DIY MREs (sorta)

[Black Dog]

I just found this pretty cool post on another forum (http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=43805). The guy shows how he makes his own vacu-packed meal rations, which I think would be a pretty good addition to your chow box in your truck. The reason I found this is because I got a food saver for my birthday a few months ago and think it is the coolest thing in the world and was searching this site. The only thing is that they aren't really Meals Ready to Eat in the same capacity as a real MRE. Real MREs you can just open it up and chow down, but these there is some prep required like a heat source or boiling water. Another thing he said is to use a pin to poke a hole in packets of dry food. If not, it will puff up inside the vacuumed environment and use more space, and since it is in a vacuum spoilage won't be a problem. Its a pretty cool idea he had, I might try and whip up a few this weekend.

[rusty_tlc]

Your link is busticated.


I vac seal all kinds of stuff besides food.


When I get a spare set of Birfields for the FJ60 I plan to grease them up, wrap them in plastic and vac seal them before they go into the spares box.

[Black Dog]

The link is good now, I went back to that forum yesterday afternoon and the whole site was down but it looks like they got it fixed.

My wife got me a small food saver for by birthday last November and I've just recently been getting into using it, so much so in fact that I'm all out of the rolls of plastic material. But I love that little thing though, its amazing how just sucking out the air keeps things fresh. I bought a small flat iron steak and sealed it up as soon as I got home. Normally when I leave them in the store packaging they start turning brown after about 3 or 4 days in the fridge, but it was still bright red and had no weird odors or anything. In fact it was actually a really good steak, I think if I would have left if for a little while longer it would have basically wet aged inside there and just gotten better after a while.

I also sealed up about 50 .22 caliber bullets just for fun, and a wool hat (don't ask why, I was just bored).

I also found something interesting that might be some help to other food vacu-packer owners. The unit I have uses the 11 inch rolls, and I thought it was wasteful to use that wide of a sack for something small so I did an experiment. I sealed the end of the roll just like normal, then cut the sack to my desired length. Then I made another cut perpendicular to the first cut. This left me with 2 sacks, but have the factory welded seam and the melted seal I created. I sealed the sack parallel to the factory weld, filled my new mini sack and sucked and sealed like normal only smaller. So far my tests and experiments are showing that this works perfectly with no leaks or anything. I packed up a bunch of single servings of rice and couscous for back packing this summer and spring.

So technically, if you've got something long and tubular shaped like a bratwurst or something, you could make those smaller sacks, only cut 3 out of the original instead of 2 (or maybe even 4, but that would be pretty narrow) and individually seal them. Really, as long as the little zig zag lines on the food saver bag are perpendicular to the vacuum chamber so that it can suck air out, it doesn't matter how large or small your sack is.

[Black Dog]

Dangit, I just tried to go back to that forum thinking it was fixed but obviously it isn't.....again. Seriously, just a couple minutes ago that link worked and I even went to other threads on the site. Ugh.

[off-roader]

Maybe you should just copy and paste what's on his post to here?

[Black Dog]

Its a long post with some large pictures. Their site is having problems because it worked yesterday morning, then quit afternoon, then worked briefly this morning and is not working again still right now.

Basically what the guy did was he went out and bought stuff like individually packaged servings of heat-and-eat mac & cheese and spam and that kind of stuff that has a long shelf like and needs no refridgeration, then found a place called minimus.biz on the internet that sells little ketchup and mustard packets and the cute little bottles of tobasco and that kind of stuff to include. He made a variety of different meals, then sealed them up in his food sealer. He made a couple dozen of them for only $75, whereas mass produced MRE's cost quite a bit more, and it is a crap shoot what you get in them. In his he can custom make them with only foods he knows he would actually want to eat, and since a couple people in his family are diabetic he could make his custom MREs safe for them to eat too by checking the ingedients of the foods he was packing and included splenda instead of real sugar and that sort of thing.

[mudbutt]

Your link is busticated.

I don't think it's the link......

Database error
The database has encountered a problem.

Please try the following:
Load the page again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.
Open the www.survivalistboards.com home page, then try to open another page.
Click the Back button to try another link.
The www.survivalistboards.com forum technical staff have been notified of the error, though you may contact them if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

[Black Dog]

Their site is the cause of the problems, which is kind of a bummer because there are 10s of thousands of people who are active on the boards there, so that means 10s of thousands of disgruntled subscribers with guns and stock piles of ammo and home made and mass produced MREs and who can start fires by rubbing two sticks together and stuff.

[rynosurf]

There is a lot of good info on Survivalist Boards, if I'm not here checking stuff out I'm usually over there.

[Black Dog]

As of right now, that forum is back up so we'll see if it stays that way.

[Smash]

Up and running at the moment, that's a very good idea. I'll probably go about making a bunch of those here soon. Handy for camping and for motorcycle trips. :wings: Thanks!

[korisu56]

I'm doing this. My last trip was kind of a debacle because I wanted to eat like I was at home. That doesn't particularly work well in sub zero environments :). Lesson learned.

[FlatlinesUp]

I've made some pretty much exactly like that other than the use of freezer ziplocks instead of the vacuume seal bags.

Works great for easy sorting/packing etc. but as mentioned, you can't eat everything by just sticking a spoon in the top of it and eat it while moving/hiking.

and FWIW, just one of those lipton noodle packs will go a LONG way toward filling me up

[BIGGUY]

Here's the link for Minimus.biz They have all kinds of sauces like tabasco, A1, Jellies, Mayo, Ketchup, Cereal, and even personal items such as tooth paste, deodorant, etc.


www.minimus.biz/

[rusty_tlc]

Your link is busticated.


I vac seal all kinds of stuff besides food.


When I get a spare set of Birfields for the FJ60 I plan to grease them up, wrap them in plastic and vac seal them before they go into the spares box.

I don't think it's the link......

Database error
The database has encountered a problem.

Please try the following:
Load the page again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.
Open the www.survivalistboards.com home page, then try to open another page.
Click the Back button to try another link.
The www.survivalistboards.com forum technical staff have been notified of the error, though you may contact them if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

If I click on a link and get an error that is my definition of busticated. :elkgrin:

[rusty_tlc]

If I click on a link and get an error that is my definition of busticated. :elkgrin:
The link works now.

That guy has a Yorkie.

Nothing wrong with that in it self. We have a small dog.

But I have a hard time taking a survivalist seriously if they have a Yorkie.

If your into the whole SHTF ideology you want a dog that will be a warrior or food. The Yorkie is neither, I don't think a Yorkie would make a good appetizer course for more than two people and I sure as hell wouldn't count on it for anything more than than a alarm in a fight.

I question his commitment to the ideal of eminent apocalypse. :sombrero:

[Black Dog]

Yeah, there's quite a few people there that wear tin foil hats and think the world is going to end in 2012, but the site as a whole is good because there is a lot of information on different outdoor activities and general purpose wilderness survival (a hobby of mine) as well as hunting and gardening and self sufficient living and stuff. It isn't so bad if you ignore the whackos.

[rusty_tlc]

I find wilderness survival fascinating. I've read so many books on the topic I lost count. Back in the seventies I was into back packing, a couple of times I did minimalist trips with just basic survival gear. Not pleasurable but it was kind of fun to practice the skills I had read about.

[cruisertoy]

We do someting similar when we go to Alaska fishing for 10 days every year. Generally we pack 1 mountian house meal per person per day. There is a long list of other items that are "just add hot water" that we suplement fish with for other meals.

Stove Top Stuffing
Idaho mashed potato packets
Quaker oats packets
Instant pudding with powdered milk
Top Ramon
Angel Hair pasta-Just put boiling water in a bag and let sit like Ramon
Dehydrated #10 cans of soy based bacon, sausage...
Powdered eggs

I'm drawing a mind blank on the rest, but I'll post more later.

[rusty_tlc]

We do someting similar when we go to Alaska fishing for 10 days every year. Generally we pack 1 mountian house meal per person per day. There is a long list of other items that are "just add hot water" that we suplement fish with for other meals.

Stove Top Stuffing
Idaho mashed potato packets
Quaker oats packets
Instant pudding with powdered milk
Top Ramon
Angel Hair pasta-Just put boiling water in a bag and let sit like Ramon
Dehydrated #10 cans of soy based bacon, sausage...
Powdered eggs

I'm drawing a mind blank on the rest, but I'll post more later.
So how is that soy based stuff?

[Herbie]

When I saw this link title, I thought for sure it was going to be about "Freezer Bag Cooking".... but it wasn't.

That said, for anybody looking for easy-cook and easy-cleanup similar to MREs, checkout www.trailcooking.com or get the book "Freezer Bag Cooking".

I use this method when I do ultralight backpacking. I carry only a beer-can alcohol stove to boil water, and my prepared meal "kits" in freezer bags, plus a few spices and tabasco. Boil water, add to freezer bag, put bag into a "cozy", and while its doing its thing I boil another batch of water for a beverage and personal cleanup.

Eat from the bag, put any remaining trash (like a candy bar wrapper, etc.) into the dirty meal bag at the end, zip it up, and voila' - cleanup is done.

[Black Dog]

Those little beer can alcohol burning stoves are really cool. I made one last summer and weighed it on the postage scale at work and it was a mere quarter ounce in weight. I found a drink called San Pellegrino Limonata, it comes in the little 12oz soda can and is an unsweetened lemon drink. The aluminum on that can seems to be a little thicker and sturdier than a standard beer or pop can, so I'm wanting to make another stove with those cans because it won't really add any noticeable weight and will be a tad more heavy duty.

[SeaRubi]

if you get something that's already cooked and just want to warm it up, i like the catalyst heaters that come from the mil-spec MRE's. i usually get a small stack of extras when I'm into surplus.

the other thing I like is to keep the folding esbit stoves. one in my bug-out-bag/backpack, one in the truck, and then i have a bigger surplus one in my gear box. the tabs also make a great fire starter if you need it for heat in cold conditions.

fwiw

[Backwoods Rambler]

On my last big trip, I pre-cooked every meal, vaccume sealed and froze. It was awesome. Eggs (cooked exactly how I like 'em) + sausage & OJ every morning. Shrimp & rice for lunch, spaghetti & italian sausage for dinners. Mmmmm! It was great. The biggest problem was keeping them frozen, but even then, as long as they stayed cold in the cooler all was well since it was only an 8 day trip and they all stayed frozen for at least the first 2 days.

[Herbie]

Those little beer can alcohol burning stoves are really cool. I made one last summer and weighed it on the postage scale at work and it was a mere quarter ounce in weight. I found a drink called San Pellegrino Limonata, it comes in the little 12oz soda can and is an unsweetened lemon drink. The aluminum on that can seems to be a little thicker and sturdier than a standard beer or pop can, so I'm wanting to make another stove with those cans because it won't really add any noticeable weight and will be a tad more heavy duty.

I used the can from a Heineken "keg can", which was thicker and had a bit better shape. See these instructions for the style that I built:
http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/

I like the "penny" regulator to keep the jets functioning well.

[Black Dog]

I made a little cook pot out of the Heineken keg can, and made a wire bale for it with picture frame wire. that pot and the alcohol stove weighs barely over a half an ounce. The only thing with the stove I made though is that you do have to use a pot stand. I'd like to duplicate a stand that comes with the Trangia alcohol stoves called the Westwind pot stand. Its just 3 pieces of thin gauge aluminum that slips together and the stove sits inside.

The stove I made is like the pepsi can stove here: http://zenstoves.net/BasicTopBurner.htm That page has a pic of the pot stand too.