Creating your own Ration packs for long term storage and lightweight use.

Individual Rations Packs such as Freeze Dried Mountain House and Expedition Foods are very convenient, lightweight, has simple preparations but are expensive. Dried foods from Supermarket sources generally have 2-3 years of normal storage. By using commercial resealable Food Grade Mylar Pouches and Oxygen absorbers, longer term storage of up to 5 years and the ability to arrange individual pouches into multi day ration packs to supplement the commercial Freeze dried pouches if cooking facilities are available such as a camp stove and pot.

http://www.fresherpack.co.uk/sections/33/stand_up_pouches/

Smaller pouches for items such as brew kit, coffee, hot chocolate, malted drinks, sugar, electrolyte powders, dried soups are available.

http://www.fresherpack.co.uk/sections/21/ziplock_foil___mylar_bags/

Various dried supermarket foods such as the following can be used.

Dried Milk.
Dried Soups.
Quick Cook Oats.
Granola
Cous Cous (various flavours such as roasted vegetable).
Quick Cook Noodles.
Quick cook rice (Basmati through to Pudding) and various rice meals.
Pasta and Various quick cook pasta meals.
Home baked Protein Bars.
Protein Milk shakes.
Dried fruits.
Etc.

Supermarket examples;

http://www.ainsley-harriott.com/products/ranges/amazing-grains

A labelling system is required to label the pouches showing Mylar pouch contents and cooking instructions if required, repackage/resealing date.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dymo-Labelwriter...ywords=dymo+450

A heat Sealer will be required to seal the Mylar bag after contents and Oxygen Absorber in place in the Mylar Bag.

http://www.fresherpack.co.uk/sections/14/heat_sealers/

The cost per Mylar bag in the UK is approx 40 pence or 60 cents per Mylar Bag per 100 purchased excluding the initial purchases of the Labeler and Heat Sealer tools.

Buying food in bulk, then measuring and putting the food into individual reasealable Mylar bags can save considerable sums of cash. I can get 2 commercial meal packs (around 1200kcal)

http://adventurefood.com/en/

then use my own long term Mylar supermarket pouches to supplement those commercial ration pack to produce 24hr ration packs with 3000 kcal per day.

One must bear in mind that in order to use freeze dried meals, one must have water available, a condition not always present. If water is a problem, you might as well carry canned goods, instead of the more expensive FD materials. An ordinary, garden variety apple is something like 90% liquid....

when i pack for the canoe trips the only MRE's i take are the main meals with a solid meat.chicken,BBQ pork,meat patty.the rest of them are just fillers made so a GI has a "home made" type meal.rice,pasta or instant potato are added to fill things up.stews made with a base of dry spring vegetable soup with a freeze dry meat of some sort and rice or pasta filler have been a main dinner for years.
there is a dry egg mix that is very good but a bit hard to find since the Egg Store in Chicago shut down.Swengard or a name like that.i make a egg,rice,bacon bits,onion and tomato scrambled egg breakfast that has got rave reviews.check for pancake or waffle mix's that need only water.
Lard! or something like that is a must.cooking without some sort of oil is hard,think fresh fish,plus oils provide needed nutrition.

Mylar is very much a US thing. In the UK we call them 'barrier bags'.

They are made up of layers laminated together, one for strength, one to keep out moisture, one to block Oxygen and finished on the inside with a foodsafe layer and so on. I have seen seven layer bags made for a special purpose. The genuine, embossed Foodsaver bags are barrier bags.

Have a look at UK packed bacon, that is a barrier bag, very commonly used. Easily available and a lot cheaper in the UK than Mylar (which is a trade name)

They are also available as 'barrier retort pouches' so they stand up and you may cook in them sealed as well, even in a pressure cooker. This will to a certain extent sterilise the contents and let you keep the meal for a while, bit like a MRE.

This company specilise in vacuum pouches but others are available.
http://www.thevacuumpouch.co.uk/index.php

And
http://www.krehalonuk.co.uk/retortable.php

Only three posts in and this thread is making me hungry already!

MRE components and MH-style freeze dried meals are wonderful, and there's always lots at the grocery store and the good old bulk food store. Tthere are so many packable options that I find it fun to make my own. One of the hardest tasks in trip planning, for me, is deciding on a menu. Camp and trailside cooking is one of my favourite things, especially when I have the chance to cook over a wood fire.

Someday I'll try home dehydrating, but for now, our local outdoors store has started carrying simple "unreciped" dehydrated ingredients - beef, chicken, pork, onions, peas, corn, carrots, fruit, etc... without sauces, seasoning, etc. so I get benefit of longer storage and I get to create my own meals from scratch. More labour intensive that pre-made meals, but a great compromise that lets me get my creative camp chef on without having to carry the weight of fresh fully hydrated ingredients.

i make up ration pack meals for every canoe trip.



thats two weeks worth of dinners for one man,me, and i like a good solid dinner after a day out on the lakes.a meal with fruit,a couple cookies a bannock if i'm really hungry and tea or a fruit drink like Tang.some candy and a flask of rum and jars of margarine fill out the dinner sack.
on the left are three MRE meat packs with a rice pack.a couple freeze dry dinners for evenings when i want something fast and on the right two bags each with four dinners of freeze dry meat,chicken or roast beef,with rice sides.bags are taped up in the hope that the bears won't get a whiff.



in action it looks like this.
the dry fruit with some rum and lake water to rehydrate'
the rice pack with added freeze dry peas warming on top of a pot of boiling water that has a MRE meat dinner in it.
the drinking water is stained with tannin from the bogs around this lake.other lakes have gin clear water.

In the never-ending quest for a lighter pack, and inspired by this video we're going to test out a new recipe this weekend: backpacker's Shepard's pie. Dehydrated beef, idaho instant potatoes, dehyrated peas and onions, a small can of corn that's dehydrating in the over today, a beef bullion cube and a package of Shepard's pie seasoning.

Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsaLOob6Gq8

Canoedogs, you make me hungry! Thanks for the continued inspiration! Hope the knee is recovering well!

bac pac..at a yard sale i found a vacuum sealer and some rolls of bags,$3!..next i'll try that method of keeping the freeze dry meats sort of fresh over a two week trip.
i had bad luck with zip locks that were kept in the freezer until i left for the last trip.by day 6 or 7 my trust level was way down on the chicken,no matter how hard i tried to get the air out of a zip it still did not seem fresh when i opened the bag.
the knee is well enough that i spent the day working on my "survival" tomato patch-----