Okay Folks...Y2K Community Here Needs Help To Answer An Unusual Question

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Well folks, with all the news growing at an exponential rate as of late, the community preparedness group I am assisting came up with a question I quite frankly couldn't answer last night.

We have an opportunity to order 50lb. bags of powdered butter and eggs.

What the hell do you do with powdered butter? Add water or milk? Put it into recipes as if it were churned butter? Sprinkle it atop a baked tater? Use it as a skin-softening agent? Grease your bicycle chains? Pack your wheel bearings in it? Or use as a subsitute for baby powder?

I am befuddled. The exclamations of joy and delight from one woman (bless her heart) when it was announced that we might actually have stores of butter-like substance available sent us all reeling in laughter.

It's the simple things in life that really matter doesn't it?

So I put this query to you chefs, Martha Stewarts, dehydrated food experts, and auto mechanics: The group would love your advice and recipes.

Got jelly?

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), February 25, 1999

Answers

send it to your friends who live within five miles of a 7-11...

sorry, INVAR, but that really was too good to pass up...

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 25, 1999.


Well, I bought a #10 can of it, and the instructions say to mix with water (any type of oil can be added to improve texture). It says for cooking or baking, no need to mix with water, just add to ingredients and increase liquid to the recipe accordingly.

-- Online2Much (ready_for_y2k@mindspring.com), February 25, 1999.

Hey Arlin,

The folks I know that live 30 -50 miles from a 7-11 wouldn't know what the hell powdered butter was. Most of them think Y2K is a question. To them powdered butter sounds like a specialized wax for their Lexuses.

Got bonnets?

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), February 25, 1999.


We've been using powdered butter off and on for about three years now.

Mix it with water. Start with too little water. Mix. If not to you liking, add more. Better to start with too little, as we have found it VERY difficult to take out water (assuming you don't want to make a biger batch - then just add more powder)

All kiding aside, we just mix to a usable consistence. Let it set a few minutes. Stir again. A tad of oil does give it a nice greasy feel.

You can use it for what ever you usually use butter for: culinary, personal, mechanical, or even sculptural [or even scriptural].

Same for the cheese powder. All these powders DO take some getting used to but that is nothing compared to a lot of other thing we are likely to have to get used to.

-- Greybear, the only SURE, FIXED, UnCHANGEABLE thing in the world is that things are sure to change.

- Got Used To It?

ps, can't wait to see the offerings for scriptural uses of butter :}

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), February 25, 1999.


I found a really great deal on dehydrated water......less than 10 cents per gallon. Can provide as much as you need and include shipping also. Contact me for details.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), February 25, 1999.


Craig, ABSOLUTLEY the cheapest price for water I've ever seen. Packs in paper cartons for easy storage doesn't it?

Thanks Greybear.

Don't have a scriptural reference for butter (I checked with the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance with Greek and Chaldee Dictionaries just to be sure), but oil is the closest reference I could find for cooking, lighting and symbolic purposes.

Salt on the other hand is THE favorite biblical condiment.

Got pepper?

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), February 25, 1999.


I'm not sure what the dehydrated butter costs per lb reconstituted, but there was a nice thread a week or so ago titled You Can Can Butter. Might be a cheaper (and certainly tastier) alternative.

The powdered eggs might be a good investment for die-hard bakers.....

(my mom names her annual spring chicks all the same name, after a grandchild [this way they all come when you call 'em].. this year she named them all Y2K ...)

-- Lisa (lisa@work.hithere), February 25, 1999.


I am a die-hard baker so I have already bought my powdered eggs. They are expensive. About $4.50 a pound if bought in bulk. One pound makes approx. 36 eggs.

Also, a friend e-mailed me this butter canning recipe. I tried it and it seems to work well. Will see over time! Mary

HOW TO CAN BUTTER:

1. Use only highest quality butter (Land O Lakes or equivalent).

2. Heat jelly jars in 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals.

3. While jars heat, melt butter slowly until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Pour melted butter carefully into heated jars, being careful not to get any butter on rim of jar.

5. Add lid and ring and close securely. They will seal as they cool. Shake jars a few times during cooling to prevent separation, although this step is optional.

6. Put into refrigerator or other cool place until butter hardens. After hardening, butter will store for 3 years.

-- Mary (doesnotmatter@thistime.com), February 25, 1999.


I saw this about canning butter on a previous thread, and one poster stated emphatically that it isn't safe to can butter this way. Said that it has to be done in a pressure canner because its low acid and can lead to botulism which can happen with meat or veggies canned in a water bath. I'd tend to agree, and wouldn't the butter tend to have an effect on the seal?

-- e (.@...), February 25, 1999.

Greybear's instructions on the butter are right on the nail. We tried it on baked potatoes and green beans and it was just like regular butter. Don't know that you could cook with it, but could certainly add to oil for flavor.

You can get dehydrated, grated cheese--it reconsitutes with warm water and the mozzarella stretches just like the real thing.

Powdered eggs--mix with water until the rough consistency of real beaten eggs. Make omelettes, scrambled, use in baking.

These and powdered sour cream, cream cheese, mayo, and other goodies, are available at an on-line catalogue, adventurefoods.com. Min. quantity is either 4ozs or 8 ozs.

One caveat--check the shelf-life--high-fat product, might not last long without refrigeration. Perhaps pack airtight with oxygen absorbers.

-- Well-fed Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 25, 1999.



Ever hear of Molly McButter? It even comes in flavors!

b

-- b (b@b.b), February 25, 1999.


I can't believe I'm not butter

-- (Fabio@home.com), February 25, 1999.

Arlin, I got it, that's a good one! Paul will enjoy it, too.

I bought some powdered milk and cheese, thinking about eggs, but we'll take a pass on the butter. You can rest assured we will have some Mrs. Buttersworth for our large supply of pancake mix. Hotcakes made on the woodstove with warm syrup, yum, yum.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), February 25, 1999.


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