Posted on 04/02/2023 9:47:28 AM PDT by The Louiswu
Having survived a close call with a tornado this past Friday night I got a dose of reality and I find I’m taking the health of my family a great deal more seriously now.
That being said I’m looking for suggestions on the best available emergency food rations pack or kits. I’ve looked at the offerings on Amazon but there are several negative reviews and it’s difficult to choose without seeing them.
Thanks for the advice.
Ping for later.
I buy Jasmine rice in 25 pound bags and store in 1/2 gallon ball canning jars with oxy absorbers. The oldest I have eaten has been 7 years old - like I bought it yesterday. Also, no bug or rodent issues with glass. DO NOT do this with brown rice. It has fat that will go rancid! We have two upright freezers and buy brown and red rice from Asian groceries and store them. We’ve used 2 year old brown rice that’s two years old when stored at 0 degrees.
Ditto for pasta. I also use 1 gallon mylar bags with oxy absorbers and then stack them in a rubbermaid container for rodent protection.
Instant potatoes. Buy the family sized box of PLAIN instant flakes. NO fat, oils, flavorings or such - they go rancid. Put in a mylar bag or ball jar with oxy absorber and they will last for 10 years. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that instant mashed potatoes have come a long way in taste.
Ditto for dehydrated potatoes. Don’t buy the costly prepper stuff. Go to Walmart and buy the Great Value brand scalloped potatoes. Dump all the potato slices into a glass ball jar or mylar bag with oxy absorber. Ditch the cheese pack. Same potatoes as the prepper cans but 1/2 the price do it yourself.
I also bought a big thing of dehydrated chopped onions at Sams and put into 1/2 gallon ball jars. Way cheaper than prepper stuff. I’ve eaten some at the 8 year mark with no discernable lost of quality.
One more thing. flour tortillas. They will keep 1 year in the freezer with no loss of quality. A great bread substitute.
Important: DO NOT store anything that is not a low moisture (less than 10%) food using oxygen absorbers. Botulism. Serious stuff.
All of my suggestions are easy to research for credibility.
Peak Refuel is just as good as Mountain House. It’s more expensive but you get more food.
I did a lot of traveling around South Korea with ROK Captain in the 1950s. I was told not to eat Korean food, so we were issued K-rations. The first thing we did before leaving Seoul was to sell them on the Korean market (the Koreans wanted them because they contained American cigarettes). We were careful to eat thoroughly cooked Korean food and drink water used to cook rice from farmers on order to avoid parasites, and came through okay. I really don’t remember what K-rations were like. I kept one of the P-38 can openers in my wallet for about forty years.
I think the first step is to define what you want them for. What scenario are you preparing for? For how long? What facilities or resources do you expect to still be available?
Whatever the brand, do you have somewhere to store them that won’t get blown away?
Like an underground cement bunker/ basement/ shelter?
For Later Reference - thanks
My pleasure. One other good suggestion. You can find the following in some Walmarts, not all. This is real beef, no gravy or seasoning or anything else. Just beef. If you can get it at your Walmart, try a can. If not, live dangerously and order a case. Beats the heck out of the meat in the prepper packs. Note, I am not a fan of the ground beef version, it’s too fine, has no body.
It makes good shredded beef tacos, for example.
https://www.keystonemeats.com/collections/all
“...and put what’s left right in the fridge....still in the pan.”
THANK YOU! My wife doesn’t like me doing that, but it just makes sense. Bear in mind, we have an expansive set of Rubbermaid food storage containers. But it doesn’t make sense to bring those into use if we’re eating leftovers the next night.
We're set up for kerosene. We have a couple of kerosene stoves and an oven that fits over one of the kerosene stoves. We even have a couple of kerosene heaters for the dead of winter. We also have propane tanks but we don't expect those to last long. Nothing we have will last forever. We're just set up to get us thru several months of SHTF. Then we're ALL eating bugs.
Here's a link to Miles Stair's "all thIngs kerosene" website. I think he makes his living selling wicks for every kerosene stove, heater and lamp ever made, but his site has SO MUCH MORE info. His website index page:
AND it's got a much better chance of being used rather than growing green stuff.
LOL..correct! It's hard to shove a 3-quart stainless steel pot to the back of the fridge and forget about it
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