Hacker News Reader

Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

Buying extra meat when it's on sale and storing it in a chest freezer is probably the best "investment" that most families can make. It usually has a higher ROI than buying stocks or whatever. Even during inflationary times, retailers occasionally end up with excess supplies of some cuts of meat or advertise loss leaders to boost store traffic so you can buy a lot if you have freezer space to store it.

Just be careful that your freezer has a reliable electrical supply. The National Electrical Code has required GFCI protection on garage outlets since 2008 and those can occasionally fail and trip off for no reason. Ask me how I know...

View on HN

You should also have a high-rated chest cooler ("marine coolers" are great for this) in case of power outages. Move the freezer contents to the cooler, pack with dry ice, place in a cool shaded area, do not touch. It will stay frozen for close to a week.

Or pull your generator out and power your cooler and other essentials.

Much easier than trying to get and find dry ice in an emergency.

Where does one normally find dry ice in the US, even when there's no emergency? Is it a commonly stocked thing?

Grocery stores usually have it, you just have to ask someone.

Fairly common in grocery stores. Regular ice also works just fine, but dry ice is arguably better in freezer applications because, while it doesn't last as long, it is much colder.

Costco or Walmart will often carry it. Many grocery stores (but definitely not all) will have it so it’s worth asking.

My favorite use is sparkling grapes. https://sciencenotes.org/how-to-make-fizzy-fruit-with-dry-ic...

Put (food grade) dry ice at the bottom of a bowl, then a clean cloth or towel (for insulation), then grapes. Ideally our a loose fitting cover over the bowl.

As the dry ice sublimates, it passes through the grapes which will capture some of the CO2 and carbonate the grapes.

Very fun, and much less practical, use of dry ice…

The next time you go into a grocery store, look at the front and see if you see a dry ice storage box

I get it all the time for camping trips

In my local grocery store it is the Fish / Meat department that has the dry ice.

Where I live the local power utility distributes dry ice in the summer during power outages.

A standard residential generator typically holds a gallon of fuel and will burn through that in about 8-12 hours, which is not the ideal way to run a refrigerator. If you run the generator constantly, you'll burn through substantial amounts of fuel, and if you run it only occasionally, you're going to get the kind of temperature fluctuations we're trying to avoid here.

I have a 1kW power station with solar charging, which won't fare a whole lot better; it'll run a fridge for maybe 2-3 days if it's sunny outside.

Low-tech solutions win in power outages of more than a day or two.

My generator holds 2.5 gallons and runs a bit over 24 hours, so that's about right, but I generally have a 15 gallon tank in the shed. That generator can power the A/C, fridge, everything, without having to open it and let cold air out and transfer items.

Power outages typically aren't more than one day, and dry ice is not going to help you for those outages.

I don't have any dry ice suppliers nearby (no the Walmart doesn't stock it), it's not a low-tech solution.

The low tech solution would be a bigger gas canister. 2 gallons a day is not bad at all.

In an apartment building or something I can certain see the use case for dry ice though.

You can also, not buy meat, and avoid the electricity cost of running an additional freezer!

You can also, live in a tent, and avoid electricity all together!

But for those who like protein packed meals in a comfortable environment an additional deep freezer is a great investment.

You can deep freeze extra veggies/fruit if you have a beef with meat.

Or you can buy beans and rice. More protein. More cooking options. No need for freezing.

Beans and rice are both great staples and it makes sense to store them if you have the room. However, saying that they're more protein than beef is absurdly wrong.

A dehydrator is another good option for preserving perishables. The shelf life is a bit shorter than most people would think, but properly packed and sealed you can get at least 3 months or so.

A freeze drier will preserve perishables for significantly longer than a dehydrator, but they cost an order of magnitude more. If you have a big garden or something though the three grand outlay might be worth it.

Rice and beans are tremendously more protein than meat... per dollar, which is what we care about, right? Also, they keep longer, also they are more nutritious.

Protein quality matters as much as quantity. I like beans and rice, but the protein in red meat is more digestible and has the optimal ratio of amino acids that humans need.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

You should consider the following:

1. The human body can synthesize protein except for a few amino acids. These are called "essential" amino acids because we must get them from food.

2. Protein "quality" refers to the ratio of essential amino acids, specifically how close they are to the ratio of essential amino acids in our bodies. This metric is used to gauge the rate of absorption of proteins, not the overall amount of absorption.

3. Red meat is not ideal protein quality. Whey protein is actually a lot better because it consists of amino acids in ratios that are better for absorption. Also better than red meat is... rice and beans.

If we're just going to shift goalposts, then you should be eating eggs because they are the benchmark for protein quality and they're considerably cheaper than beans per gram of protein if you have hens. And long term storage of eggs without refrigeration or freezing is a solved problem too, so winter is no problem.

But honestly I think you have some kind of vegetarian agenda, and that's causing you to use some pretty tortuous reasoning to reach your desired conclusions.

They aren't more protein, but I eat beans and rice all the time. They are great.

I also love beef, tuna, shrimp and many other meats.

I like having a variety in my diet and to eat what I prefer.

See how quickly you hate beans and rice if you only have beans and rice.

Beans are tremendously more protein.

Navy beans on Instacart are currently $1.14 for 104 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1807377332

Ground beef on Instacart is $5.23 for 76 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1785250798

Beans have 91 grams of protein per dollar compared to ground beef's 14 grams.

As someone already pointed out, it's not the same quality:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

And you're comparing price per protein? Wouldn't this thread be based on amount as we're talking about storing it?

The thread is about the price of meat and storing it, so it makes sense to consider how much protein is in the food and how much it costs. To not do so would be like saying, "We need to spend less money on a car. Should we get a cheap car? No, it's not red."

Also, see my response about "protein quality". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32417603

Well originally it was only about storing it, until you replied comparing prices, of course beans are cheaper. But the thread was about efficient long term storage.

But either way I recommend storing and buying both. Definitely not going on a crusade against beans, they're great! (and so is meat)

Another user recommended eggs if you're concerned about protein to price ratio, but it's harder to store efficiently without getting creative.

You could farm your own eggs as I do, but it requires a lot of space (and a love for chickens, they can be a hassle).

I have a friend that bought half a cow from a farmer. Fully butchered he spends approx. $5 a pound for the meat.

Putting it in a cool room with good insulation helps. Makes the freezer work less hard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com