Paratus

Food Tests, continued

Food Editor Aaron has tried another reconstitutable meal, another Mountain House "Pro-Pak" entree.

His observations are below.

"Long-Range" Poultry

You've heard of "Free-Range" poultry? I'm sure. The yuppies who insist on it haven't a clue about raising domestic animals, and they've been sold a bill of goods that the chicken that gets no additional protection from disease, and has to forage for it's own food instead of having it brought to a trough, is a better chicken.

Say good-bye to your "free-range" poultry, Mr. & Mrs. Yuppie, their death warrants have all been signed by Judge H5N1, which will likely execute them all this year. The problem, of course, is that out on the "free range", wild fowl can and will mix in with the poultry flocks, and the Avian Flu strain H5N1 will transmit to them even before it transmits to better-managed flocks. It may even be possible to maintain some chicken production during the Avian Flu, if it's done totally indoors.

For most of us, though, chicken will become a very scarce commodity shortly (for the "free-range" afficionados, almost immediately). Fox news recently reported that H5N1 will likely hit US poultry production this Spring. Poultry prices will soar faster than gas prices after a hurricane.

In this Rivrdog Blog post, I advised how to measure your poultry-products use and prepare to lay in sufficient frozen stocks and sufficient substitutes to get through the avian pandemic. Problem was, I didn't have the data on what was really available for pre-processed and substitute poultry products.

I hollered "help". That's all it took for my Food Editor and his wife to immediately run to the store and scope out the available poultry products, do some basic kitchen and storage tests, and whip up a report. Now, that's FAST: the unvarnished truth (no MSM bull), in HOURS!

The first installment of "Long-Range" Poultry follows...

Food News # 2

Food Post #2 -  Mountain House Brand Pro-Pak(tm) Freeze Dried Beef Stew

Hello again, Fair Readers, and to begin, let me apologize for the long delay since my first Food Post.  No, I didn't poison myself.  Rather, tonight is the first night my lovely wife Lisa has been back to work after a 10-day vacation.  And not only does she LIKE to cook, she's GOOD at it, and so...

Mac n' cheese 2

Aaron's post on Mac and Cheese generated quite a few comments, so I thought I would build on his achievement with some lessons that I received from cold weather training with the USAF, and two different Winter Search and Rescue teams that I have belonged to, Marquette County, MI and Multnomah County, OR.

All that training stressed "food as fuel". It's well known that your food requirements can double for outdoor work in cold weather. An 18-50 year-old man (militia age) might use 3,000K (calories) a day working at a desk, indoors. Doing moderate work outdoors in warm weather might raise that 1-2,000K, but add in the calorie-robbing cold and you can add another 1-2,000K. Metabolism studies in loggers working out in moderate cold (35-55f) showed that in the "Misery-Whip" or springboard logging days from 1850 to 1945, a logger could eat 6-10,000K for breakfast, another 4-5,000K for lunch and 5-7,000k for dinner and lose weight. That's at least 15,000K and as much as 22,000K. A pound of weight equals 3,200K, so our loggers should have been gaining 5-6 pounds a day. After they had worked at it for a couple of months, their weight stabilized on that caloric intake.

The Army plans on feeding two MRE's a day, and they are 6,000K if memory serves. That's 12,000K for an active soldier. In field research, few soldiers, given the chance, consumed all of the meals, and probably existed in the field on 5-7,000 calories.

Let's say our little army takes the field for a day's operations. How much Mac n' Cheese are we going to have to prepare, per man, to feed the troops?

From my pantry, I retrieved a box of Kraft "The Cheesiest" "Original Flavor" Mac n' Cheese, net weight 7.25 oz. If I make it according to the instructions, with all the margarine it requires, the ENTIRE BOX has only 1,140K in it. About 70%RDA of fat, 50% of Carbs and 60% of the protein. Mind you, the RDA is a minimum-to-maintain figure if you are not exercising. You'd have to eat about 5 boxes per day of this staple, a fairly bulky amount (in the gallons) to exist for long as an infantryman.

It's survival food. An army fights on it's stomach, as a logistician of WW1 observed (may have been Gen. Pershing). Mac n' Cheese might be good midnite rats to keep you making heat in your sleeping bag at night, but it ain't gonna power you far during the day. For that, you need more protein and more carbs, and a little more fat. There are powdered supplements that will give you huge protein and carb numbers with a half-liter milkshake. The body-builders use them to pack on those huge decks of pecks. In a militia situation, we are concerned with keeping our baggage train as small as possible, so in my outfit, we will probably pack and use the supplements. They can be premixed and issued out to be carried in a light rucksack (think seal-a-meal packs). They require no cooking, and will keep 6-8 hours unrefrigerated.

In a realistic S.H.T.F. situation, there will probably be kids and wives in camp. They can get by on the Mac n' Cheese, but if we're going back to the city to take back what's ours, we'll need better fuel.

New correspondent & food editor

Starting today, Aaron Neal, who just started Dad's Garage blog, will be making regular contributions on buying, storing and preparing non-perishable foods.

Aaron and I have cooperated on other blogging projects. You might remember his stirring mission into hurricane-ravaged Alabama this past fall. It was a series on my other blog, Rivrdog, starting here and going on for about a week. Aaron and I share common views on most things, especially the need for a head of household to take responsibility for all of the facets of his/her family's survival, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. In the S.H.T.F. scenario, of which you may choose one of mine or pose your own, food supply will be as important as ammo supply. (ed. note: with bird flu now suspected in France as of yesterday, the pandemic S.H.T.F. scenario could be headed our way)

Aaron starts with the basics, Kraft Mac and Cheese. This foundation block of every parent's feeding of children is easily stored, cooks quickly, and provides an excellent base for making casseroles in the field. It comes in super-sizes also, in case you are running a big field kitchen.

Heeeeeere's Aaron:

This is the first in a series of posts regarding food storage and a report of preparation and results.

My criteria on this is that the foods (or their ingredients) must be storable long-term without refrigeration.  In other words, things you could put in a grab-and-go bag and not worry about for a while, or things you stock up in your pantry, to make sure you have a good supply of food on hand in the event of a disaster or quarantine.

I'll be looking at shelf life and nutritional value objectively.  These are things that can be read from the packaging, and are not subjective.

The subjective parts will be my observations regarding ease of preparation and taste.  I'll also be getting Lisa's opinion of the taste, when she's brave enough to eat my cooking (and when she's not at work).

Tonight I'll kick this off with an all-time favorite comfort food, macaroni and cheese.  Kids love it, and most adults I know enjoy a good hot bowl of Mac'N'Cheese as well.  If you're HAVING to rely on long-term storage food, everyone involved is likely to be pretty stressed.  Don't forget the morale value of a good, hot meal.

 

I'll leave out the margarine, since it won't keep in the pantry, and use evaporated milk.

On to the facts:

SHELF LIFE: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (Original Flavor) - this has a "Best when used by" date of 06 Oct 2006, and it's probably been in the cabinet for about two months or so.  So nearly a one-year shelf life, and that's "best by", not "throw this away on".

Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk - I have no idea when we bought this; it's not something we use often.  Its "Best By" date is 16 Dec 06 - I'm sure we've had this sitting for a while, so call it at least a one-year shelf life.

[note] Just in case any of you Fair Readers thought I was being self-deprecating when I wondered if Lisa would be "brave enough" to eat my cooking - I'm working on this dish as I write this.  Water came up to a boil, so I went to put the macaroni in - and dumped the cheese packet right in with it.  Then only JUST BARELY stopped myself from reaching into boiling water to grab it.  I keep up like this, I may end up blogging from the hospital.  [/note]

NUTRITION: I'm going with the "prepared" column on the box of macaroni.  It won't be completely accurate, since it assumes four tablespoons of butter that I'm not using, and it also assumes 1/4 cup of milk (unspecified, I'm assuming whole) and I'm using evaporated milk.

Serving size: 2.5oz (about 1 cup)
Servings per container:  About 3
Calories: 380
Total Fat: 2.5g
Total Carbs: 49g
Protein: 9g
Vitamin A: 15%
Calcium: 25%
Iron: 10%

PREPARATION: I hope everybody reading this knows how to make mac'n'cheese from a box. But just in case you don't, you boil water, put macaroni in boiling water (stirring damn near constantly, this particular quick-cooking pasta sticks to ANY pot - editor) but don't put the cheese pack in with it! Then boil for 7-8 minutes or so. Drain macaroni, add milk, cheese powder, and butter (no butter this time), stir, and eat. Pretty simple, very easy in a kitchen or on a camp stove, could be done pretty easily over a campfire. (ed. note - if you haven't made Aaron's little boo-boo here with the cheese packet, you haven't been a parent long and haven't cooked much mac and cheese).

NOTE:  I'll have to open a can of evap milk - have a can opener!  Also, the evap milk won't all be used, and the leftovers must be refrigerated.  If you don't have refrigeration, just drink the leftover milk with your dinner.

TASTE: Well, true to form, I screwed up - was cooking and writing at the same time, and boiled the macaroni about twice as long as I was supposed to.  So, it's predictably kinda mushy.  Other than that, though, I don't see the reason for the butter.  I couldn't notice the lack of it AT ALL (dieters take note!).  Other than the mushiness I caused by cooking it too long, this was a normal, everyday bowl of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  Normal, like I had to make myself NOT get a second bowl and be a pig.  I did, however, use a little more milk than is called for (probably about 1/3 of a cup instead of 1/4).

I'm gonna call this one a success.

It could also be EASILY augmented, both taste and nutrition, with the addition of some form of canned meat - a can of chili, or some cut-up vienna sausages, or even a can of tuna or chicken.  Maybe even canned corned beef, but I'm not sure about that one.  I'd have to try it before recommending it.

-Aaron