Best tasting emergency food

[user120312]

Reading the McD's apple pie thread today in OT, I ran the prepper pantry inventory through my mind and, heck, case of pie crust mix, check, cans of apple pie filling, check, and a couple tubs of beef tallow, check. I think I'll have some fried apple pie fun later today. Maybe make some apple fritters too. Only other ingredient is water for the pie crust and maybe some granular sugar and/or cinnamon. Definitely doable in an emergency even over an open fire in a skillet.

ETA, tried it first with one 'pie' with some thin sliced Spam and locally made cheddar cheese inside to test the deep frying part. Looks like about 325-350F for two minutes on a side works great. Pie dough gets a bit fluffy but with crisp exterior and no greasiness. One roughly 3x5 for me was plenty. There's probably a half dozen in the box. I put the rest of the dough in the fridge. I did add a tablespoon of raw sugar to the dough when mixing it.

Beef fat rules. 👍

[TrappedinCalifornia]

Reading the McD's apple pie thread today in OT, I ran the prepper pantry inventory through my mind and, heck, case of pie crust mix, check, cans of apple pie filling, check, and a couple tubs of beef tallow, check. I think I'll have some fried apple pie fun later today. Maybe make some apple fritters too. Only other ingredient is water for the pie crust and maybe some granular sugar and/or cinnamon. Definitely doable in an emergency even over an open fire in a skillet.

ETA, tried it first with one 'pie' with some thin sliced Spam and locally made cheddar cheese inside to test the deep frying part. Looks like about 325-350F for two minutes on a side works great. Pie dough gets a bit fluffy but with crisp exterior and no greasiness. One roughly 3x5 for me was plenty. There's probably a half dozen in the box. I put the rest of the dough in the fridge. I did add a tablespoon of raw sugar to the dough when mixing it.

Beef fat rules. 👍

[user120312]

Had another one for dinner, this time with some paquillo peppers in it along with the Spam and cheese.

Variety.

The key IMO is moderation. A glass of Argentinian wine doesn't hurt. I don't think the dozens BBQ'ng next door are using emergency food rather a lot of dead animals. Exquisite.

[TrappedinCalifornia]

Over the last week or so, I've been attempting to use up some older Mountain House Breakfast Skillet pouches from before they made changes to the packaging, nutrition information, etc.; i.e., from before they began declaring their pouches have a "50 year" shelf life.

Rolling half in a large, flour tortilla (thereby, making two 'breakfast burritos' from a single pouch) isn't too bad. Such is especially true if you mix in a small bottle of hot sauce left over from an MRE. But, they are 'salty' and will leave you relishing water. Likewise, while they keep you 'fueled,' they don't necessarily make you feel 'full.'

I'm now out of those older pouches, though I have a plastic tote with an host of 'newer' versions. I just need to finish off the 4 or 5 packs of older Beef Stroganoff, which I also have newer versions of.

I need to try their Cheesy Beef Enchilada Bowl again...

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I've tried it once, again wrapped in large, flour tortillas and it too wasn't all that bad. But, it needed something... 'more.' Likewise, once again, the saltiness is more pronounced than I'd like. While it is understandable and less noticeable when walking for several hours with a pack on your back in the heat, as 'survival' food when your 'sheltering,' the need for more than 'normal' water is a bit... bothersome.

[user120312]

At the cheap end of the emergency food spectrum, the Knorr Cilantro Lime rice meal base continues to impress.

Tonight I added the usual dehydrated Augason Farms bell peppers and a diced Penrose mild pickled sausage but also added some food service Roland piquillo peppers to the mix and clipped a few sprigs of fresh cilantro and Japanese onion from the kitchen garden.

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Nothing fancy, just the basics. Water, a couple tablespoons of beef tallow, and the ingredients. To complete my low cost midnight meal, I had it with a glass of excellent Argentinian Cabernet Franc, 2021 from Sur de Los Andes.

The few vacationers who showed up for the Fourth bolted long before noon today and it's been like the holiday never happened, so I'm back to subsistence eating tonight. Smells great. God grants us gifts.

[twinfin]

Though I don’t stock the freeze dried and canned products like you guys do, I appreciate your “research” and sharing the results of your culinary experiments. It’s always interesting to see what others are doing and experimenting with in their preparations for future uncertainties.

[Duck Killer]

I am probably a lot different than everyone else stock piling food. I have a mix of mre, freeze dry, can food and freezer meat. Where I differ is I spend my time creating habitat for all my animals. Keeping predators low and developing water resources my rabbit, quail, deer, pigs and elk populations have exploded. Meat isn’t a problem. Added with ponds you can create a sustainable food sources that are passive.

[user120312]

I think diversity in supply is a healthy thing.

Today, my neighbor somehow got locked out of her garage/shop where all her chicken feed was and I took a look at it and figured either call a locksmith or I'd take one of the steel panels off the wall (steel sheet sided building) and gain access that way. She called the locksmith and an hour and 216 bucks later she had the feed for her 15 or so chickens plus those down at her son's farm, where there were a lot more.

I tell the story because of long experience with animal husbandry in the Central Valley of California.Keeping the sheep out of the front yard as the herdsmen drove them down the road to the next field. Herding cattle on the tractor with the Sheriff when neighbor's cows got out. Stuff like that.

I kept it simple. Live at the beach, big ocean out there, capitalize on being an omnivore. No family to feed, just a cat and now a feral and her three kittens whom I have no doubt will get eaten in the next few months by the predators in the area.

Tonight's good tasting emergency food, a tried and true staple of the pantry building, came to me while I was picking up a deal on Schreiber's whole shelf stable milk, which cost me about what I paid back in 2023. The deal on the cheese was even better than that, about 3.75 a pound. I had to go back to Covid to find that good a deal so picked up four pounds of it.

It also can make decent fish bait, properly presented, if I can't find rock worms or mussels down at the beach to fish with.

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Part of it will go into a bean dip I make for parties to go along with the bangin deal I got on party chips over the 4th and, here in Oregon, SNAP still pays for snacks, and cheese, and beans, so heh I won't let the attendees know the state's taxpayers paid for their chips and dip. Leftovers of my frugality with food since I no longer get SNAP as a senior. The account doesn't disappear for a year.

So, Velveeta, Old El Paso refried beans, chipotle, taco seasoning, fresh cilantro from the kitchen garden, dehydrated onions, piquillo peppers and some beef tallow. All from the emergency pantry. Never had to leave the house. There's nothing in town for me, just people I'd prefer not seeing. Big trees and a beach are fine.

[echo1]

I would think in an emergency everything would taste like prime rib. PAX

[user120312]

Personally, I didn't know what real steak or prime rib was until getting a job at a restaurant as a prep cook in high school. Part of my job was preparing the prime rib pans for the chefs and getting them started in the ovens.

We were still eating emergency steaks (hamburger mixed with seaonings and cereal) and canned foods (home canned) like my parents ate during the war. Downside of having Depression era parents. Probably why I don't mind it now.

Last time I had a real steak was at my best friend's 34th anniversary party back in 2020. Four months later he'd be dead of 'turbo cancer'.