One thing you should always have on hand in your fridge is a piece of living bread starter. This is how bread makers start their bread every day. The easiest way to make bread every day is to cut off a portion of today’s dough and then mix it into the batch you are making the next day. This mother dough, which contains the yeast that helps bread get big and fat, is what a survivalist will need on hand to make bread every day.
You can also use a yeast-based starter to make bread as well but to save money and maybe even save your life you need to keep this piece of dough living and fed. Yeast needs only a bit of warmth and air to grow. All you need is a piece of cheesecloth laid on top of it to keep it clean.
To start a basic batch of dough you can mix the flour, warm water and yeast and cover it with fabric held in place with an elastic band (or a real cheesecloth.) Give it a stir and let it bubble until it rises. If you are doing this in this old-fashioned way it can take about three days for yeast to rise. You will know it is working because the yeasty smell of bread rising is unmistakable. You will know it is ready when the bread weeps a little bit of yellow liquid. At this point it is ready to use but you need to keep part of it for your bread starter. You have to make bread at least once a week to keep it going. It does keep about three weeks without being fed but for best results make sure you are feeding this yeast with a bit of flour and water every day.
Some survivalists preserve dough by adding a little more flour to make it stiffer and then roll it into small balls the size of a walnut. The pellets are left to completely dry and then are ground into a powder that can be put in a bug out bag. To use this add the powder to a paste of flour and water and you can make bread. You can also add oatmeal, raisons or any kind of cooked grain to make it more palatable.
You can make bread in just about anything but it bakes quite well in any kind of fire or oven with a cast iron bread pan.