Survival food, opinions?

VampyreWolf

VampyreWolf

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Feb 12, 2001
Messages
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As usual, in the end of May I'll be on a 3 day survival trip with cadets. We are supplied 2 ration packs/day, anything else to eat is caught, brought, or bargained for.

Back in the old days, you could travel with bread, cheese, beef jerky, and water. I would like to try this next month.

Need sugestions though:

1> Cheese type(normally eat cheddar): end of May, 20-25degrees during the afternoon... need somehting that will not melt in my bag, and hopefully retain some hardness despite the heat

2> Bread: buns, sticks, loaf? white, french, other?

Already know the beefjerky, and have a good water bottle. My jerky is $5 for 100g, and stays good for weeks after opened, even without resealing.
 
I don't know of any cheeses or breads that will withstand the "punishment" of such an ordeal. However, hardtack will. Type "hardtack recipe" into your search engine and you'll get several fine easy to follow recipes for the stuff. It's like a hard super sized, super thick cracker that was the mainstay of armies from pre Civil War times through WW1.

Mike
 
Per "6 way in, 12 ways out" I have a large squeeze tube of peanut butter in my pack. Full of protein and fat...good fuel food. Met-rex (sp?) bars are food replacement bars and good for kit. Nuts and Gorp are good too.

You can pack stuff like Coos Coos and Oatmeal or pasta in a Nalgene type water bottle (so it won't get crushed). Some of the dehydrated stuff at camping type stores are pretty tasty and light weight.

Don't forget water filter/purification...suck to get the "squirts" out there easy to get dehydrated and in serious trouble. The collabsible Nalgene/Platypus bottles are good. Don't take up much room when empty.
 
Any "hard" cheese, like cheddar, will hold it's shape. While American "cheese-like product" will melt, REAL cheese (other than the runny ones) will stand up in a pack. Flavor's likely to be quite a bit different from the chilled state.

For a bread, know that it's going to get stale, and pick one with lots of nutrients and a firm loaf. French breads would travel well, and *might* keep okay for a few days in a ziplock.

But if you're going to be eating bread, cheese and dried meat for a while, I'd suggest some raisins as well. :~}
 
Hardtack will fill the 'bread' role nicely. I get tired of eating the shrunken 'bread' they give us in the ration packs.

Peanut Butter, Honey and Jelly are plentiful.

The only question now is what would work best for cheese. I normally have mine out and slice away at it at home, so I'm used to the room-temp feel.

Regarding water: if we feel like it we can walk the 2miles back to the house and refill ALL the containers, groups of 6-7 for the 8 jugs. I carry 2L/day in my main pack, 1L bottle(for biking) is on me anyways.

Re: getting plugged up: ever tried to get plugged eating army rations? it's not posible... everything is boiled(inside the foil packs) and eaten while it's still edible. Dig a hole and dump, fill it when you're done. Holes are 4-5' deep, about 1' across... usually need 1/group member before the weekend is up.
 
Pita bread and bagels hold up pretty well in my pack, stay fresh enough for 3 days, smear w/peanut butter or nutella or olive oil, or eat with your cheese (but if I've got bread & cheese, I want wine!)
 
I've never tried hardtack. I did however bake the rolls from the refrigerator section at about 300-350 f, for, IIRC 20-25 minutes.

They don't fully "raise" and come out chewy (well cooked) but not rock hard. They held up well for 2-3 days in a zipperlock bag.

Cheddar cheese, peanut butter, jelly, hard boiled eggs (I now hear that this can be dangerous).

Canned tuna, kipper snacks...

Salami/beef stick (many are vacuume packed and don't require refrigeration until open. Get the smaller ones, share what you can't eat in a reasonabe time - make friends.

Scouts favs: Pop Tarts (ok, so sometimes you suck crumbs,) cheese whiz (and Ritz) and Beanie Weanies.


BTW - Ritz store well in a Pringles tube...

I've also frozen part of the cheddar. Wrap in newspaper and alum. foil and it'll defrost in a day or two. This tends to make it a little grainy, but will be safer.
 
I'm not sure if your purpose is to experiment with menu items suitable for long-term survival, or just get you through a weekend. To me, "survival food" connotes "maximum energy and nutrition, minimum weight and space." A three-day weekend, to me, calls for "backpacking/camping food" with an emphasis on weight and convenience. I will weigh in on both, though.

Cheese- I love cheese, and have often called upon it to conceal a disaster when I felt like getting creative in the kitchen. As a minister friend of mine used to say, "A little cheese covereth a multitude of sins." I have backpacked with individually wrapped american slices and carefully wrapped chunks of cheddar, both with great results. Keeping the slices next to my water reserve inside my pack kept them cool enough to not be wilted by the heat. The cheddar will dry out a little, and becomes too crumbly to slice easily, but is still quite tasty. If you melt it over or in a hot meal, you won't notice the difference. I don't know if I would include it in a BOB because the stuff suitable for long term storage isn't cheese at all, like the green paste in MRE's or the canned aerosol goop :barf: If I did have cheese, I would be happy and I would eat it early.

Bread- Gotta get your carbs, man. I cannot think of any bread that couldn't be packed for a long weekend. One of my favorites is "King's Hawaiian Bread". I first had it at NTC Ft. Irwin, Ca. Our mission was to be "training aids" which meant that my infantry company was supposed to go out in the desert and get killed by an armored unit. We wandered around for awhile and the armor did not find us, so they could not kill us. The armored unit commanders complained that we were too hard to find, so we were ordered to do a "company recon to contact". Since the armor was not where it was supposed to be it became a "company route reconnaissance to contact". We had to find them so they could kill us. After we found them, and they killed us according to training plan, we sat around and waited for a ride back to post. While we were waiting, my Platoon Leader pulled out a loaf of Hawaiian bread that he had had in his ruck for at least three days in the Mojave desert. It was very good. I would consider candidates for "survival" bread to be the aforementioned hardtack, MRE crackers (which I kinda like), dry cereal, instant oats, or any of those rice cake or WASA crisp things if you really must have something to spread stuff on. The latter will keep for a long time (I suspect because of the high plastic and wood fiber content in the ingredients)

I hope these thoughts are of use to you.
 
Parmesan - a nice chunk of well-aged Parmesan. Just wrap it in foil, and bring it along. Will hold up to almost any abuse.

I used to go on multi-day hunting trips with just a hunk of dry salami, some Parmesan, and bread. You need plenty of water though.
 
Beware the zip-lock baggie. It'll melt and mold your food faster than anything. Consider that cheese is made and aged (sometimes for years) in cloth wrappings. Try cloth or paper to protect your cheese while also allowing it to breath. Yeah, it'll get hard and crumbly, but that's still better than moldy.
 
MacHete> I plan to go as light as possible. It'll be my last 'survival' with cadets, so I want to have as much fun as possible. However, I will continue to do actual survival training out in the middle of nowhere after cadets...

The purpose of this trip for me is both to have fun, and find something that is edible and will last, to use the experience on other training. By experimenting during a cadet trip, I will still have availablility to other sources of food(the 2 rat packs/day) if the other isn't enough. It allows me to learn in a safe environment...

Bae> good word on the cheese. Parmasan cheese does taste 'dry' but has a bit of moisture. I know it keeps for ages in the cupboard... I'll have to grab a chunk and see if I can eat it like I do cheddar though.

Our weekend exersize timetable:
Friday(approx 5pm)
-arrive at site(officer's property)
-get our groups
-hike to site(back of land, 10minute hike with gear)
*approx 6pm: shelter setup
-go back and get tents for the first yr cadets(and thier section commanders), all else are in leantoos(sp?)
*approx 7pm: start the fires, get water boiling(water already at site for us, after it's gone it's a good hike for more)
*approx 8pm: finish eating, get gear out for the night
*approx 8:30pm-12am: night exersize

Saturday:
*7am: breakfast
*8am: morning exersize: 'lost cadet'
~10-10:45am: back for the fires and food
~12noon: done lunch
~12-5: rotate about 2:30-2:45
group1: map and compass, daylight: finding headings and points
group2: campcraft: chairs, benches, sinks
~6: supper
~7-10: sleep
10:30-3am: night map and compass: word puzzle(find the 15points, makes a saying)

Sunday:
*3am-8am: sleep
8am: breakfast
9am: morning stretch/run
10am: site cleanup(tents, leantoos(sp?), garbage)
12noon: lunch(canned goods normally)
1pm: normally another 'lost cadet', but this time an 'injured' one... takes off during lunch
3pm: back to the site and grab gear
4pm: pickup from site

for food they give 5 rats to the new cadets, 4 to the experienced ones, as we know not to expend much energy duing the day. If you save your dessert from supper it makes a nice breakfast too.
 
Cheese: DRY JACK. It starts out dry and hard, but not quite as hard as parmesian. Will last you a weekend at least.

Bread: I'd go for the dense russian pumpernickle since this stands up best to the conditions for a few days.

Small bottle of honey does wonders too..

I have made hardtack.. It does work, and lasts basically forever.
 
When you talk of hard tack...are you refering to sailor bread you buy in the market..I always take a few of these for munchin'
 
When I've packed cheddar, I used cheesecloth, waxed paper or deli paper and then foil. After the cheese was gone, I always chucked the cloth and paper into the fire. Now I'm wondering if the cheese cloth might make a decent char cloth? It gets damp from contact with the cheese, and I'm guessing most of this moisture is water. Water can be dried and the remaining moisture is probably fat or oil. Would it's presence help or hinder the cloth's conversion from cheese to char? Hmmm.
 
MRE crackers and Nabisco's sea toast are about as close to hardtack as one will find commercially.

Army Hardtack Recipe
Ingredients:

4 cups flour (perferably whole wheat)
4 teaspoons salt
Water (about 2 cups)
Pre-heat oven to 375° F
Makes about 10 pieces
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Add just enough water (less than two cups) so that the mixture will stick together, producing a dough that won’t stick to hands, rolling pin or pan. Mix the dough by hand. Roll the dough out, shaping it roughly into a rectangle. Cut into the dough into squares about 3 x 3 inches and ½ inch thick.

After cutting the squares, press a pattern of four rows of four holes into each square, using a nail or other such object. Do not punch through the dough. The appearance you want is similar to that of a modern saltine cracker. Turn each square over and do the same thing to the other side.

Place the squares on an ungreased cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Turn each piece over and bake for another 30 minutes. The crackers should be slightly brown on both sides.

The fresh crackers are easily broken but as they dry, they harden and assume the consistentency of fired brick.

FYI and for those willing to try but unwilling to cook, G.H. Bent Company in Milton, Massachusetts still manufactures and sells hardtack. This company was one of the Civil War era suppliers to the US Army. See http://www.bentscookiefactory.com/ to place an order.

Mike
 
Hi everyone,

I come from the alpine region of Bavaria and Austria and have done quite a bit of Hiking. I would forget about white bread: to few nutrients. rather go for a densly baked dark bread. In the Mountainous regions we have a dehydrated dry bread calles "Schüttelbrot" (shake bread) "shaken not stirred" it´s so hard you have to crush and break it to eat it. But it last you a long time. I would also take along some sort of speck (smoked pock belly) or salami. As far as cheeses go, hit a good aged parmesan. Italian guerrilieros survided on that during the nazi occupation. and they had wine....

When I hiked the rockie mountains I had some Nut Bread and hard cheddear wrapped in a bandana. Later on a baked my own Native American style buns with little more then water, baking soda and flour.
Hope this helps see you in the woods

Matt
 
I often bring "Sailor Boy Pilot Bread" backpacking along with a plastiv tube filled with peanut butter as backup food. I like bagels as they are damage resistant and don't taste too bad stale. I also often bring some yuppified seeded rye bread from the Tall Grass Bakery in Seattle. It's really dense and good--I'm maiking myself hungry. I realize you can't get it, but maybe something similar is available near you. For longer term use, some of that canned brown bread might be good, but your timeframe isn't that long.

As to cheese, I favor pecorino-romano. Hard and dry, but really tasty...mmmm
 
Thinking today... Baking Powder biscuits!

I know we have them in our cupboard all the time, sometimes weeks old before we make fresh ones... takes a long time for them to go stale.

And if you make a hole in one, and then stuff with cheese/spices, heat on any fire or stove, they taste great.
 
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