Ration Packs

[saxonaxe]

No! No! No! Woody Girl, any Supermarket sales team reading that will be tearing their hair out with frustration. The plan is everyone should rush down to Sainsbury's etc:and load their trolleys because we are all going to starve. Operation Fear won't work to their satisfaction if people like you buy freeze dried stuff. Now come on play the game.........

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

 

[Janne]

Being born in a Commie country, with the food (and everything else) shortages, you get use to have a supply of neccesities. Even if you do not need them.
Living now on an island that is jutting just above sea level, and where everything is imported, most of us keep a large box of stuff we need to live off for a couple of weeks.
If we get wiped out by a hurricane, like some islands did recently, we might need those supplies.

It can take weeks to repair the only port we have.

I read Brit. newspapers and laugh at the Doomsday tales they spin......surely nobody believes them?

 

[Janne]

You guys and gals, with your knowledge will be the local Cheftains!

Surrounded by vassals tilling the fields, nubile chambermaids..........

 

[Robson Valley]

I have not bought ration packs in decades. I should.
Are they complete or do I need to buy veg packs, as well?

Would be fun to cook up in really ****.ty weather.
We probably have 10+ days of crap coming up.

My goal this winter is to perfect(!) 3 different bannock formulas of different sizes.
One, two and 6-8 servings. I have a 10kg sack of all-purpose Canadian flour.
Medium gluten content between strong and weak. Available everywhere.

If I upscrew any of it, I can chuck it out the door for the Ravens.

 

[santaman2000]

I have not bought ration packs in decades. I should.
Are they complete or do I need to buy veg packs, as well?.

Most are nutritionally complete enough to be healthy as your sole source for a month or more before deficiencies matter. That said, they contains excessive sodium and whenever possible we tried to add fresh fruit.

 

[santaman2000]

I just gave an MRE vacuum packed Chicken chunks, ‘cheese’, tortilla and hot buffalo sauce a go.
I’m okay so far. I mean, it wasn’t incredible but at a push (i’m not a fussy eater) it was alright. The chicken was flaky and mashable like tuna from a can.
In a survival situation or after being drenched and cold in the woods, fine.
Just ordered UK army ration box.

To be fair, canned chicken chunks are also flaky and mashable like canned tuna.

One brand is Turmat from Norway. Mountain Horse from, I belive, Canada is an other.

Mountain House has offices in Canada as well as India/Nepal, but their home office and origin are in Oregon.

 

[Robson Valley]

"Mountain House." Thanks for the brand. Need to find a local retailer next.
The bannock experiments are on the immediate agenda = 12" snowfall warning with 2-6' up top over the next 48 hrs.
Not cold. 4X4 with alpine ice tires works out just fine.

 

[Janne]

My doc think it is the freeze dried food I had basically 3 x daily for three years that screwed up my intestinal system.

So enjoy it responsibly, and remember, a Bison steak in the pan is much tastier!

We do not have any FD packets in our Hurricane catastrophe supplies.

 

[Herman30]

freeze dried food I had basically 3 x daily for three years

Would you like to explain why such a diet?

 

[MikeLA]

Has anyone given British Army ration packs a go? I’ve seen some for sale on eBay and was wondering if they’re worth a go.

Ta,

Darryl

The old were good - boil in the bags, biscuits and hot drinks. The new stuff too sweet and sugary

 

[Janne]

Would you like to explain why such a diet?

We had to carry food for up to 10 days in our backpacks. Around 4500 kcal a day. Hence the fat content in the ’meaty’ packs. Very little fiber.
The sweet packs ( ’saft soppa’ ), orange or apple or billberries (blåbär) were also specially formulated to contain not only sackaros ( normal sugar) but also glukose and fruktose. No fiber.

If you know somebody that served in Sodankylä he can explain.

If you like ration packs type c ration, get them from various countries and try.
The Israeli ones are nice. Russian ones too.
Online.

 

[Herman30]

@Janne What I wanted to know why you did not eat any real food for three years. Because I have a hard time believing that.

 

[Woody girl]

No! No! No! Woody Girl, any Supermarket sales team reading that will be tearing their hair out with frustration. The plan is everyone should rush down to Sainsbury's etc:and load their trolleys because we are all going to starve. Operation Fear won't work to their satisfaction if people like you buy freeze dried stuff. Now come on play the game.........

Don't worry, it was more out of curiosity than anything else. Yes I can see the fear mongering is a good business opportunity for these companies. I'm not suckered in but being an ex girl guide the motto be prepared still sticks... and I have 2 packs of loo rolls........ just in case!

 

[Janne]

@Janne What I wanted to know why you did not eat any real food for three years. Because I have a hard time believing that.

We were outside about 75% of the time.
The only canned food we were supplied was the excellent Liver Pate. That one we had in our plutoon Bv.

In regiment they sometimes cooked that crap too. But then it was properly cooked and hydrated. The fruit soups were always given as dessert.

This was in the late ‘70s, more serious times defence wise.
I hope those times never come back.

Herman, do you know those two slices of Wasa cracker breads with a filling inbetween?
That product was developed for us and our brother regiment as we needed a bit of fiber. . Original taste was Cheddar.
Ingenious product. The filling makes the crackers much more breakage resistant, but does not make them soggy. Also the filling (cheddar) has lots of flavour, to counteract the very tasteless freeze dried we ate.

That is superb food to take with you, if you can buy it in UK!

 

[Herman30]

Yes i think I have tried those filled Wasa knäcke. Must have been very many years ago. As far as I remember they were tasty.

 

[Janne]

I hope they are sold in UK too, very tasty and the fibers are good for the stomach! They were not when I lived there, but a lot can happen in 13 years.....

As they crackerbread is dry ( duh!) they weigh very little, so excellent to carry.

 

[Alan De Enfield]

Herman, do you know those two slices of Wasa cracker breads with a filling inbetween?
That product was developed for us and our brother regiment as we needed a bit of fiber. . Original taste was Cheddar.
!

Is this the ones ?

 

[Herman30]

@Alan De Enfield Yes.

 

[Janne]

Yes. The only difference between those and the Scandinavian ones is that Wasa made for countries outside Fenno Scandinavia is made in Germany, the crackerbreads are a little bit milder in taste. We get the full Wasa range here.

That one is worth for you UK guys trying. That filling is tasty and mild. The Cheddar filling is much more sharp.

One more use for it ( sounds disgusting) is to make a kind of salty porridge with it.