Bugout foods.

L

lc609

Joined
Jan 14, 1999
Messages
222
I just read in last month's ASG read a survival author I respect recommend carring a pound of rice for a week's rations. It got me to thinking. I think I would prefer more filling, nutrient dense foods to carry.

I find backpacker meals too expensive and not too filling, and MREs are too heavy and too expensive.

I broke out my copy of "The Survival Handbook" and it listed 4 menus of arctic rations issued to the Royal Marine Commandos. Each menu had freeze dried food and was broken down into 3 meals and provided 4500 calories per day.

Porrage and Hot chocolate were listed as the breakfast in each menu. Porrage is simply ground oatmeal. I looked through my kitchen. a single serving of oatmeal weighs about 1 oz (1/3 cup, dry) by my scale. A double serving with one cup grapenuts added gives fiber,texture, and two kinds of grain with different vitamin profiles. Add a serving of powdered milk and you have a very nutrient dense meal that is filling. Toss in a couple of fast food packets of honey and a package of hot chocolate you can eat a breakfast that weighs about 5 oz, but will stick to your ribs. Dried fruit is optional.

I can add minute rice and oats to a can of full fat, bean chili and that makes a pretty substantial meal. The marine rations listed dried soup and vegatables and fruits as the main meal.

Then come snacks. Marine Rations listed meat spreads, crackers, cookies, chocolate, caramels, nuts and raisins and candy. A can of Beanie weenie, or deviled ham, or tuna,ect with crackers, cookies, chocolates, caramels, nuts and raisins, and candy. I think pemmicin and jerky can fit in there.

I need to go to the store to pick up some stuff and try to assemble a weeks worth of food this way. It strikes me that even with the cans (which can be made into useful items)I can package a day's meal for 2/3 to 3/4 the weight of comprable MREs. Also cheaper. And another bonus... With all that fiber, the need for laxitives (like the MRE gum) and toilet paper are greatly reduced.

Another trick I heard of is and SAS thing. Find a good spoon, dummy cord it to your pocket/belt loop, just like your compass (you do dummy cord your compass right?). You can now remove the extra spoons from the meals. Ya gotta shave weight where ya can, to justify the unneccessary stuff you like to carry.

pat
 
Get some of those Raimen Noodle Soups. They're cheap, quick to make , tasty, hot , filling,and come in assorted flavors.

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Big-Target>>>>>>SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM
 
I'm a fan of the ramen noodles too but I throw away the flavor packet and serve mine with clarified butter (keeps quite a long time in cool weather), parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.

If you have a food dehydrator, you can make all kinds of good meals that will last for quite a long time. You can dehydrate a can of soup if you want. I like to dehydrate veges and beef and mix that with bulgar wheat and rice. Serve it with hot sauce and soy sauce. This has been a backpacking staple of mine for years.

I like oatmeal for breakfast but I put a big dollop of peanut butter in it. This will stick to your ribs.
smile.gif
Its another backpacking staple I use.

------------------
Hoodoo

The low, hoarse purr of the whirling stone—the light-press’d blade,
Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold,
Sparkles from the wheel.

Walt Whitman

[This message has been edited by Hoodoo (edited 04-11-2000).]
 
I'm all for Porrage or Gruel as it is somtimes called. But don't stop with the oats. In most health food stores you can find flakes of rye, wheat, barley, spelt, etc. Add a few of you favorite dried fruits, and some real nuts (not peanuts) a little salt, and you have a real rib sticker.

hard to cook!

not really!

Here is what I do: I prepackage the mixture into one serving portions in the snack size zip lock bags. three of which firt into my wide mouth stainless thermos.

Add one package to the preheated thermos, almost fill with woiling water, seal her up, and in three hours you would not beleive how much water is absorbed and the variety of the texture due to the different grains.

IMHO the breakfast fit for a king!

no burn, no hardened clean up one pot meal!


 
Ic609, I worked on development of MRE's while I was on active duty as an Army Officer. Anyone can come up with dried or dehydrated meals that will beat the weight of MRE's. You just have to carry or obtain your water for the meal elsewhere. MRE's were not designed to be "extremely" light weight, just light weight and basically self contained with 1250-1300 Kcal/meal. If you can get your water somewhere else, drive on.

You speak of calorie density of foods. No molecule identified yet (for food) has the calorie density of fats (9 Kcal/g). We tried to develop high fat rations for emergencies and during the intensity of an assault. We took an extruded matrix (type of biscuit with open pores), and also beef jerky, and infused them under vacuum, with a high fat cheese sauce, or a chocolate, etc. Calorie density went way up but the Army Surgeon General mandated no more than 30% calories from fat. This ration was not to be used for longer than 1-3 days and only during intense fighting. The project was dropped.

When I hunt or hike, I used dehydrated/dried foods also. I keep MRE's in the truck, just in case.

Bruce Woodbury
 
That freeze dried camper food is not Too bad just make sure that it cools down BEFORE you eat it.

also Ramen Noodles are great (scout master always brought them on campouts, and now I take them to school when I have night classes)

Unfortunatly Ramen noodles out of the package don't really taste well :P
 
I love MREs (the old meatballs and barbeque sauce are my favorite) and would eat them all the time, but the cost is prohibative. I thought I could beat the weight, but I can't.

I went to Wally World today, and here is what I came up with:

Menu A:

Breakfast: 2/3c oatmeal, 1/2c grape nuts, 1/3c powdered milk, and 1/3c sweetened dried cranberries. In plastic bag (that you can rehydrate in) you get 710cal for 6.5oz of weight, for about $1.10.

Main Meal: 1 can Hormel Hot Chili with beans(this is the moderate calorie ones, at 540 per can. they can meet between 360-700),
1/4 cup rice, a snack sized can of peaches, and 2 oz snack crackers. Including cans this weighs about 1.75#, and it supplies about 1180 cal, and costs about $2.20.

Snacks: 2 pkgs trail mix (nuts,raisins, m&ms), 4 peices of beef jerky, and 2 Power Bars. This here weighs 15oz, supplies 2180 calories, and costs about $5.50.

Nearly as much calories (and nutrition)as a day of MREs, slightly heavier, and is 2/3 the cost of what MREs go for locally.

Water isn't much of a prloblem: my 2nd line gear carries 5 qts, and my BOB carries that much again and has the capacity to carry another 2 gallons. Also, to save wieght I have a ziplock bag with my tea (I prefer it to coffee), gatorade (not counted in the calorie counts, honey, tobasco, and pocket/purse sized kleenex (better than the break thru toilet paper) and baby wipes.

Bruce,

I have heard stories about US MREs compared to other countries. Every serviceman/woman I have spoken to has traded the MREs to members of other militaries and been really impressed (especially with the French, Brits, Italians), and one army first sgt traded several cases and had the Brits that he traded with demand to trade back after they tasted them. Are the other countries better? just different? Does it have to do with the size of our military and the way the government procures stuff? Are cultural differences a major issue? Are our MREs more nutritionally complete? Just stuff that screams to mind.

pat
 
Pat, it's pretty much a matter of taste. I've also traded for other countries rations, some are better than others. Japanese rations have lots of fishy tasting stuff (hot dogs made of fish, sessame oil, seaweed, etc.). Russian rations were just plain gross! Austrailian rations are OK except for the Vegamite. European rations tend to have more "off-the-shelf" stuff so it seems more like home. And sometimes it's just that a "change is as good as a rest" where something else, whether good or bad, is better than the same old thing.

The US has had good luck with it's combat rations. They were preferred by the Israelis (except for the fact that 3 of the 12 menues in a case contain pork--someone in the State Department got a spanking for that!).

But remember, these are combat rations, not hunting/hiking rations. As important as the acceptability and nutrition is their ruggedness and storability (is that a word?). After all, little of the canned food in your Albertson's store is designed for a three year shelf life at 70 degrees F. Most canned food is designed for only 1-1.5 years.

One of the reasons MRE's cost so much ($5-6) is that the brown outer bag has to be stuffed by hand. There are no machines that can effeciently stuff up to 12 things in that bag without duplications or missing items, so it has to be done by hand. Hard to do.

Bruce Woodbury
 
For hiking/camping, I would take the extra time to plan out meals, and package things and whatnot. For emergency rations, I would be less worried.

Alaska requires a survival kit on board planes, and part of that kit is two weeks worth of food. My two weeks worth of food runs like this.

5lbs flour, mixed with baking powder & sugar to rise and taste goow with water added.

half dozen tins kippered herring. I like the stuff, high fat, hight protein.

Two weeks worth of coffee. I had to break down and bring 'singles'. I don't want my normal camping grinder to be stuck in my survival kit...
smile.gif


This, combined with snare wire, fishing gear, and a firearm (all also things mandated by Alaskan law) will feed me nicely. And the coffee 'singles' cost as much as the rest of the food combined.

Staple food like rice and flour isn't very good for a typical BOB where you have the idea you will be traveling/hiding, nor is it very good for hiking/backpacking. For survival, or spiced up some for stationary camping, and adding cost as a factor, it's hard to beat.


Stryver
 
Your body needs: Carbs 40%, Fats 30%, and Protein 30%.

You based on 2000 calories, this is: 200g Carbs, 60g Fat (not saturated), 200g Protein.
Light & Filling Carb sources: Oatmeal, Grits, Cream of Wheat (my favorite), pasta, couscous, Irish oatmeal, porridge, pancake mix, cornmeal.
Light fat sources: nuts, peanut butter, veggie oil.
Protein: Tuna cans, jerky, nuts.

Quick energy: Trader Joe's 40/30/40(?) bars or Balance bars. Perfect 40% Carbs, 40% protein, 30% fat.

Drink lots of water.
 
Hey fellas whar about protien powder from
egg whites or other sources. The stuff is light and alot of these mixes are high in protein and low in fat. Although they dont stick to you all that long.
Buckshot
 
Originally posted by Stryver:
Staple food like rice and flour isn't very good for a typical BOB where you have the idea you will be traveling/hiding, nor is it very good for hiking/backpacking. For survival, or spiced up some for stationary camping, and adding cost as a factor, it's hard to beat.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I follow you here. I've been backpacking for over 30 years and rice has always been one of my staples. And I've made many a backcountry meal from a recipe I have for wilderness dough that I bake wrapped around a stick (I have other ways to cook it as well.) In all that time backpacking or also living on the road out of a pack for months at a time, I never once bought a freeze dried meal. A typical backpacking trip for me lasts 2 weeks and the evening meal has almost always been some kind of rice-based concoction.

------------------
Hoodoo

The low, hoarse purr of the whirling stone—the light-press’d blade,
Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold,
Sparkles from the wheel.

Walt Whitman
 
For long time cold weather survival dont forget the Pemmican. It has been used by native americans forever, and msot all successful artic and antartic explorers relied heavily upon this staple.

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Lee

LIfe is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde
 
A buddy of mine makes pemmican by grinding dried venison, pecans, brown sugar, and sometimes some dried fruit together with some fat. It keeps well, tastes great, offers high energy, and can be eaten with no preparation. However, mice love it and will seek it out.

Another friend does a lot of dog sledding, and uses brown rice or barley. He boils up a can, and then stirs in a big ol' dollop of pork lard for calories in cold weather. He says he craves it after being in the cold for a few days.

I tend to take rice with me, some dried fruit (usually figs), some honey, dried ramps (a type of wild onion) and chilies, and a tub of grease. I like a pinole made of coarsely ground parched corn with nuts and a little salt and sugar added as well. I try to forage for more while I'm on the move.



[This message has been edited by GLP-1 (edited 04-14-2000).]
 
Walt-
Personally, I agree. I enjoy cooking foods, and don't mind the extra time spent for real food. But they do take more prep time and cooking time than dehydrated meals in a bag. I'm personally biased against such things anyways, but in a situation some envision using their BOB in, where evasion becomes as high a priority as survival, things not requiring heat become more valuable.

As for the backpacking/hiking foods, I'll take staples. I know, and have hiked with, people who couldn't comprehend this. So I guess my statement was my view of other's views (Can that get more convoluted?).

Stryver, who will have coffee and hotcakes for his rescuers should his plane ever go down.
 
Buckshot, great idea with dried powders, but is there anything better than Egg Beaters? Also, is there any Whey protein or Soy Protein, for those of us who get gas from eggs? Thanks.
 
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