Monthly Archives: August 2018

Water treatment Hypochlorite

1 Reply

Water treatment Hypochlorite

Some friends and I recently had a conversation on using bleach for cleaning and water treatment [disinfection].

There ARE some concerns with having bleach on hand especially long term. Some of the concerns include leaking of bleach on the floor and destroying it. It is also concerning what other chemicals which could be near the bleach, some which seem innocent as they are both for cleaning include Ammonia which when combined will release a deadly poison gas – to bring this issue a little closer to home for you is the following story. A friend and I were talking one night at work about organ harvesting for transplant. Her first case was a young new mom who was home alone with her newborn. Her spouse was gone to work and she was doing laundry and trying to be environmentally friendly using cloth diapers. Her spouse got home in the morning there was a foul odor in the house and the baby was crying in the crib. He found the new mom in the laundry DEAD and called the fire department. Long story short there were 2 bottles open and tipped over on the floor – one was bleach and the other was ammonia and that is what killed her.

The other stuff discussed to segregate from bleach is brake fluid [and transmission fluid ect] will react with bleach [especially the tablets] and start fires.

Next topic was ref – Bleach loses it’s potency in about three months once it is opened. So the storage live span… Does bleach degrade with time? Yup IF it is not sealed tightly enough it will off gas and become ineffective, BUT that takes a long time and as long as there is a strong odor to the bleach it will still work even if it takes longer to react.

We discussed using the pool shock / chlorine tablets – while this will work you have to break them down to a more usable size and then you have the issue of dosages. It was suggested to get the single use tablets which are smaller and can be found in the laundry isle at Walmart ect. One tablet makes one gallon of bleach. I think that would be a viable idea. One of the group already does this to cut down on storage space and also to rotate her stock she makes it a gallon at a time.

Calcium Hypochlorite and Sodium Hypochlorate will disinfect water and clean stuff.. Both can be had in liquid or solid. Both should be stored in a ventilated area with a safe surface [tile, cement plastic] .

Of the normal 5.25 to 6% Hypocholate normal use to disinfect [what many people misstate as PURIFY] water is 2 to 4 drops to 1 L of water shack it well to mix [let some come out onto the threads of the bottle] tighten the cap and let stand for at least 30 minutes [longer if cold] open and if you can still smell chlorine it is most likely to be safe to consume… IF not repeat the process.

We also discussed another alternative to bleach– You could get a special device a” Miox Water Purifier” list price on Amazon today was $210.00…. and it will produce endless amounts of safe water for you…… you can get a LOT of bleach or pool stuff to treat water for that price. OR you can get pool salt at Walmart [last night there was 40Lbs bags on clearance for $1.00] or where ever — and MAKE your own bleach to treat water…

How can you make your own bleach for cleaning and disinfecting water? You may well ask! ;]

You will need some pool or plain table salt , a plastic container, plain clear water, one each SS fork and spoon, a 12 Volt power source which can be a car battery, battery charger, 2 6V lantern batteries ect. And a plastic bottle of some kind to store the resultant bleach. BTW you could use raw sea water if near or on the ocean.

Into the plastic container mix the water and salt -it is OK if not all the salt dissolves fact is it may be better if it does not as that way you know that you have enough for the complete reaction with the water. Next connect the power leads to the ends of the fork and spoon – place those into the salt water on opposing sides so they do NOT touch each other. Connect the power. You will soon see bubbles on the eating tools and shortly after that you will smell chlorine. Around an hour later you should have a strong enough sodium hypochlorite solution to be of use. It may take longer OR shorter to do this you will have to experiment. Altitude and temperature can effect the process.

Slowly decant the solution into the plastic bottle [which should be VERY clearly labeled as bleach] and cap snugly. This solution will store for a long time.

ymmv

Canned butter

Leave a reply

Blog butter canning

You can buy commercially canned butter….. For a price.

Currently butter is going for about $3.00 to $4.00 a pound depending on where you get it and live. I have seen store bought canned [tin can] butter for $12.00 for a 12 oz can OR put another way $1.00 an oz of butter.

There are basically 2 ‘kinds’ of butter salted and unsalted. Salted tastes better [to me] and it stores better. It will keep in the freezer for several years. In the refrigerator it will keep for up to a year. Either way refrigerator or freezer, butter takes up room and will have a shortened shelf life if the power goes out for extended periods.

So how can you have butter on hand for extended times, save space and money? By canning butter yourself at home. There are basically 2 ways of canning butter at home. The butter can be ‘tinned’ in a tin can like what you buy commercially. The tools to do this can run between 1 and 2 thousand dollars to get set to do. While it IS doable it is not cheap. The other container that is way more economical and easy to do at home and that is the Ball or Kerr glass jars such as you would can or bottle other foods in a pressure canner or cooker. Butter is one of the few items that I will can in either a hot water bath or the oven instead of the pressure cooker at my altitude of about 6,100 feet above sea level. Canned butter when stored in a cool dry and dark place will last for decades. A side historical note, recently [to me as I am sure the show was several years old already] Bizare foods with Andrew Zimmern [great show] anyway there was a segment on some butter that was found in a peat bog estimated to be 2,000 years old and it was still edible!

First wash your hands and jars. Put the lids in hot water, this softens the sealing compound so that it seals better.

The general procedure is cold pack the butter into pint jars leaving about a half inch of head space, wipe the rim of the jar to remove any errant butter which could interrupt the seal and then put the lid on hand tight. Set the filled jars into either the oven at 200 degree F or into a pot and fill with cool water up to the neck of the jar. Turn the heat up to medium and let the butter melt, slowly bring the temperature up to a simmer or if you have a candy thermometer about 200 degrees F until all of the butter is melted. You will notice in the melted butter a small layer of milk solids at the bottom of the jars. The milk solids add flavor. Wearing gloves because the jars are HOT, agitate the jars so that as the butter cools and gets firm the solids are mixed with the fat of the butter.

For hot packed butter, in a large pan [sized for the amount of butter you plan to can] genteelly melt the butter in your pan until it is all liquefied. The milk solids will fall the bottom of the pan, this is also how you ‘clarify’ butter. Your jars should be warming during this process so they won’t break from the temperature difference between the hot butter and cold jars. When ready, ladle the melted butter into the warm/hot jars leaving a half inch head space, wipe off the rim of the jar as above and place the lid, tightening hand tight.

If you plan to include the milk solids in this, you will have to stir the butter as you ladle it into the jars and agitate them as above. If on the other hand you plan to store just the clarified butter, you do not have to agitate the jars and can just leave the jars on the counter top to cool. While the jars are cooling you can take the melting pot and cook rice or whatever to make use of the residual butter and solids so that you don’t waste.
After the jars are cool, take a marking pen and label the jars with date processed and which type of butter is in it. Whole or clarified and salted V unsalted.

You can do the same thing with other animal fats. As an example, saving the pan drippings from bacon to flavor other foods.

Store it in cool dark place and it will most likely be shelf stable for many years. I still have a batch which was put up by me over 10 years ago. I used a jar this year that was as good as when I put it up. YMMV