413 private links
Louise1
6 hours ago edited
I try to buy emergency food that I don't have to cook. (Either the company selling the food has cooked it, or the food can be eaten raw.) Mountain House says you can eat their food (at least the stuff that I've bought) without cooking it. You soak it in cold water for twice the time that you'd soak it in boiling water.
Make sure that you store enough water to re-hydrate dried or freeze-dried food, besides storing drinking and cleaning water.
I have some prepared meals, like Mountain House meals. I can eat maybe one of them a day. But most are way too salty to eat nothing but them for a week or a month.
So most of my emergency food is canned, dried or freeze-dried fruit, vegetables, TVP, and food from Ready Harvest / Food Storage Depot. (I don't have to cook the TVP that I get.) No canned soup or chili; too salty.
I emailed Ready Harvest / Food Storage Depot customer service, and a lady replied:
Most of our products are 25-30 year shelf life with a couple exceptions. And you are right, we may not have fuel to heat up our foods. That is why we carry what we have in the store. All our products but popcorn and eggs can be eaten right out of the can. Some items require longer soaking in water, but all will soften even with cold water. I did a test with Belgian pasta. I heated the water in the microwave to just about boiling and then put the noodles in. They were perfect within 10 minutes. The pasta soaked in cold fridge water was done within 35 minutes. Beans/Potatoes took 2 to 3 hours with room temperature water. The rice 4 or 5 hours room temperature water. If you have hot water 20 minutes.
If it's an emergency, and I have to eat my emergency food, then the power probably will be out. So I won't be able to cook my food. So I want not-too-salty food that I don't have to cook.