Disaster prep food

Garth Reckner

Garth Reckner

Moderator
Joined
Dec 13, 2004
Messages
9,065
I got to try a freeze dried ice cream sandwich from a disaster preppees food supply. It was delicious. Anybody know about this stuff. Seems like there are hundreds of different brands out there. Which ones are good? Any preferences. Is there any that come with Bacon? Does the longer shelf life stuff taste as good as the stuff that is only good for a few years? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Garth
 
Mountain House is the best brand IMHO. Most economic are the #10 cans. Try out a few differet ones in individual sizes first. Any camping hunting store should have some. Yeah, they've got some with bacon. For veggies and fruit you can get a better price with Saratoga Farms brand. Check the mfg dates. Stored well, you'll get 15-20 years. Pretty easy to keep a few months supply stored in some plastic tubs. Just remember to store or have a good nearby water source. Check the salt content too. Some are pretty high. Get a variety of entree meals, pure meats, veggies, fruirs, breakfasts, and other basics so you can mix an match. Check out the ReadyStore for starters and shop around for sales. Watch the shipping costs.
 
Last edited:
You can get the individual pouches of Mountain House in Wallmart's sporting goods section. While they don't stock all the foods you can sample the more popular ones this way before buying #10 cans.
 
I've been buying and helping people with preparedness for the last 12 years, I have alot of Mountain House and theres another company called Honeyville in Utah that I buy alot from. Yoders sells canned bacon, its good, I hear, I haven't opened mine to try. Also, there's another site called be prepared.com thats awesome. Ping me if you need any more info. Anson form AZ.
 
The Yoders canned bacon is too good to keep around. It is too tempting to open a can and polish it off.
 
Hey Garth,
My boys love the Yoders bacon... We take it out, and cover it with paper towels, a min in the mic, all good.
If you like pineapple shoot me a PM, I'll hook you up with some Awsome freeze dried pineapple.... We like it more than ice cream.
 
I've always found it more cost effective to purchase a dehydrator and make your own camping/ disaster prep food. If you do it with any frequency, the cost of freeze dried food can add up pretty fast. My father and I used to go camping in Minnesota every year and we started out almost exclusively with freeze dried food. 10 days of food for two guys works out to a lot of money. We eventually started making our own dehydrated food and saved a boat load of cash. Plus there are some delicious recipes online for beef jerky and the like. Nothing smells better than walking into a house with jerky in the dehydrator. Except perhaps bacon frying. And someone else cooking it for you.
 
+1 to mountain house. I used to pick up 2-4 meals a week at the local mountain store to try the variety. Then I found out they carry them at WalMart. Stay away from the breakfast selections though, my friends prefer dinner for breakfast as do i. Also, a lot of the desserts you have to prepare aren't that great.

I'd eat the Neapolitan ice cream all day every day if it didn't cost so much.

Hey Garth, ever try a modern MRE? I ate the crud out f every bit of those in boot camp and beyond. There are new ones called Combat Rations that have no heating elements and are supposed to be lighter for calories provided. www.mreinfo.com

Then there's these, next on my need to buy list: http://dehydrated-food.net/tabs.html

Food tablets. I've lived off Ensure nutrition shakes for almost two weeks now with my jaw wired shut so I'm comfortable that something as simple as a tablet could provide enough nutrition.

Hope any of this helps :D
 
My wife and I both prefer the Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki to the canned variety.;):thumbup:
 
CMMG makes tactical canned bacon. It has to be better than any other brand because it says "tactical" and "bacon" in the name :eek:


:D
 
Some of the WalMarts have discontinued the MH products and now carry Coleman I think.

If anyone in your realm of concern has any form of nut allergies, MH is almost all nut free.

There are several places having 25% off sales now for #10 cans and pouches, and some offer free shipping.

I like the Turkey Tetrazini, spaghetti, beef stew (rehydrate w/ 1.5x water in two adds for best results), blueberries and milk granola. Have a few other pouches I haven't tried yet (lasagna, etc).

Hard part is getting wife to try each flavor to make sure anything I find a deal on isn't wasted on her not liking...

Cans are good fro 30-35 years, where pouches say around 7.

Often you can get an equivalent number of meals from a few pouches (2 each) compared to a can (normally 10) with some of the sales.

Bacon has gone up quite a bit for the Yoders brand/type. Most of the freeze dried meats are more expensive. Haven't tried them, so can't speak to their flavor/value.

Hope that helps.
 
I buy the cans of mountain house from Ready Made Resources. they have decent deals. When i have camped I use the mountain house individuals. My top favs are the blue berries and granola, the breakfast skillet which has eggs, potatoes, ham and peppers, (put that in a tortilla with some tabasco and a little fried spam!!), the bbq beef, and the mac and cheese of course. Sometimes I buy the fancier organic freeze dried ones but they are not as good in my opinion.
 
I have some 33 year old, Sam Andy and Mountain something, every year or two I open up a can and try it out, all the fruit is still great, the pork chops were a little odd 33 years ago and are about the same now, the Freeze dried steaks make pretty good stew the TVP I see no change in.
 
better then eating dog food or bullets :)


spam.jpg




.
 
Dehydrated is great for short term, but not LT put-it-away-and-forget-about-it-storage. Tried the 3-month grocery rotation BS, then decided it was too much space and too much work, so went with the Freeze Dried. Packed away safely for LT emergency rations after the 2-week pantry runs out. Easy to replace if I want to take some camping. Gonna have to look for that Yoders bacon. Sounds great!
 
Besides the high sodium content, Hormel canned foods supposedly have an "indefinite" shelf life. Go SPAM! Also Dinty Moore beef stew is nice. A bit heavy on the potatoes, but it's tasty and loaded with calories.
 
storing food, hmm, interesting :)



good advice here with all these fine folks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top