Note: I am not an employee or of any relation to hormel/it's subsidiaries etc. You get the idea. I don't know them, I just bought their stuff.

So we went to the store the other night and my Fiancee stopped me and said "get some of these Hormel meals".

Here's a link to them:
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/nuclearfamily/images/031506hormelchicken_box.jpg

It's just a picture.. You get the idea. At first, I'm thinking.. ugh.. 240 calories and it's kind of... tiny. Then I pick it up and feel it's got some heft to it. Each package is roughly shy of a pound. The net weight is 10 oz!

So it began to dawn on me these might make a suitable staple for the backup food cache. They're pretty cheap. We got ours for 1.79 apiece. They are vacuum sealed and apparently pre-cooked. They don't take long to heat up at all.


Anyways, so here's where they apply to the survival sense:

1) They require no refridgeration. That's right. None. Just throw them in a sealable box and let em go.
2) They keep for around a year. The "best used by date" on mine was for 7/28/08 ... it was purchased roughly 4/06/07.
3) They are cheap, meaning large quantities can be purchased.
4) And perhaps most interesting: there are two sets of cooking instructions. One set is for the microwave. The other set is as follows:

"Boiling Directions".
Place unopened bowl in large saucepan of boiling water. Simmer 8-9 minutes; remove from water and let stand one minute. Carefully peel back film. Caution: Bowl and it's contents will be HOT!

So for those who aren't following this means in a survival situation you just boil some water.. drop it in, and cook. Simple, easy and keeps for a long time. Plus for 100 dollars you can purchase around 55 of these babies. So even if you're eating 3 a day, that's still a 18 day supply.

Plus the film on top is pretty thick stuff. It should hold up well to regular abuses, plus it has an additional cardboard cover. All told the survivor leaves with a ready made meal, some burnable material (cardboard) and a heavy duty plastic bowl.

It was a nice find and I'll definitely be using them to help out with my food cache!

Finally found the corporate link buried on their site with all the varieties/flavors/etc

http://www.hormel.com/brands/brandview3.asp?id=104&catitemid=3

Good for bugging in; for bugging out, YMMV.

I know from experince they might not be as durable as they seem.

Heh, I've been eating these for lunch at work lately. I have a rather big appetite, so sometimes I have to follow up with some Ramen noodles. They aren't half bad for pre-packaged food.

I imagined heating them up in a canteen cup, flip halfway through... Better make sure they fit.

Well, I see that you can get Dinty Moore Beef Stew in this kind of packaging, one of Hormel's best ever products... that's almost the perfect food for camping, I think my brothers and I lived on a couple number 10 cans full of that stuff when we were younger on a week long trip up in the White Mountains. meat, potatoes, carrots... goop... yumm. Heavy in the big cans, but, it's all you need to bring. We've even just heated it in the can on the hot coals, (make sure to open the top!)

The only knocks on this stuff are the high fat and high sodium, but, that's only a problem if you're eating them all the time. In a survival situation, you'll burn the extra fat anyway.

Of course, Hormel also provides the ever popular, SPAM!

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM , SPAM BEAKED BEANS AND SPAM

240 calories seems like it would need more calorie dense food to supplement. Upon your 18 day supply number crunching at 100 cost, that is only going to give you 720 calories a day...

I do not really see a viable long term use as other prepared foods would be cheaper and give comparable nutritional content.

Short term use would be questionable as well since our bodies may require more calories that what you get from this product.

I would not buy this product but I am also a very cheap man, but I would not refuse it and actually would be curious to try one out if they had a "try me for free" promotion

I think they would be good for stockpiling
BUT Don't buy from their web site it is double or more what you can get them for at Wally World (Wal-Mart)

Mike

Yeah I saw that. For 3.22 apiece? Give me a break. At 1.79 they're a bargain. At 3.22 that's ridiculous.

I'm glad somebody remembered good 'ol Spam. I see it is turning 70 this year...