Emergency / Prepper foods - Preparing for the inevitable Nuclear Apocalypse / Chinese invasion / Ragnarok / Second American Civil War / Super Smallpox / FEMA camps / Yellowstone Supervolcano / Second Coming of Christ / etc etc...

[2d6]

I've been thinking of making a little emergency stock of food given current events in the world and the US, what brands/types of food would you all recommend that keeps well for a few years as well as taste decent? Preferably foodstuffs you could find at the local supermarket; MREs and other related "survival" products aren't an option for me given how inflated their prices have been since the coof started.

 

[The Pink Panther]

Nuclear War would wipe out humanity, there’s no point in living ten more miserable years than everyone else

 

[TFT-A9]

Rice and beans are excellent staples that offer a lot of possibilities. If you keep it right, plain old flour is also good for this purpose - in a serious SHTF situation it can be turned into bannock pretty easily around a campfire, and it's not hard to find uses for it in the meantime. Stockpiles of this stuff should be cycled out and used FIFO on a regular basis, though.

 

[Disheveled Human]

I've been thinking of making a little emergency stock of food given current events in the world and the US, what brands/types of food would you all recommend that keeps well for a few years as well as taste decent? Preferably foodstuffs you could find at the local supermarket; MREs and other related "survival" products aren't an option for me given how inflated their prices have been since the coof started.

Just get canned goods, most are complete meals that are ready to eat out of the can and there is tons of variety. Maybe try out some of those life straws and some water purification tabs. Get large cans of electrolyte drink mix. Portable grill/stoves are great to have on hand in case of power outages and of course a competently put together medical kit. Flashlight, batteries and radio. Should cost you around $500 to put together which leaves plenty of time to be able to wait and get a chance to restock.

 

[Freshly Baked Socks]

what brands/types of food would you all recommend that keeps well for a few years as well as taste decent?

Consider whatever you like to eat that is canned. Keep more of it in the pantry/cupboard.
Unopened jars store for over a year in the pantry without refrigeration. (pickles, mayo)
Canned fruit, canned meats(mmm spam), canned soups, canned chili.
Rotate stock when it goes stale.
I enjoy tuna (add mayo and pickles if you are rich) on crackers when the power goes out.
Beans and rice - and spices if you can heat water.

 

[2d6]

Nuclear War would wipe out humanity, there’s no point in living ten more miserable years than everyone else

True, but by that logic I'd be rapture'd away from the Earth in the Second Coming and get drowned in ash in a Yellowstone event. "Better to have and not need" and all that.

Rice and beans are excellent staples that offer a lot of possibilities. If you keep it right, plain old flour is also good for this purpose - in a serious SHTF situation it can be turned into bannock pretty easily around a campfire, and it's not hard to find uses for it in the meantime. Stockpiles of this stuff should be cycled out and used FIFO on a regular basis, though.

I do already eat a lot of beans so that wouldn't be a hard transition. Do you know if I had to make any preparations to make them last such as dehydration or can I just throw it in a bag and forget about it.

Just get canned goods, most are complete meals that are ready to eat out of the can and there is tons of variety. Maybe try out some of those life straws and some water purification tabs. Get large cans of electrolyte drink mix. Portable grill/stoves are great to have on hand in case of power outages and of course a competently put together medical kit.

I'm already scouting out a few canned meat brands to add to my pile, do you have any suggestions/recommendations for good brands beyond spam and baked beans?

 

[Disheveled Human]

I'm already scouting out a few canned meat brands to add to my pile, do you have any suggestions/recommendations for good brands beyond spam and baked beans?

Honestly I am a big fan of canned stew like campbells chunky ect. they last for at least 2 years.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

MREs are a meme for survival anyway. Only use MREs for actual combat missions.

Preface: Buy stuff that you would eat normally. If you don't want to eat it now you won't want to eat it during an emergency. Food is one of the most important components of keeping a high morale, which is absolutely vital during an emergency.

Canned meats, and I don't just mean spam. There are plenty of potted meats that keep for a decade or more. One of my favorites is the canned white meat chicken breast chunks. Store these in a cool but not cold place that is dry year round.

Dry goods. Specifically beans and rice. This will be the majority of your calories. They keep well and can be turned into many meals. Ramen noodles are also calorically dense and keep well. Buy individual 5lb bags, put them in trash bags, put the trash backs inside a plastic bucket with an airtight lid. Keep silica moisture absorber packets inside the buckets.

Canned and preserved vegetables. However it is important to find which vegetables keep the longest. You're wanting 3 year shelf life minimum. Store with the meat.

Canned fruits: you need fruits to prevent things like scurvy. Canned fruits don't store very well cycle these out yearly or every other year. Again, some store better than others. Store with the other canned goods.

Multivitamins and supplements: preserved foods are not going to keep you up on things like zinc and vitamins D or K. You'll need these.

Seasonings: I cannot overstate the importance food plays in morale. You need, NEED to keep shelf stable seasonings of all kinds. Plan for meals, don't just buy random bullshit. For instance, spam and steamed rice 3 times a week sounds terrible, but what about canned chicken breast on a bed of steamed rice mixed with cumin and chicken bullion, or some curry seasoning, some seasoned pinto beans, and a side of green beans? That doesn't sound like a bad meal, and eating those simple but comforting foods will keep your mental fatigue low, which is absolutely vital.

Generally you should bug out to a place with accessible fresh water and therefore focus on having filtration and sterilization equipment, but you can store water if you have a bug in plan. The rule of thumb for non exhaustive work is one gallon of water per person per day, amd that is for drinking and cooking only, that doesn't include sanitation or hygiene. You can get food-service grade 55 gallon plastic drums with air tight lids for water storage for relatively cheap. If you are planning on bugging in, which again, is very viable, especially if everyone else is also trying to bug out, I would keep a few of these in the garage. You can't just fill them up with water though, it must be treated. You can buy water stabilization chemicals online for cheap, which will let the water keep for a few years. Fill them up, treat the water, and seal them. Most of these barrels also have a space for a hand pump to be fitted to the top. I'd buy one of those.

Any questions?

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

Gas station pizza, especially 7-11 can repel lightsabers, adamantium blades and especially really ouchy legos.

 

[TFT-A9]

Do you know if I had to make any preparations to make them last such as dehydration or can I just throw it in a bag and forget about it.

@A Cardboard Box covered it pretty well.

MREs are a meme for survival anyway. Only use MREs for actual combat missions.

Those things are hilariously calorically dense (we're talking easily double an average, active person's daily caloric intake in one MRE) because troops in combat situations are likely burning calories like fucking MAD. They'll also stop you up so bad you won't shit for a week.

 

[FatalTater]

Dried beans, rice, flour, corn meal, pasta can all be kept longer if put in the freezer.

Instant oatmeal. A big can from Aldi is about $3 I think, and it's 30 servings.

Dried fruit, nuts, powdered milk might be something to have around if you like that sort of thing. Hot cocoa mix that you just add water to is something I like to keep around. Also coffee and tea. They last a long time, or they would if we'd stop using so much of it.

 

[Just A Butt]

I'm already scouting out a few canned meat brands to add to my pile, do you have any suggestions/recommendations for good brands beyond spam and baked beans?

they also have veggie bucket and dessert bucket.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

Dried beans, rice, flour, corn meal, pasta can all be kept longer if put in the freezer.

Dried fruit, nuts, powdered milk might be something to have around if you like that sort of thing. Hot cocoa mix that you just add water to is something I like to keep around. Also coffee and tea. They last a long time, or they would if we'd stop using so much of it.

This is also a good point. Most of riding out an emergency is going to be laying around, using as few calories as possible while you wait for the emergency to pass, so again, I stress morale and mental fatigue. Instant freeze dried coffee, sports drink powders, and those water add ins like crystal light or mio are wonderful for breaking up the flavor drag of having limited numbers of flavors. Caffeine and peppermint are good for mental acuity and again, morale. If you are going into a situation where you need your mental faculties, eat a peppermint and down a glass of coffee. Dry sugar and flour stored in air tight containers are also calorically dense and keep for a long time. If you have excess cooking fuel or water you can make some simple desserts or cakes using these ingredients and canned fruits.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I just have too keep stressing how totally and vitally important it is to keep in good spirits, and how key food is to that. Your brain is enormously powerful, and if you think you will die, you will die.

Edit: don't forget time wasters and boredom killers like paper books and hand crank radios.

 

[TFT-A9]

Decks of playing cards are great, most people know at least one card game.

 

[WonderWino]

I'd like to add that if you're going to create such a cache of food its a good idea to keep other important supplies such as medicine. I don't just mean a first aid kit. Keeping a supply of basics like antihistamines, allergy meds, cold and flu stuff like neo citran (really good stuff for colds and flu, I can't recommend it enough) and nyquil and stuff like that can be very important

That said, food wise, i'd suggest supplementing any vitamins with fast growing indoor plants that provide things like vitamin c. a small bag of beansprout seeds for example, area absurdly easy to grow even on some damp paper towel next to a window, and a small amount can provide all the vitamin c you need, letting you hold on to any supplement pills for when you really need them

I also recommend freezing any bags of flour or cornmeal for a few days before storing them for longer term. It kills any insect eggs that might have found their way into the bags during processing and greatly reduces the chance of related infestations. Speaking of those two items, if you have little else, you can make both of those things stretch for quite awhile, making puls with the flour and what the natives used to call cold flour with the cornmeal. Puls is basically just adding water to flour and making a porridge out of it, boiling it with a bit of salt and oil and adding whatever bits of meat or vegetables you might have. The romans practically lived off the stuff so it'll keep you going for quite awhile. Cold flour is cornmeal thats mixed with a bit of salt, cinnamon and a bit of sugar and kept dry. When you eat it, just take a small amount, mix it with water and heat it up and it makes a sort of porridge. Or you can just add more water and drink it. Perhaps not the most appetizing thing ever but the natives and more than a few settlers and explorers made extensive use of it. Also, this might be more of a canadian thing, but you can also make an easy to store instant pea soup by grinding dried split peas into a consistency similar to cornmeal or the ground peas used for peameal bacon and just adding water and heating when you want to eat it. It'll rehydrate into a pea soup like porridge thats very high in protein. Its easy to store large amounts of it and easy to make good use of portion control to stretch it as needed

That said, first and foremost, store what you like to eat and know you will eat. As has been pointed out already, the psychological aspect is the most important and it will help a great deal with keeping your morale up to have food you are used to and like. Especially when it comes to the little things like spices, sauces and the like. Don't have any meat in storage? Store instant or canned gravy, mix with rice and it can provide fat and improvise the presence of meat in your diet

Fats can be a difficult thing to keep a decent amount of as anything but cooking oil or lard, but I do have one suggestion for it. I don't know if anyone has had fatback before. Its common in southern cooking for collard greens, beans and things like that. But anyway you can get it cheaply in many places and can pickle, salt, smoke or freeze dry it. I keep a bit of it on hand pickled and have found it can be very useful for alot of different things, and if you have to really stretch what you have, you can cut a small piece off about the size of a dime and chew it for awhile to add a bit of fat to your diet and to trick your brain into thinking you're getting more in your diet than you actually are. Doing that can also reduce hunger for at least a little while, basically for the same reason. Not the most appetizing for alot of people i'm sure, but doing that has served me well in hunting camps more than a few times

Also, if you're intending to keep well stocked, i'd suggest getting a cheap food dehydrator. They're great for preserving all kinds of vegetables and meats.

and one last thing, if you have pets, don't forget to ensure there is something in storage for them to eat as well. Especially where cats are concerned, with them being obligate carnivores and all

 

[Brahma]

Other people have covered food pretty well and have added categories like medicine.


Something to consider is if things are so bad that the food transport chain is broken for a period that'll require months of food, odds are high that utilities might be gone too.


Depending on your climate it's a good idea to have extra blankets and a cooking facility like gas available.

 

[garakfan69]

Keep some goats. Very low maintenance, hardy, eat almost anything, provide milk and meat.
The perfect animal for the post-apocalypse.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Look around your area for churches that have food pantries. You can usually pick up canned goods from these at least once or twice a month no questions asked. It won't be name brand, but it's a cheap/free way to stock up an emergency food reserve for an emergency.

 

[Jhonson Jhonson]

If we are in the apocalypse scenario: learn how to make a vegetable garden for the long run. There are plenty "how to do" videos or manuals to make interior optimized boxes.

 

[Dufe]

https://www.eatbydate.com/search/?q=Indefinately

Here is a good place to start