Doing Some Freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw Testing Of Canned Brown Bread.

I have several (actually MANY) cases of badly damaged cans of B&M brand Brown Bread. So I took six damaged cans and put them in the freezer every night to freeze, then set them out in the morning to thaw fully. Figure to run this test for 30 days.

Opening one can every five or so days to check the contents for whether it looks like, cuts like and tastes like never frozen Brown Bread. I have eaten a lot of this product over the last 50 years. So I know there is zero chance of the cans rupturing from repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Only question is if it turns into thick Brown Bread soup, or crumbles into crumbs, or remains fairly close to when it was baked.

Note: I don't deeply love the taste of this product, it has a substantial molasses flavor. It is OK tasting, just not what one would dream of for a last meal. It stores well for years, so I inventory a fair amount for a can a week consumption, and lots for survival with Mountain House freeze dried meals mixed with grass, tree bark, and Red Back Voles.

Suggest you not purchase cases of B&M Brown Bread.......till you have tried one can. It is good, just not great. But food is food to a starving man. Tastes better then Moose Tracks.

 

I recall days from my barefoot youth and times when I was deployed in central and South America during the 80s doing Ollie’s dirty deeds where a can of B&Ms would have been a tasty treat. My preps also include stuff that stores well and packs a caloric punch, with taste a secondary consideration. Examples include nasty cliff bars and spam. I don’t have too much of B&Ms brown bread, but you’ve convinced me to add to the inventory. I’ve not done this extensive testing, so thank you for the range report!

 

I just started about a week ago so.......as yet I have not opened the first freeze-thaw can. But I'll report back.

 

it's been awhile since I had canned bread. I am assuming normally canned bread is not kept in a freezer but your test is to see how the bread fares in a long term cache.

 

YES....Exactly.

 

Good morning Sourdough,

You introduced a tangent to all this that I have as a major event: the last meal.

My actual fear is loss of cognizance and rudimentary mobility to reach for a premier whiskey, some macaroons (in the old metal tin; not the cardboard replacement type) and chocolate. Calorie count and dental hygiene won't be applicable.

 

Good morning Alaska John,

He did have a list of screwups - but this just showed he was working and not on the entertainment circuit in D.C.

Of all the nation's failures in defeating the terrorists, Ollie did work the liberation of Achille Laurel (sp?) cruise ship.

Ollie North ran for the US Senate in Virginia against Governor Chuck Robb. Robb became Senator because Ollie was not qualified.

Three criteria needed:

1. Highlighted service in USMC during Vietnam War.
2. Successful service in difficult national political environments.
3. Married to President LBJ's daughter.

I have a photocopy of Fawn Hall's signature on some document.

 

Pragmatist, It was all a combination of going after the narco-traffickers and tracking Russian and Cuban operatives in Central and South America. There was a huge amount of US military southern hemisphere operations in the 80s and early 90s, and there were a lot of bad actors in the region. Some of the bad actors ended up on the US payroll from time to time complicating things. You never knew who was paying who more. The iran-contra thing got lots of headlines, but had little reality in at least what our unit was doing. Of course, counter operations and deception were integral part of operations, and for each operation I never really knew if our unit was the main mission or the deception. That level of detail was way above my pay grade.

I ended up greatly admiring Ollie years after the last time I worked with him, but when I was down there I was a brand new captain and he was a major and was perceived as the know it all asshole from DC yanking our chains. For the record, I never worked under him. He was just someone from DC who occasionally showed up for operational briefings and folks from DC are often perceived as the rear echelon pukes for operational units.

Sorry for the thread derail!

Sourdough,

Have you opened up any cans from your experiment?

 

Not yet........

 

RESULTS............Zero change, in taste or consistency. I expected taste to be zero impacted, but was concerned that the contents might get mushy, or even crumbly.

The experiment last much longer then planned, as far as cycles of freeze-thaw. About two weeks. I admit I am surprised and pleased that there was zero change in the contents. For me that moves this product up to long term storage, which is very nice.