Family Emergency Survival Kit – How to Build an Emergency Food Supply With All the Essentials

Bestsellers in Emergency Preparedness ^ | 6/29/10

[Kartographer]

If you are just getting started preparing your family survival kit, it probably seems like a huge, daunting task. You are not alone, and I was in the same boat just a few months ago. So I decided to get started and make my first purchase.

The difficult task for most people will be how to balance the cost of long term emergency supplies and food for your family, while still balancing the monthly budget. The only advice I can give is the way things are going, money doesn’t appear to be worth anything in the future. And in fact at some point, food may be worth much more than any money you have in your pocket. I am not suggesting to act foolishly, but when it comes to protecting your family, it is something to consider.

In my view, the following are emergency essentials that you should plan for with your family emergency survival kit:

[matt1234]

Sorry, I don’t know about rice noodles.

[reformedliberal]

I have always hated beans, but have begun to experiment, since they are cheap and store well. There are also many different types with which to become familiar.

One thing I am learning is to boil them in more than water. For example, I made the mistake of buying a cheap 3# tin of ground supermarket coffee. UGH! It makes brown bitter water. But it makes a good base stock for boiling beans. It adds some depth of flavor before you add anything else. The bitterness somehow blends well with tomato based sauces and whatever protein we might have.

Rice, pasta, beans and dried tomatoes are my basics. For just two people in a situation without refrigeration or with limited electric power, I have begun to stock the smaller cans of fruit and vegetables. It is enough for two of us for one meal with no leftovers. They cost a bit more, but it is better than throwing things out or having cooked food go bad before it is eaten. Lentils are next on the learning curve. I already use barley in small amounts to thicken things.

Agreed on the hot sauce.

I have now rotated stocks 2x since beginning prepping and have a better idea of what we really eat, how much and how to use it all relatively quickly after cooking. I went through our stocks over 2 separate 3 month periods of limited income in the past 18 months.

It is an art and a science.

[Noumenon]

It is an art and a science.

That it is. I'm amazed at your discovery using less than great coffee as a bean stock. That's really thinking out of the box. Must try it. What beans went int oit if you don't mind my asking?

You'll love lentils, especially when you get into making a good dal. There are many types of lentils, too. East Indian spices give you a lot of range and variety. Get a pot of dal going and then throw in anything you happen to have.

There's a whole range of what I call po' folks food. I grew up on red beans and rice, gumbo and jambalaya - that's all po' folks food. What you got go into de pot. Lassiez le bon temps roulliez!

[Cold Heart]

Although Crisco only claims a two year shelf life, some claim indefinet. Especially if stored at cooler temperatures.

[Shamrock498]

We recently decided to test our food supplies, to see just how long they would last.

The result was shocking and depressing. I would have swore we had 2-3 months of canned food in the pantry. In reality it wasn’t even close.

did you try and eat full meals or did you drop down to emergency ration (minimum calories)?

[PA Engineer]

Here is another good web site (Internet Grocer) for purchasing canned butter, cheese, and meats. I prefer the canned butter (milk fat content intact) to domestic butter (milk fat removed for ice cream). Another good location is MRE Depot.

[reformedliberal]

I used pintos and red beans, the smaller ones, not kidney beans. The coffee came from researching cowboy beans and reading that they used to throw the old coffee into the bean pot, because water was precious and they would rather have fresh coffee. So, I tried it and it worked.

I also needed something in my sauce, which was basically dried tomatoes,onion and garlic with some green chili and decided to think about it as a mole. I added a tablespoon of unsweetened black cocoa powder and it worked to thicken and add a depth that complimented the coffee, beans, spices and odds & ends of smoked pulled pork. Also, a couple of tablespoons of cream sherry, some balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. As I recall...it was one of those extemp dishes.

When I make black beans, I save the boiling water, freeze it and add it to soup base. Haven’t done that with other types of bean water, though.

Years ago I went on a gumbo kick. One thing I learned: a good roux will absorb and blend tons of anything. It is almost unbelievable how much of a stew can be made on the basis on a competent roux. You need a BIG pot! I have to revisit that. I would cook gumbo when we had a crowd and a little of this and a little of that and some more of something else. Add rice and whatever greens were available, set out the hot sauce and it was a feast. Hubby has Cajun internet buddies on a sailing forum and I get a kick out of them posting pics of their food! You guys do love to eat well.

My husband is not fond of Indian spices. My green curry period was not a hit. We have a load of fire brick leftover from some project or other. Maybe we can build an outdoor oven for Indian style chicken. Lots of chicken farmers around here. (Been there with raising chickens and hope to avoid it).

I need to find some variations of European recipes with lentils. He does like Indonesian food, so I guess lentils with a handful of raisins and a sambal sauce would be appreciated.

This is the normally slow time for my business, so I have time to surf the various recipes online and begin to understand them so I don’t need a recipe.

I grew up on Eastern European Jewish cooking. More poor folk food and nothing is ever wasted. I remember my mother peeling the skin off chicken legs and using them in the soup stock. Frankly, I still prefer that sort of food.

[Kartographer]

Since Crisco no long comes in all metal cans I melted mine and place it in wide mouth glass canning jars and then vaccuum sealed them. Should be good for a very long time.

[J Edgar]

Thanks for the pointers.

[Cold Heart]

I make bar soap from Crisco/lye. Turns out regular soaps with talc & titanium dioxide make a really hard cement when combined with our well water. No kidding, I had to use a chisle & power scrubber to get it off shower & fixtures. The crisco soap bars also last about 4x the store bought.

Temperature is one of the biggest factors in food storage.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

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[driftdiver]

“did you try and eat full meals or did you drop down to emergency ration (minimum calories)?”

We cut portion size but did not get radical. Our plan and expectation was we would have adequate calories.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Good advice and more will be found here for the survival foods, more are in threads one and two, linked from the first post.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2299939/posts?page=7626

HP, thanks for the ping, I have linked this thread to the above thread, for one cannot have too much information.

[CholeraJoe]

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[wita]

It’s amazing what a little hot sauce can do for what would be an otherwise bland dish.

Amen. As this thread progressed, I was contemplating what a continuous diet of rice would be like without fresh fish heads and maggots, to go with it. Thanks for the idea.

[sauropod]

read

[wita]

Doesn’t pay to open a #10 can of baked beans when there are only two or three of you.

...but, if it is a #10 can of sliced peaches, it still may not pay, but, MMMMMMM what a treat.

[wita]

I just bought one and have been using it like crazy. They work great and it’s easy!

This does not match what is contained in post 21.

I am curious what you bought, and why it works great and is easy.

[hennie pennie]

Also, please do some research on those CANNED vegetables.

Why?

Because the "best by" date does NOT mean that they expire at that time.

The U.S. Army opened up cans of food from MANY MANY MANY decades ago, and ALL of it was fine, it was SAFE to eat.

When properly commercially canned, foods do not go bad over the decades, but they may lose a bit of color and/or texture.

Like you, I purchase the tiny cans of veggies when I find them on sale, usually only once or twice a year.

But I totally ignore the so-called Expiration Dates, which vegetables NEVER used to display in the past, anyway.

[hennie pennie]

We have several no.10 cans of food, but purchased them with the idea of giving them to friendly troops if emergency conditions are such that martial law is declared; presumably such troops would have plenty of MREs, but would happily receive a gift of cling peaches.

OR something like that would be handy to take along, were a mandatory evacuation imposed and one HAD to go to a large community shelter.