I can put a lot of really tasty and wholesome food in two cubic foot steel box, especially now with packaging inovations. Here's my 'recipe':

- Flexible packages of tuna, salmon, and chicken
- Instant rice, dried beans, dried peas & other legumes like lentils
- boullion in many flavors
- lots and lot of seasonings
- instant potatoes
- dried and partially dried fruits & vegetables [but you have to rotate them scrupulously] Things like sun dreid tomatoes can make all the difference in an otherwiswe boring dish
- carefully selected canned foods, picked for density and intensity, for example anchovies, sardines and other meats.
- so-called gourmet foods, like tomatoe paste and anchovie paste in tubes, oil packed black olives, preserved ginger, lots and lots of peppers, just by way of example
- loose tea, coffee [natch], other beverage mixes
- sugar, lots [the stuff put up in milk cartons stores really well]
- frying oil and olive oil
- vinegar
- powdered milk, for cooking only
- packaged sauce mixes

Thinks like jars of mayo keep, you just have to consume them or have low ambient temperatures or they will spoil.

All of the above are dense. There is little air in them, and the ingredients with water are pretty concentrated. In a seperate container keep the bulky and air filled options: crackers & wafers, motzas, that sort of thing. Potatoes and onions keep well, just rotate stocks.

For example, I can make a beautiful salade nicoise with nothing fresh, just tuna, anchovies, oil, sun dried tomatoes, olives. You can do a great chicken salad, as well. Soups and gravies on flavored rice or beans are a cinch. Throw in a few fresh ingredients, and there is no reason that you can't live well under adverse conditions, for quite some time.

In days gone by, I have eaten for days at a time out of my truck box and an Igloo water cooler, and liked it. I think that in a long term-survival situation communal rituals like meals are essential for morale. There will be more than enough suffering going around without eating beans for weeks at a time.

Let the flames begin.