The Wal-Mart MRE discussion reminded me of a question I've been wanting to ask...

What standard grocery store packaged food products would be best to stock up on for an emergency pantry?

My criteria would probably be low-cost, long shelf-life, and a minimum of preparation. "Real" survival food seems pretty pricey to me.

From my poor student days, I know it's cheap to stock up on ramen noodles and chicken noodle soup. I suspect the ramen noodles probably have a poor shelf life. My guess is the soup would do a lot better.

Any suggestions?

Dinty Moore Beef Stew. My brother and I ate a lot of it on a cross country trip once.

"Dinty Moore Beef Stew."

Amen to that. I had a can a few months back. They seemed to have improved it greatly since the last time I ate it 20 years ago. Back then it was mostly corn, and what little meat there was appeared to be some sort of soyburger. The current recipe is surprisingly good. Potatoes, carrots, and a decent amount of real beef. And no corn. Good stuff.

Pantry storage foods have a few variables to consider. I try to follow these guidelines and examples:

Rotation: It is good to stock foods that you normally consume. However you should expect some dietary variance depending on status quo vs. critical event.

Economy: I like foods that give me the best bang for the buck calorie wise, looking at what gives me the most wholesome blend of fats, proteins and carbs.

Satisfying consumption: We all have our favorites, right?

Longevity: A lot of the larder of my pantry has a typical shelf life of at least two years.

So, things like spam and underwood potted meats, canned dinners (ravioli, just cuz it's one of my favs), dry pasta, rice, and legumes, instant oatmeal packets, spaghetti sauces; all these work well. I think just about any canned items are going to be fine so long as you scrutinize and reject dented ones.

If you wouldn't normally eat something, don't think you'll be any happier about it in a survival situation. Of course, one would get to the point that any food would be welcome, but my point is (as was stated before) store things that are part of your regular diet. When I'm trying a new soup or stew for the first time I think to myself, "Would I grab this out of the pantry when the mood struck, or would I leave this till the last possible thing to keep myself from starving?" If I'd eat it on any given day, then I'll buy more, but if it would be a last resort food, then I don't.

I think Ramen noodles have a shelf life of about 300 years, don't they? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Especially on a budget, you don't have to stock everything all at once either. Buy a few extras of the things on your grocery list every time you shop. Just remember when you rotate the stock you have to use the old restaurant acronym FIFO (First In, First Out). Most canned items have a shelf life of a couple of years at the very least, but if you rotate regularly, then you won't have to find out how accurate the shelf life date is.

And I agree, get rid of dented cans. In the 21st century, some people may find botox is okay to inject into their faces, but it can still be deadly to your intestines!

Though for things like dry pasta, you have to consider your water supply. Unlike soup (where you'll still be drinking the water, less whatever boils away), the water you cook the pasta in might end up 'wasted' (ie, not consumed by a human). Unless you use the pasta as a soup base (chicken noodle?), or cook something else in the left-over water.

We recently bought several 'rolling' racks for canned goods (drop the cans in at the top, and pull them from the bottom to use them). Saves lots of space, and also handy for making sure you use them in the order you bought them.

Water supply, yes, of course pasta can be eaten without cooking ( I nibble noodles once in a while).

Pasta water can be used in bread recipes, soup bases, for boiling fresh veggies, or for cooking more pasta. Boil it and cover it tightly and it'll keep tepid for a couple days without turning sour.

One thing that bears repeating, too, is to make sure and check the expiration dates of what you're getting so that you get the most longevity out of the purchase as possible.

I recently purchased two packages of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice for use in backpacking later this year, and pulled both out of the same container on the grocery store shelf. On the one package I looked at, the expiration date was 11/2006. When I got home, though, I noticed the other was "best before" 02/2006. Certainly not the end of the world since I plan on using it by then, but I would have much preferred to have both packages with November expiration dates for flexibility.

Another thing to consider is variety. Make sure not to lay up too much of any one thing, and put some though into how you might be able to mix different things together out of different cans to create meals that, if not gourmet fare, will at very least not become too monotonous too quickly.

So, a short list might consist of:

Dinty Moore beef stew. (It really IS good!)
Canned chili
Tunafish, salmon
Canned fish steaks (these smaller fish don't contain the mercury levels found in tuna, salmon, and other larger fish, possibly a serious issue depending on total intake)
Beans, dry (protein)
Beans, canned
Canned soups
Powdered soups
Rice, parboiled &/or regular (Not currrently sure regarding difference in shelf life of parboiled as opposed to uncooked rice)
Oatmeal
Instant grits
Canned vegetables (corn, mixed, tomatoes, yams, green beans, etc.)
Instant mashed potatoes.
Bisquick. Lots of bisquick.
Honey.
Salt, iodized
Pepper, unground corns.
Condiments (ketchp, mustard, mayo, etc. Tabasco gets its own line.)
Tabasco sauce <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Tea
Coffee
Cocoa
Powdered milk
Condensed milk
Powdered eggs.
Ovaltine (chocolate, vitamins)
Vitamins (coincidentally, also has vitamins)
Hershey's chocolate bars w/o nuts
Hard candy (Jolly Ranchers, etc.)
Ramen. (Ick.)

As mentioned, pasta water can be used for a number of things after the pasta's done. You can use it to soak beans for the next evening's meal, or use as the basis for a soup. As luck would have it, this is particularly convenient if you're making some sort of noodle soup!

In keeping with Benjamin's post, ramen can be eaten uncooked, too, (and this is actually the only way I personally find most brands palatable). I believe that pasta can be soaked to reduce cooking time, but my culinary training has kept me from experimenting with that particular blasphemy to date.

Maybe this weekend... <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Dented isn't neccesarily a problem. When I was a kid, my uncle had a distributorship for Del Monte. He got all the dented cans back from the stores for credit, Del Monte got the labels back to credit my uncle, and the family got the dented canned goods... the bulging cans are the ones you throw away without opening <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Troy

P.S. In my lifetime, I've eaten CASES of dented canned goods with no ill effect.