Vacuum Sealing and stuff

[Bulk]

Hello all,

Just picked me up a vacuum sealer today, and am loving this thing. My question is, has anyone experimented with putting together home-made "Mountain House" style meals? Mixing up the ingredients in dry form, and maybe canning the sauces, or something in order to put it together?

If you have, I'd love to hear some of your ideas. My wife and I are planning to use this baby to seal things up for our pantry, and we're shooting for a 6 month preparedness using this, canning, our dehydrator, and just plain stockpiling.

Let's see what we can do. :)
Ben

[chicom]

Wouldn't you need a dehydrator for that. Otherwise you would only be vacuuming staple foods.

[Warp]

Hello all,

Just picked me up a vacuum sealer today, and am loving this thing. My question is, has anyone experimented with putting together home-made "Mountain House" style meals? Mixing up the ingredients in dry form, and maybe canning the sauces, or something in order to put it together?

If you have, I'd love to hear some of your ideas. My wife and I are planning to use this baby to seal things up for our pantry, and we're shooting for a 6 month preparedness using this, canning, our dehydrator, and just plain stockpiling.

Let's see what we can do. :)
Ben


My guess is that deuplicating what Mountain House does would be very difficult. For starters Mountain House is not dehydrated...it is freeze dried.


You can get Mountain House foods reasonably cheap through group buys...just dont rely on it as a staple. Rice/beans, etc for long term base augmented with the delicious Mountain House #10 cans to avoid appetite fatigue. That's the route I'm taking. :)

[MOlivo]

I believe most of the mountain house style foods are also loaded with preservatives.

[MOlivo]

Now what you COULD seal with it that DOESNT require any preservatives...

http://www.whenshtf.com/viewtopic.php?t=126

[Bulk]

I don't mean necessarily "Just like Mountain House" but along the same idea. Just pre-packaged meals that could be reconstituted in smaller meal packs. Stuff like beans, dehydrated vegetables, broth, etc.. mixed in pre-measured amounts and vaccuum sealed for maximum freshness. Just add water and cook for soup.

Would a guy need some sort of preservative in this mix? How long would this last on a shelf provided the vacuum held? I'm just wondering if anyone has tried this, and if it would work.

I'm planning on using the vacuum sealer primarily for my staples, sealed packs of beans, rice, do up some venison and elk jerky as little snacks and whatnot. Banana chips, apple chips, dehydrated strawberries, raisins, etc.. as well as clothing, ammo, and other items for my BOB.

[karlsgunbunker]

I've considered this myself. making up soup mixes with dehydrated ingrediants in just add water and simmer type mix.

You could also wash your dried beans and dry well then seal with spices etc so they are ready to put in the water.

What's been holding me back is that you have to blanch certain veggies or dip in a solution similar to fruit fresh or they turn brown.

[Bulk]

I think that this would be a perfect way to set aside meals, I'm finding though that you're pretty limited in that you're options are... well.. soup. lol. Maybe stew if you throw in some dried beef jerky or something. But ready made stuff that you just put in a bit of boiling water or something would be ideal, especially if you could find a way to keep them preserved.

I haven't really encountered too much issues with blanching or dipping things in solutions to prevent browning, as my wife and I are just getting back into the dehydrating and vacuum sealing things. I'll let you know if I have any successes with putting together meals.