rice and beans keep as dry for a long time and there a lot of diversity in beans. black beans, red kidney beans, the world of peeled/unpeeled lentils. so many beans. dried beans are so cheap, but preparing them takes a lot of time without a pressure cooker, like an instant pot (strong recommend!)

if you want to take things a step further, unground wheat, rye (aka "berries") are also insanely shelf stable and can be soaked to become edible... but really you would want a stone mill to enjoy, which grinds all kinds of stuff at room temp (heat from other griders accelerates breakdown and you lose nutritional value quicker).

if you get a stone mill (i love my mockmill 100, it wasn't cheap. its the cadillac of home scale mills) you can grind all kinds of shit, including your beans and rice to make all kinds of flours to side step sensitivities or just try wack shit. and you unlock a whole world of dry goods that can be bought in bulk in their most shelf stable configuration.

with a stone mill, you can start getting really weird in the kitchen. being calorie resilient in the face of supply chain shocks is about linking up with some local grain/pulse grower to buy a super cheap sack of whatever in bulk instead of scouring your grocery store for whatever bullshit they have at retail markup. you would probably be able to double or triple whatever they get at the grain elevator and not even bat an eye. they won't give a fuck, especially if you have your own container like a 22 qt food grade Cambro. you're basically handing them $20 for an unnoticed amount of their giant grain pile (40 lbs?).

the cwt (hundred pounds) prices of commodity grains and pulses make a years' supply a rounding error. like cents per pound, so its like free $ to them.

so, im talking about significant investments in gadgetry for home processing of bulk grains, but the cost savings are incredible. and it really is a whole other level of quality when you're cooking/baking with freshly ground grains. you weigh the berries out to be what you want for each recipe and only grind as much as you need, so the waste is negligible.

anyway, im still regarded as eccentric even among food cranks for getting into this years ago, but i can make sick bread/doughs and gfree cookies that will fuck u up. and all i think about is how cheap and extensive my dry good collection is. lots of beans, rice, spelt, wheat, rye. i can throw down like a bronze age baker.

[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

This is the most exciting comment I've read in a long time. I think I love you a bit.

Just one question: I've heard of stone mills grinding stone into your flour and grinding down your teeth eventually. Is this a thing or a myth?

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 3 points 10 hours ago

I've heard that as well from an archeologist but I'm kinda doubtful that it would make a significant difference compared to teeth grinding on each other as you chew.

Maybe if it's a mill stone that chips a lot or sandstone.

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 2 points 12 hours ago

i think that's a myth, though i admit i hadn't heard of it. i mean, once something is as small as flour, we're not really chewing it anymore. it's more like clay, particle size wise, since i'm not perceiving any grit like sand or even silt size. at that size, it's smooth and we just swallow and either convert it into energy through chemical/biological processes or pass it.

the "stone milling as superior" is something i picked up from a friend of mine i went to school with. we both did undergrad in ecological food/nutrition systems at a bigass agriculture college at the same time. i did my MSc in soil carbon and water use while he did his on wheat genetics and bread making, but he had already gone to culinary school and worked as a chef for years. we were both the old guys in class. he had this whole spiel (which started with "aw, dude") about stone grinding breaking open the berry, but keeping it cool / slowing the breakdown of this crazy list of micronutrients and enzymatic processes so you get the best stuff in the baking process, before ambient microbes can get it. like store bought flour is basically devoid of all this other stuff so it can stay on the shelf and not go rancid. so it's not a big deal if you use a processor like a vitamix that generates heat from friction, because you're still getting all the stuff that store bought won't give you, but why not just do it perfect to get the maximum value if you're going to get into this shit? also, stone grinding is pretty quiet compared to a blender/processor.

if you're really wanting to go low budget and bronze age tech, you can buy handcrank mills, but i understand they are a coarser grind, can require multiple passes, and are no joke about muscle power. my mockmill is fucking ludicrous. i can adjust the fineness of the grind to a degree i can barely perceive to the touch, and do enough for a big loaf of bread or cookies in like... 45 seconds? accurate baking goes by weight instead of volume, so i already had a little scale. i put a little bowl on there, tare it to 0, and then add my 200g of berries. grind it, and i have 200g of flour. so, making something with "fresh ground grains" adds maybe an entire minute to a prep/baking process, but when you tell people you "ground the grains just before baking" they look at you like you've done something inconceivably bespoke and artisanal.

[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

peeled/unpeeled lentils

Imagine being me when your Indian boss keeps talking at you about how the lentil in your lentils isn't the right lentil. because it isn't split. I don't buy the food!

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 4 points 15 hours ago

split, that's the right term. i forgot.

when i was getting into this is when i learned red lentils are brown lentils that have been split (dal). i think.

i used to live near an indian grocery. and not like a tiny one little place, but a serious one the size of like a real suburban grocery store. there was an aisle of just different types of lentils, in more colors than i could count. their spice aisle was unreal too.

that was when i learned that I don't know what i am doing and people from real cultures have forgotten more than ill ever know about the basics of food.