Food is one of the most essential ingredients to sustain human life.
It took spending six-plus years as a culinary specialist, a fancy term for a military cook in the United States military, to understand why food preparation was perhaps the most overlooked and yet important element driving the success of the United States military. Simply put, an underfed army cannot complete its mission.
I’m also a firm believer that this same concept applies to outlasting any type of severe disaster situations that come our way as well.
Every person needs to eat not only to stay alive but also to ensure that they can function properly, both physically and psychologically, in a time where you will be pushed to your physical limits and where stress, shock, and adrenaline could overtake you and others in your group.
In a true disaster scenario when food becomes in short supply, it will be of the utmost importance to ensure that every person in your survival group is fed.
Your goal essentially must be twofold: to ensure that everyone is properly fed and for the longest time possible for as long as your food stores last.
I believe that the food preparation skills I learned during my service in the military (in which the goal of extending the supply of food to ensure that literally everyone in the mess hall received their filling was the exact same) can help you do exactly what after a major cataclysmic disaster has struck.
Related: An EMP Has Struck. What Is Your First Reaction?
Here are the most important food prepping skills that I learned in the military and how they can be applied for you in a disaster scenario:
Be Strict About Sanitation
Most of my initial training came from taking the eight week entry-level culinary specialist course after enlisting in the US Army.
Thousands of culinary specialists take the same course every year. This course provided me with very valuable hands-on experience.
The most important thing that we learned early on was not about actual cooking or food preparation, but rather about sanitation.
We were made clear that sanitation is very serious for every meal we made to ensure that soldiers stayed healthy and to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Since troops regularly share dishes and utensils, it wouldn’t take long for illness to spread if those dishes and utensils were not properly cleaned.
In a disaster scenario, you cannot ignore the importance of preparing your food in a clean setting and thoroughly washing all dishes, utensils, and other cooking equipment. In the event of a serious enough disaster scenario, you may not have access to professional medical help either.
Be extremely strict about the way you handle and cook food in regards to cleanliness, and make sure that everyone else who prepares food in your group follows the same protocols. This is precisely why stockpiling plenty of dishwashing soap, sponges, and cleaning rags is an absolute must.
Make the Most Out of What You Have
Chili-mac, spaghetti, hamburgers, hot dogs, Mexican casseroles, pastas, and salads were commonly on the menu. Why? Because each of those meals were easy to make and could feed the large volume of troops who entered the mess halls.
Specialized or intricate dishes are not a thing in the military, and for good reason.
We routinely made meals that could be prepared so they could feed a large volume of people. We were taught how to efficiently cut a turkey or a chicken into eight different pieces and how to use literally all of the meat from the carcass.
I’m a firm believer that you should adopt a similar approach when feeding people in your survival group. To that end, I would stockpile ingredients that are not only long lasting in safe storage conditions but that also could be used to make a multitude of meals, while ensuring a balanced diet.
For example, there are a multitude of meals you could make out of nothing more than meat (such as ground beef or chicken), rice, beans, pastas, flour, and canned vegetables.
That’s why I’d recommend stockpiling as much as you can of each of the above items. Learn more here about how to build a food stockpile that never spoils. That way you can prepare something at least slightly different each night and feed plenty of people while ensuring their nutritional needs are being met.
Learn How To Cook While on the Move
It wasn’t always that we had access to a full kitchen in a mess hall to feed the troops either. Part of being a culinary specialist in the military means learning how to prepare meals quickly while out in the field.
Depending on the disaster you face, you may have to prepare food while on the move. For example, what if you have to bug out on foot?
At the bare minimum, I recommend including an eating utensil, some sort of a foldable cooking mess kit, and a small container of soap.
In regards to the food, I’d recommend bringing the ready-to-eat dried food packets that contain full meals in each packet and only require water to make ready to eat (and maybe a little bit of heat from a fire).
We had more than that in the military while we were in the field, but the basic principles remain the same. We had to ensure that soldiers’ nutritional needs were being met while maintaining It was a challenge, but one that we had to meet if we wanted to succeed in our roles.
Speaking of which, do not let your sanitation standards slip while cooking out in the field as well. Filter the water that you collect from a lake or stream before cleaning with it. You can learn here how to build a water filter in less than 30 minutes.
Preparing meals every day for my fellow men and women in uniform was a great honor because I knew that I was helping to ensure that the soldiers (almost all of whom I didn’t even know personally) in my unit were well-fed and received the proper nutrition they needed while on deployment.
I’ll be the first to say from experience that serving in the military can be very taxing both physically and mentally, and attempting to ensure the survival of yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a major disaster scenario will be no less challenging.
You have to keep everyone’s physical strength up and ensure that everyone can think clearly, and the only way you can do this is by making sure that everyone is getting all the nutrition and hydration they need.
Just remember three core principles: keep your food and cooking items clean no matter what, stockpile foods that can be used to prepare multiple kinds of meals while covering your nutritional bases, and include a small mess kit and ready-to-eat meals in your bug out bag so you can cook while on the move.
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This article started good, but then degenerated into general tips to bolster clickbank products. Shame…
Yes click bait is the rule, dislike that too.
That’s may be, but it doesn’t take away from the main topic of the article and the important points that the author wanted to get across to the reader. Reminded me of my father, who had cooking experience on KP Duty during WWII, and who as such, made me a better cook!
Lack of sanitation killed a lot of soldiers during the Civil War.
It is happening here since Biden sends money we do not have to Ukraine. Our water and sewer systems are breaking down from poor maintenance due to lack of funds to repair. Big tech social media suppress a lot of news stories to keep us oblivious to what is going on daily in life.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
The Biden family is the friend of my enemy is my enemy as America descends to chaos or a civil war divided by the terrorist cells ready to cause mayhem once their numbers are at full brigade population.
Why is the Biden administration telling Israel to hold until Biden gets to resupply the humanitarian aid to Gaza.
At the same time Hamas is building up their defenses Build Back Better, when Israel should have gone in right away.
Biden is a globalist screw America last, he is bankrupting us physically and morally. Our military supplies are very low in supply.
Our enemies are watching this milquetoast president.
These tunnel systems are part of mans war history in all cultures. Recently Viet Nam, Korea, the Mexico/USA border of the Mexican drug cartels. Israel will have a harder offense position because of Biden who favors Iran. Iran gives the 6 billions to their henchmen of death.
Will we see our own weapons left in the Afghan Withdrawal come across the open Southern border, like “Red Dawn” insurgency?
What I have seen from the military overseas duty, the training will get me through, many liberals will die here if these cells become activated.
In this country we have less leaders in charge than followers being led by their noses. Easy to be prey on, people are easy to manipulate that have no moral foundation.
We have globalist leading our country down a nasty death of what we fought against in two world wars.
The pro-Palestinian movement in America is similar to the pro-German Hitler era of clubs, groups ready to over throw America.
Many Americans have no clue that we are repeating history.
Biden’s terrorist from the open border have infiltrated our cities and universities of hate and filth of leftist scare tactics. Antifa and BLM are just a taste of what will come before Biden is gone, another 911.
Anybody who has a military background sees through these schemes.
Isn’t it funny we go back to some old tactics, the Cold War Mk-ultra agency experiments on the public. Back in the day the CIA or Commies In America did extreme experiments that still reverberate today. The drug LSD, Heroin, pot where part of the hippie days with unrest on university campuses as today. These were the building blocks to the new mind drugs of the digital age. It is now cheaper to manipulate people by addiction to social media through the smartphone. These addictions are worse than heroin, crack and fentanyl the public has used.
The curse of the Viet Nam slandered military veteran stigma of being crazy was over hyped so big pharma could push their toxic drugs on vets. They were accused of being baby killers of the radical leftist funded by then Soviet Union agents. Timothy McVeigh blowing up the government building by encouraged some Middle Eastern country during the era of the Middle East crisis that turned into the Irag War.
In 2023 we have a US military veteran that is on the spotlight unfortunately. Biden, CA governor Newsom, the San Diego Mayor and city council are pushing the Second Amendment revision of gun ownership to become a rich mans toy. The public is having a herd times affording the gun prices and ammunition prices, those are reach around restrictions on the private gun owners.
The anti-gun activists more or less part of the agencies who don’t care about America. The mass shooters have been losers, liberals, similar to the JFK pasty shooter, who we sort of know as a low level agent in a tangled web of intrigue.
We see mass shooters since the Texas tower shooter, JFK, the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, other events are linked to MK-ultra.
The current mass shooter in the news is another water leak in the wall dike holding back a massive flood of dynamic water force we face.
We have been conditioned to gun free zones everywhere, schools, public places that are magnets for such activities.
The Obama and Biden administrations anti-gun leaning policies. We have seen more mass shootings since Biden administration has destroyed our American economy by con artists. These swindlers exploit the confidence of shooting victim’s through deceiving the First and Second Amendments other countries do not have.
One day soon when America is disarmed through actions such as gov. Newsom’s wishful 28th anti-gun Amendment, law enforcement gun buy back programs. America will be checkmate in no win outcome.
The Jews today must not give up their guns in America, that happened in world war two in Germany.
In today’s world no one is coming to back up America in Miss Liberty’s hour of need. Look at the countries piling on to the BRICKS gold backed currency. These countries are trying to shut America out as the world’s stable currency. There really is no other country for American citizens to flee the coming police state pushed by countries similar to China’s police state activities.
It is your America, are you willing to stand up and defend her, lethal or nonlethal methods to the terrorists cells already on American soil?
The 911 and mass shootings are a taste of what may come if America does not elect more people like Biden, the congress squad of nut jobs we call politicians.
Most people won’t live through the sleeper cells. Republicans are pathetic to think they don’t need training.
This cook probably killed more soldiers then the m16
Learn from the past so you can see the coming future
Skills are not social acceptance
Skillset is mission orientated , not social orientated
basic hygeine , survival hygeine , strategies for survival
no there , so you better learn or die , survival is about self preservation
read about the past so you do not follow the same bad example s or can gleen and learn what and how you should do the futured
all wars have causualties of stupid and failed leadership
but lessons learned is , nogotiation , not threat , comprimise , not force
most of what I learned in my military experience I cannot teach over the internet so as to train you
you need to Take self defense class’s , technologies class’s , Bible Class’s to learn character of people and how to deal with all kinds of people and basic s of people
when you never see the victims of your war , you never have remorse
this is why you must see all the evidence to see why , how , and why not , self control
God is the only restrainer to mankind , and Jesus Christ is the only true forgiveness for all of mankind , or woman kind
John 14: all chapter , John 3 all of chapter , romans all of books 1, 3, 6 , 8 to see the true heart of mankind
God steps in with forgiveness, love , repentance to change who you are , how you think , where you go , what you do , who you follow
The Way , The Truth , The Life , no man goes to heaven with out jesus christ or thru the door created by God , thru Jesus Christ
You keep blah, blah, the lame old stuff. You do not offer real substantial advice of actual prepper advice, only generalities, pie in the sky.
Yes God is coming, ” The road to hell is paved with good intentions ” The intention to engage in good acts often fails.
I have cooked for many for starters get a good stock of frisbees 1 you can write names on them you can use them as plates or a large shallow bowl 2 if they don’t take care of it they won’t have nothing to eat off of and yes they can still be used as a toy
I had hoped for more DETAILS. Specific methods for storage, sanitation, rotation of stock. A discussion of meatless protein or plant protein sources would have been good.
Example: whole eggs can be frozen! Not in the shell, but in quantity. When thawed, they are ALMOST as good for same use as a fresh egg. (We used half gallon cartons that looked like milk cartons, filled with whole eggs on my Navy vessel) we still used fresh eggs for fried eggs cook to order side of the mess line.
I tried ice cube trays, too small for a large egg. So, I freeze 2 eggs in a pyrex dish. 2-3 eggs are used for an omelette, a cake recipe might use one or too. So two at a time made more sense to me. I freeze solid in a pyrex custard dish, then transfer that unit to a freezer bag. Stock is good for 6 months. Usable portioning in freezing reduces waste. I do a dozen at a time. Same carton, same date. So…if there are bad eggs, someone gets sick, the whole batch can be tossed.
I keep a couple dozen frozen now, a quiche (egg pie) requires about 9-12 eggs. Never run out of eggs unexpectedly again! But reality: when SHTF, refrigerator and freezer use might go with that. Back to hunting and gathering and farming your own foods, and only having access to dried, preserved, or fresh foods. We will need to revisit pre-1900’s food skills using modern knowledge to give us safer results. We must assume that fresh water access and sporadic access to key ingredients and plan to fill those holes when we run out. Adequate substitution is really about texture, chemistry, seasonal availability. We are going to need to get creative with what we can find! Wherever we happen to be. We will need to relearn old skills.
Look around. There are some grandma’s out there that have stone ground corn to make meal and corn flour. We will be doing that again. Creating all of the basics to replace our dwindling stores of food.
Phase 2 of SHTF is about replacing stores used and adapting to the situation we face to survive. Don’t get too married to your current preparations because when those stores are gone, they are GONE. They are a bridge to a new way of existing. I say focus on tools, methods, skills, and be prepared to work with whatever comes your way. THAT is more likely to travel with you, if needed.
3-6 months after SHTF, the people with skills and can use their tools will outlast the hoarders without tools and skills. That’s my take on this
I have been doing a lot of this too. I have been telling people to learn skills, forego the freeze-dried buckets and purchase up to a years worth of simple foods Learn to forage and teach others the skills you know. Hunting and fishing will be limited because locals will deplete the herds quickly.
Raise your own chickens and have fresh eggs over long periods without having to refrigerate them. Eggs are one of the best protein sources. Dry eggs from periods of excess for those times when eggs are less plentiful.
Most don’t know you CAN freeze chicken eggs once cracked into the silicone tray made for that on Amazon, and covered with saran or waxed paper or a fitted tray (or nothing), into the freezer at bedtime and get em out first thing in the AM, then VACUUM SEAL them well. I vac seal 3 to a bag. Stores optimally for 6 – 8 months but can be completely edible at a year and still pretty darn good. That silicone tray easily holds XL eggs, but will not hold two medium – or close.
I give the 12 cups a shot of the spray lube from Aldi where the first ingredient is NOT water, then crack eggs into each. You **MUST** then break up each yoke but do NOT create bubbles when doing so, so easy does it. If you create air bubbles, over time sitting in the freezer where those bubbles are will not have a positive effect on the flavor. Just use a fork and slowly move the yoke around a little once it’s membrane breaks while in the silicon tray.
They slide right out of their cups when frozen and I wear cheap vinyl gloves to transfer to the ready made vac bag. Then seal full power. When all done, just put your silicone tray in the dishwasher and POOF, real frozen eggs on demand, unless Obama orders our utilities be shut down when he has the muslims light us up. He’s brought in almost 6 million since he entered office – and they’re not here to deliver Christmas cards. Very few ever work, many of them have almost unemployable IQ’s, yet down my hill they have two $65,000 vehicles. WTH?
There were a couple PhD articles online that opined the specific proteins in the egg interfered with the covid cell replication. Don’t know if that was ever completely proven accurate. Maybe that was why there was a created egg shortage during the covid Obama had released for his NWO masters.
What is funny about the big SHTF is the present population in America have no real clue what a SHTF scenario really is.
Most will be at the empty food welfare centers with their anchor babies starving. The Americans have been depleted of charity as the massive illegal population floods a broken country.
Most people have heard from a living relative or written stories of the first Great Depression happened by their opinions how they viewed their part of the puzzle. No one has the totally picture of all the pieces put together.
Today’s prepping is what we think may happen in the future of speculation by the internet experts. We should take them at face value with a lot of grains of salt.
The advent of AI becoming the hive’s one stop source for information can be misleading as it is programmed by people. We saw that with these big tech social media companies shadow banning and suppressing important events. The events or information that did not fit the agenda of whoever was overseeing what the public would see.
We can study all the previous events people have been through. As a boxer once said everyone has a plan until they they punched. We can prepare for the worst. Time and money takes a toll on us and the family.
SHTF will be different for all of us, the Great Depression had areas where people were okay, others may not have been prepared or had poor skills to cope.
The government had it’s fingers in the stock market and poor farming practice advice that lead to the dust storms that lost valuable soil for farming.
That took decades to repair even today there are still dust prone regions.
When the proverbial SHTF comes will we embrace it or crawl up into a ball of fear? Your choice what happens.
This is a great site, And a lot of good advice,
Maybe not all, But its all worth reading. And for the trolls.
They have no rights telling us what we can say here and what we can not,
Every one has the right to speak there mined,
And politics plays a part in the human life every day .
And if you do not like reading it , then DON”T
But its here for people that do,
I thank every one that shares there point of view,
FREEDOM OF SPEACH
Thank you
Larry
On a lighter note to prepping.
There are no phases of SHTF, it will be all or nothing.
The only hope is we won’t be in a worse political situation of local dictators of mayhem after all law and order are gone.
What may happen after SHTF with the vast military bases across the land. Will the weasels come out of their bomb shelters to become horrible spineless leaders?
How long will our preps last before we roam the vast wastelands of apocalyptic adventures ahead. Will we see the rapture happen during that time?
Will families stick together or be forced to split up to survive elsewhere?
As we enter Halloween annual celebration, religion of the dead in some cultures. Will we see that in a SHTF?
We still need an edit button to clean up the misspelling on these posts here.
Thank you.
“Surf and Turf” means you are about to go to war!
In the early 70s I was a firefighter in a large city in N.H. we had a franco-american who was the cook at our station. Fire buffs, police, city employees, and others would drop in and have some of “Romey’s” soup. When the pot got low he would add water, meats, veggies, and rice or pasta along with spices. You would pay what you wanted in the till. It was always good and always different. Most importantly it took care of our needs 24/7 without refrigeration. Very little heat is needed to keep it going whether in the woods or home or bomb shelter.
The way I see it America is the single most stabilizing point on the planet due to its Constitution and spirit of freedom and is the thorn in “their” side. Once the US collapses, so does the rest of the planet and “their” dream of a technocratically based communist society, basically a return to feudalism, will come to fruition. The “their” is the UN/WHO/WEF/World Banking System (who also finance the Woke volk), Vanguard, Blackrock, et al; and Klaus Schwab describes it perfectly in his books and their video where they say: “You will own nothing and you will be happy.”
There are a lot of folks who own nothing. I wonder if they are happy ? I suppose we could ask klaus slob.
Nicholas, good article about food prep. Most people do not know about all the parasites and other problems associated with unsanitary practices that are usually manifested in bowel, digestive, and skin problems. I had KP one time and you can believe I was watched to make sure it was done right. I would add a portable water purifier to any must have/do protocol, mobile or not, that is #1 for me. Ask anyone who served outside CONUS and never drank any of the local water.