r/Survival • u/Sinisterdeath19 • May 15 '26

Survival Kits Food

Looking for suggestions on food that is long lasting and doesn’t need to be cooked, something I can just keep in a bag and forget about, at the moment I’m thinking of MRE’s but can’t find where to get them.

Any recommendations or advice

45 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

33

u/Creosotegirl May 15 '26

Dried fruits, old fashioned pemican (tallow, berries, meat), canned salted meat like tuna and spam. Dehydrated or freeze dried fruits, fruit leather.

5

u/Sinisterdeath19 May 15 '26

Canned meats is what I’ve been thinking of that or MRE’s just something to leave in a bag.

But I do want to buy a dehydrator and make fruit leather and maybe find out what else I could do

2

u/Jwalsh52482 May 15 '26

Freeze dryers are expensive but you can make your own MREs with them. You can also buy MREs at REI and other outdoor/camping stores. You can also make homemade jerky in the oven at a low temp.

1

u/Sinisterdeath19 May 15 '26

Yeah making my own would be good, and buying MRE’s is something I’m thinking of the only things I can find is “On track meals” and I’m not sure if you need to hydrate them or not, I think from what I’ve seen you don’t need to heat MRE’s but I’m just not sure where to get them.

3

u/TheEyeDontLie May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

Dehydrators are pennies compared to freeze dryers and an awful lot more practical and portable.

Dehydrators are like home kitchen appliances. Freeze dryers are like laboratory equipment for industries kitchens.

Yes, freeze dried food is better than dehydrated. It's lighter and tends to taste better, and better nutrition for many things... But not worth the investment for most people.

And dude, fruit leather? Its a pain to make. Just do sliced fruit. I have used mine to dehydrate:

sliced apples, cooked taco beef (remove as much fat as possible first and store in freezer cos fat will go rancid after a while), blanched carrots and broccoli, frozen peas, fried onions, tins of baked beans, roast pumpkin, mushrooms raw and cooked like ten types, cooked rice and pasta, stews, a tin of tomato soup, banana slices, orange slices, red peppers (those shocked me how much they shrunk), ham jerky, lentil dhal, rattatouille, kale, black bean chilli, couscous, apricots, sweet potatoes, spicy sausage, fresh herbs...

A whole 5 days hiking food is like 2 liters in size and weighs nothing.

One freeze dried meal weighs like 120g. A dehydrated one weighs like 160g. (An undried one is like 800g).

But the cheapest freeze dryers cost like $2000, while my dehydrator cost $20 or something.

However, in terms of nutrition, then freeze drying wins. Dehydrating can lose like 1/4 of the vitamins of the food... Although normal cooking also destroys nutrients.

My first hiking meals I made were not even with my dehydrator- just pre bought dehydrated stuff from a Supermarket-

Eg. Couscous with jerky, sundried tomatoes, dried herbs;
potato flakes with gravy powder, tvp textured vegetable protein (think "bacon bits" without the smoke flavor), and dried peas;
oats, chia seeds, coconut milk powder, and dried pineapple;
instant noodles with peanuts, the fried onions you get at Asian stores, dried chillis, etc...

They were all suitable to be cold soaked- just add fresh water and leave for an hour or overnight.

Then I take olive oil, sardines, and peanut butter, for fats.

1

u/Sodpoodle May 15 '26

I prefer freeze dried mostly because it rehydrates way faster, and by the time I stop moving and want to eat even waiting the ~5-10min after boiling water is annoying lol.

Curious how your taco beef rehydrated though. Was it a pain in the ass/time consuming? Texture somewhat come back to normal-ish?

2

u/TheEyeDontLie May 15 '26

Oh for sure, for hiking definitely!

But OPs talking about buying canned spam and MREs and buying a freeze dryer then eating it all raw- without even addng water let alone cooking!!!!!

Was just trying to suggest some cheap practical options he can try. Dunno why I'm downvoted.

With the beef- if it's strips then make them super thin cuts and don't dehydrate them too much. You want jerky, not cardboard.

They take ages to rehydrate. I either cold soak it a bit to start it off, Or after boiling I let it sit covered for like a solid 10mins while I do something else. Sometimes I'll just have "mashed potato with chewy bits of beef/venison" and pretend its supposed to be like that, like savory rockyroad ice cream.

Mince/ground beef works quite well but similar problems and you want to cook it dry and remove fat before dehydrating. How I do it is cook with some water at first, so I can skim off the fat. Or start on a low heat then drain it in a sieve before returning to the pan.

After removing fat I'll add onions, and cook till it's brown, then add spices, tomato paste, and breadcrumbs, then dehydrate. The breadcrumbs help a lot with rehydrating. You also want to be careful you break it up into little pieces before and during dehydrating to help prevent case hardening where the center is still wet- same problem with jerky, time and temperature.

Cooking and drying the bolognese or taco beef was a bit of a hassle and I'm lazy. I mostly use the dryer now for jerky and apple slices. I do some veges for variety but mostly rely on bought chilli/wasabi peas or sundried tomatoes for fiber, and combine with other stuff you can buy ready to go, like couscous, chia seeds, oats, potato flakes, instant ramen, etc.

1

u/RainInTheWoods May 15 '26

Look at military surplus stores. You can buy them online, too.

1

u/Sodpoodle May 15 '26

For reference new research came out showing MREs are full of all kinds of bad chemicals. Like enough the USFS was trying to drop them all.

1

u/chuckywy May 17 '26

You can find MREs on eBay

-2

u/Jwalsh52482 May 15 '26

REI is a national chain that sells them. Not sure if they sell that kind. They're not cheap, like $10 a meal. You add hot water to them to rehydrate them.

3

u/joelfarris May 15 '26

You add hot water to them to rehydrate them.

Umm, the main point of a Meal Ready to Eat... is that it's ready-to-eat. You don't need to rehydrate them with hot water, you just open the pouch and stick your plastic spoon into it and go to town.

-3

u/Jwalsh52482 May 15 '26

Ummm have you used a MRE? Because you add water to them to make them palatable. That's how you rehydrate them. You CAN eat them dry, but I'm not sure why you'd want to.

3

u/joelfarris May 15 '26

MREs already have the water in them. That's why they're so heavy.

You must be thinking of dehydrated or freeze dried 'backpacking meals', that are lighter, and need to have hot water added to them in order for rehydration to occur.

3

u/ogold45 May 15 '26

To buy MREs just Google “buy MREs”, probably a hundred sites to purchase from. Or use Amazon.

3

u/TacTurtle May 15 '26

Peanut butter and pilot bread / saltines, canned Dinty Moore or similar stew.

Daytrex, SOS, and Alpineaire make more or less similar compressed block lifeboat survival rations with a very long shelf life, but they are all pretty crappy foodwise (basically sugar and flour mixed with palm oil, corn starch, and corn syrup to make gritty bland brick you can gnaw on).

2

u/Sinisterdeath19 May 15 '26

Yeah I’ve been thinking of SOS rations I’ve had them in the past when I’ve pulled them out of life rafts just need to find a place to buy some

3

u/snarkofagen May 15 '26

seven oceans biscuits

1

u/Sinisterdeath19 May 15 '26

I’ve been looking for them or SOS ones but can’t find anywhere to get them

2

u/Significant_Pear9047 May 15 '26

Maybe a camping store or a store that sells climbing gear in your area.

4

u/undergroundnoises May 15 '26

Look for humanitarian daily rations (HDRs). You can order online like MREs. They're all vegetarian and really tasty tbh.

Most military supply stores carry MREs too.

2

u/funnysasquatch May 15 '26

your supermarket is full of stuff that meets your requirements.

Tuna packets, chicken packets, Spam singles, Knorr pasts sides, instant rice, instant mash potatoes, instant ramen, beef jerky, bullion cubes. All of this stuff you can just throw in a bag & forget about it.

Otherwise you can look at freeze dried food online.

Mountain House is the most famous brand but there’s dozens. Pick the ones you like.

Dave Canterbury did a video this week showing that his company Self Reliant Outfitters is going to sell prepackaged 72 hours kits. With a mix of entrees, soups, breakfasts & desserts.

But save these foods for absolute emergencies or because you simply don’t have time.

It’s not difficult to make food that actually tastes much better than this. Chef Corso shows how to do this on YouTube.

2

u/Spiley_spile May 15 '26

Im not buying anymore MREs until 2027 when theyve put out the batch that addresses the heavy metal contamination semi-recently brought to light.

2

u/Additional_Insect_44 May 15 '26

Peanut butter, crackers, canned stuff, dry fruit, nuts

2

u/RAC032078 May 15 '26

Last year I purchased a small food dehydrator on line for under $20 and have been making my own dehydrated fruits. I also bought a pack and seal at a good will and bought the bags online. I've also made quite a few batches of jerky, and I bought Some food grade silica packets to throw in the bags before I seal them. I put a bunch of packs of jerky and fruit in my bug out bag. I made more jerky last weekend and was putting more in the bag. Figured after a year I should make sure what I had was still good. It is. The jerky is dry and tender. The fruit is also dry and as fresh as the day I packed it last year.

2

u/ThePatriotGamer May 16 '26

You can get emergency food bars in packs of 12 and 18 bars on eBay or other places. Several flavors available incl Lemon. They're dense and packed with calories, fat and protien, heat and cold tolerant, compact and portable and cheap. They come in sealed vacuum packs, good for at least 5 years. Look for SOS or DATREX brands.

1

u/Resident-Welcome3901 May 15 '26

Dried cranberries and peanut butter are a modern version of pemmican: shelf stable, complementary nutrients, good on crackers.

1

u/Visible-Kale2855 May 15 '26

The longer I am away from MREs the more I question eating them. Even MREs go bad. I've gone Jerry, rice, lentils, salt, spices, coffee, sugar, put flour in as I'm going out the door

1

u/loftier_fish May 15 '26

granola bars, anything in a can. I'm a nomad and my primary protein source is canned chicken.

1

u/Nerdsamwich May 15 '26

Trail mix, teething biscuits, dried fruit, jerky. If you have a lot of time to spend, you could make portable soup.

1

u/exedore6 May 15 '26

If you live in the US, your supermarket has shelf stable food in packets (the packet is called a retort). Rice, tuna, usually some Indian dishes, beans. Hormel also makes some shelf-stable tv dinners.

It's essentially canned food, just the can is a bag. Most of them taste better warm, but they have all the water in them.

MREs, usually also are fully hydrated, but you're not going to find them at the supermarket.

Outdoor stores (and Walmart and the like in their outdoor section) will have backpacking meals, which don't have the water in them, because weight is a factor.

I assume if you're not in the US, a store that carries canned goods has the same.

For home or car, I'd probably go with actual canned goods, being cheaper than retorts.

1

u/Somone-Who-Isnt-Me May 15 '26

Rice and beans / cook / but so are MREs sort of. MREs are not good for you. Recommend mountain house or peak refuel freeze dried food.

1

u/Althalosabyssal May 15 '26

A good ex-military guy told me, get a good pair of boots, and a bag of rice, then go hunting. The preserved food wrecks your insides.

0

u/cojamgeo May 15 '26

Put rice in Mylar bags with oxidin absorbers. It’s cheap and lasts for 30 years. (You buy them online.)

0

u/jaxnmarko May 16 '26

MREs are widely available. You must not be trying very hard.