Survival Foods

[Curmudgeon]

I've never seen any reason to have pets aboard-- until now. But maybe a chicken (with its wings clipped) or a piglet would be better than a cat. I'm told that pigs are very intelligent and affectionate, and they will eat table scraps. No need to buy canned food.

[rebel heart]

I use cliff bars. Get a new order, replace out the old ones in the ditch bag with the new ones, eat the old ones.

[muskoka]

Spam has an incredible number of calories per tin. And you can entertain yourself singing the Spam song in the liferaft...

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

I've never seen any reason to have pets aboard-- until now. But maybe a chicken (with its wings clipped) or a piglet would be better than a cat. I'm told that pigs are very intelligent and affectionate, and they will eat table scraps. No need to buy canned food.

Two points about piglets.

1) They don't stay as piglets for long

2) Stand downwind from a pig farm when they're mucking out.

[fishwife]

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

Two points about piglets.

1) They don't stay as piglets for long

2) Stand downwind from a pig farm when they're mucking out.

Pigs can be house trained but more to the point, you have barbecued or slow roasted whole pig before it gets too big

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by fishwife

Pigs can be house trained but more to the point, you have barbecued or slow roasted whole pig before it gets too big

Ah yes - there's nothing like the smell of roasted pork and there's also nothing like the smell of pig s**t either. I used to live near a pig farm and I'll never forget the stench.

I have to say that I was rather surprise by the statement someone made a few posts back that you cannot get decent tinned meats in the USA. I'm not a big fan of tinned stuff myself, but I can see that if I intend to be at sea for any length of time then tins are the way to go. Tesco's own label tinned stuff is so cheap they are nearly free - tinned tomatoes 18p, kidney beans 30p, etc mackeral/sardines 40p a tin. If you were prepared to stock up on tinned stuff and dry goods like rice and pasta I would think that you could provision a very large stock for a moderate cost and a lot of it would be edible in the liferaft / desert island.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

Two points about piglets.

Dogs look up to us.
Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals

Winston Churchill

[YourOldNemesis]

Dried things in sealed bags: rice, pasta, porridge oats, flour make sure they're all irradiated to kill the weevil eggs. This stuff will all last for at least 6 months, even in the tropics, so long as the weevils don't get them.
Flour is really good, so you can make bread and cakes when you are bored aboard.

Dried chick peas, kidney-beans and lentils keep forever - I'm not vegetarian, but I took a vegetarian recipe book with me across the Atlantic & Pacific - there were loads of excellent recipes for dried pulses.

Anything in tins will keep longer than you need it to, regardless of the best-before date. Just make sure you get a magic marker and write the contents on the lid because the labels come off after a few months in the bilge.

UHT milk

Tinned butter

Fresh stuff: we made potatoes, onions and pumpkins last 3 months from Panama to Tahiti. Pumpkins are the most hardy, they would keep for ages, until you cut into them, then you've got a few days to finish it.

[speciald@ocens.]

PETA (People for Eating Tasty Animals) would approve of cat burgers>

[speciald@ocens.]

Seriusly, we found super pasturized Yogurt that did not require refrigeration at Costco. Canned meats like hams will last forever. My wife's great aunt once severed a 32 year old ham. As long as the cans are intact, not bulging - botulism should no be a problem. If they are bulging, wipe the contents on your face to eliminate wrinkles.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

. . .
2) Stand downwind from a pig farm when they're mucking out.

Yeah, same smell as when anchored downwind from one of those "under $500/mo" thread boats that has been out too long.

[fishwife]

Lentils are no doubt a useful emergency resource. On the other hand, having eaten more than my fair share of them over the years when I too sailed with minimal funds, I truly hope I never have to cook them again They're in my dry stores and there they will stay

P.

[Curmudgeon]

Pigs don't smell any worse than other animals if kept in a clean environment. Stand downwind from a chicken farm or one of those places where they force feed beef cattle and the smell will be just as bad.

I've eaten dog (in Southeast Asia) but never cat, although I've heard the cat is often found in egg rolls.

[JanetGroene]

Lou Kenedy, "The Last Schoonerman" lost one schooner to German torpedoes in WWII. The sub commander allowed him and his crew to escape in the lifeboat and they set a course for the Irish Free State. A lot of his survival stash consisted of canned corned beef, not the best thing to be eating when you're on short water rations. He said the canned peaches went first.

[zeehag]

thank the gods that things have changed as they have since 1945. there are many items out there--0h, not have cooking or fridge involved in survival foods--have you ever eaten cold corned beef or cold greasy anything from a can?? yukk and eeewww--- there are many more appropriate things to stash in a ditch bag that donot take up so much room. like jerky and fishing supplies and dried fruits and nuts. try fitting all the things into a ditch bag and still lift it. no canned goods --even kat has to suffer--except now his name is stew and we might want to fatten him up a bit--if you are trying survival at sea inside your own boat--that is another story.

dog and cat are supposed both to be deelishuss.....yay fido and fluffy....new name stew---is hard to cook them , however, in emergencies--would have to make into jerky in the sun, so there should be a lot of time to say final good byes...or change mined.....