Pouch food….mmmmm….nothin’ says lovin’ like something almost-fresh from the pouch. Military field rations (MRE’s) as well as Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDR’s) are packaged in heavy foil and vinyl envelopes that are usually called ‘retort pouches’. The food is already cooked…simply heat n’ eat. Pouches can be heated by leaving them on a hot engine, in a pot of boiling water, or even left on some hot sunny road surface. If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you have a more than passing familiarity with such foods. Retort pouch technology, such as it is, like all military technology, eventually trickles up/down into the civilian sector. Prime examples – Chicken McNuggets. Originally a military food idea that went nowhere until McDonalds picked up the ball and ran with it. Or, for a civilian to military example, CamelBak.
Anyway, when I shop at the local Albertsons or Costco I usually keep an eye open for ready-to-eat, no-cooking-required, single-serving, long-shelf-life products to try out and to add to my stockpiles. Foods packaged this way are more expensive but their convenience is worth it, in my opinion. These are the foods that get thrown into a five-gallon bucket with a half-dozen bottles of water, and then squirreled away somewhere. In a hurry, I could simply grab the bucket by the handle and know I’ve got a week of food ready to eat and ready to go.
So, todays experiments:
StarKist Tuna in 3 oz. Foil package
Zatarains New Orleans Style Long Grain & Wild Rice in 8.8 oz. Heavy plastic package
DelMonte Sliced Pears in pull-top 8.5 oz. Can (yeah, can….not a pouch)
The Zatarains was a disappointment. Smelled good but the texture of the rice was what youd expect from a food like rice that has been left to sit sealed in its own moisture for a long time. It was just too mushy to be appetizing. A little salty, but not bad in the flavor department but the texture made it just too unappealing. Rice and spaghetti are two foods that simply cannot store well in their cooked state. Thumbs down.
StarKist tuna was a winner. The packaging removes the need for the tuna to be drained like when its packed in a can. Consequently you get the same amount of tuna but without the heavy can and liquid. Tuna was tasty and seemed a bit more flavorful than the canned variety. A bit dry though, but not enough to be objectionable..make sure to knead and shake the package so that the liquid that is packed with it can be distributed evenly. Packaging is opaque and as heavy as any MRE entrée…big nod of approval for the packaging. I need to decode the date codes to find the anticipated shelf life, but this stuff is a winner. Its also available in ‘flavored’ varieties like lemon pepper and peppered.
Canned fruit, regardless of manufacturer, is usually a safe bet. What appealed to me here was the packaging. Most canned fruit comes in either the usual 15 oz or so ‘normal size’ cans or in the tiny pull-top cans that don’t really offer much in terms of portion. This particular can was a pull top style in the 8.5 oz. Size. Convenient pull-tab can and a reasonable size – good combo. Canned pears are canned pears….these were tender, well fleshed and good. Although cans are much heavier and bulkier than the pouches, when it comes to canned fruit I usually don’t mind the weight. However, these are a good size for keeping a case or two around for quick snacks and desserts during minimal-cooking-time events such as power outages and the like.
My focus in the particular products isn’t so much making them a central part of my food planning (larger packaging with less ‘easy-open-single-serving’ness fills those needs). Rather its for putting a package so that if I get stranded at work or somewhere, I’ll be able to function normally without the effects, both moral and physical, from lack of familiar food.
Starkist Tuna To Go is a staple of my BoB. It’s the same thing as what you described, but with crackers, mayo and relish packaged in as well. There’s also a tiny spoon, napkin and breathmint. I eat them for lunch about three days a week anyway, so having them in my BoB makes sense, as it’s not much of a change from my normal routine.
I’d love to find a foil retort packaging system intended for the “do it yourself” crowd.
Zatarains New Orleans Style Long Grain & Wild Rice in 8.8 oz. Heavy plastic package
I can’t imagine how bad this must’ve been. Though it’s not pre-prepared, Zatarain’s and others do make similar dishes that are uncooked and also in convenient foil packaging.
The flavoured varieties of the foil tuna aren’t as dry, and can make just about anything interesting. There’s a spicy sweet and sour (? Don’t remember the name) that I’ve blended into all sorts of things where you really wouldn’t expect it to fit, and had it turn out fabulous.
Yeah, but the emphasis here was on stuff that was ready-to-eat.
I’d think that if you could find the heavy-duty foil-type stuff they use, you’d just need to get a vacuum-sealer and a food dehydrator and experiment. For that matter, what about using heavy-duty plastic? Personal chefs and caterers make their own “boil-in bags” for clients all the time. Or will food not keep as long in plastic as it will in foil? I’ve done this before, but never tried to keep it any longer than 3 or 4 months.
military mre’s
most have a strange taste that only dog food would beat hands down always. cans of sardines, tuna, chicken, wrapped crackers, beef sticks, and dark choclate chunks are in my road kit larder.
arf, arf! Wildflower
Incidentally, you were spot on about the Idahoan instant mashed potatoes. Those are astonishingly good.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/03/22/canned.beef.ap/index.html
You may want to keep an eye on this market test.
Yeah, aint those something? I was higly impressed. Every once in a while a long-term food comes along thats actually *good*. go figure!
I’d be interested…although these guys http://www.internet-grocer.net/realmeat.htm offer various canned meats (and even canned butter) I havent gotten around to giving them a try yet. Meat is the big bottleneck in food storage…other than a few hams and SPAM not much meat is packaged for long term..although I can find whole canned chickens at my local Albertsons.
Its a bit more involved than that. Sadly, you cant make your own MRE using a vaccuum sealer…you’d still have to refrigerate whatever it is that youre sealing up. You could process meat in a manner that would make it stable at room temperature and that would involve pressure-canning, which moves you into glass jars rather than foil pouches.
I know that, that’s why I also recommended the food dehydrator. Obviously that won’t result in the moist tasty pot roasts-in-a-packet the military’s advanced technology can create, but you could experiement and create something relatively tasty and nutritious that would last awhile, couldn’t you?
That reminds me of a question…How many weeks/months/years do you think it’s necessary to stockpile food for? Do you think it’s necessary to stockpile years and years of food supplies? Is that even practical?
Hmm…well, I’d *like* a years supply. That gives me 12 months to get back on my feet or find some sort of other food source. You could store a years worth of food long-term, depending on what it is. If money is no object you could buy one of Mountian House’s freeze-dried one-year-package-deals for several thousand dollars. Would keep at least fifteen years.
I would think that thirty days worth of food (per person) would be the bare minimum. That doesnt take up much room and can be done fairly cheaply if you dont mind eating the same things every few days. (Oatmeal, PopTarts, Cream Of Wheat, Tang, Canned fruit, etc for breakfast; soup/rice for lunch; pasta or casseroles for dinner, etc.)
Do I think its necessary? For me, sure. For you, I dunno.
Is it practical? I think so. If nothing else it realizes some savings since purchases are made in bulk and then consumed/replaced over the course of the year.
Having money in the bank replaces the need for food in the pantry for most people since you can always trot down to Safeway, fork over a twenty and get a meal for your family. But if you think its possible that food may not be available at any price due to events (truckers strike, bad weather, earthquake, etc) then having it sitting on shelves in your basement starts to make a lot of sense.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing short-term. Long term always boggles me though because of the logistics–money to spend, storage space, supply rotation. I mean, if I had the money I’d buy one of Montain Home’s packages since they keep so well and are emminently storable, but I’m only making ends meet now as it is.
Even so, I’ve got about a month of food squirreled away in non-perishables, all of which get rotated through as part of my regular pantry. If the power stays on and I can keep access to my fridge and freezer–or if it’s wintertime outside–then I easily have two months, but of course I don’t want to count on that.
Dammit, the apocalypse can’t come until AFTER I’ve had a good enough job to be able to buy all the supplies I need! 😉
canned meat?
at “wal-marts” is sold cooked hamburger in 16 ounce mylar pouches. also have noted in the same soft can two diffrent kinds of chilli, at same store. as for “butter” have been using “molly mcbuttter” in my sauces and with potatoes or quickoats. just got to go and “shop around” as seen some stores sell cooked bacon bits in a jar, canned mackrel, or even spam “turkey”! bon appitiet! Wildflower
Re: canned meat?
Ive seen the Hormel product on shelves but havent tried it yet? Have you? And if so, howd it stack up? What was the expiration date like? How was the texture? Taste? Smell? Price?
And do you want a code so you can have your own LJ?
Re: canned meat?
2 year shelf life. $2.84 for a fully cooked 10.5 ounce package, equivalent to 1 pound fresh. comes mild spiced, mexican spiced, or ittalin spiced. I use it with a mushroom sauce amd elbow macaroni or with kidney beans. taste and texture, exellent. by the way, I write for ticom’s pine tree. anything else? Wildflower
um!
what is a code or an LI? Wildflower
Re: um!
To get your own free LiveJournal account you need an accoutn code. Paid users are given a certain amount of free codes every month to give away to people who want LiveJournal accounts. I havent used mine in a long time so I have quite a few. If you want your own LJ, I can give you a code so you can create one.
Re: um!
how? and thank you! Wildflower
Re: um!
Well, lets see, Id have to email you the code since if I posted it here it would get snapped up by casual readers. However, if email privacy concerns are an issue, you could post/paste a pgp key or something and I could then just encode it and post it here. Up to you.
Re: um!
A quick check of the FAQ shows that invite codes are no longer necessary..so I guess you can just go ahead and make your own account when you want.
Re: canned meat?
As for canned meats, I think it’s Armour but I’m not sure, but it’s good stuff, has a nice gravy and is yummy on rice or mashed potatoes. It’s not like Armour makes it. Just look for the “Made in Argentina” stamp on the bottom of the can. It’s sold under several different brand names for about $2.00 a can on sale, or $2.80 a can regular. I’ve got about 10 cans in my pantry at the moment.
I’ve got at least 30 days of food stashed away in my pantry. Hell, maybe more if I have to ration. Bags and bags of dried beans, rice, several pounds of salt, 10 pounds of sugar, tea, bags and bags of whole bean coffee and lots of canned meats and fish. Seeing as I live in a medium sized city (about 1 million), anymore food than that is would be useless as my main goal would be to get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible once it was clear that bugging out was needed.
But I’ve always keep a large supply of dried beans and rice on hand. Being an Eagle Scout and all, ya know, be prepared and all. Lately though I’ve been buying a bit extra each time I go to the store. I need more sugar though, and some creamer powder for my coffee. And a hand cranked coffee grinder. I’ve got a bid on a nice all-brass hand cranked coffee grinder right now on eBay. I should get it for $20.00. I saw a nice, cheap peculator coffee pot in the camping section of Wal-Mart the other day. I’m going to buy one of this weekend. I picked up a kerosene/lamp oil lantern there for $8 a week ago. I’m thinking that eventually the power will go and I do so love being able to see at night and lamp oil is cheaper than propane. I wouldn’t even know where to find kerosene these days.
Back at food stuff though. Don’t forget the salt. If you are thinking of stocking up on food for 30 days to a year be sure to buy plenty of salt. Your body needs that shit. Especially in the heat of summer. It don’t take much to keep you going every day, but if you don’t have any you could bad shape.
kerosene?
try your “true value” or “service star” hardware stores; or check those dealers whom sell kerosene space heaters. charcoal lighter fluid can be used in a kerosene/ lamp oil lantern. nice about salt it stores well in sealed air/moisture tight jars forever. don’t forget your spices in case you need to make jerky from your freezer meats or fresh road-kill! Wildflower