Prepper question--Healthiest cooking oil with longest shelf life?

Coconut oil is great for cooking fish and veggies. But one time I tried it for sauteeing chicken livers and it tasted like crap! Who knew>

[link to www.britannica.com (secure)]
This explains the various fatty acids in human nutrition.

Then you would look at what is commercially available in your region and in what plant and animal and perhaps fish sources.

That's what I do when I go on the hcg diet, once a year. The rest of the time, gotta load my fats. Keto.

For our ancestors, annual hog killin' meant they had adequate lard, pearl lard, rendered lard as tallow for candles, soap, and they fretted they might have to buy candles and use dangerous rushlights. Look that up. They were burning tapers that were constantly going out.

Running out of soap would have meant you were poorly prepared and needed more pigs.

Kerosene lanterns were a big deal for heat and illumination.

Sheep farmers made tallow as did cattle ranchers.

There are many fat bearing seeds but in tiny amounts and then wasted food. Sunflower is that way. This is why canola is inexpensive and probably would be what Americans would use it the SHTF as neither sesame nor olive grows domestically.

My mom who is 94 (grandma) has had a can of Crisco on her pantry shelf for years and years. It still smells okay to me, maybe it's rancid but it looks okay.

It's great for making homemade soap--just a cup with mostly olive and coconut oil

Last Edited by humbird on 12/30/2020 01:40 PM

The Japanese use a oil from a species of sumac that is prolific and makes ideal candles that burn evenly.

Otherwise in America they would rely on apiaries and beeswax. They tried making "Japan wax" from domestic wild sumac which is the first shrug to take over a meadow in America and is ubiquitous. Sumac is how they made spiles for tapping a maple tree and some indigenous used large branches for flutes.

Soaking the hands and feet of greenhorns in crushed sumac berries is how our ancestors toughen up their skin, fixed an ingrown toenail, or helped a young person who was going to war and would be marching. That is full of tannic acid.

Thanks I didn't know that.

Agreed, lard.

BAD info. Coconut oil is all saturated fatty acids, MCTs (saturated) plus lots of lauric acid (saturated). Saturated fat is VERY STABLE, should last years at minimum. Kept cool and dark, like ~55 degrees underground, probably decades.
The more UNsaturated the oil, the faster it goes bad. Fish oil for ex, highly unsaturated, goes bad real fast.

It is "OK" as far as rancidity is concerned, because it is hydrogenated, i.e. bad for health. Yes, it keeps well, but bad for health for other reasons.

Also: lard is mostly unsaturated fat, and as such it will go bad much faster than saturated (e.g. coconut oil, bacon fat, etc.)

fascinating! I live in Florida and walk my dogs barefoot miles per day. When I get an ingrown toenail, rarely, I walk in the surf and it clears right up.

Valuable info, thx

So bizarre! Years ago in one of our prep threads I had suggested coconut oil and everyone laughed at me because it only lasted 6 months. Just checked. Many websites say 6 months, but some say virgin coconut oil unopened stored properly lasts years.

Geez!

However, in Florida, it's not going to be cool year round, even with a/c my coolest spot is 74 in summer.

Last Edited by humbird on 12/30/2020 03:44 PM

Check for tests of high sugar or high salt saturation and their effect on shelf life.

coconut oil lasts for a year, longer in a freezer. Olive oil is less

But it says Keep Refrigerated on the label.

I have heard that butter cannot be canned by the home gamer.
there are lots of videos of people doing it, but canning experts believe they are risking botulism death.

You can buy commerically canned butter from Red Feather, but it is quite pricey.

What recipe for canning butter were you thinking of?

Seems to me that it should be doable at home,but not like I have seen on Youtube videos.

In regard to the original question, Ghee or Lard would be my picks.

Last Edited by JustmeTX on 12/30/2020 04:14 PM

I eat ghee right out of the jar.

Websites that say 6 months are WRONG. Most of them probably repeating what they read on some other (WRONG) website. No one bothered to actually research it.

As for coolness in florida: dig down 20 inches, it is cool.

duck fat is great. In addition to this I use beef tallow. All of these are much more expensive than veg oil, but as you know much healthier. Tallow is refrigerated, but I have some from 2 years ago and am still using it without a hitch. Lard is also an option, but I would refrigerate or freeze to preserve for long periods of time.

The real deal is a university with a food science program is unlikely to stick their necks out and suggest canning bacon or ghee is a good idea.

People have tried doing it with bacon on paper towels and the fat just melts over time.

The only for sure way to know would be chemical analysis on the nutritional quality and have a microbial analysis to see what pathogens if any are on these products.

To date, I do not know of any universities willing to do this. It seems risky.

[link to nchfp.uga.edu (secure)]
This is one in Georgia.

[link to ag.tennessee.edu (secure)]
This is one in Tennessee.

[link to food.unl.edu (secure)]
This is one in Nebraska.

These places not only teach the subject, but can answer questions as students uncountably have asked the same questions.

I suggest you find some authoritative site like that where real nutritionists using science decide if prepared food versus time is still edible and nutritious.

Why does it matter? Vitamins degrade over time. You might put something in your family's bellies and they eat it, but it might make them sick or undernourished.

You definitely do not want a microbial issue in a national emergency event where the medical staff are slammed and unavailable.

The answer is Tallow (rendered beef fat) and lard (rendered pig fat).

Whale or fish oil would be a good alternative if you can get it.

I get Tallow from either ebay or amazon and its the only oil I use for cooking anymore. It tastes the best, has a very high smoke point, and is healthier than any plant based oils that weren't safe until we had oil refinaries in the 1900s. No, people didn't have olive oil 1000s of years ago.

I'd say some other posters were right on target. Lard (pig) and tallow (cattle, sheep, goats...) although I like lard more.

In a SHTF scenario, a wise prepper would have a root cellar with a spring in it to chill the room even further and so could preserve food longer and probably would cut ice in ponds and pack that in sawdust too.

In an emergency, if that shelter was empty and without a spring, and that room had a stove and stovepipe, such a shelter would NOT get that cold. So then one could live in it and barely heat it. That was the traditional way some soldiers overwintered until spring.

You have tried and tried ways our ancestors preserved food and survived...even if you lose power and so refrigeration. You probably would build a solar air dryer to make your own dried vegetables and fruits and you would build a smokehouse and you would pickle a lot as you would run out of canning lids.

Fruitcake and panfortte were invented to extend the shelflife of a nutrient dense food heavy in calories, so you could use some ethanol to do the same thing. That tech goes back to the earliest medieval period.

That ethanol, which was likely to be concentrated wine, which you do by freezing, and fortified wine which has brandy in it, then keeps that cake from spoiling and going stale.

Those old recipes are far better than the gross fruitcakes sold now.

Have you ever heard of Ghee? You can make it yourself.

Some people say it last 6 mths on the shelf or 1 year or longer. I haven't made it but I've been meaning to. It is supposed to be great for high heat cooking like roasting or stir frying.

Here's a cool video on how Stacy makes hers.

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Our ancestors ate more nuts as that was a lipid source that lasted. So the typical ubiquitous one is acorns as hardly anyone harvests them and hickory nuts similarly don't typically get harvested. But doing so is going to impact your squirrel hunting and snaring, right?

The indigenous would either bury them in riverbanks and so slowly leach out the tannins or boiling with many rinses to eliminate it faster. You can steam a small amount fairly quickly. Don't ever do this over a porcelain sink as it will stain it something fierce. You will never get that scrubbed out.

Most likely this strategy would keep your family alive that and maple or birch syrup. That is sugar for your blood glucose and protein and lipids.

Black walnut husks have iodine in them and you would sorely need it as you wouldn't get it in salt. And pregnant ladies without iodine get babies with cretinism.

Those husks produce a black dye which would be essential for soldiers' clothing. To get dye to "fix" you use a mordant like salt or urea.

Those husks in water have a chemical called jugalone and that makes worms suffocate so that is how they would get a bunch instead of digging for them. It also was used by the indigenous to get fish as it interferes with their till respiration.

Never ever ever plant a black walnut near most other plants as it inhibits their growth. That will mess up an entire garden.

Our ancestors were smart people who were practical and wrote stuff down and taught their children to have some way to survive.

They could not just buy stuff at Walmart. They might only go into town twice: in spring when the snows melt and they were low on everything and after the harvest when they sold crops and livestock. Otherwise they didn't have the money. They would barter and cut deals to pay at these times.