Another '72 hour' Chow kit for sale

Discussion in 'Functional Gear & Equipment' started by DKR, Jan 5, 2020.


  1. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]
    now listing for $10. 3 x soup and 1 x mac& cheese in mylar pouches.

    On a different site, I noted where multiple folks thought this was such a good deal whey ordered 5 sets.

    Here is why this is such a really bad choice -

    What you get in the Ready hour pack (Ready Hour Emergency Food Storage (New from My Patriot Supply)) - mostly add water soup & rice, mac&cheese . Source is not listed anywhere - a big red flag for me...

    For the same $50 I can have

    Minute rice - 28 oz (17 servings) $4.88
    4 pack Lipton extra noodle noodle soup (24+ servings) $6.32
    Quaker oats 1 min (18 oz or 13 servings) $2.50
    Jiff peanut butter - (16 oz 16 servings) $2.22
    WASA bread - (9.7 oz / 20 servings) $2.74
    Light chunk tuna -
    StarKist (8 ea 5 oz cans / 16 servings) $6.84
    Chicken breast (5 oz can x 3 cans 6 serving) $4.86
    Trail Mix planters (19 oz/16 servings) $6.98
    FD coffee (Bustelo Freeze Dried) (3.5 oz) $4.59
    Drink mix (20 servings) $2.08

    Total $44.01
    with that 'extra $6, you can buy boxed mac & cheese (6 boxes at 3 ser/box)

    This gives much more than what you get in the "72 hours" kit.....
    Can be eaten cold or hot, tho the soup and coffee will be better hot.

    I can see where folks might be tempted, but that stuff is just awful...
     
    Ganado, Hanzo, 3cyl and 6 others like this.
  2. sheen_estevez

    sheen_estevez Monkey+++

    Agree, much easier and cost effective to make your own provisions even for travel, when I was a scout leader with my boys we got heavy into dehydration of our own food for backpacking trips, we never ate that crap, sure new boys would show up to the first backpacking trip with some Mountain House mac & cheese or beef stwe :sick: but after seeing the experienced members making home made pizza, burgers, steak they quickly learned. the burgers and steak were always packed frozen for the first nights dinner, let thaw out as we hiked, cooked over fire to perfection. pizza was similar let the dough rise as we hiked, the pizza sauce & cheese was dehydrated and then rehydrated when we were ready, it was a good environment to practice different techniques.
     
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  3. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    LOL
    My granddaughter spend 2 weeks hiking all over Zion canyon NP.

    She noted the kids that had brought home-dehydrated ration had 'real food'. SHe hated the FD crap the school insisted they carry (instead of power bars, quick oats and other good (dry) food...)
     
    chelloveck and sheen_estevez like this.
  4. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Please leave the sprig of pine out of my mac'n'chz.
     
    snake6264 likes this.
  5. Wildbilly

    Wildbilly Monkey+++

    That is rosemary and that isn't Mac & Cheese!
     
    Thunder5Ranch likes this.
  6. T. Riley

    T. Riley Monkey+++

    It’s about the calories for the dollar, always. Add them up and do the math.
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  7. apache235

    apache235 Monkey+++

    Serving size and calories that is the big fraud. Even Mountain House is misleading here. Most of their "servings" are around 250 calories, that means you need at least 10 servings per day in a vigorous environment, not even a SHTF situation. So if you count calories, their 7day (or whatever) package won't get you very far. I have a 29 serving bucket in my car which is good for almost 4 days for just me, add my wife to the mix, if we have to walk any distance, we could probably stretch it to two.
     
    chelloveck and Tully Mars like this.
  8. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    A serving is not a meal. A meal is an entree, bread, a drink and a desert

    Mac & cheese, a slice of Wasa bread (w/peanut butter) , coffee, trail mix for the topper....and if not for the peanut butter, a pretty poor showing for calories.

    Grand-daughter noted that mid-tour break one week in, while the pizza was a treat, everyone went back to the park with a large jar of peanut butter.... Mars was OK as I had set her up with a batch of the Jif-to-Go PB packets....
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  9. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    @DKR I think you are missing the point, as it's not so much about quantity of food than it is longevity. Listen, NONE of that food you listed as replacement in value will last 25+ years on the shelf. This is about emergency food storage, and as such it must be able to be stored for long periods of time and then prepared/consumed with little effort. And although I agree that soup after soup is just not a very good marketing strategy, a hot and nutritious meal from long term storage is just invaluable. Take it from somebody who has transitioned completely over to freeze dried food, the canned foods will not last you very long!
    I would like to add that the food lineup for $10 is actually decent, it's not a bad deal at all. I would like to see a protein in that food storage kit, but that would undoubtedly raise the price substantially. MountainHouse foods are a great value and the quality is second to none. If you buy a #10 can of spaghetti and meat sauce for around $25, you have about 6 meals or more and all you have to do is add water, shelf life of 25 years to infinity. Now, buy any of those MH meals in bulk and save another 20% on cost, possibly more. You just cannot place a value on calorie content alone. You must factor in the storage and utility factor of the food source, otherwise that can of tuna or whatever non freeze dried food you have stored up is just going to go bad after a decade or so. Try packing that food into the wild, too. :cool:
     
    BenP, chelloveck and Tully Mars like this.
  10. apache235

    apache235 Monkey+++

    I'm not bad mouthing MH, I have a bunch and it is good, I just dislike their labeling that makes, me anyway, think that they are saying a serving is a meal and I do count calories. Also if you have to prepare 3 pouches of MH to make your meal that changes the dynamics of things AND you have to have water. Whether you get if from a stream and sterilize it or carry it in, you have to have water. Packing in 6 days worth of rations and coming up short on the water side will make life difficult. I realize that in many places finding water is not a problem, don't know if I'd want to hoof it out of Las Vegas and expect to find something to drink. Just sayin'
     
    Tully Mars and chelloveck like this.
  11. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    So the wife is going hungry is that what I'm getting here??:D
     
    ghrit likes this.
  12. apache235

    apache235 Monkey+++

    There's some ditty about happy wife, happy life, so probably not her, though in my case she'd never ever let on so we might have a fight about who doesn't eat.
     
    Tully Mars and chelloveck like this.
  13. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    I rotate my Chow.

    The stuff is the kit is rebranded something - I couldn't find a source. Since WISE (falsely) claims 25 years shelf life, I'd want to see the actual provider of the Chow. This just smells like another Utah based multi-level scam Chow outfit... But, that's just me.

    Also - the buy and forget just doesn't make it for me...I posted a thread on that (Why food rotation matters)

    In the end, it is a personal choice. I choose to pass on no-name Chow. Others may spend as they wish. My desire was to show how a little bit of shopping would yield a better variety and have real food value/nutrition/calories over chemical laden Chow.
     
    Hanzo, 3cyl, oldawg and 2 others like this.
  14. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Mason jars for preserving dry goods is my favorite method. Just use a oxygen absorber packet in the jar and finish off with a Food Saver type jar sucker. Beans, rice, pasta, herbs, freeze dried crap and you have longevity if stored in a cool, dry and dark place. Another option is Nitro Packing (Vac Bags with N ) Rig I use cost around $1800 20 years ago newer rigs get down into a couple hundred bucks and do the same job. I always get a chuckle from the buckets of grub that will last 25+ years and the sheer amount of money otherwise smart people will pay for that crap. But hey to each their own :)

    Started 20 year test that concluded January 1st 2018. I nitro packed 80 Irish Dexter ribeyes and kept them frozen at a stable -20 for 20 years. Every New Years day I would take four of them out and grill them and Four from that year and compare them. My two guest on New Years day 2018 could not tell the difference between the one packed in 1998 and the one packed in 2018. Another test at the same time was Sage and fennel Seed (Dried) opened the last bag of each a few months ago they both filled the cabin with their respective odors.

    Rotation though is the way to go for most things IMO 3 month - 6month-1 year- 3 year and 5 year rotations depending on what it is and how it is preserved.

    LOL the prepper fad has been very generous to folks selling all the must have gadgets, gizmos and long term storage foods and can't knock them for turning a buck on it. But not a wagon I am going to hop on when I can produce, preserve and maintain the same stocks for about 3% of the cost of buying their stuff. And I have eaten some of the stuff that was alleged to be great tasting........ It taste like rehydrated freeze dried crap to me and about all I can say in its favor in that regard is that it will make a turd.
     
    Hanzo, 3cyl, Tully Mars and 1 other person like this.
  15. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Dude! This should have been the first statement you made in your original post. Also, I'm not sure about any Wise claims, I do know they make long term MRE style foods, but I've never seen any freeze dried foods. If this food is freeze dried it has a longer shelf life than the MRE style foods, but in those retort pouches (even if it is freeze dried) you've still got only a handful of years before they expire, no matter who makes them. This is why the #10 cans are superior and offer the best shelf life.

    In the land of freeze dried food, Mountainhouse is King. Great value for your dollar.
    I can recommend Backpacker's Pantry freeze dried food, but it can cost a little bit more. This company only advertises life of about 10 years on the #10 cans, but mention how it has the potential to last much longer. Easily, these foods will last a lifetime if kept in cool and dry conditions, it's just going to lose some nutrition content after about 15 years or so.

    About that "Ready Hour" food you linked, if it is freeze dried, it's worth trying out for the price. I thought your whole post was about offering an alternative to freeze dried food, which in my opinion is just ridiculous.
     
  16. BenP

    BenP Monkey++

    I think you are paying for the 25 year shelf life.
     
    Brokor likes this.
  17. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    I rotate food stores too. Don't think I can wait 25 years to eat something. :whistle:
     
    3cyl likes this.
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