Pantry Space

[Redbearded]

Hi All,

I love cooking! I'm not on the road yet but one of the things I'm a bit concerned about is carrying all the stuff I usually think of as my pantry, and then restocking on the road. Do you find that it's better to have some staples and then eat whatever is popular locally? Or do some of you stock up and carry enough to feed an army or two? 

I usually now cook mostly one meat at a time then cycle through. For example, I have pork chops that are cooked in the fridge now, and a brisket that is soaking up some salt and will be cooked in a few days. that should give me meat for like a week (reused in various ways, Beef BBQ sandwich, cubed for a beef stew, brisket chili, tostadas, regular sandwiches, fried rice etc) and it saves on the long cooking as I'm just reheating it different ways. Eventually I get sick of brisket, and am ready for pork shoulder, or chicken or something else. 

The issue I am wondering about is all of those dishes take a prop pantry to make (rolls, BBQ sauce, Red wine, Potato, carrot, onion, beans, tomato paste/sauce, chili powder, cumin, tortillas, lettuce, sour cream, cheese, refried beans, hot sauce, taco sauce, bread, cheese, mayo, mustard, tomato, rice, egg, soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions, onions, carrot, fish sauce, butter). That is only for 6 meals (granted I may eat them multiple times during that week+) but that doesn't include sides and anything else, just main dish...

At this point when designing my rig I'm planning on quite a large pantry, but I wonder what you all do? Is the simple solution to just focus on one type of cuisine at a time? Or is there some magic packing system I need to know about (a bag of holding or something)?

Thoughts?

 

[John61CT]

Tiny containers balanced with ruthless discipline. Simplify, some needed variety will have to come from food prepared by others, or just make do without.

Identify fellow travellers or local soup kitchens for the stuff you have left over from a shopping expedition, that you can't buy in small enough quantities.

Or you could buy a bigger box truck to take it all.

 

[rvwandering]

LIsted out like you did makes it sounds like a lot but stocking what you need to cook good meals doesn't take up much room.

Refrigerator or cooler - carrots, lettuce, sour cream, cheese, eggs, green onions, butter

Baskets - onions, potatoes (we store both of these in the fridge but most people don't), tomatoes

Plastic bin - BBQ sauce, taco sauce, hot sauce, soy sauce, mustard, mayo, fish sauce, red wine (we store most of these in the fridge too), many bottles of herbs and spices

Storage containers with tight lids - dried beans, rice, pasta, other staples. We buy large quantities and remove the packaging. Use square or rectangular containers to take up less space.

Bread, rolls, tortillas - store in cool place. We like fresh bread products so try to buy them the day we want to use them. Tortillas make a good substitute if we don't have fresh bread.

Canned goods - store low so they don't become missiles in case of a fast stop or accident.

If you go with a cargo trailer as planned you should have plenty of room. Try gathering all of your pantry supplies together and lay out your storage to fit. You'll end up changing things around when you start traveling but you'll have a good start.

 

[jimindenver]

I can't help you because I brought everything but the kitchen sink. (the trailer came with two) There are two cabinets plus two storage containers with pots and pans. The big overhead cabinet is dry goods. Canned goods go either under the couch or in a cubby hole under the closet. The various stoves and solar ovens are under the bed or in the truck. I leave for Ehrenberg today so the fridge and both freezers are all packed. I will not need to go shopping again for a month.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Man I got hungry and my mouth is watering just reading this...


Time to go to the senior citizen center and gum thru some soft chicken casserole and rice.

:-/

 

[Zardor]

What type of rig do you have? I have a class c. I don't have much in the way of clothing, so I converted my closet to a very substantial pantry that holds everything I'll ever need. I can go almost a month without having to re-stock.

 

[Almost There]

I have a 5 drawer pantry that I built that holds all the dry goods/canned/spices, etc. and then my front overhead compartment in the high top  has my pots and pans, mixing bowls, dinnerware set etc.

There's also a bigass drawer under the kitchen counter that holds all my cooking utensils, zip locks/foil/parchment paper and my cutlery set.

Like Jim, I brought everything except the kitchen sink because I built one in...  

I also have a storage spot under the bed that is used to hold back up supplies - Like the large bottle of dish detergent - I keep the small one in the sink when travelling. It's deep and hard to get in to so I use 5 gallon buckets to put things in. That way I can lift the whole bucket up to get stuff out.

Build thread details it all btw!

Oh, and I have 2 65 qt Whynter compressor units, one is a fridge and the other is set at freezer temp. Shopping for one can be problematic so this allows me to portion freeze regular packs of meat and choose what I want for dinner that night as opposed to having to eat what meat is going to spoil first from the fridge.

 

[Redbearded]

OOH, I like the idea of 2 fridge/freezers, lol... Time for more solar! I have been planning on running a converted chest freezer as a fridge, but I may have to think about some kind of a freezer as well. I know that as of now I rarely use the freezer I have, except for as a place where things go to die a slow death of being burned to death (freezer burn) before they either go to the dogs or the trash monster. 

I did have a thought about running a chest freezer as intended, then freezing jugs of water and using it for cold packs in a yeti style cooler (which I already have). I just at least; before I become roadworthy, need to see how much I really want to use a freezer. I know that if I keep the fridge cold enough I can greatly extend the life of things. Plus, most things that need cooking when they come home get cooked all at once, so maybe a freezer is something I really don't need. 

How do you guys deal with all of the different sized bottles that stuff comes in? Do you reallocate for stuff to be uniform (like use only a certain size mason jar or something? At this point I think I'm going to need to make sure I have a good plan for my pantry cabinet... Back to Engineering (where things also seem to go to die a slow death, lol)!

Has anyone used these Ziplock storage bins that are weather tight?

Ziploc WeatherShield Bins

Thanks for the reassurance on this stuff, I keep getting nervous about the upcoming change. I know I can come here and y'all will settle me down in a jiffy!

 

[Zardor]

This is what I've done. I converted the closet to a pantry, using the equipped refrigerator as another pantry and just have a small container fridge in between the driver and passage seats. The reason I don't use the equipped refrigerator, I don't trust the propane in my rig. I'm actually going to have it removed and be propane free. My container fridge is kept low - between 20 to 24 degrees. Things freeze, but nothing that can't be worked around and it works for me. I don't have much in supplies now as I'm staying with family making some modifications - which should be done tomorrow (thank God!, bout ready to be commited). As you can see I have more than enough pantry space. Oh and the freezer - its my bread box. lol.

I apologize if pictures are skewed, first time inserting images in this forum - not seeing an option for adjusting how things look.

 

[Almost There]

OOH, I like the idea of 2 fridge/freezers, lol... Time for more solar! I have been planning on running a converted chest freezer as a fridge, but I may have to think about some kind of a freezer as well. I know that as of now I rarely use the freezer I have, except for as a place where things go to die a slow death of being burned to death (freezer burn) before they either go to the dogs or the trash monster. 

I did have a thought about running a chest freezer as intended, then freezing jugs of water and using it for cold packs in a yeti style cooler (which I already have). I just at least; before I become roadworthy, need to see how much I really want to use a freezer. I know that if I keep the fridge cold enough I can greatly extend the life of things. Plus, most things that need cooking when they come home get cooked all at once, so maybe a freezer is something I really don't need. 

How do you guys deal with all of the different sized bottles that stuff comes in? Do you reallocate for stuff to be uniform (like use only a certain size mason jar or something? At this point I think I'm going to need to make sure I have a good plan for my pantry cabinet... Back to Engineering (where things also seem to go to die a slow death, lol)!

Has anyone used these Ziplock storage bins that are weather tight?

Ziploc WeatherShield Bins

Thanks for the reassurance on this stuff, I keep getting nervous about the upcoming change. I know I can come here and y'all will settle me down in a jiffy!

RB, the main reason I run the two units is because I found out that out on the road, finding a butcher counter where I could buy one of this and one of that was rare and most of the time costly. The other choice for me as a very carnivorous person is to buy a package of, say, chicken. Most come 4 to a pack. That meant that I would  have to find 4 different ways to eat chicken 4 nights in a row. Not that I can't do that but I like more variety in my meals than that provided. But then I live the same out on the road as I did in my apartment, except my housework is cut way down....  

I run the 2 Whynters off of a 4 pack of Trojan T105REs, a little solar in the winter when I'm south and a combination of alternator and generators. I do have no margin of error, the battery bank has to be charged every day one way or another.

Time and again people have figured out that using the freezer to freeze water to then use for chilling the refrigerator is NOT power efficient. The amount of energy used to cool that water to freezing point exceeds the amount of energy needed to keep a 12V fridge at 40F. When you're responsible for creating your own energy, one learns to be downright frugal about using it.

If you're not utilizing a freezer efficiently at home, why would you think you would use one more efficiently out on the road. It's still home, no matter where you are, it's just moveable is all...  

When I was engineering my pantry, I chose to use drawers since I had already figured out that whatever you needed was always at the back of a shelf. Which meant unloading stuff on to the counter so you could get at the back. That's okay if it's a big wide shelf but when you're in to the smaller cabinets that we have in vans, not very efficient.

My drawers are all installed at different distances from each other. I measured the height of a bunch of things in my apartment cupboards to come up with the various heights I was going to need. Things like the balsamic vinegar bottle and cans that are standard in my kitchen. My top drawer is set to hold all my spice jars and things like olive oil. Instead of  having just a can cupboard etc. all my food supplies are now packed by height of container.

I did try to get some control of sizing for uniformity but only in that I tossed all the odd sized plasticware out and only kept the Gladware that is about single serving leftover size, a little bigger than sandwich size?? They stack well in my freezer and because they are only about 2" deep with lid, they also fit well in the fridge when needed. I also use a bunch of them in the pantry to keep dry foods safe from the mice that come to visit. Because they're all the same size, they stack well when empty and don't take up a bunch of space like they did in the apartment...

 

[jacqueg]

OOH, I like the idea of 2 fridge/freezers, lol... Time for more solar! I have been planning on running a converted chest freezer as a fridge, but I may have to think about some kind of a freezer as well. I know that as of now I rarely use the freezer I have, except for as a place where things go to die a slow death of being burned to death (freezer burn) before they either go to the dogs or the trash monster. 

I did have a thought about running a chest freezer as intended, then freezing jugs of water and using it for cold packs in a yeti style cooler (which I already have). I just at least; before I become roadworthy, need to see how much I really want to use a freezer. I know that if I keep the fridge cold enough I can greatly extend the life of things. Plus, most things that need cooking when they come home get cooked all at once, so maybe a freezer is something I really don't need. 

How do you guys deal with all of the different sized bottles that stuff comes in? Do you reallocate for stuff to be uniform (like use only a certain size mason jar or something? At this point I think I'm going to need to make sure I have a good plan for my pantry cabinet... Back to Engineering (where things also seem to go to die a slow death, lol)!

Has anyone used these Ziplock storage bins that are weather tight?

Ziploc WeatherShield Bins

Thanks for the reassurance on this stuff, I keep getting nervous about the upcoming change. I know I can come here and y'all will settle me down in a jiffy!

I love storing food in mason jars at home, but for traveling, it's square/rectangular plastic containers all the way. I've been amassing a collection of them for years, just for camping.

I try to never take a glass container along, so yes, I repackage food if necessary.