It's hard to top Frenchy's cooking method. I dropped an email off to HeaterMeals about their meals in the winter and got a rather helpful reply.

Keep in mind that some have posted here that they hate HeaterMeals. I eat them without any complaints. Try before you have to use them. :-)

The HeaterMeal infoperson says the heating element will not cook a frozen meal. It is expected that the meals will be heated to 100 degrees above the starting temperature, but it can't thaw, then cook the meal. They say the meals are carried by snowmobilers and such, but the meals are carried inside the parka so they don't freeze.

Storage in a hot trunk lowers the shelf life of the meal. Entrees can be frozen without problems, but the HeaterMeal Plus packs have beverages and snacks and should not be frozen.

Meals are cooked, then sealed, so the heater only heats it up. They can be eaten without heating, although I shudder to think of it. (They heat from pouring saltwater on some magnesium -- both included in the package. No flame or other equipment needed.)

Louise and I have them in our grab and stay kit, and we always take a few to Burning Man for when it's too windy to cook and we need a meal. We may have other useful information for winter rations at
http://www.cieux.com/bm/quickMeals.html
which has lists of foods which require little or no preparation.

hey sure !
we would not do that to a good beef steak !!!
but who care for canned meatballs ?!

I think we will let you guys do the R&D on this one and see how it goes. Might try it on my neighbor?s car if the R&D turns out positively.
Watch your 6!! <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I don't want to hijack this thread, so I will start a new thread in the Campfire section, to explain the situation as I see it, if this subject interests anybody. But it's only my point of view..

Hi Frenchy, I would love to hear your take on the current civil disorder situtation. We get a fair bit of news related to France here in Canada, but I never trust any one news source to give the whole story.

I've had several of the 4 oz water packets leak, but with freeze and thaw, I also don't want to trust to rigid containers. For Winter car storage, I keep the 4 oz packets inside Nalgene bottles. You get only about half the volume, but I think it's less danger of leakage all over your car trunk. For food, I also keep the lifeboat rations, and peanut butter.

Yeah, I caught that on the news this morning... I don't know where the work thing came in... and it seems kind of strange to me to burn a trainload of cars over some kids bar-b-queing themselves because of an accute case of paranoia, but then again, some of the riots in this country seem sort of strange (downright stupid) to me too. Thanks for the info/insight.

Troy

I read different things about using beef jerky as survival food. Doesn't the high sodium content keep it from being a good survival food because of all the water needed to drink after?

For those of you that pack energy bars, what are your favorites? I bought a couple while grocery shopping to try, and I was reading labels for calorie content, protein grams, etc. Anyone have a brand that has a good balance of essentials?

You always need water to digest food -- any food. If water shortage is an issue, you probably shouldn't be eating at all.

But that's just my opinion.

Sue