# Long Term Storage for Crackers?



## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

I was looking into some ways to extend the shelf life of crackers. I found videos and posts online where people were "dry canning" the crackers in Mason jars at ~220° for between 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the jars. Then, tonight, I find just as many posts denouncing that exercise and suggesting instead using oxygen absorbers in the jars. This one girl - https://stephaniedayle1.blogspot.com/2013/02/dry-canning-easy-and-safe-way.html - actually suggests using hand warmers as substitutes for the oxygen absorbers. I was wondering what y'alls experience/recommendation was regarding this topic?


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

The material in a hand warmer (iron powder) is the same as what's in a oxy-ab. Many people use a hand warmer in large sealed containers (mylar bag in a 5-gallon bucket).


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

We haven't dry-canned in a while but if memory serves we increased the time in the oven to around 1 hour and the lids all popped. The last ones that we opened were as fresh as if we had just opened a new box.


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## Ragnarök (Aug 4, 2014)

If you are going to can anything can meat vegetables or fruit.

Why would you can crackers? Carbs don’t matter in health.


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Ragnarök said:


> If you are going to can anything can meat vegetables or fruit.
> 
> Why would you can crackers? Carbs don't matter in health.


 I plan on getting a pressure cooker and taking up canning when I can afford the cooker. I've done some water bath canning out of our garden, but that's the extent of that.

As for why the crackers... I like crackers. In my pantry, I have quite a few cans of sardines and vienna sausages. These go much better, and make a better "meal," when you have crackers to go with them. It's not for the carbs. It's more an added extra.

I'm going to try some oxygen absorbers and see how that goes. The real things are actually cheaper than the hand warmers anyway and I don't need anything that large for canning the crackers. Even the absorbers needed for five gallon storage cost the same as the hand warmers. If I try that route, I'd just as soon use the real thing with very little to no price difference.

I appreciate the replies. Thanks


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Ragnarök said:


> .......Why would you can crackers? ........


For the *chili*..... why else?


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Back Pack Hack said:


> For the *chili*..... why else?


lol... Amen!


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

In my area I cannot find oxygen absorbers for sale. I have to buy them from mail order. I can find hand warmers everywhere during the colder months.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Ragnarök said:


> If you are going to can anything can meat vegetables or fruit.
> 
> Why would you can crackers? Carbs don't matter in health.


Our reason to "dry can" some crackers... 1.) to try it and 2.) to add something to our stores that we did not have.

We have plenty of dry goods stored in mylar with O2 absorbers, we have plenty of store bought canned goods, plenty of self canned goods and plenty of long term "survival meals. So we canned some crackers!


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

Wait... I'm triggered that you all are wanting to store us "Crackers"


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Chiefster23 said:


> In my area I cannot find oxygen absorbers for sale. I have to buy them from mail order. I can find hand warmers everywhere during the colder months.


Same here. So long as the mail is still running, I'm ok with the absorbers. In a SHTF situation, it's good to know that the warmers should work, though.



hawgrider said:


> Wait... I'm triggered that you all are wanting to store us "Crackers"


lol. You ever seen movies where people elect to get freeze-dried in troublesome times so that they can be thawed out later, potentially in a better world... I'm just sayin' is all


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Suggestion: try canning hardtack instead of store crackers for a better shelf life.

https://www.primalsurvivor.net/how-to-make-hardtack/print/9247/


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Back Pack Hack said:


> For the *chili*..... why else?


Peanut butter.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

Annie, if there was anyone who could make a sandwich spread akin to peanut butter based on a colandar bowl of jerky and a spatula, it would be you.

Joe Biden is a tad jerky, but my guess is that you want younger slices of meat products...


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Sounds like we have ourselves some cracker afficionados around here...lol As we plan to survive end of the world scenarios by living on canned Beanie Weenies. All possible food groups plus water in there. If would be nice to have some crackers to go with come to think on it. Cant wait for somebody to come up with the right plan to make some.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Annie said:


> Peanut butter.


Cheese is MUCH better on crackers.


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Cheese is MUCH better on crackers.


Only if you have summer sausage to go with that cheese. But then you need wine...


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

rebeltaz said:


> Only if you have summer sausage to go with that cheese. But then you need wine...


As long as it's Dee-Dee's dehydrogenated wine.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Cheese is MUCH better on crackers.


I haven't gotten into storing shelf stable cheese, other than parmesan cheese. Like the kind you shake out of a container over your pasta.


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## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

@rebeltaz We use our Foodsaver vacuum sealer with the jar attachment and we seal them up in large mouth mason jars.


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Joe said:


> @rebeltaz We use our Foodsaver vacuum sealer with the jar attachment and we seal them up in large mouth mason jars.


I've been looking into one of those attachments (I've got a vacuum sealer). How well/long do the crackers hold up?


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Kind of late, I know, but in the 1970, I was in charge of checking the supplies the feds gave to cities for Civil Defense 
fall out shelters. When I found an outdated can of rations (a cracker with 900 calories per 2). I took it home and 
opened it. It had been vacuum packed for about 20 years. They were little dry to say the leasst, but edible and 
definetly needed salt. I'd go with the Oxygen absorbers which will pull a 20% vacuum and thereby do A nitrogen 
pack.


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

paraquack said:


> Kind of late, I know, but in the 1970, I was in charge of checking the supplies the feds gave to cities for Civil Defense
> fall out shelters. When I found an outdated can of rations (a cracker with 900 calories per 2). I took it home and
> opened it. It had been vacuum packed for about 20 years. They were little dry to say the leasst, but edible and
> definetly needed salt. I'd go with the Oxygen absorbers which will pull a 20% vacuum and thereby do A nitrogen
> pack.


I've got some of those on the way. I'll report back.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Crackers and Cheese are important to have around to watch the global economic meltdown on TV


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

I saw that you capitalized the "C" in the word Crackers. I thought it was a proper name.

My wife and I also kept birds, and we never "stored them." We let them out into the living room at night, the little blue one, "Taz-bo," could talk and you'd be amazed at the stuff he said--complicated sentences that made complete sense.

I'm past the mistake, you meant "soda crackers," didn't you?


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

You catch on fast. Well, we used to call those saltines but technically there are others would fall into that category. Ritz which I prefer, the wife likes her triscuits.


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## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

rebeltaz said:


> I've been looking into one of those attachments (I've got a vacuum sealer). How well/long do the crackers hold up?


Thanks @rebeltaz you made me get off my lazy butt and go down in the basement. I opened a jar dated 2017 and the crackers were as fresh and crisp as the day we canned them. We also have an Excaliber dehydrator. We dry loads of fruits and veggies and vacuum seal those as well in canning jars. Godspeed with your efforts.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Never tired preserviing crackers but made a lot of jerky over the years. Found with that stuff..if it can get dry enough...and put a dessicant in there with it..such as a half a paper towel it will last a long time without any O2 absorbers. The main enemy of jerky..and maybe drackers is mold. If the goods can be deprived of either air or moisture mold cant grow. Course crackers are a good dessicant too..so maybe use a full paper towel.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Ragnarök said:


> If you are going to can anything can meat vegetables or fruit.
> 
> Why would you can crackers? Carbs don't matter in health.


You're right. But carbs are cheap, fills the belly and can feed a lot of people. We might need the calories someday. I'm gonna make me some hardtack.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

It's funny what people want to stockpile when we discuss prepping. I would have never put 'crackers' in my Top Ten.

I just got up, and I had to have some sweetened, cold coffee from the refrigerator and two hard-boiled eggs. Without those key food stuffs I cannot even find the gym, much less do anything there...


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

I wanna know how to store Twinkies and CupCakes. Like, 40,000 boxes of each.

And no, Twinkies DO NOT 'last forever'.


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

The Tourist said:


> It's funny what people want to stockpile when we discuss prepping. I would have never put 'crackers' in my Top Ten.
> 
> I just got up, and I had to have some sweetened, cold coffee from the refrigerator and two hard-boiled eggs. Without those key food stuffs I cannot even find the gym, much less do anything there...


I think when people talk about prepping, they focus so much on the essentials that sometimes they overlook they little extras that, while not necessary, go a long way in making things just a little bit better when the whole world is crumbling around them...


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

OK. I've been fighting this urge ever since I saw the title of the thread. I have the answer.

State prisons! :vs_laugh:


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

rebeltaz said:


> I think when people talk about prepping, they focus so much on the essentials that sometimes they overlook they little extras that, while not necessary, go a long way in making things just a little bit better when the whole world is crumbling around them...


I am with you 100% and guilty of it, myself.

In the lower level of our home, I have a "gun room." Not many guns there, buts lots of reloading equipment. No stored food, no seeds for planting, no bags of fertilizer. Just weapon tools and supplies.

When I imagined TEOTWAWKI scenarios, it was always me and my wife in grubby clothes, one dirty sleeping bag and two AR-15s. In truth, yes, you could carry soap and snacks, but I just imagined scenes from "Mad Max."


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

Denton said:


> OK. I've been fighting this urge ever since I saw the title of the thread. I have the answer.
> 
> State prisons! :vs_laugh:


lol... cute 



The Tourist said:


> I am with you 100% and guilty of it, myself.
> 
> In the lower level of our home, I have a "gun room." Not many guns there, buts lots of reloading equipment. No stored food, no seeds for planting, no bags of fertilizer. Just weapon tools and supplies.
> 
> When I imagined TEOTWAWKI scenarios, it was always me and my wife in grubby clothes, one dirty sleeping bag and two AR-15s. In truth, yes, you could carry soap and snacks, but I just imagined scenes from "Mad Max."


Despite my attempts at preparedness, I'm pretty sure that will be the scene any way


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

rebeltaz said:


> Despite my attempts at preparedness, I'm pretty sure that will be the scene any way.


I must admit I live in "suburbia," a magical land where grown adults run outside in a panic if the town siren goes off!

I think every prepper should read the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. My favorite line is "_If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs_." And as I detailed, during the mall shooting I stayed in place until all 300/400 plus citizens left the food court. Hundreds stood outside and cried. I met up with my wife, both of us calm and determined--after all, we might have had to take a steady aim.

Madison Police came a full ten minutes later. Mr. Kipling was indeed correct.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Back Pack Hack said:


> I wanna know how to store Twinkies and CupCakes. Like, 40,000 boxes of each.
> 
> And no, Twinkies DO NOT 'last forever'.


Haha, Twinkies! Check this out @6:00


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

double double...


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## rebeltaz (Sep 29, 2019)

The Tourist said:


> I must admit I live in "suburbia," a magical land where grown adults run outside in a panic if the town siren goes off!
> 
> I think every prepper should read the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. My favorite line is "_If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs_." And as I detailed, during the mall shooting I stayed in place until all 300/400 plus citizens left the food court. Hundreds stood outside and cried. I met up with my wife, both of us calm and determined--after all, we might have had to take a steady aim.
> 
> Madison Police came a full ten minutes later. Mr. Kipling was indeed correct.


I know that line well, but I've never read that poem (or even knew from where it came) until now. There is truth in those words!

Luckily, I'm in a small, unincorporated town outside a small rural city. There was a similar mall shooting about 30 miles or so from us this past November, I think it was. We watched it on the news - idiots running around like chickens with their heads cut off; "protestors" illegally blocking major thoroughfares for over a week - while the police just stood by... Every time I see something like that, I thank God above for giving me the ability and foresight to settle in a small community and not some urban jungle.


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

And no, Twinkies DO NOT 'last forever'.

Have you seen that video where they leave big Big Mac or quarter pounder sit out for a year? No mold or nuttin, think they might have some preservatives in there?


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Annie said:


> Haha, Twinkies! Check this out @6:00


OK... but _how_ did she do it? And would it apply to Twinkies or do they need something different?


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Back Pack Hack said:


> OK... but _how_ did she do it? And would it apply to Twinkies or do they need something different?


Sorry, neither. She just does a cute parody on the necessity of such pastries (?) in times of crisis.


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