FOOD PREPS In my opinion, unless you are staying put/defending in place/bunkering in a survival situation, the answer to food preps is the same for store bought and homemade: dehydrated. Store bought dehydrated foods are available in a number of forms from full meals, to soups, to packs of veggies. Look around and youll find them. For DIY-ers, my way is to buy a dehydrator. The come in all sizes and with widely varying temp controls and other features. An inexpensive unit, all plastic, costs less than $100 and takes longer to work, but the key word is WORK - and it will. My preferred unit is steel and costs about $450... and its very fast with 15 sq ft of drying surface (shelves). To start, go to everyones first products, tomatoes and bananas. A one gallon jar of dehydrated tomato dust (run the dried tomatoes thru a blender) makes a lot of soup or sauce - exponentially to its weight. Bananas? Heck, banana chips are one popular goody that nearly everyone loves! Pineapple is great candy too! Theres very little that cannot be dehydrated. For meats, begin by cooking them - all of them! Given my absolute commitment to soups, stews, gravies and sauces as primary survival foods, I either cube the cooked meat or slice it into strips. A fully cooked ham needs to cooking and buying a spiral cut ham makes your task even easier. Smoked or jerked meat (if done correctly) can also go directly into the dehydrator. Storage of dehydrated food can be done via plastic containers, but I prefer vacuum sealed plastic pouches (Seal-A-Meal style machines). Again, these machines can be had for less than $100. Pricier machines can do larger bags or use any brand of bag. The key is vacuum sealing - be sure there are no airpockets! The more expensive machines are good insurance. I pack mine into brand new orange paint buckets, like those sold at Home Depot - they seal very tightly. When sealing your dehydrated food, do it by the serving, based on the size of your party. A pint of dehydrated food will makes a whopping meal for one person and a gallon bag will feed a platoon! Do not store dehydrated veggies and meats together... ALWAYS separately! Just my way. Learn, plan and prepare!
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 11:48:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015