Survival Foods

[zopi]

raw is good...it doesn't get fresher! LOL..

[rgscpat]

If you're fishing from a raft, wouldn't you need a way to land the fish into the raft (maybe an extension gaff hook or net) and a surface on which to prepare the fish without cutting a hole in the raft floor with your knife or sharp fish spines?

[bobsadler]

muskoka: "The Custom of the Sea" by Neil Hanson - a v good read

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by bobsadler

muskoka: "The Custom of the Sea" by Neil Hanson - a v good read

Dude - I went down that road and my posts were politely deleted. While I will put the book on my Amazon wish list, before your (and my) post disappears into cyberspace, I would advise go back and read the original question, which is about recipe advice. Nevertheless, if you go to the poster’s website she does have a recipe for mock turtle stew, so modifications of traditional recipes as politically incorrect as picked whale or sushi dolphin might still be more acceptable than how everyone else are going off-track talking about chocolate bars and convenience foods?

[JanetGroene]

[QUOTE=osirissail;495296]Normal can goods keep well for up to a year or so. End quote.
It's important to observe use-by or sell-by dates if provided. If not, use grease pencil to note when you purchased the can. In more remote areas you don't know how long cans have been there, often in a hot, humid setting, before you bought them. There is a vast difference among tinned foods. Some by nature have a shorter life (tomatoes canned in plain tin versus lined tins, for example). Tinned fish products usually have a very long life, especially when canned in oil, not water. Here's where it's important to have a supply of long-life products canned in a nitrogen atmosphere and cans rustproofed with a self-healing rust-proofer such as Texaco Compound L.

[TOPGALLANT32]

just a little addition to this thread. I have been using MT Home survival foods(dehydrated for yrs. both climbing in the Hymalayas and on long passages on my boat. they last for yrs, are very palatable are light weight and compactable. you can have 4 times the amt of food on board in comparison to caned and boxed goods. beside you do not have to eat them every day. I supliment mine with fresh goods

[barnakiel]

[QUOTE=JanetGroene;524886]

Originally Posted by osirissail

It's important to observe use-by or sell-by dates if provided.

100% true.

Still, I am yet to see out of date tin go pop. I bet the amt of preservatives makes it safely edible another 10 yrs or so. And very unhealthy too, probably.

b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by TOPGALLANT32

... on long passages on my boat (...) you can have 4 times the amt of food on board in comparison to caned and boxed goods...

How long were the passages?

Our longest was 72 days and we did not have to use any space technology food. We ate pasta, rice, beans, etc. We used tinned tomatoes, etc.. lots of garlic and onions, too.

Smoked or dried meat keeps virtually forever, so does dry cheese. Veggies are some issue, but decent canned veggies are available, sin preservatives.

PLS note that using dehydrated etc food requires fresh water to rehydrate so the actual weight benefit is in the weight of the can ONLY... not much indeed.

Do you guys really need so much food on board? If so, why not catch a fish. It is fresh, healthy, nutritious.

I have sailed extensively and never had any problem with storing and keeping food. No fridge. In fact, the only thing I would change in my future adventures would be to stock a small fridge full of diary products like butter, cream and yoghurt because these are the only things we missed badly. (Although later we discovered canned butter!).

b.

[Astrid]

For the most part, expiration dates on canned goods are the dates selected by the canners reflecting what they feel to be the optimum time from packing that they can guarantee the quality and stability of the contents. This does not, however, mean that the contents will automatically go bad after that date or be unsafe to consume. My father recalled that in the 1960s he and others obtained and consumed, with no ill effects, tinned US Military C and K rations that had been brought to Iceland by US forces during WW2 .

The main problem, providing the tinned foods have been stored with reasonable care and the cans undamaged by rough handling or corrosion, is that the contents will lose some vitamin potency the older it gets. One interesting study concerned canned goods recovered in 1968 from a wrecked steamship in the Missouri River from 1865:

The steamboat Bertrand was heavily laden with provisions when it set out on the Missouri River in 1865, destined for the gold mining camps in Fort Benton, Mont. The boat snagged and swamped under the weight, sinking to the bottom of the river. It was found a century later, under 30 feet of silt a little north of Omaha, Neb. Among the canned food items retrieved from the Bertrand in 1968 were brandied peaches, oysters, plum tomatoes, honey, and mixed vegetables. In 1974, chemists at the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) analyzed the products for bacterial contamination and nutrient value. Although the food had lost its fresh smell and appearance, the NFPA chemists detected no microbial growth and determined that the foods were as safe to eat as they had been when canned more than 100 years earlier. The nutrient values varied depending upon the product and nutrient. NFPA chemists Janet Dudek and Edgar Elkins report that significant amounts of vitamins C and A were lost. But protein levels remained high, and all calcium values "were comparable to today's products." NFPA chemists also analyzed a 40-year-old can of corn found in the basement of a home in California. Again, the canning process had kept the corn safe from contaminants and from much nutrient loss. In addition, Dudek says, the kernels looked and smelled like recently canned corn.

The following link has a good reference to canning codes and shelf life before loss of nutritional value becomes a concern:

http://www.y2kkitchen.com/html/can_code_decoder.html

Note: nutritional loss refers to the breakdown of vitamins only. Older canned goods may also exhibit some loss of contents' texture and taste, but still be edible. It is well to toss dented or rusted cans, cans which show bulging, and cans which have stained seams or broken welds.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Smoked or dried meat keeps virtually forever, so does dry cheese.

Today I bought a small piece of ham.

It should last a while.

A French Chef and his French wife took me shopping.

They agreed with the taste / value / condition / conditions of sale (etc) of this Jamon and I was allowed to purchase it.

It now hangs in the aft cabin.

[Astrid]

A heavily salt cured and well smoked ham or roast will certainly last a very long time, as this was at one time one of the few methods of preserving meat no longer on the hoof before refrigeration. Most store-bought cured meats are meant to be consumed fairly quickly, so one should not always consider them to be equal in longevity to hard cured and smoked meats one prepares at home for long term storage.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Today I bought a small piece of ham.

It should last a while.

Not if you store it like this.

It must breathe. I think the way to achieve this is by wrapping in a rag rather than plastic.

Plastic is used solely if an opened jamon is meant for quick consumption.

Wrapping in plastic traps moisture.

You will need a cup with a spike to keep the grease from soiling the sole.

b.

[Astrid]

Barnakiel is right. We used to wrap the meat in cheesecloth or muslin when hung up in store, and try to keep it in a dark area out of direct sunlight if you can.

[MarkJ]

Thanks guys for the advice
The plastic was still on while I boiled and dried my cloth


Mark

[zeehag]

markj--is interesting to watch as you evolve into an independent male-each of your new adventures in discovery are most interesting. i hope to meet you some day -- you have a wonderful attitude, at least the one you express is!