Survival Foods

[Allen]

An old subject that comes up every so often and has been hashed around quite a bit with mentions of dried beans, rice, jerky, vacuum machines, canned goods and etc.

Emergency foods during outages may be a more accurate term than survival food but anyway, I was at a small market today and noticed dried soup mixes. Now while this is nothing new most of what I see are onion mixes used in dips and to season other dishes.

What I saw today (and again nothing new, just an additional thought) was complete mixes (less water of course). Frontier was the brand they had. Some examples had dried meats in them (I think) along with dried beans, corn, spices, potatoes and so forth.

This would be good for camping too. The only drawback I see is the price. $6.99 for a small packet. How much it makes I donno, I didn't have my reading glasses with me but judging by the size of the packets I would guess it making one good serving or 2 small servings.

Just an additional thought for those of us who are prepers or have a normal life of storms and outages.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrihgrSZx1mYT0R4gdXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNi ZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=frontier+soup+mixes&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t#id=53&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.shopify.com%2Fs%2Ffiles%2F1 %2F0009%2F5292%2F6271%2Fproducts%2Ffrontier-soups-connecticut-cottage-chicken-noodle-soup-mix-4.25-oz-healthy-heart-market_900x.jpg%3Fv%3D1579746136&action=close

[Phloating Phlasher]

Its nice they have the meat for the protein.
I do something similar.
The "Bear Creek" freeze dried mixes are great, but no meat.
https://bearcreekcountrykitchens.com/products/?_product_category=soup
I just keep a few tins of corned beef, Spam & similar packaged meats & add it cut up to the soup while cooking it.

I would caution though the listed prep times are very optimistic, I let them simmer for 2~3 times that. Its edible at their times but the dried veggies, particularly carrots, can still be "crunchy"

[Oyaji]

Tins of corned beef and Spam are good. I've also stocked up on canned tuna, salmon, chicken and beef stew. Have several #10 cans of dried, carrots, onions, beans, rolled oats, and apple slices on hand too. Packages of ramen and cup o'noodles can also be found in my pantry alongside basic condiments like salt, pepper, sugar and Tabasco sauce. Oh.....and don't forget the coffee, whiskey and ammo.

[Allen]

I think if SHTF prep time would go out the window. Some items will soften and plump up w/o cooking and simmering. It would take a lot longer but time is one thing you would have. Tea, rice, beans--OK this way. Coffee--yuk.

It's amazing how long Spam and tuna last in the can.

The list goes on and on. Man survived before refrigeration, electricity and piped in propane and nat gas. The biggest obstacle I would see now is younger folks being able to adapt to an environment not found in a 5 star hotel. Another reason camping is good--get them use to what life could be like and take to survive.

[Doc Sharptail]

I don't think much would be too far off norm for me. I still like open pot coffee- especially over a wood fire. If someone could get that taste into a drip percolator, they'd be billionaires.

We have a verson of Spam here called Klik that is a bit leaner, and to my palate, a little better tasting. I like it fried. There's still enough fat in it that it can be fried in a dry pan.

I still have a 2 burner coleman camp stove that uses propane bottles, like the ones used for some soldering torches. I have cooked a lot on that stove over the years, and would be in no trouble at all during a sustained power loss. It doesn't quite have the heat out-put of the pump-up naptha systems, but is a heck of a lot easier to use and maintain.
It needs a bit more time in below freezing conditions to get up to normal heat.

The rest of the stuff mentioned above mostly gets used by me in everyday cooking anyways. I like the speed of canned soup lunches, especially when we're outdoors doing our thing. Don't really bother with the specialty dried soups much. The lipton/knorr dry mixes, esp. chicken noodle is still an every day classic we use at home and on the fly.

I think the only thing we'd have trouble with is getting bread. I'm not into it enough to have a bread-maker machine, or an oven that is easily portable and other powered.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[jon_norstog]

I think the only thing we'd have trouble with is getting bread. I'm not into it enough to have a bread-maker machine, or an oven that is easily portable and other powered.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail


You can make bread in a dutch oven. Along with a lot of other things.

jn

[Allen]

I don't think much would be too far off norm for me. I still like open pot coffee- especially over a wood fire. If someone could get that taste into a drip percolator, they'd be billionaires.

Everything taste better cooked outdoors. At least to me it does. Perhaps by the time you get your camp set up, get a fire going and something to cook on/with you are more hungry than usual.

[Vern Humphrey]

I have 160 acres of oak trees and I make acorn flour, and save it in big glass jars. If I run out, I can always make more.

[Allen]

I have 160 acres of oak trees and I make acorn flour, and save it in big glass jars. If I run out, I can always make more.

You're not over-run with squirrels?

[Phloating Phlasher]

I think if SHTF prep time would go out the window. Some items will soften and plump up w/o cooking and simmering. It would take a lot longer but time is one thing you would have. Tea, rice, beans--OK this way. Coffee--yuk.

It's amazing how long Spam and tuna last in the can.

The list goes on and on. Man survived before refrigeration, electricity and piped in propane and nat gas. The biggest obstacle I would see now is younger folks being able to adapt to an environment not found in a 5 star hotel. Another reason camping is good--get them use to what life could be like and take to survive.

Absolutely.
I find compared to Europe America has defaulted almost exclusively to refrigeration.
Dehydrating, freeze drying, pickling & so on are far more prevalent over the pond. Far less food & types of food are refrigerated or frozen there.

[Allen]

Absolutely.
I find compared to Europe America has defaulted almost exclusively to refrigeration.
Dehydrating, freeze drying, pickling & so on are far more prevalent over the pond. Far less food & types of food are refrigerated or frozen there.

I remember as a kid seeing canned (mason jars) preserves in nearly every "old persons" homes. Most of us had pear and fig trees (apples don't grow good down here).

Fig preserves spread on biscuits was the way to go back then.

Meats were cooked in a smoke house and preserved with salt (before my time though). Potatoes were kept in cool cellars or other cool spots and lasted many days.

My mother never refrigerated chicken eggs and they stayed fresh for days. They aren't refrigerated when the hen lays them.

[Mark in Ottawa]

About 18 months ago we had a major and unusual wind storm called a Derecho. Nobody had ever heard the term before but it is a windstorm related to thunderstorms that knocked out power for four days all over the region. By the time we regained power everybody had to throw out all the food in the freezer. Most of us didn't have the sort of emergency food discussed above but for the first two days we simply ate the thawing meat in the freezer. After that, we got concerned about bacteria and ate canned food or pasta. Oddly this was the second such experience that we had in Ottawa. A few years ago a tornado hit parts of the city and knocked out one of the two main transformer stations blacking out about 300,000 homes.

The point I want to make however, is that food is not the only thing you need. You also need a mechanism for cooking it. As a precaution, I always buy a BBQ with a side burner and always have a full back-up tank of propane. This arrangement has served us well. You can heat water for tea, coffee or soup on the side burner and with a bit of fussing, you can use the BBQ as an oven (Heat it to temperature and then turn off all but one burner)

[Phloating Phlasher]

Yes we have a charcoal BBQ with a smoker.
In an emergency I'll load that thing to the gills & do a giant smoke out!
Where we lived there was a vandalism act that trashed the local power transformers & switching station. It was some kind of custom install & took a couple of weeks to even get partially running with standard replacements. THen it limped along for almost a year while a custom (upgraded) replacement was built & installed.
None of it went to waste.
Better that than wasting perfectly usable food.

[Former Cav]

reminds me, I have to buy one of those little propane cook tops that had two burners. I gave mine away when I moved.