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DIY Ration Pack conundrum

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A ration pack to me is food that is ready to eat and for extended periods to keep an active person in top condition. With this in mind a shoebox full would be more than enough food for 24hrs for me but about the right amount taking into account a varied menu and the different sizes of food.

If your asking how long a person could live on a shoebox of food then weeks if high fat foods such as sausage, cheese and fats are included. Combined with high starch carbs meals for weeks could be rationed but would become boring after a few days and and health would steadily decline.
 
The other major consideration is wet food (pouch meals you can eat cold) and food that needs no cooking Vs dried food which needs hydration and cooking = more fuel. Something else to chew on (excuse the pun) is shelf life, are you putting together a pack for a specific trip or a generic type pack for longer term storage and later use?
 
rik_uk3 said:
And about 50% fat. Sugar gives the fast energy boost and the fat a slower release of energy.

IIRC Chris Townsend when hiking would eat noodles and or cup o soup but add butter to up the energy content, people like Sir Ranulph Fiennes rely on a high fat diet for extreme conditions.
Click to expand...

Butter is a traditional topping for Japanese ramen noodles.
 
I don't know about you but all of my shoeboxes are about twice the size of a British 24-hr ration, at least of the one I have. In any case, however, I like this approach. I've often thought about the problem from this standpoint but I really haven't done much of anything with it. I should describe my starting point first.

My time in the army was when C-rations were still being used. They are a little similiar to 24-hour ration packs but with less instant drink mixes and no biscuits/crackers. So having canned items seems perfectly natural and normal to me. Even so, I'd limit the canned stuff to certain select canned meats. I like some a lot better than others, naturally, but some are especially adaptable to this application. For instance, old-fashioned deviled ham comes in just the right size container that doesn't need a can opener but it has a strong taste (for my tastes). But most canned or tinned meats are a bit large to eat all at once. Small portions of meat are the only canned items I ever considered--except for fruit cocktail, which always disappeared from unattended C-rations right away.

My thinking was to create a one-day allowance of food, which is what a ration is, and with some exceptions, package it all together, one day's worth, for use in the near future, only I never really got past the experimental stage, mostly because of a real lack of plans for any future overnight trips. Anyhow, my experiments centered around attempting to duplicate that which was found in a 24-hour rat pack. A basic problem was packaging things in a size for a single day's consumption. The exceptions were coffee and sugar, which I have always packed in a sort of bulk fashion. I take along coffee, sugar and sometimes oatmeal along on trips, so that part is down pat. For outings when I was going on overnight trips more than I seem to be now, I also took along some kind of bread which I never included in these experimental food packs. I did have some problems.

One of the reasons I included bread (usually some kind of hard dinner roll picked up at a supermarket on the way) was because I couldn't find a good substitute for the "biscuits, brown" that are a part of a 24-hour ration pack, although there are some close substitutes. But they don't come neatly packaged anyway and crackers need to be packed carefully. Another thing I discovered was that even at home, some canned or tinned goods need to be carefully stored, especially the kind with the easy opening top, or they can come open and spoil.

It's cheating but there are heat and serve meals that require no refrigeration that are good for including in a day's ration. The ones I'm thinking of come in a plastic tray and will just fit inside the large mess tin of a British mess tin set, which is perfect for reheating the thing over a heat source with water. The mess tin is also the best way to carry it. Two meals will just barely fit inside the large mess tin. They're about as good as any frozen TV dinner but a little light on the filling and that's another reason for the bread.

I also have a supply of so-called pemmican bars that I consider to be the "emergency" ration (only consumed when so ordered!). The ones I have (Bear Valley) are "all right" but not so sweet that you'd call them candy bars. They're also relatively big. In theory, one is included on a trip.

That about covers it.
 
its hard to actually fit enough calories for 2 or 3 days into a pack with out it tasting like cardboard, i did it at new year from the super market to make it more money friendly.. but just that amount of food for 2,500 calories plus is hard to handle....

best of luck and will be interested in your results, i was thinking of the dehydrated home meals route.
 
Some packaged food tastes like cardboard "fresh" from the grocery store but if you're hungry and far from a McDonald's, it won't taste too bad.

Someone above mentioned butter but butter and margarine are problematic for backpacking, if that's what we're talking about, at least during warmer weather. Some margarines, I discovered, melts into oil in the summertime, although I don't suppose it goes bad. But chocolate will melt, too.

To add to my treatise above, I was also thinking along the lines of a pre-packaged grab it and go sort of thing, you know, like when they hand out a C-ration or equivalent for a long road trip in the army. But for ordinary adventures in the wilds of the park, there's usually plenty of time for detailed planning on what to take. That's what I keep telling myself.
 
I believe I've read somewhere about attempts to develop either chocolate or margarine that wouldn't melt in warm weather and the problem is, such a thing won't melt in the mouth, either.
 
I make my own rats from supermarket derived foods, also supplemented by home dehydrated foods. I've found it quite easy to match the taste and colorific value of bought rats. I like the cost saving and knowing what's gone into them too.

As an example, this is a 24 hour rat that is pretty straightforward to knock up from the shelf. Lots of the ingredients are too much in amount for one day though, so can be spread out over many meals.

Breakfast;
Porridge (I like the Alpen with nuts and fruit but there are many more) x 2 sachets, part of a bag of dried "Wonder Berries (125g of dried blueberries, strawberries, goji berries, raisins etc), chunks of 80% cocoa chocolate, some full fat milk powder.
Around £1.50 and 400 odd cal's

Lunch; Soreen malt loaf with 2 sachets of Whole Earth peanut butter, 2 disposable packets of jam. Not the most dense food but packed with slow and quick release carbs, fats and proteins.
£1, 1000 cal's plus

Dinner; Cheese and broccoli pasta meal in packet, Parmesan cheese, Chorizo/jerky/Smoky sausage, some full fat milk powder, shredded suet(doesn't melt in the packet or go funny)/butter, added herbs and spices to taste.
£3-4. The calorie count on this is variable but it can easily hit 1000 cals.

Drinks; Instant coffee sachets.

That's a 2400cal menu off the shelf for £7/day that just needs hot water adding.


I save more money than that because I make my own jerky, dehydrated veg, instant coffee etc. I also add lots of dried veg into the evening meal and dried fruit to the porridge for some more goodness.

Things like flapjacks, fruitcake, high cocoa chocolate, more suet, cheese, nuts, more peanut butter can all be added to really boost the calorie count. Getting 4000 out of this menu is as easy as adding a few said munchies and more fat.
 
Consider also that is very important not only the amount of calories but the kind of food. the four macro categories are carbohydrates, fat and proteins and then fibers. Just for clarification and thinking about the terms of chance (for the environment temperature) the best choice is butter (as said my science teacher when I asked about this matter the very first time a very long time ago). Also dried fruits like nuts and almonds are equally useful with an approximate amount of 700 KCal. It's quite evident that only butter or nuts are not enough for sustain the strain of several days aout (and don't taste so good when you eat a large amount). So food with less calories but a better balance for the target must be more helpful than a very energetic meal
 
In theory, the food you eat on an outing shouldn't be too different from what you eat at home, allowing for certain things. But if you don't like it at home, you won't like it in the woods, although your standards will change a little. However, I think concepts of efficiency might be misplaced. You want to feel full and well fed most of all, not worrying about whether your food has vitamins, unless you worry about it at home, too. Anyway, different people have different ideas of what is suitable food and for me, the thought of steak and kidney or blood pudding is a little hard to swallow, although my boss said he loves that sort of stuff. But he grew up in Northern Rhodesia and likes to take us to strange restaurants (Thai or Indian). The first restaurant we pass when leaving the building is a Hooters but no such luck.

The food aside, the packaging is also important but as I think I already said, I never really achieved anything really satisfactory. But smaller zip-lock bags might be a good thing for packing food in, if it seems useful to put one day's food in one bag, though I'm not sure that's so important. Some of it needs more protection than the package it comes in, such as instant oatmeal. Some cans need more protection than you might think but you can also bring eggs if you can find those little special plastic containers for eggs. They will keep without refridgeration okay for a couple of days. Polly said to keep them out of the refridgerator overnight before using them anyway.

In reading over old time books on camping, I realize I don't do any food preparation like people used to do, even if I am experimenting with French Army cooking, 1911 style. But I'm a slow learner and my French isn't what it needs to be. I only just figured out why they called their cup or mug a "quart."
 
kard133 said:
Batchelors super noodles are approx 530 calories when cooked, they have a funny way of calculating the calorific value, one serving is half a pack prepared (water added and cooked) at 265 calories.
Click to expand...

No, a pack is around 266 calories I think. Bachelors quote 111 Kilojoules per pack which is 266 calories...its all very confusing but one thing for sure a pack of supernoodles on its own is not really a meal.
 
There indeed was chocolate designed not to melt in high temperatures, it was used in US 'Jungle' rations IIRC in WW2 and was on sale in South Africa and Rhodesia in the 80's.
 
I have a stack of WWII Canadian training circulars. They were apparently intended to cover recent thoughts about tactics and field training. One had an article about a winter training exercise, although oriented more to the way Canadians experience winter. Included was a great deal about rations. The exercise was for five days (and four nights). The article even included the menu plan for the exercise. As best as I can remember, these are the more interesting points.

No issue rations seem to have been used. Instead, they carried stew for each main meal, which they refer to as dinner. The evening meal was supper. Terms change, of course. Supper is what you eat after the dance party at 11:00 o'clock at night. At any rate, some form of stew seemed to be the standard everyday meal for both the French and German armies before WWI, both in the field and in barracks.

The other items were "biscuit," bacon, cheese, porridge, jam, and one or two other things I don't remember. Also included was raisins under "ration," which I take to mean snack. I don't know if that word (snack) was used in the 1940s. Tea in the evening, no coffee, and cocoa with all meals, plus "before bedtime." I don't recall a mention of water, as in how much, but they may not have carried water bottles since the exercise was in below zero weather. Also no mention of an emergency ration.

They did state that the rations had shortcomings and were a bit on the lean side. In fact, that's why they included the oatmeal. The food was not exactly "off the shelf" but rather, prepared right in the barracks just before leaving and instructions were even given on how the stew was prepared. Each daily portion of the stew was doled out and wrapped in wax paper and presumably soon frozen after departure, although I don't recall if it described how the food was carried. I don't think it was actually carried by each individual soldier.

I'm not certain what the biscuit they used was but I assume some form of hard bread. I have a supply of "pilot bread" that isn't something I would recommend but it seems to keep pretty well. It has a so-so taste but it doesn't get any worse with age. I don't find it sufficiently filling. There are dozens of different kinds of crackers in the supermarket that are just as good for spreading jellies, jams and meat spreads on but I couldn't speak to any nutritional value of any of them.
 
Must say that I'm a cous-cous fan when it comes to packing food, just add it to a mug of hot water (no need to simmer) add a flavouring (cup-a-soup for the lazy) and you've something to fill a big hole and packs easily, more so than noodles, rice or pasta. Polenta or semolina is just as easy.
Also oats ban be eaten either dry or with hot or cold water added. (Honey or even diluting squash can be added to sweeten it up if you like and again easy to pack.) Can also be made into bars and oatcakes if needed.
Powdered potatoes don't agree with my stomach so I avoid them but can be a useful bulker/thickener to stews and soups.
I like to hit the ethnic food section in the shops and usually end up with some form of jerky, salami, smoked meat fish. Also when we were heading off on expedition we used to raid the Chinese supermarket as they have a plethora of dried fish, meat, vegetables, fungi (and things that I don't know quite how to categorise!) and were always helpful in telling you what you could do with what. Was also a cheaper way to get our scran and make it more interesting.
As to how long I could survive out of a shoe box of food, well survive yes, but as Crocodile Dundee says "It taste's like S***!" But you can eat quite well if you put some imagination, research and spice into stuff.
On the butter front I either use good olive/rapeseed oil or put some butter in those Coghlan's Squeeze tubes, better than taking a whole tub of butter, peanut butter, whatever and they don't leak. As fat is something you will crave after a while.
How you intend to prepare the food is a consideration to what you take. I like pulses and beans, but on a fuel poor expedition they could be problematic due to prep time. But they're very packable and nutritious. We got round it by using any spare hot water from other tasks (clean) to prehydrate them in daily batches in wide mouth Nalgene bottles. (You can also use them as mini-greenhouses to make sprouted grains which are very good for you.)
Popcorn is another light thing to carry (un-popped) and it fills you up no end, plus it's fun to make/eat whilst watching the in-camp movie (the fire) and kids tend to like it too. It's seemingly one of mans earliest snack foods; evidence dating back some three and a half thousand years for it.
 
That was a good post. I think Thoreau said that after man discovered fire, he discovered the need to sit by it. Dogs follow our example, I'm told.

The Canadian training manual I referred to said to have the main meal in the middle of the day, as a person might be too tired to eat at the end of the day or to tired to digest it (that's what it said). I can understand the reasoning but I still prefer the main meal for an overnighter to be the evening meal, although that carries risks. The main risk I think of is when your schedule is thrown off for some reason, usually because of a late start, and you therefore arrive at your planned campsite rather late in the day and end up doing things after the sun goes down.

I like beans but what are "pulses?" At this point I should admit that I frequently end up eating and generally liking things I don't like (if you follow me). I'm not fond of those handy heat and eat pasta dishes at home (together with similiar dishes like rice) but the "just add hot water" to the bag pasta meal I one had was pretty good. And it was also on a trip when I set up camp in the dark.

Not within the topic but water can be most problematic on a trip, especially if you follow the ridges such as the Applachian Trail most follows, up and down, up and down. Other nearby trails can be hit or miss. The area I most often visit is very well watered on one side of the ridge but quite dry on the other side. And there are some hilltop peaks where there is naturally no water to be had. And water is the heaviest thing you're probably going to carry.
 
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