping operations. Pop a huge trash bag full if you are on a support team and take out to your activists.
If you have access to a microwave oven, don't bother with those pre-packaged bags. Pour a small amount into a large glass bowl and put a glass plate on top of it. If there is a "POPCORN" setting in the oven, use that. If not, put it on HIGH and shut it off three seconds after the last kernel pops.

Soups

Lentil Soup

(From CrimethInc's DIY Guide II)

• 1 lb lentils (any color)
• 1 lb tomato puree/sauce
• 4 whole cloves of garlics
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• The peel of half an orange
• Olive Oil
• 3 bouillon cubes
• 2 quarts of water

Optional Ingredients:

• Chopped carrots, green beans, onions and/or potatoes
• Diced tomatoes

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a big pot and add the lentils. Let the lentils cook until they are a bit tender - during this you can add the bouillon cubes, the bay leaf and oregano, the orange peel (in pieces as big as you can) and the garlic cloves. When the lentils have become a bit tender, add the tomato sauce/puree and a few dashes of oil - stir well. After a while add the green beans/carrots/onions/potatoes if you use them. Again stir well and let it simmer, just let the soup take its time to cook - don't be afraid to taste every now and then whether it needs to cook longer, or whether it needs more of anything. You can experiment with this soup if you wish; add different greens, use more or different spices, use more or less water.

This will serve 5 to 6 people, multiply the proportions if you need to feed more. This recipe especially is relatively easy to prepare for a large group of people.

Oats and Grains

Energy Bars

When out on a bike trip or at a demonstration, nothing beats that wilted weak feeling like our energy bars.

• 1 cup non-instant rolled oats
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 soy protein powder
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter or tahini paste
• 1 cup nuts or dried fruit of your choice/chopped
• 1 cup dark or white chocolate chunks
• 1 cup honey or brown rice syrup

Form into a cake and cut up or make cookies like discs, freeze, no baking required. Wrap in foil then plastic wrap so they will last a few weeks without drying out, as long as they don't mold. Spices like ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and cocoa add variety. Add tea or coffee beans raw or roasted or instant powder to the mix to eat on days where you don't have time to make your favorite wake up drink.

If you must improvise mix some sort of starch grain for medium boost, a protein like bean powder, a fat like oil or margerine for compressed calories, and a sugar for quick energy and to help bind everything. Rolled oats, peanut butter, and brown sugar would be fine on a budget.

Whole Kernel Wheat

Popular with Mormons and survivalist types you might also find whole kernel wheat in railroad cars or on farms. Wheat especially the hard red winter variety, used in breads, is high in protein and keeps for many years if properly stored. The soft white variety is better for making noodles and pasta.

For vitamin C on an all wheat ration sprout some wheat kernels in a damp sponge or shallow container.

A quality grain grinder is an expensive but worthwhile investment. Minimum price is around $100 for a Corona beer makers stone grain mill, better grinders use steel burs and can cost around $300 but can be connected to an electric motor. We knew a vegan traveler with survivalist dreams who for years carried a handheld manual coffee grinder for whole wheat, he rarely used it since it was so much work, maybe he finally figured a way to turn it with his bicycle tire. Inexpensive soft metal burr hand mills usually work fine until the first pebble mixed into the grain is ground through them, then the burrs get dulled and are mostly useless, take the time to carefully inspect the wheat you are grinding for foreign objects.

If you just cant find a grinder, pound with two stones for a crude flour or porrige, you can also boil it up whole in soup or like rice.

Oatmeal

Those little packets of "Instant Oatmeal" may be nice, but they add up the costs something fierce. They are also pumped full of empty-calorie sugar. Buy a big box of loose oatmeal, and make your own by putting 1/3 to 1/2 cup (or if you're really hungry, a full cup) of dry oatmeal into a bowl, then add an equal amount of hot (but not boiling) water. Cover the bowl with a plate, wait a few minutes, and remove the plate. Hot oatmeal! If it's too thick, add more water. Want spices, fruits or flavors? Add them yourself! Get creative!

Quick oats can be cheaply made by running whole oatmeal through a food processor or blade type electric coffee grinder until it looks like quick oats from the store.[1]

You can pre-boil water with your stinger and add it to your instant quik oats for a hot breakfast anywhere you can find an outlet

Simple Cookies

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

You can add 1/2 cup rolled oats cutting 1/2 cup flour out of the recipe, or add 3/4 cup peanut butter and a bit more sugar to taste, as always carefully add the flour last so you can adjust consistency of the dough. Raisins, roasted nuts, and chocolate chips or candy bar chunks are all good to add to the recipe. Without eggs these get a little tough if they dry out in the oven but are quite edible, if you don't have eggs you will need to add a bit more water. Bake at 390F/200C for 8-10 min. and keep an eye on them. You can also try using a covered greased fry pan, solar reflector oven, or even a coffee can with a 60W incandescent lightbulb wired into it, like the EZ-Bake ovens.

Biscuit Mix

Taken from Wikibooks' Cookbook, this is a substitute for those "instant baking mixes" you see in supermarkets.

• 2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup (80g) shortening
• 1/4 cup (60ml) powdered milk
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup (80ml-120ml) water

Blend together dry ingredients and store if you like, when ready to cook cut in shortening to make mixture as granular as possible. Use as you would for "Bisquik" style recipes.

To make biscuits, add 2 cups of mix to 1/2 cup water or milk, knead no more than 5 times (or it will be too tough), roll flat to about 3/4 inch (2 cm), and cut into biscuit shapes (A clean drinking glass will do). Bake on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes at 450 F (230 C).

Bread

Bread takes time but is delicious and inexpensive to make. You can make with as little as flour, sourdough culture or yeast, and water, but salt, sugar, eggs, and oil help add flavor and nutrition. As you add eggs remove an equivalent amount of water, an easy way to do this is fill the measuring cup with available eggs then finish with water. Using yeast means that you do not have to air culture a bowl of flour paste into sourdough, which takes several days. If it is just too cold in your food prep area to keep a culture active or even to let bread rise (try a closed cardboard box with a candle inside) try our pancake or cake recipe.

Mix sugar, warm water, and yeast into one large bowl and let it proof (reproduce) while working the other ingredients. Let it proof a long time for a strong yeasty flavor. Once you have a thriving bubbling yeast bowl, you can mix it into the bread bowl with the eggs, flour, oil, eggs, salt, and more sugar if you want a sweet bread. Lots of olive oil and herbs makes a tasty foccacia. Of course if you want to make a granola, fruity, or nutty bread go nuts, ground beans are a great way to balance the amino acids for full nutrition. It is good fun to bake a hacksaw or a Glock pistol into the loaf you are going to deliver to your friends in the joint.

Try this first and then experiment to your liking:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (feels warm to hand, not burning hot)
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1 tps salt
• 4 cups flour
• 1 Tbs yeast

Once you have your bread and punched it down you are ready to make a loaf. Let it rise again and bake it at 350F(180C) until it starts to brown on top. If you make a funky loaf at first, try again, as you will develop a feel for the consistency of a dough after a few tries.

Bread rolled into long sticks is a quicker way to cook your bread, they are also easier if you want to dip into a sauce or spread.

Sourdough Bread

Mix 1/2 cup of room temperature water and 1/2 cup flour in a jar, use half of the starter in pancakes or something every day durning startup so you don't waste and add back 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup flour mix, try to keep the starter between 80F and 100F (30-38C) too cold and it will take forever, too hot and it will die. After two to five days it will be bubbly and beer or yeasty smelling, you have a starter. You can jump start a sourdough culture by begging a pinch of yeast from a bakery and adding it to the flour paste or adding a few unwashed organic grape skins or using organic wheat flour which are higher in natural yeast. Now keep it alive warm, damp, and covered with a cloth, mix once or twice a day, just keep using and feeding it flour and water. It is OK to refrigerate it once it is running, you can use the cloth held on with a rubber band or punch a hole in the lid to allow ventilation.

To make sourdough bread, mix one cup of water and one cup of water and 1/2 cup starter and let proof (bio-populate) overnight, this is called the proof sponge. Now you can use the proof sponge instead of yeast substituting out one cup of flour and water from the bread recipe. Be sure to add some ofthe proof sponge and some flour and water back into your starter everytime you bake bread to replace what came out for proofing. If possible keep some sourdough starter in a cold place like a refrigerator or outside in winter so you don't have to feed it every day, just once a week or so, you can pour off the clear or dark liquid on top if you want to, it is high in alcohol but disgusting. It will take longer for this bread to rise than hyperactive store yeast but it will have a rich tasty sourdough flavor.

Steam

For dim-sum buns, make a sweeter dough, fill with 1Tbs of a favorite stir fry and let rise, steam for 20 min on wax paper or baking sheet squares. Steam is also a way to bake whole loafs but it will have a different consistency then regular bread softer with a delicate white crust. If you find dry stale bread you can revive it by steaming for ten minutes and then a quick run in a hot oven. Put your stinger in a can of water and start it boiling, balance the bun dough on several chopsticks and place another can with holes on top of the bun to retain the steam, now you have a neo-hobo bun steamer.

Pizza

For pizza crust, let rise then roll or throw a flat disc onto a pan and let rise covered for 1/2 hour, then bake for 10 min at 200F. Remove crust add sauce cheese and toppings and bake again until the toppings are done.

Store Loaf

A nice loaf of store-bought bread can also make a rather nutritious, albeit boring meal. If you pay attention to what you buy, you can get a loaf that, if you eat enough slices, will fulfill the overwhelming majority of your nutritional needs. Most chain supermarkets will place loaves of day-old bread or pastries from the bakery section on sale. Be sure to check this area if your local store has one.

If you come across a large stash of day old bread while dumpster diving and are unable to give away or eat all of the wealth put the loaves or buns out in the hot sun and let them dry hard while keeping the birds away. Dry bread can last up to a few weeks and can be steamed back to softness, eaten diped in soup, or used to make french toast. Hang your bag of bread to prevent mice from getting at your stash.

Pita

Flip your wok over or find a steel pita dome and place on a hot mound of coals or a gas burner. Allow flattened bread dough balls to rise for at least 30 minutes, lightly press down your disc of floured dough (use a dough with a little extra oil in the mix) onto the hot dome, you will need to practice timing and temperature to make this tasty flat bread, a little burning on the outside is normal. You will need to re-season the inside of the wok after using this method. You can also try using a hot plate surface, fry pan, or griddle. If you are using an oven bake at 200C(400F). Pita is usually dipped in olive oil and humus. Soaked overnight and boiled soft garbanzo beans are mashed into a paste with spices, herbs, and olive oil (really any bean and oil should work) This adds healthy lipids and protein to your diet when dipped or spread onto your pita or bread.

Cake

As Marie Antoinette is reputed to have said to the poor lower classes who were without bread and revolting against the crown; "Let them eat cake". Our cake is quicker than bread to prepare, and can be baked in many ways even if you are without an oven or gas. The recipe below is based on a recipe from the 1930's often called "Depression Cake" (Originally it was made without butter, eggs or milk, since those were hardest to come by at that time). It can be modified with less sugar and vegetable chunks and soft corn if you like to eat it with a regular meal. You can remove the baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and vinegar and use baking powder (2 tsp) but remember that baking powder is very moisture sensitive and can go flat. No rising agents lead to a cake that is heavy and tough. Shaved chocolate bar can be used like cocoa but is not as strong flavored, the other flavors and spices can be added if they are available. Cut and wrap a sheet cake for a days food on the move.

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil, shortening, unsalted margarine, or butter
• 2 Tbsp. vinegar
• 2 cup cold water
• You can mix an egg or two into the second cup of water (in the measuring cup) for a softer cake.
• Any or a mix of - vanilla, almond or lemon extract; sweet spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice); unsweetened cocoa; chocolate chips, chunks, or shavings; dry or chunk fruits and berries; ground or chopped nuts; citrus peel shavings; freeze dry coffee; peanut butter; raisins.

Rub oil on your frying pan, folded aluminum foil or clean paper tray, or 9-by-13 inch baking pan and evenly sprinkle down some flour to coat the bottom (to prevent sticking). Preheat oven to 350F or prepare coals. Mix dry ingredients together first and then quickly add all of the liquid ingredients, mix only as long as it takes to get a smooth mixture. Pour batter into your pan and immediately begin cooking. Bake, steam, or place your pan above a fire or coals or a hot plate on a low setting with a lid or cover until a toothpick or fork comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake, between 20 min to an hour depending on thickness and ingredients. Wait 20 min to cool then serve, cut up and wrap, or frost. Good sweet spices include cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and some also use anise and fennel seed. Adding freeze dried coffee to chocolate cake is great for waking up before midnight actions.

With the alternative cooking methods practice is required and don't be surprised if you get a hard bottom crust if you cook over a fire, you could also try putting the batter into folded foil pockets or leaf wraps and put at the edge of the red hot coals, oil the inside of the foil if possible and fill less than half full since the cake will rise when cooking.

An easy glaze frosting, like what is on a donut, is made by mixing hot water or orange juice and sugar until it gets thick. Frosting is made with butter or oil and powdered sugar. You can add cocoa if you like. Frosting keeps the cake fresh longer.

Hardtack Crackers

See also Backpacking and Camping#Hardtack Hardtack crackers in Backpacking and Camping.

Baking Powder Substitute

In case the store is out or you forgot to get it.

• 2 parts Cream of Tartar (NOT Tartar Sauce!)
• 1 part Baking Soda
• 1 part Cornstarch

Combine, store in an airtight container, and keep refrigerated.

Pie

A good way to cook a veggie stew or meat is inside a pie crust. For fruit pies just boil fruit even if it is a little green or overripe with a some water until the "stew" gets thick, you may add sugar and sweet spices if you like but it should be fine without. If you are camped out make your pie in a greased and floured dutch oven or clay pot placed in a pile of low coals. Also try a closed BBQ grill or on a rack above coals with a can or cookie tin over it to hold the heat in, try to get a good reusable pie tin and cover with a plate.

Pie Shell

For a standard pie shell, take 1 cup of flour, 1/3 cup shortening, 3 Tbsp water and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cut the shortening into the flour in a bowl then add the salt and water one tablespoon at a a time. Then roll flat with a rolling pin. This should be enough for a 9 inch pie, top and bottom. If you can only get oil you will have to experiment for best results, cook little test circles of pie crust on a piece of foil until you find a good mix for your available ingredients.

Another recipe is taken from a Civil War era cookbook (reproduced verbatim):

Boil six good-sized mealy potatoes, and mash them fine, add salt, a spoonful of butter, and two of water, while they are hot, then work in flour enough for making a paste to roll out, or put into two or three spoonfuls cream, and no butter or water. This is a good crust for hot pies or dumplings.

Mock Apple Pie

This was a staple for Pioneer families when fresh fruit was rare, and was even published on boxes of "Ritz" crackers for many years. It was very popular in World War 2 when most apples were processed for food for the soldiers. You'll need a 9 inch pie pan and pie crust.

• 36 or so crackers, broken into crumbs (about 1 3/4 cups) {Snack crackers like "Ritz" or their clones are best, but saltines can be used}
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 2 cups sugar or other sweetener
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. butter or margarine (or, in a pinch, cooking oil)
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar (NOT Tartar Sauce!)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Grated peel of one lemon (if you have it)

Rub oil on the inside of the pie pan, roll out half the pastry shell and put the crumbs in. Heat the water in a saucepan and add the sugar and cream of tartar. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in the lemon peel and juice and let cool until it forms a syrup. Pour the syrup over the crumbs.

Dot the filling with butter/margarine/oil and sprinkle the cinnamon. Roll out the remaining pastry over the pie, pinch the sides to close the shell and cut a small slice in the top to let the steam out.

Bake until the pie shell is crisp and golden (about 30 minutes at 425 F/220 C). Let cool and serve.

Cheese and Dairy

If you want to prevent your "just gone bad" milk from curdling, keep adding a little baking soda to it and mix until the "bad" smell is gone, this will save it far another day or two.

Cheese

Take a bucket of warm salted milk or cream and add rennet to start curdling, keep the mix around 98-100F until curdling is done. Place curds in a nylon stocking and squeeze out extra water, compress into a wheel for a few hours. Dip in liquid wax and keep cool if you want it to age and become sharp.

Yogurt and sour cream become a spreadable cheese when they are put in a nylon stocking and hung in the fridge over a bowl for a day or two.

Sour Cream

Skim off the cream from separated milk (homogenized milk can be frozen and un-frozen to help it separate or make a centrifuge) and add a splash of live cultured buttermilk to the cream. Let stand out in a warm place for 24 hours (75-80F) or until thick (an electric blanket might do the trick). Save a bit of sour cream in your jar to use as a starter for your next batch. The leftover milk from this is called skim milk.

Yogurt

Yogurt is nutritious, cheap, healthy and delicious. It is easier than ever to make yogurt because much of today's yogurt comes with the active cultures still alive, and you can use these cultures to make your own yogurt. Almost any with active cultures works great: just mix some in with whole milk, put it in a large pot, and heat it until it feels warm, an electric blanket or next to a radiator should work too. In a few hours you'll be eating something much cheaper, tastier and healthier than buying it from a tub. Eating some every day can also prevent digestive problems.

As an aside acidophilus powder (the good active bacteria in yogurt) from a health food store or plain yogurt (no sugar) has been known to kill yeast infections in some people if used several times a day.

Parmesan Cheese

The real block stuff that you have to grind is much better than what is in the shake can for topping your food but both also works for making cheese and creme sauces and they pack well for the road. You can try substituting brewers yeast to see if you like the switch, as the yeast actually has more protein.

Drinks

Fruit Juices

There is no better way to save money and stay hydrated than by watering down your juice! Although the taste takes a few days to grow accustomed to, the benefits are tremendous. Everyone likes to have some flavor in their drinks, as demonstrated by the terrible trends of powdered drink mixes and "flavoured water," so why not try to be smarter about it?. Treat any standard $3.00 bottle of juice like a $15.00 bottle of concentrate- mixing 1 part juice to 4-5 parts water, experiment to figure out what's best for you. You'll soon learn that a bottle of juice can last you weeks, and will keep you less thirsty throughout the day.

Fruit from the dumpster of a market is often bruised and not appealing for consumption raw, but it is well suited for juicing, don't forget to wash it off first.

If you're at a restaurant and have a limited budget, order water with lemon. It's almost always free, and will add some flavor to your beverage. Furthermore, lemon is a natural source of various vitamins and is good for digestion.

Tea

Sun Tea is a cheap and easy way to have nice iced tea. Just take a couple of quarts of water in a sealed, clear jug, add any type of loose or bagged tea (about a tablespoon or two per jug), set out in the sun for a few hours, and then refrigerate. You can steal as many packets of tea as you could want from coffee stations all over the country, in convenience stores, churches, etc. This is healthier than buying manufactured tea from Lipton or other sources that use acids and preservatives in their concoctions. If you can't stand unsweetened tea, try adding lemon. If you still can't stand it, add some sugar. The sooner you can prevent your children and/or yourself from becoming dependent on sugar, the healthier they will become.

When you or a friend are visiting England, be sure to stock up on tea; you won't know the difference until you have had a quality tea, but you will be disgusted by European and American teas once you have tasted quality. If you are pulling an all nighter, there is no better buzz than proper English tea.

An absolutely free and nutritious tea can be made from pine needles. Pick a small fistful of pine needles from a nearby tree (use the greener living ones on the branches, not the brown\gray dead ones on the ground), break them in two and boil in water. Pine needle tea actually tastes pretty good, and pine needles by weight contain more Vitamin C than lemons or limes. Great in the wintertime.

Coffee Substitute

A simple teaspoon of molasses in a mug of hot water makes a great substitute for decaffeinated coffee. It's already sweetened and very rich to the taste.

Lemonade

Don't buy pre-made lemonade or lemonade powders! For a version that's better and cheaper, get a clean 2 liter soda bottle or a 1/2 gallon pitcher. Pour in 3 cups of cold water, add 1 cup of sugar (or other appropriate sweetener like Stevia), then put the cap on and shake (or stir) until the sugar dissolves completely. Then add 1 cup of lemon juice (The reconstituted stuff from the discount stores works perfectly if it is real), add three more cups of water, shake/stir again, and enjoy. Add washed and crushed throw away strawberries to upgrade to strawberry lemonade, and/or add homemade vodka (see Free High School) for a little zing. For a cool middle eastern flavor add crushed mint leaves for mint tea.

This can also be made for free at a convenience store beverage station using the lemon packets meant for tea, and the sugar meant for the coffee. Furthermore, while attending a restaurant, order a water with lemon (which is usually perfectly free at a sit-down place of any sort) and mix in a few packets of sugar from the table.

Smoothies

Mixing fruit, ice, and either milk or yogurt in a blender is a good way to get a solid serving of both fruit and dairy in a cool, refreshing beverage. You can also sneak in a carrot or bit of tomato to discreetly add some more minerals and vitamins without disrupting the flavor. The natural sugars of the fruit should be enough to give your smoothies the right amount of sweetness to encourage kids to partake, as well.

Apple Wine

You can make cheap wine by getting cider at an orchard (about a dollar a liter) or by smashing and straining your own apple juice and adding a packet of yeast. The yeast can be bought at any you brew store, regular bread yeast will work in a pinch although the taste is not as nice. One packet will make about 20 liters of wine. Let the mix stand in a dark comfortable temperature area in losely capped jugs or soft drink bottles 'till the bubbles stop, they should hiss every now and then or they get too pressurized and might burst. For a stronger wine let stand 3 months. This will work well with any fruit juice or even wet pulped vegetables like corn, beet, and potato although most are disgusting to drink and only good to distill into moonshine.

Avoid

Don't drink high fructose beverages like soda, as massive doses of fructose is more harmful to your body than cane sugar. Avoid drinking sports drinks, unless you have a terrible diet and are sweating constantly. Instead, add a pinch of salt to your watered fruit juice. Also, it turns out that Soy Milk may not be that healthy for you, as most of it is made from fermented soy beans. Fermentation not only destroys or binds most of the vitamins and minerals in soy, but can also lead to ill health effects.

Using Old Cookbooks

When looking for something out of the ordinary to make for a meal, you may come across a few older cookbooks. A number were written during the Great Depression using simple ingredients (such as "Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes" produced by the US Department of Agriculture). Some written during World War 2 may feature a number of meatless recipes since civilian sales of many foods were rationed so the Armed Forces could be fed. You may have to cut back on some of the fatty ingredients since such things as "cholesterol" were not as widely known as they are today. Many of the older cookbooks were written back in the days before microwave ovens, and some terms may seem unfamiliar to folks today. Here are a few that you may come across.

• Double Boiler: This is a two-tiered saucepan that is used to melt things like cheese and chocolate. It uses the heat from boiling water in the bottom to melt the item in the top pan, since direct heat from the flames can burn it. If a recipe says to mix something "over boiling water", this is what they mean. These are still being made, but you may have to buy yours at a specialty cooking store. You can also make your own by placing a pan over another pan, be careful that they fit right though and that they won't slip or burn you from the steam.

• Double Cream: An old term for Heavy Cream.

• Hard-Wheat and Soft-Wheat Flours: Hard-Wheat flour was used for yeast breads and Soft-Wheat was used for pastries, cakes and quick-breads. Just use All-Purpose or Whole Wheat flour.

• Nutmeats: These are nuts (often walnuts or almonds) chopped into little pieces. (Note: Peanuts aren't nuts; they're legumes, a kind of bean.)

• Rich Milk: Back in the day when almost all milk delivered by the milkman was Certified (that is, non-homogenized), the cream in the milk would rise and collect in the neck of the bottle. This was called "Rich Milk", "Top Milk" or "Top of Milk" and was used in a number of recipes. You can substitute Light Cream for this.

• Scalded Milk: You're to bring the milk almost to a boil (using a Double Boiler, natch). This often helps the cooking process in some recipes.

• Single Cream: An old term for Light Cream.

• Skim (or Skimmed) Milk: Another term for "Fat Free" Milk.

• Soda: Not a soft drink, but Baking Soda, also known as Sodium Bicarbonate or Bicarbonate of Soda.

• Top Milk (or Top of Milk): See "Rich Milk".

• Yeast Cake: This is a small 0.6 ounce block of active yeast (about a tablespoon) that is used in baking. It is rarely seen in supermarkets anymore, since it is highly perishable and doesn't transport very well. Substitute it with 2 1/4 teaspoons of Active Dry Yeast (what you'll find in those yeast packets in the store). If the recipe calls for a 2 ounce yeast cake, use three packets or 6 3/4 teaspoons of Active Dry Yeast.

• A Note About Pasta: Some cookbooks from back in the 1930's mention cooking pasta for as much as 20 minutes. This was when pasta was made with much denser dough than today. Ignore the time suggestion and just boil until tender unless you are using our home made pasta recipe. If the pasta is to be used in a casserole, undercook it, since it will continue to cook when it's in the oven.

External Links

http://www.instructables.com/id/EF95ZHYF3435T1Q/ Home Made Bread without Breadmaker: An instructable on making your own bread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola Open Cola: The only home made cola released under the GNU General Public License!

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/cheese.html College level cheese making with some easy Italian recipes.

http://www.foodsubs.com/ The Cook's Thesaurus: "(A) cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Entries include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions."

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook WikiBooks: Cookbooks (Recipes from Wikimedia)

http://www.instructables.com/id/ESNVFBHF48U7G77/ Solar Powered Parabolic Cooker: An Instructable on zero-impact cooking.