What is the best Prepper food for long term storage in your opinion?

I could carry you at a dead run, unless you are a typical Aussie.

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That's too funny!

Well..if thats you in your AV pic ya look pretty strong.

Im about the same but taller.

Thats fucken funny.

Ive seen shit like that at parties when I was younger.

CLASSIC!

The shit ya do when ya get pissed.

A Reuben sandwich, for sure.You can eat half and put the other half under your pillow.

Dude...do you even prep ?

So you saw the yard stick behind me?

What do you have to contribute to prepping? Your ideas. Leave all your preconceived notions about merkans behind. I am trying to learn the best ideas and if you have any, I am willing to listen.

Yes! I even lift.

OP,

I've been in my preps room this New Year's Eve trying to sort, organize, and figure out THE perfect system. In short, there isn't one. Each product has its own set of pros and cons.

Here's what I've come up with:

I have a multi-tiered system where Level 1 doesn't require cooking at all. This is a stash of Pop Tarts, granola bars, etc., that have a long shelf life (although not exactly long term like 20 years). Level 2 is items like Mountain House and Chef Boy-Ardi that require MINIMUM cooking. The Mountain House only requires boiling water, which doesn't take much time or fuel. An MSR pocket rocket stove can boil 2 cups of water in a couple of minutes (alcohol fuel). Technically, the Chef Boy-Ardi doesn't need cooking.....just heating. I have a Sterno stove and Sterno fuel for that. You can eat it cold if you have to.

Mountain House pros = Light weight; easy to cook
Mountain House cons = Expensive

Canned food pros = Cheap; variety; you can rotate through your stash
Canned food cons = Heavy; tomato based products won't last long in cans

My Level 3 is truly long term storage. Rice, beans, pastas, oatmeal, pancake mix, etc., in mylar bags. I got the mylar bags and oxygen absorbers on Amazon, and it's not that hard to package the food. I used my hair straightening iron to seal the bags, and it worked perfectly! LOL.

I also have Thrive #10 can food storage for a no-kidding SHTF scenario.

Hope this helps. :)

Happy New Year!

When in doubt... corned beef in the old fashioned 'twist key' (not pull tab) type can.

Estimated to last 30 years or more. Perhaps indefinitely.

WWI style twist key cans were used in the trenches of Europe. Prized for their seal and durability.

Roughly 750 calories of protein and fat. Exactly what you need to survive one day. WWII labor camp victims often did hard labor on less than 700 calories.

Anyway, it's a viable option.

Also, FYI on the eggs:

Eggs can be kept un-refrigerated ONLY if they start out un-refrigerated! Once they have been chilled, they must be kept that way. My boat cruising friends taught me that. They buy fresh eggs (not chilled) and keep them stashed on the boat wherever they are least likely to get broken. I don't know how long they will last, though. I assume they will still go bad at some point.

For long term storage, powdered eggs are safer, IMHO (although I'm sure not as tasty).

Well..the best prep above all is BE FIT and STAY FIT.

Nothing else matters if ya dont have them nailed.


The other thing is BE prepared to DIE..face it down.

Its amazing what ya can accomplish if ya dont CARE if ya die or not.

Fear of death will kill ya faster than death itself.

No point having a whole stack of preps and being super fit if ya freeze up in terror at the first sign of doom.

If ya dont care about the doom ya can walk right past it and ya wont freeze.

From what ive seen of most people they cower and run in terror at doom..because of the FEAR of death.

Ditch the fear..and your chances of surviving increase 100 fold.

As for food...be willing to eat almost anything..and almost nothing.

Water should always be your MAIN focus.

All the food in the world means jack if ya run outta water.

Learn how to find it..purify it..worship it..in a survival situation WATER IS GOD!

NEVER forget that.

Food is a minor diety in comparison.

Follow these rules..live by them..and you will survive.

Good suggestion on the corned beef. I don't care for corned beef as much, but I bought a LOT of Costco's canned roast beef a few years ago when the drought got bad in TX. I knew there would be a beef shortage, and sure enough, beef prices have gone up so much that Costco doesn't even sell the canned roast beef now (at least in my area). It's $5 a can at the grocery store.

I used a can tonight in a stew (checking some of my preps), and it was just fine. The stew wasn't good (mylar pouch from a pre-made bucket), but the meat was fine.

We need to check our preps to make sure we'll even EAT this stuff. LOL.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

I have my stuff packed in the same manner. I was thinking that it may be more beneficial to package my stores as meals. The reason, I have a 13 year old daughter and as it stands I am the only one that can move the majority of the boxes, if I divide up the pasta and the lighter items into boxes with the heavier items that can be eaten as meals, my daughter could help me move them in an emergency. I don't know know what an appropriate meal portion is for 2 people in a survival situation.

I did move my tomato based products from can into glass for long term storage.

If you soak them in mineral oil they are rumored to last 20 plus years.

Thanks for contributing.

I'll look, but I haven't seen it packaged that way for a long time.

Spam has an indefinite shelf life, ignore the best by date on the can. I just opened up and ate a can recently that was over 5 years past the best by date and it was as good as the day it was canned.



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Awesome! I was worried I would have to start rotating my stock.

Hitting the sack now, but if anyone else has good ideas please feel free to share.

No probs.

Thats just the basics that everything else should be built upon.

Get ya mental attitude right and ya fitness maintained and THEN focus on the other things.

As for food...if its just plain survival..calories is where its at.

Ya body runs on calories..you can live for a month on one 500 g block of chocolate.

Chock does not go off either.

So..calories..water..vitamins.

The other key to staying alive is MOBILITY.

Like I said..if ya cant carry it..its not yours.

Thats why calories..dense calories..are best.

Light weight..nourishing..easy to carry.

First tier of survival...jerky and chocolate..and that dark raw sugar tofee with nuts.

You can carry a whole years worth in a backpack.

Dehydrated fruit is good too.

:youreafag:

You can buy the Mylar and oxygen absorbers online, I have gone through Amazon, good prices. To seal the bags, use a hair straightener. Lots of youtubes out there that show you how.

Wheat, rice, sugar, salt, beans, whole black pepper corns, other grains, all last a long time. Do not add an oxygen absorber to sugar and salt - it will make them hard as bricks. Still good but you will have to use a pick to break them up. Unfiltered, unpasteurized honey lasts forever. Raw apple cider vinegar with the mother (like Braggs) is also a good choice.

Spam last for 10+ years. I have opened cans that were several years past the "best by date" and it was the same as fresh. Most of your regular foods you want to rotate through in 5 years or so. Long term storage at the ones listed above.

Herbs and spices last a long while when stored in mylar with an O2 absorber. They don't go back but they do lose strength so you just have to use more of it.

Baking powder turns in about 12-18 months and makes your food bitter. Store cream of tarter and baking soda both which last forever and are used to make baking powder. 2 parts cream of tarter to one part baking soda; example, 2 teaspoons c of t and 1 teaspoons of baking soda. Don't make up more than you need at a time.

There are lots and lots of lists out there on the web and many videos. Only store what you like to eat. Rotate, first in first out.

I have wheat but don't like whole wheat bread. The white wheat is less strong and does help there. One thing you can also do is store regular white flour. It will last 10 years if stored in mylar with an O2 absorber.

Store you food in a cool (60's) dry and dark place for the longest long term shelf life.

Learn to dehydrate your veggies, fruits and meats - never dairy or fish. Buy those as a freeze dried choice. They turn rancid too easily. Dehydrated meats should be stored in your freezer and used within 3-5 years, depending on how dry you got it.

Hope that helps -

I'm the poster from above ^. I am a wife who can't move a ton of things around, so I'm always trying to re-think and perfect my food storage too. What if my husband can't get home? What can I put in the car by myself? (We live in an area where evacuation is a year-round possibility.) That's the main reason I bought the Mountain House....it is VERY lightweight. However, it is expensive.

One of the things I have gotten addicted to (LOL) is watching YouTube videos on people making their own MREs. If you and your daughter are able to rotate through your items fairly consistently, then this might be an option for you to consider. You can make your own with a FoodSaver or mylar bags.

Happy New Year, and thanks for this thread! I was of the same mind this New Year's Eve (still Eve where I live)!

One thought on rotating. Today is a great day to check your dates. I try to once a year, making sure everything is still rotated. LTS (long term storage) shouldn't need to be checked unless you have been prepping for a long time, 30+ years. Check your water dates. Even old water can be put through a filter and be just fine but if you have the choice, always make sure you have water that is less than 2-3 years old. If stored in plastic - most is - it will taste off and you don't want to drink those chemicals.

Like another mentions, a good water filter, even a Lifestraw will be priceless. Make sure you know how to build a sand filter. Will come in handy if you are on the road if something ever happened.

Get a 5 gallon bucket. In this bucket only put dehydrated foods. This will make the bucket much lighter. Put things in it that are easy for your daughter to make, like pancake mix that only needs water - this will make biscuits also. Instant oatmeal, small packages of salt, pepper, sugar, garlic and onion powder. Make your own minute rice by making regular rice and then dehydrating, same with beans. This cuts down cooking times. You only need to really add warm water and not even cook.

Think outside the box of things you can put in there. Make sure she also has a bug out bad that is next to her food bucket. I have done this for my kiddos, though I need to update the bags and the buckets. Make sure she can carrying it. Next, make sure the bucket is camouflaged, so she can set it down in a bush or something and it will blend in. She doesn't want to become a target for having that bucket nor that bag!!!

Twinkies, Ho Ho's, or Ding Dongs.

Make sure you store canned food properly. Cans are made of steel. If they get wet or even too much humidity, the can rusts and the food is no good.

The cans that are for long term storage seem to have some sort of goldish coating to stop the rust. But normal canned food doesn't have that.

Good replies, whiteangel!

OP, if you get mylar bags, get the small ones! I got some huge ones, and of course I can't move them at all now that they are full. LOL. The smaller ones hold about 5 lbs each. Even a 13-year-old can move that.

For a great thread OP.

One thing you need to be aware of is temperature. High temps play havoc with 'use by' dates.

We've had canned goods (ie in metal containers) go bad well within their printed use-by dates, even Spam and corned beef.

Tinned fish is one of the worst offenders.

Powdered milk goes rancid within a few weeks, as can vege oils (less of a problem here as we've got wall to wall olive trees.) Cartons - (fruit juices, milk, esp vegetable milks) are a waste of time, need to be used same as fresh.


We'e experimenting with older methods of preservation (with help and guidance from a couple of very gnarly old Greeks, lol).

Salt drying, sun drying and preserving in oil & or brine liquids seem to be effective, if time consuming.

One of daid Greeks has dry-preserved a shed-load (literally) of hams and is currently teaching me how to preserve hides (stinky business, ugh).

Good luck with your preps OP - and everyone else!!

This thread should be PINED!!