Rant: Survival Food is Annoying

[BrewerGeorge]

I've been adding some long-term food storage to my stockpiles recently. It's so irritating to shop for this stuff.

Industry-wide, the definition of "serving" and "meal" has been set around 300 Calories, and a "day" is defined as two of these "meals." That's 600 Calories per day. While that's certainly better than nothing, it's far from a minimum long-term ration. They do this because decades ago, somebody decided that 600 Calories per day was the minimum survival ration for lifeboat survivors, but that tiny amount doesn't support any kind of activity at all. You need to double or treble that if you actually want to do something. That's why each pack of stuff like Mountain Home is two "servings" to make up an actual meal.

To get a real day, you have to double up each meal and add another lunch. So basically, you have to divide any time listed by three to get to a realistic 1800 Calorie day. A 30 man*day pack is really good for 10 days - tripling the cost per day of course. The irritating part is that this required math messes us packaging and leads to odd remainders. For instance, 10 "servings" is pretty typical for a bulk pack of freeze-dried (#10 can or large pouch). With real serving sizes, that's not ten meals, but five. So for 2 people, that's 2 1/2 meals, but for 3 people, it's not enough for 2 meals. If your family is 4 people, it's even worse. All these remainders will, of course, get eaten to round out the calories for a typical family (dad gets a little more kind of thing), but that means that realistically you can't just divide by three like the bulk math would tell you. It all makes planning unnecessarily difficult.

The bad thing is that they don't need to do this. People don't buy this stuff to pinch pennies but because they want long-term food security. Everybody knows the reality, so they're not fooling anybody. And freeze-dried, 25-year food is not that expensive in bulk - about $1 for each 200 Cal. I'm willing to pay whatever it costs, I just wish they didn't make it so hard to figure out how much food you're getting.

 

[ViperJock]

Good points. <-- quality post.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Good points. <-- quality post.

I agree. rep inbound.

 

[sloughfoot]

And how much salt you are getting in each one also.

 

[rparker3709@comcast.net]

A serving is not a meal. A serving of several items would make a meal.
Its nice to have some of the pre packaged food around for convenience and some variety. They can come in handy in a BOB or just backpacking. Or if just dont feel like putting in the effort of meal prep for a day or two.
If you really want to put back serious food store's for your family then package bulk food yourself. . You control what goes in the bags and the quality of it. Its cheaper which means you can put back more for less money. Costs you a few afternoons (according to how crazy you get, lol) but to me thats better than shelling out more cash for less products. Only down side is lack of variety.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

All of the very good points OP mentions are precisely why I got into canning. I was tired of paying for over-salted, non-energy-dense food that requires additional water to cook. Canning is about a dollar per jar initially plus the cost of the canner itself, and any pectin or pickling salts if you want to can fruit jams/preserves or pickles. It's cost effective to a degree that mass-produce freeze-dried food will never match - although I still do keep a few packages on hand for camping trips or hikes or long car trips, and I do generally like the Mountain House brand insofar as it goes - but I'd much rather can long-term supplies or any large quantity of intermediate-term foodstuffs. Almost anything can be canned. They're even coming up with safe ways to can foods that until recently could not be canned - pumpkin, for instance. After soft boiling, and cubed, even pumpkin can be safely pressure-canned. It is a hobby (or way of life) that is well worth the hundred-dollars-or-less it takes to get started canning. You can control precisely what size and quantity and unit-of-use you'll use (half-pint, pint, quart), how much or how little salt to use, and the certainty that it has been prepared properly and safely. Even a person of moderate means can safely can great quantities, if necessary. Once canned, unlike frozen foods, canned goods are not wholly reliant upon freezing temperatures and all the energy that goes with maintaining those temperatures. Canned foods are already pre-cooked, in a sense, and in an emergency can be consumed without additional cooking or even preparation, if you don't mind cold steaks.

To anyone who might suggest my under-$100 budget is not doable: Walmart.com has 16qt Presto brand weighted-gauge canners for $69.97 at the moment. Quart jars in stores for roughly a dollar apiece or just under. They also have 23qt Presto dial-gauge canners with one dozen quart jars as a bundle for $80 (though I would convert the dial gauge to a weighted gauge). A spare gasket for either of these canners is a few dollars, the gasket for my 23qt weighted-gauge canner cost me $4. If you don't know how to can or don't know anyone who does, there are plenty of books on canning to be had for less than $10. I picked up the Ball Blue Book of Canning, which gives instructions and principles of canning as well as tested, verified, safe recipes, for less than $5 and after one minor mistake with my first batch of corn, had the process down within about an hour. Ball (and other brands too, I'm sure) also have websites to help guide in which you can find recipes of your own, or calculate how much pectin to use for a certain jam recipe if you don't have a ready reference on hand: Recipes

One could also purchase tools that make canning and the steps of canning easier (jar lifters, can lifters), but for less than one picture of Benjamin Franklin, you can get started canning and well on the way to food independence and food supply control, without having to pay out the nose for generally high-sodium, low-energy, fairly expensive-per-ration foodstuffs and start canning your own produce, your own meats, your own fruits. Who needs the grocery store, anyhow? If and when things truly do go pear-shaped, how much would you be willing to pay to insulate yourself from the ensuing chaos by having a ready method of long-term food preparation and storage?

Maybe this isn't the most relevant post, and if not, let me apologize in advance. But it's just my personal suggested solution to what OP has already declared - what some may have known for awhile - to be major problems of freeze-dried foodstuffs.

 

[rparker3709@comcast.net]

All of the very good points OP mentions are precisely why I got into canning. I was tired of paying for over-salted, non-energy-dense food that requires additional water to cook. Canning is about a dollar per jar initially plus the cost of the canner itself, and any pectin or pickling salts if you want to can fruit jams/preserves or pickles. It's cost effective to a degree that mass-produce freeze-dried food will never match - although I still do keep a few packages on hand for camping trips or hikes or long car trips, and I do generally like the Mountain House brand insofar as it goes - but I'd much rather can long-term supplies or any large quantity of intermediate-term foodstuffs. Almost anything can be canned. They're even coming up with safe ways to can foods that until recently could not be canned - pumpkin, for instance. After soft boiling, and cubed, even pumpkin can be safely pressure-canned. It is a hobby (or way of life) that is well worth the hundred-dollars-or-less it takes to get started canning. You can control precisely what size and quantity and unit-of-use you'll use (half-pint, pint, quart), how much or how little salt to use, and the certainty that it has been prepared properly and safely. Even a person of moderate means can safely can great quantities, if necessary. Once canned, unlike frozen foods, canned goods are not wholly reliant upon freezing temperatures and all the energy that goes with maintaining those temperatures. Canned foods are already pre-cooked, in a sense, and in an emergency can be consumed without additional cooking or even preparation, if you don't mind cold steaks.

To anyone who might suggest my under-$100 budget is not doable: Walmart.com has 16qt Presto brand weighted-gauge canners for $69.97 at the moment. Quart jars in stores for roughly a dollar apiece or just under. They also have 23qt Presto dial-gauge canners with one dozen quart jars as a bundle for $80 (though I would convert the dial gauge to a weighted gauge). A spare gasket for either of these canners is a few dollars, the gasket for my 23qt weighted-gauge canner cost me $4. If you don't know how to can or don't know anyone who does, there are plenty of books on canning to be had for less than $10. I picked up the Ball Blue Book of Canning, which gives instructions and principles of canning as well as tested, verified, safe recipes, for less than $5 and after one minor mistake with my first batch of corn, had the process down within about an hour. Ball (and other brands too, I'm sure) also have websites to help guide in which you can find recipes of your own, or calculate how much pectin to use for a certain jam recipe if you don't have a ready reference on hand: Recipes

One could also purchase tools that make canning and the steps of canning easier (jar lifters, can lifters), but for less than one picture of Benjamin Franklin, you can get started canning and well on the way to food independence and food supply control, without having to pay out the nose for generally high-sodium, low-energy, fairly expensive-per-ration foodstuffs and start canning your own produce, your own meats, your own fruits. Who needs the grocery store, anyhow? If and when things truly do go pear-shaped, how much would you be willing to pay to insulate yourself from the ensuing chaos by having a ready method of long-term food preparation and storage?

Maybe this isn't the most relevant post, and if not, let me apologize in advance. But it's just my personal suggested solution to what OP has already declared - what some may have known for awhile - to be major problems of freeze-dried foodstuffs.

Canning - time proven, cost effective way to amass food for your family. Great skill to have. Once again time over money.

 

[1861navy]

All of the very good points OP mentions are precisely why I got into canning. I was tired of paying for over-salted, non-energy-dense food that requires additional water to cook. Canning is about a dollar per jar initially plus the cost of the canner itself, and any pectin or pickling salts if you want to can fruit jams/preserves or pickles. It's cost effective to a degree that mass-produce freeze-dried food will never match - although I still do keep a few packages on hand for camping trips or hikes or long car trips, and I do generally like the Mountain House brand insofar as it goes - but I'd much rather can long-term supplies or any large quantity of intermediate-term foodstuffs. Almost anything can be canned. They're even coming up with safe ways to can foods that until recently could not be canned - pumpkin, for instance. After soft boiling, and cubed, even pumpkin can be safely pressure-canned. It is a hobby (or way of life) that is well worth the hundred-dollars-or-less it takes to get started canning. You can control precisely what size and quantity and unit-of-use you'll use (half-pint, pint, quart), how much or how little salt to use, and the certainty that it has been prepared properly and safely. Even a person of moderate means can safely can great quantities, if necessary. Once canned, unlike frozen foods, canned goods are not wholly reliant upon freezing temperatures and all the energy that goes with maintaining those temperatures. Canned foods are already pre-cooked, in a sense, and in an emergency can be consumed without additional cooking or even preparation, if you don't mind cold steaks.

To anyone who might suggest my under-$100 budget is not doable: Walmart.com has 16qt Presto brand weighted-gauge canners for $69.97 at the moment. Quart jars in stores for roughly a dollar apiece or just under. They also have 23qt Presto dial-gauge canners with one dozen quart jars as a bundle for $80 (though I would convert the dial gauge to a weighted gauge). A spare gasket for either of these canners is a few dollars, the gasket for my 23qt weighted-gauge canner cost me $4. If you don't know how to can or don't know anyone who does, there are plenty of books on canning to be had for less than $10. I picked up the Ball Blue Book of Canning, which gives instructions and principles of canning as well as tested, verified, safe recipes, for less than $5 and after one minor mistake with my first batch of corn, had the process down within about an hour. Ball (and other brands too, I'm sure) also have websites to help guide in which you can find recipes of your own, or calculate how much pectin to use for a certain jam recipe if you don't have a ready reference on hand: Recipes

One could also purchase tools that make canning and the steps of canning easier (jar lifters, can lifters), but for less than one picture of Benjamin Franklin, you can get started canning and well on the way to food independence and food supply control, without having to pay out the nose for generally high-sodium, low-energy, fairly expensive-per-ration foodstuffs and start canning your own produce, your own meats, your own fruits. Who needs the grocery store, anyhow? If and when things truly do go pear-shaped, how much would you be willing to pay to insulate yourself from the ensuing chaos by having a ready method of long-term food preparation and storage?

Maybe this isn't the most relevant post, and if not, let me apologize in advance. But it's just my personal suggested solution to what OP has already declared - what some may have known for awhile - to be major problems of freeze-dried foodstuffs.

Exactly right. That was my biggest problem with "survival food" is there is practically nothing in it but junk and very little calories, and what calories are there seem to be empty calories. Another great thing about canning is like you said you can can almost anything, most soups, and even meats, and it's still much cheaper in the end for what you get that freeze dried food isn't even worth it. I think all totaled my first initial investment to get started was around $50 for supplies mainly jars, pectins, sugars, vinegars, salts and seasonings and a jar lifter. Occasionally when I make crock pot meals, like chili or beans and rice, i'll can a jar or two of them.

EDIT: cold steak is better than no steak.

 

[ViperJock]

And how much salt you are getting in each one also.

Salt can potentially be good in a survival situation as it prevents water loss and replaced salt lost from sweating. Obviously if you have health issues that are exacerbated by salt....

An interesting study in evolution is the reason African American descendants of slaves are prone to salt retention hypertension: The ability to retain salt and thus hydration was beneficial to surviving slaver ships. Survival of the fittest significantly increased the trait of salt retention in this population.

Now, it is no longer a favorable trait since water is readily available in the USA, but in certain conditions, having extra salt on board/salt retention could still be beneficial.

Healthy people can eat a lot of salt with no problem if there is enough water to go with it. You have to be predisposed to certain diseases for salt in any reasonable amount to be harmful.

 

[Yeah]

Food manufacturers can't know what activity you intend, so it will always be the case that you will need to engage in math to determine your rations for any particular purpose regardless of how the food is labeled.

I often fly into remote country for hunts. Many of them require considerable hikes from the landing site to make camp, or to find game, and much of that is in tough terrain. What constitutes 'a meal' differs between that which is stored in the aircraft for the purposes of surviving if we have to ditch, and that which is in my pack while using 800 calories/hour hiking in the mountains with half a goat carcass strapped to a full pack. The former fits well with how 'survival' food companies label and the latter runs far from it.

But only I can know which purpose the food will be put to.

I buy nearly all of what I eat in the field in bulk, package it according to how I will be cooking for a given excursion. At a go a jetboil cooks X grams of oats, rice, beans, etc. Light pots on an open fire Y. A boat trip or the like, where weight matters little and dutch ovens can go, Z. That known a person can quickly calculate the numbers of packages required by estimating the calories needed for each day's activity. Add in an appropriate quantity of emergency rations and you are there.

 

[katfishinking]

i totaly agree with the canning post. once you get started, it becomes almost second nature. we opened up some ham chunks from 7-12, two years old. it was delicious. we will keep on canning, along with some other, various pre-packaged foods.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I've been canning for a while. I actually got into pressure canning to can starter wort for making beer. However, I consider canned stuff (including commercial and home) to be intermediate term - 2 years or so. I'm doing ok with intermediate at this point. What I'm doing now is adding long-term, low bulk stuff which pretty much requires dehydrated.

 

[Gamez235]

Long term.... Buckets of oats, rice and wheat... Plus a good grain mill. Canning.. Fruit trees and bushes hardy to your location...Knowledge of gardening and wild edibles. Chickens, rabbits, quail.

Skill vs. storage..

 

[Scout]

What are some examples of energy dense foods one would want to can?

 

[HeadlessRoland]

What are some examples of energy dense foods one would want to can?

I can pretty much anything that can be canned that I have on hand and any appreciable extra of - fruits, vegetables, meat, sometimes even full meals based on some tested recipes. That way it doesn't matter if there's a snowstorm in winter, there's always fruit and meat on hand. Want a pumpkin pie in the middle of February with three feet of ice-covered snow on the ground? No problem. Puree the pumpkin chunks you canned, add the spices, sweeten and condense some milk from the cows, some eggs from the chickens, and you're having pumpkin pie in February. Or whenever. It tastes better than that store-canned pumpkin, you know where it came from, how it was prepared, and unlike Libby-brand canned 'pumpkin,' yours is pumpkin and not squash meat. (Not that you can't also make a decent squash pie, but I'm a big fan of honesty in my foodstuffs.) Peanut butter is probably the most energy-dense food I've ever canned.

Despite my boycott of Backwoods Home Magazine due to their insistence that people should keep as much fiat currency on hand as possible (something I strongly feel is not only bad advice but literally unconscionable), it is where I derived my peanut butter canning recipe originally. I use peanut oil instead of vegetable oil, but I've noticed no difference and a stronger peanut flavor:

http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/aj84.html

 

[longbarrel]

beans, venison, bison, spinach, beets,

 

[Leadeye]

We can, but mostly we just buy canned stuff we like from the grocery and rotate it. I figure that if a situation comes where you really need it, and it lasts more than a month, all bets are off.