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Have you ever tasted an MRE? Not very appetizing! It might ward off starvation...but why suffer? Did you know you can make your own dried meals in individual mylar bags, that require adding nothing but hot water? The shelf life is 5 to 7 years, and if you choose your ingredients wisely, will contain NO salt, NO preservatives, and will cost you a whole lot less than "real" MRE's. And you can customize them to your own tastes.
As some of you are aware, the "meals in a jar" concept is extremely popular right now! You can buy the ingredients from Honeyville or Mountain House, or you can dehydrate your own foods (raised or bought) for big savings. Start with some quart-sized mylar bags from Amazon, complete with oxygen absorbers:
This YouTuber, "Linda's Pantry" is an experienced cook, prepper, and passes on a wealth of knowledge when it comes to meals in a jar, or meals in a mylar bag. She has a whole series of videos on the subject:
If you or your spouse have the time to watch the whole series on Linda's 'meals in a jar' (or mylar...you can put them in either), you may find this to be well worth your time!
I once tasted a "real" MRE...couldn't choke it all down. It was VILE! But using this method (JAW = just add water) in a mylar bag, we have made beef and vegetable stew, creamy mac'n'cheese with veggies,
buffalo chicken with rice, and barbeque pork stir-fry. Much cheaper, and much better-tasting! I now keep a few bags in my truck for emergencies. No probem if they freeze at - 15 F!
Fancy. I just put some beef jerky, some dried fruit, and a handful of nuts into a ziploc baggie.
Yep, that's the whole idea.
Zip Loc's are air permeable, though. You won't get the 5-7 year shelf life, as with the mylar's. But as I said, you might not be able to leave 'em alone that long, anyway!
I once tasted a "real" MRE...couldn't choke it all down. It was VILE!
Must have had the potatoes au' rotten
I couldn't get those things down without using the whole little bottle of tobascco that comes in the bag.
I wouldn't reccomend military MRE's for survival, for one thing they're heavy and bulky. Some of the meals aren't bad as long as you like mystery meat.
I ate a lot of those things in the service, and about the best I can say is that they're better than the old C-rats. They will provide the calories to keep you alive, but there are much better options available for long term storage and emergency rations.
Dehydrated can be expensive, but it's a much better option.
I dehydrate a lot of my own game meat and livestock, and a lot of the produce out of my garden as well as wild edibles.
You do need mylar to keep it fresh with an absorber, vacuume pack is best.
Dehydrated can be expensive, but it's a much better option.
We've been into canning forever...you know, the mason jar route. Supposedly good for 5 years, but we use them up within 1-2 years. If you've seen any of my recent threads, we've tried those 'meals in a jar', using the mason jars. That works great, and the shelf life goes up to 5-7 years, and you just add hot water.
But damn, those jars can be heavy. So we looked into the mylar pouches, and liked what we saw. We have a dehydrator, and a vacuum sealer. Wife won't let me use a brake bleeder, so that's OK. I have about 4 dozen of the mylar's put up, and will give them a test run before the year is out. About half the ingredients are our own home grown, home dehydrated. The commercial stuff is very expensive!
I hear you. Home canned is best, but not for transport. My mother is an avid canner, and when I was a kid, when I went camping with friends while they had these cool little cans of vienna sausage and pork and beans, I was lugging around quart jars of stews and such.
While what I had was better, it was heavy and breakable. (kids on a camping trip don't always take care of their packs as well as they could, and a broken glass jar in your pack makes a real mess ).
That's part of the reason I started dehydrating when I got my own place because of the inordinate amount of time I spend living out of a pack on the backside of nowhere.
Plus, dehydrated takes up a lot less space. I can put a bushel of dehydrated green peppers in a gallon bag.
It takes at least 30 lbs of meat to make 5 lbs of jerkey.
I go through my stuff on an annual basis, so using zip lock bags is fine, especially if you put them in the freezer as well.
What I've been playing with lately is dry sausages for variety. There are some really good dry cure sausages out there, and in a cool dry root cellar, last for quite a while.
None of my experiments has lasted in storage for more than 6 months before being eaten, so I don't know how long they could go
I go through my stuff on an annual basis, so using zip lock bags is fine, especially if you put them in the freezer as well.
What I've been playing with lately is dry sausages for variety. There are some really good dry cure sausages out there, and in a cool dry root cellar, last for quite a while.
None of my experiments has lasted in storage for more than 6 months before being eaten, so I don't know how long they could go
My comments on Ziplock's was directed more at people who were not freezing them, just using them instead of mylar, to leave out for long-term storage. Not a good idea! We use ziplocks in the freezer, too.
If you find any good dry cure sauages, let me know. We both love Portuguese sauage, like linguica and chorizo, but have not tried dehydrating it. Maybe we should (?).
So far, my best results by far have been my black bear pepperoni Not big on the hot sausages, so I haven't tried chorizo.
Bear meat is naturally blessed with characteristics of both beef and pork, being a fairly heavy red meat, but naturally high in fat. Don't need to mix in pork with it to add that moisture.
Problem with it is, it doesn't last very long after people find out you have it if they've ever tasted it. The last batch I did I used 40 lbs of meat, and it was gone within 2 months after curing.
Bear season opens here September 5th, so hopefully if I can get one, I'll use it to make a whole lot more!
(when you work with wild game your supply can be tough to aquire, not like you can just go to the store for it ).
Bear meat makes really good ham, (especially canadian back bacon) but don't try prosiutto as bear meat can contain tricinossis, (among other things), so it needs to be cooked.
Anytime you're working with wild game meat you need to be aware that it should be cooked through no matter what animal it came from just because although they looked healthy, it isn't always the case.
I've found that Elk makes fantastic hunters sausage, summer sausage, thuringer, mortadella, any sausage you would use beef in, but it tends to be really dry so you need to add some fat to it. Those are classed as a semi-dry sausage, but keep well in the freezer, and I've found they usually dry pretty well too, if they last long enough.
I really love Pronghorn Antelope for my breakfast sausages because the meat is so mild it really takes the spices well, but it's super dry so you need a lot of porkfat mixed in, but it's worth it
Mule Deer and Whitetail are my go-to meats for Jerky.
Some game meats can be pretty strong, so making sausage out of them makes a good sausage, and uses up meat you can't use any other way.
It's fun to experiment with, and the best all natural, hormone free meat you can get, if you can catch it that is.
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So we looked into the mylar pouches, and liked what we saw. We have a dehydrator, and a vacuum sealer. Wife won't let me use a brake bleeder, so that's OK. I have about 4 dozen of the mylar's put up, and will give them a test run before the year is out. About half the ingredients are our own home grown, home dehydrated. The commercial stuff is very expensive! 
).
We use ziplocks in the freezer, too.
