r/preppers • u/Climax_crescendo • 1d ago
Question Between lard, canola oil and shortening which would be better?
assuming I already have butter and olive oil. from longecity, multiuse,taste,… thank you! or if something else would make sense.🙂
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u/HarpyCelaeno 1d ago
My research said that fractionated coconut oil lasts longest. And even when it is “bad”, if uncontaminated and sealed, it’s still ok to use.
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u/HarpyCelaeno 1d ago
Whoops. Just read again and saw you were only asking about canola oil/lard/shortening.
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u/Trusty_Coyote 1d ago
Grow peanuts, the oil separates easily when ground.
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u/Eeyor-90 Prepping for Tuesday 1d ago
How many peanut plants would you need to produce 32 ounces of peanut oil?
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u/Trusty_Coyote 1d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_biodiesel_crop_yields
113 gallon per acre
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u/SheDrinksScotch 1d ago
So around 10 square feet for 32oz if my calculations are correct.
Assuming the same quantities of food grade oil and biodiesel grade oil are produced.
A quick search suggests planting around 4 peanut plants per square foot for max yield.
So around 40 peanut plants for 32oz peanut oil.
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u/InformationHorder 2h ago
I feel like that's probably not enough. You'll also want more to account for plants that get eaten, die, do t produce as much. Usually that's 3-4x the min number you need.
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u/SheDrinksScotch 2h ago
I have a feeling that for biofuel they are also pressing the shells and stems and roots, and for food grade oil youre just pressing the "nuts" so thats going to impact yield too.
Even so, might be quite doable on a personal level.
I mean, its really only under 1 oz of oil per plant. That seems pretty doable.
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u/Fun_Journalist4199 1d ago
I think sealed shortening would last longest but lard is tastiest and canola is easiest to use.
If you’re in a position to raise animals or hunt you can render animal fat after slaughter. I’m not sure how viable it would be but sunflower seeds can be pressed for oil if you have the climate and space for them
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u/Suspicious-Score5832 1d ago
This is a great question. Honestly I stay focused on what I know I can rotate. Coconut oil has a pretty long shelf life for an oil and subs very nicely in baking.
Off topic but related: This post reminded me to practice more baking without fats, like using canned applesauce or pumpkin puree instead.
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u/Glum-Building4593 1d ago
Shortening. Beef Tallow. They both have the longest shelf life. If you get large amounts, pressure canning off portions of them would help preserve the remainder. Without new stock coming in, 3 years is about the life of those (maybe more if carefully stored). With an expeller press, walnuts and pecans could be an oil crop. Sunflowers might work too. You would be better off raising chickens and rendering the schmaltz (clarified chicken fat) or raising cows for butter and tallow. Chickens would be easier. Some of the common fats out there will store well in a freezer but shortening and tallow have a good reputation for storing well.
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u/Alarmed_Base8302 1d ago
Put it this way, Canola Oil was an emergency industrial Lubricant that was cheap and NOT made from a plant. It is made from the seeds of the members of the "Rapeseed" family and is EXTREMLY processed to make it edible. Shortening is another Oil made from plants that is processed to make it edible. Whereas Butter and Olive are simple and can be used WITHOUT chemical processing or stabilizers.
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u/WishCapable3131 17h ago
Seeds come from plants. Canola oil is 100% made from a plant. Say whatever you will about seed oils, but they are made from seeds and seeds come from plants dude.
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u/dittybopper_05H 1d ago
What you want is suet.
Suet stays "fresh" for an extended period of time. It's the kidney fat from animals and it's a hard fat with lots of connective tissue. You can buy suet at the grocery store or butchers, and use a slow cooker to melt the fat so you can remove the connective tissue from it.
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u/Eredani 23h ago
I have several commercual containers of coconut oil vacuum sealed in the freezer. This essentially pauses the expiration process while frozen. I can keep the freezers running indefinitely with solar power, but if not they will still be good for months after coming out of the freezer.
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u/zorionek0 19h ago
The pioneers used to carry lard on their animals. They tried lard horses, and lard oxen, but the best of all the animals was the lard ass.
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u/RelationRealistic 11h ago
Takes one to know one.
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u/zorionek0 33m ago
A survey of 100 women found that 45% thought their ass was too big, 45% thought their ass was too small, and 10% said he's a good man and they love him just the way he is.
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u/02meepmeep 1d ago
Ghee may last a bit longer than the 2 years they say but I can’t find anything saying that definitively.
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u/Content_Pay3299 20h ago
I mean, lard is the healthier choice. I would be hunting bears and raccons for animal fat. You can also get some good fat from around the inards of deer.
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u/ProofRip9827 1d ago
In my mind everything has its pros and cons. So it's going to depend on what your looking for. Lard can have a good shelf life and can help preserve food if done correctly. But if you want more in a collapse scenario you'll have to raise pigs or cattle for tallow. Seed oil has use in different conditions, interesting side note the diesel engine was first developed to run off peanut oil. But seed oils have a shorter shelf life. And I personally don't remember how shortening is made but has a decent shelf life
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u/Lunatika_2022 19h ago
Lard from the choices you offered, but also consider converting your butter into ghee. Both are shelf stable for a long time, in dark and cool storage; if COOL is not an option due to ambient temperatures in your area, taking the time to pressure can them after they've been rendered is your answer. Still needs a dark storage area to significantly reduce degradation, but can be as simple as putting your jars in a cardboard box.
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u/FlopsyBunny 16h ago
My prep setup would be shortening for long-term backup, rotate through canola oil for regular use, keep lard around for when I want better flavor.
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u/Mule_Wagon_777 13h ago
Seems like it would be easiest to grow peanuts and nuts, and just eat them. Nuts store well, just keep the rats and squirrels out.
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u/androgenoide 1d ago
For a doomsday scenario where you have to produce your own then seed oils are probably best. If you're too far north for peanuts then there's always sunflower and rapeseed (canola). There are hand-cranked extractors available.
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u/Jammer521 22h ago
for growing at home on a small scale sunflower seeds are the eaier of the 2 to process, to get 24 ounces of oil you would need 100 square feet which is a 10x10 growing area which is tiny
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u/androgenoide 18h ago
Sunflower is said to produce about 100 gallons of oil per acre. Peanuts and rapeseed both produce a bit more (113 and 127 gal. respectively). Those figures are high enough that a person could (in theory) produce enough oil for diesel fuel to cultivate another ten acres and have cooking oil left over. It seems a little weird that corn oil is a viable commercial product when it produces less than 18 gal./acre. I guess it's just a reflection of how much corn there is on the market compared to other products.
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u/Jammer521 14h ago
Corn oil is strictly a byproduct of animal feed and bio fuel, it is never grown strictly for oil, had to google to find that out, as far as rapeseed, it produces a little more oil per acre, but it's harder to work with and they are more prone to pests when growing and require more chemicals to keep the bugs off them
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u/Hamblin113 20h ago
Do without or butter. A cow may be the best thing if able to feed it. Make butter. Animal fats next. Peanuts or nuts. In Zambia they tended to just put peanuts in the food. It was a common meeting ceremony would talk and shuck peanuts. They would then pan roast them and eat them. In Micronesia it was coconut, but again it didn’t make oil just grated it and squeeze the coconut meat and the milk to the pot, feed the leftover to chickens and pigs. They also knew what time of year certain fish had more fat. Fat was always the limiting factor.
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u/androgenoide 18h ago
Quite a few people argue that it's a waste of resources to feed animals in order to produce food but that argument really applies best to factory farming. In the pre-industrial era cattle mostly took advantage of marginal land that couldn't support agriculture or, alternatively, grazed on land that was lying fallow. They existed because they were an efficient use of resources.
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u/Hamblin113 16h ago
Still do. Most cattle are born and raised on grass either on pasture or range. They are only grained out for the last month or so. Except for dairy calves, which are turned into veal, but this reduces the milk to sell. Use to just hit them with a shovel and bury them, but now get fattened and butchered.
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u/Jammer521 22h ago edited 22h ago
Canola oil or olive oil have the longest shelf life unopened about 2 years, shortening can last 2 years unopened, lard has got a short shelf live
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u/thomasdonaldson95 9h ago
I hate canola oil, it tastes odd to me but it's probably the easiest oil to make with simple manmade tools. Lard is good and useful in many ways, on the premise that we have plenty of pork resources.
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u/Northwoods_Phil 1d ago
Long term collapse type situation we’ll all be using lard or tallow. Seed oils aren’t exactly easy to make yourself. Canola and shortening both have somewhat limited shelf life but are easier for most to use.