Do you USE your LTS preps ?

[claymore]

Protus made a point about testing everything in your BOB. LTS food bought already in #10's or pails is pricey stuff. Thank God, I've never had to use these high powered preps in response to an emergency, but how do I know what they are like ? We rotate the normal canned goods but I've never tried say butter powder or peanut butter powder or other such exotic stuff. I assume ( I know ) that we'll like it or use it. Has anyone ever tried canned pilot crackers or Bega canned cheese ? Am I throwing money out the window on these extras ? If you've stepped in this stuff before let us know what you think, what you like or don't like or how you use it.

[610Alpha]

Mountain House sells some stuff in the small pouches that you can buy at China Mart and take home and try. Then you can decide if you want to buy the #10 cans. It would be great if they sent you a small sample pouch or were able to buy small sample pouches (this of course is assuming the quality is maintained) of every product.


I have not eaten out of my LTS yet....I have eated enough MRE's that I am not scared....however the kids and wife are another story they have not had the privilege to eat these delicious items so I will need to come up with a plan to introduce them to LTS foods.

Suggestions/ideas?

[protus]

On most of our bulk we dont pack all of it , but set aside some for recipe testing..akak practice. When i ordered some wheat from the LDS few years ago, we keep a #10 out and started baking. When i self packed some wheat we did the same ( same with rice, corn,dried milk, etc you name it).
Most of the dehydrated stuff we purchased in the past we made sure it was stuff we had a pretty good idea of what it tatsed like etc, before buying it.

The shortterm food items i eat and the wife now trys them as well( canned meats mostly ,she doesnt care for them , but she trys them at least)...

[Hit or Miss]

We have been "storing up" pretty hard for a couple of years now and trying to take a "balanced" approach (beans, bullets, band aids...) I hate to open a #10 can of LTS food just yet. Maybe when we get a deeper cache ( I know... eat what you store, store what you eat). Like you, we will eat it reguardless and be thankfull to have it when the time comes.

[Rmplstlskn]

I too do not open up #10 cans of freeze-dried or dehydrated foods... They are for last resort and if it is last resort, I won't much care how they taste as I will most likely be very hungry... But I have gotten some pouch versions of what I own in #10 cans so I have a decent idea on what many of them will taste like...

I suspect that if I ever need to open the #10 cans, it will taste UTTERLY DIVINE! Orgasmic... (Compared to what others have to eat... nothing/road kill/vermin/bugs)

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Yes and no. I have eaten my LTS stuff along the way for many years however I have just started the bucket stuff but have eaten plenty of beans and rice etc. Tried some milk subsitute powder, it was ok nothing great, some types taste terrible. Canned butter, good stuff. Alot of the canned food we had access to in the Army and I have eaten alot of it. The 3-7 yr stuff is used on hikes and hunts and rotated. Still working on some stuff buying a little here n there and trying it, I'll eat anything but the family not so much and my wife gets sick on some stuff

[Bearman202]

Matt, the powdered milk works really well in cooking, but that's about it. You might get a box and try it, though to see what you think. DVCguns, when you get the wheat you will need a grinder. The important part of that is getting one that actually does the job. The first grinder I got was a Grizzly, and while it did fine with corn, it didn't grind the wheat fine enough. I ended up buying a Family Grain Mill, and while I haven't tried it yet, I've heard good things about it. You need to get a mill and actually try it, though. Also, you need to get a bit of practice making bread bricks before the time comes. <G> Nearly anyone who has made bread from scratch will know what I'm talking about. Good luck!

[1Admin]

I guess since I never really got it down how to get an air entrained "fluffy" type of bread, I learned to love the heavy loaves I would make. Seem more hearty and filling for some reason? LOL

One downside to having the gardens and orchards really kicking the last 5 or so years has been we hardly ever open a #10 can of fruits or veggies anymore.

Rice? Beans? Really easy to rotate IMO, we use them regularly.

However we've been growing and raising most of our veggies, fruits and meats for a while now. When you have a short term storage product, like glass jar canned veggies, you want to rotate them before you rotate longer term storage items like dehydrated vegetables in #10 cans.

So it's kind of an conundrum for us- the more we produce the less we have to dip into our LTS which means the less some of it gets rotated.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Matt, the powdered milk works really well in cooking, but that's about it. You might get a box and try it, though to see what you think.

I've tried several, not impressed at all but hey peasents cant be choozy right? Back to my swill

[monkeybird]

I suspect that if I ever need to open the #10 cans, it will taste UTTERLY DIVINE! Orgasmic..

I'm with Rimpl. My LTS cans and self packed items are supplies that last at least 25 years. I'll open them when absolutely necessary.

[BluEyedMom]

want to know what we are buying so we have started trying.
Augason farms puts out some good stuff. we like the butter milk biscuit mix.
it was hard for my son to talk me into that purchase because of the price but it was good.
used instant potatoes as a base in a baking dish, left over chicken and gravy on that
topped with the biscuits then baked.. it was happily consumed by all.

the treat stuff like banana chips get consumed fast and actually
since they are a non-need the price compares to snack bag buying.

mountain house did not impress me. in fact the only person in the house
that said yumm likes MRE's .. alot.

we look forward to trying JRH and the LDS products..
and figuring out how best to create our own long term food storage.

my list of wants grows!
dehydrator, grain mill... the list goes on..
too bad the income is not matching the list..
^_^

[GAGLOCK]

Good timing on this thread since last night we opened a can of freeze dried chicken for dinner. We've started having a family food storage night every now and then. Yes it can be expensive but not anymore than a fast food night out or even pizza delivered. Whatever we don't use in that meal gets put back up in mason quarts with o2 absorbers to be used later.

When we find something good on sale we haven't tried before we'll order an extra can to try out the next storage night mealtime.

Anyways the FD chicken was amazingly good if you followed the instructions and let it rehydrate for the proper time. Horrible to eat it before then. We only used about 1/4 of the can so the rest is put up for the next family food storage meal.