Every prepper’s pantry has canned food in it. It’s the first line of defense against starvation in a disaster scenario. While canned foods shouldn’t make up all your food storage, there are some benefits that canned foods present.
The biggest is the value. Canned foods can be had for a handful of dimes when they are on sale. You cannot say that about many things in our society today. Canned foods have a long shelf life and are low maintenance.
Related: 14 Must-Have Canned Foods You Didn’t Know Existed
Canned goods, meats in particular, offer huge benefits through fat and protein. Preppers don’t always account for the importance of healthy fats in their diet. Healthy fats are not easy to find in the wild. However, things like canned fish can be full of the same oils as those Omega 3s you take in pill form.
Of course, access to protein is huge and canned meats make that a breeze. While things like fishing and trapping are great opportunities for protein sourcing in a disaster, nothing is easier than a can opener and a can of roast beef!
TRUE EXPIRATION ON CANNED MEATS
As the manager of Safety and Food Safety at a prominent food bank, I established the guidelines for shelf life on a variety of foods. In the food banking industry, everything is close dated unless its purchased. It’s just the nature of donations.
Had we tossed all the food that was close or passed expiration, we would have wasted a lot of food.
Related: How to Tell When Your Canned Foods Become Spoiled?
A canned good’s shelf life is based on the acidity level of the food inside. There is a protective lining in every can and that deteriorates over time. This is the true threat with canned goods, aside from damage to the can or poor canning practices.
Canned meats also hit the retail shelves with longer dates than most foods. Next time you are at the store, take note of how long the shelf life is on these canned meats.
The true expiration date is about 5 years past the date on each can. So if your canned Spam goes out of date in 2023, the reality is that you have until 2028 to safely eat that food. You could likely go even further out.
The risk increases the further you go past that date of the lining wearing away and your food touching tin or aluminum directly. That could lead to heavy metal poisoning over time.
CANNED BEEF: Kirkland Canned Roast Beef
Beef is king in terms of protein and nutrient density. It’s the reason that athletes who are overworked take time off and eat a steak.
Some people even argue that eating meat, cooked meat in particular, allowed our brains to grow rapidly because of the easy access to such high digestible, quality nutrients.
Storing beef in cans is a great way to hold onto the benefits of beef over the long haul.
- 2 Servings per can
- Protein: 13g
- Sodium: 290mg
- Total fat: 1.5g
CANNED PORK: DAK Canned Ham
This amalgamation of mechanically separated meats and fats is more like a luncheon meat than an actual cured and dried leg of a pig.
Canned ham is a powerhouse of flavor and protein. It is also a great ingredient that can be added to other things like eggs, rice and vegetables.
- 8 Servings per container
- Protein: 9g
- Sodium: 620mg
- Total fat: 7g
Yoder’s Canned Bacon
Do I really need to breakdown the benefits of having canned bacon?
Of course, bacon contains nitrites and while it is delicious, these are recognized as cancer causing carcinogens. Just keep that in mind.
Of course, the delicious bacon can be eaten by itself or added to other dishes.
- 18 Servings per can
- Protein: 5g
- Sodium: 190mg
- Total fat: 5g
Tyson Canned Chicken
The neutral flavor and high protein profile of canned chicken makes it a great candidate for that food storage pantry. Tyson is a name that we all recognize, so I
thought it would be great to profile their chicken.
There is a strange manufactured quality to canned meats and that doesn’t change with canned chicken. That said, it’s a good way to dump protein on top of your beans and rice.
- 5 Servings per container
- Protein: 13g
- Sodium: 300mg
- Total fat: 1g
CANNED FISH
#1. Sardines in Olive Oil
Some people cannot stand the sight or the idea of eating sardines. I don’t mind eating them at all. If you are going to store them for SHTF, you might as well get those packed in olive oil. This becomes a tin of healthy fats that your body will be craving if you are consistently eating dry food storage.
Fish has a whole host of benefits. It also has mercury…that’s just the deal. The bigger the fish the more mercury content. Sardines are nice and small.
- 1 Serving per can
- Protein: 14g
- Sodium: 300mg
- Fat: 20g
#2. Double Q Canned Wild Salmon
Salmon is an absolute powerhouse. When it comes to buying salmon, you have to buy the one which is wild caught. Salmon is one of the most farmed fish on the planet. Farm raised salmon is not the same thing as wild caught salmon. The nutrient profile is very different.
This product is fully cooked and ready to eat out of the can, or mix into other things. 
My mother would make amazing salmon meatballs with this and serve it up with a lemon cream sauce and spaghetti. Probably not an SHTF meal but a testament to how good this stuff can be.
Related: Canning Pasta Sauce for Long Term Preservation
- 7 Servings per container
- Protein: 12g
- Sodium: 230mg
- Fat: 5g
CANNED FORCEMEAT OR MYSTERY MEAT: Spam
How could we put together a list of canned meats for preppers without including Spam? It’s synonymous with the survivalist and now the prepper.
While it can be frowned upon, because of its highly processed beginnings, Spam has something of a cult following.
It can be prepared many ways, and offers up a legitimate protein that is ready to eat at the pull of a metal ring. No, it’s not a ribeye on the grill but it’s some collection of meats that will fuel you through TEOTWAWKI.
- 6 Servings per container
- Protein: 7g
- Sodium: 590g
- Fat: 16g
WHAT IS THE BEST CANNED MEAT FOR PREPPERS?
Well, if you can stomach fish, I would say fish is kind of a no brainer. It offers up so much to your body. You probably take fish oil pills in the morning, for good reason!
When we look at nations that live long and happy lives, they are often predicated on a diet of things like fish and rice, maybe a little wine in the Cretin people’s case. We must be careful not to through diet in the trash when the SHTF.
While spam seems like the prepper’s best friend because it “lasts forever”, a diet full of that stuff will certainly assure it outlives you.
I guess the cynic in me would say that the best canned meat for preppers is the one that’s on your shelf. However, we have some time. You can manipulate your food storage to assure you are putting healthy options into your body.
Survival is a lot like life, in that, it’s made up of small choices that reflect the bigger picture. What you put in your body will affect your performance. Keep that in mind when stocking your pantry shelves.
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Thank you for the article, very well written and explained nicely.
Just an FYI to add to this thread. I bought some TVP, textured vegetable protein. Had bought it once before about 5 years ago and didn’t really like it much compared to ground beef, but wanted to give it another try. It was in the Mexican food section in a clear cellophane bag. Anyhow, after reading about all the canned meats, thought I’d read a little more about top as it is a pretty good source of protein and long term storage is great. Read an article that raised some concerns. This was written by a very hardcore vegan who is into raw foods because of the nutrition-lowering effects of cooking.
Anyway, she said that top is very highly processed. First the soy beans are heated really high to separate the soy from the oil. She said hexane, a petroleum byproduct is sometimes used in the process. The tvp is further processed to make it the consistency it is. Her description would put anyone off their feed. Waste not, want not so I will use a little here and there to extend ground beef, have maybe half a pickle jar do not that much, but decided TVP is not the answer to the problem of protein for this prepper.
I agree! Unless you can your OWN you cannot trust the food industry now as the same people who created the “Plandemic”are buying it out (also tech industry as well (cellular, wifi, VPN, email servers etc.) the canned meats she listed are full of these things that are highly unhealthy! See Dr. Paul Saladino aka “Carnivore MD”
From personal experience I can honestly say the Kirkland canned roast beef is better than other brands we tried, but it has been out of stock at Costco in our area for over a year, both in store and online. The last time we were at Costco we saw Sampco brand Shredded Beef from Brazil, 3LB’s packaged in heavy mylar bags, so I bought a couple but have not tried it yet.
For corned beef I usually buy a case from military base commissaries and prefer the Argentine beef products compared to others such as from Uruguay.
Contrary to popular urban myths, SPAM is actually pork shoulder and is much better quality that most people think, but does have added salt. If you like SPAM you can easily make fried rice with it by dicing and frying it, maybe make some scrambled eggs also, then set aside. Then lightly “sauté” stir-fry some already cooked rice (leftover rice works great since it might be a little dryer) in a wok or large skillet with high sides, add some soy sauce to taste, add some peas and carrots or other vegetables you like, add the cooked diced SPAM and eggs and stir-fry until the vegetables are done and the soy sauce is absorbed, you can keep stir-frying until you get the consistency you prefer, and you can always add more soy sauce during or after the process if you want. We buy Jasmine rice because it is “fluffier” (maybe it has less starch?) and we think it tastes better than Calrose, especially for those who use rice cookers.
Speaking of rice, you can use rice instead of potatoes or pasta for a lot of meals, including rice with gravy, alfredo sauce (really good with chicken), even Stroganoff or Swedish meatballs, and/or you can mix in whatever meat and vegetables you have on hand whether its beef, pork, chicken, eggs, or seafood. We often add chopped spinach, garlic, and/or onions to rice dishes.
Salt-free seasonings are readily available if you need to regulate your salt intake. I keep some on hand for those times I decide there is already plenty of salt in the main ingredients, especially when using canned and processed foods, including vegetables.
Please read the labels on products and research what you don’t already know. What you don’t know can hurt you.
” Of course, bacon contains nitrites and while it is delicious, these are recognized as cancer causing carcinogens. ”
actually, that is false.
the human body produces nitrates naturally.
they are required for health.
There is a significant difference between “nitrites” and “nitrates”, and especially in human nutrition. Nitrates, of different kinds, are indeed required.
Nitrites…not so much.
false:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/are-nitrates-and-nitrites-harmful
nope.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/are-nitrates-and-nitrites-harmful
Dear Merlin: Thank you for the link to that very informative article! I found it fascinating and helpful. The only issue for me is that I have been known to experience the need for 3-4 day stays in the hospital if I eat processed meats with nitrates or nitrites in them. That meat threw me into AFib and Tachycardia big time and it took days to get my heart back into normal rhythm. That was VERY dangerous and I have since avoided those types of additives. I was looking at the ingredients of the DAK hams and practically threw up with how nasty they are!! However, there is an alternative made by Boar’s Head. Yes, it would still take you cutting the ham into chunks and pressure canning it! Actually, I tried that with Trader Joe’s no-nitrates/nitrites spiral cut ham a few months ago. We bought one just for canning, and it came out FANTASTIC! The only thing about that is that Trader Joe’s only offers their “clean” (large) hams 2x/year: Easter and Christmas. Well, I’m already planning on saving up to buy THREE of their hams for Christmas and for canning!! YES, they are THAT GOOD!!
OH, YES, YOU CAN BUY NON-NITRATE/NITRITE BACON NOWDAYS, TOO, BUT YOU MUST CHECK LABELS TO BE SURE!
JOYCE S.
A CERTIFIED NATURAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL SINCE 2005
SORRY, I meant to say that there is a non-additive alternative to Dak, made by Boar’s Head. Having had such a WONDERFUL experience with Trader Joe’s no bad stuff hams, though, I think we will probably wait until they’re back!
All I can tell you is that I called TJs to see if they still had any hams left (before Easter) and the TJs worker told me they had sold out before the holiday even arrived, if that tells you anything about how great they are!
” Of course, bacon contains nitrites and while it is delicious, these are recognized as cancer causing carcinogens. ”
actually that is false.
the human body produces nitrites naturally.
they are required for health.
My husband CHF, & HAS TO WATCH HIS SALT INTAKE. IT SHOULDN’T BE MORE THAN 200MG OF SODIUM PER SERVING! THIS MAKES IT REALLY HARD! I LOOK AT ALL THE CANS TO FIND THE BEST! I have found canned tuna, chicken, salmon with no salt added in water. Foods do naturally have salt in them. They now have canned vegtables with no salt added. Most pre package survival food has a lot of salt in them. If you have heart trouble or high blood pressure, make sure you check the sodium content before you buy it! I also buy bagged rice & beans, lentils, oatmeal, flour, spices & make up my own stuff! This way I can controll what’s in them! I could go on & on, but you get the picture!
I was just informed by my Dr. that I have the horrible problem of having way too low sodium and need to drink less water and add more salt to my diet. Yeah, I know, I’m lucky. But I already salt things heavily and I love drinking my water! Grass isn’t always greener.
I have the same issue. I make up my own capsules of sodium chloride cause I hate the taste of a lot of salt. If you use this method, make sure you have something in your stomach or it might come back up.
What about corned beef? Aldi has it for a reasonable price, a couple of bucks a can. Sure, it’s high in sodium – but so are Spam, tuna, etc.
Canned corned beef isn’t bad; the problem is that the cans are small for the price. If you are making sandwiches, you might be able to scrimp out four little ones. Making hash stretches it more, and if you are using unsalted potatoes that helps to mitigate the saltiness.
Dak canned hams are good, and are a better buy than Spam, IMHO. More meat in the can at about the same price.
Low sodium versions of Spam and other foods are more available now than they were even five years ago, or just combine with unsalted other foods. You can also poach the slices in plain water and get rid of a lot of the salt and fat that way – just drain and brown it after or it doesn’t have much flavor.
When I was a kid, we used to get canned jack mackerel; it was pretty cheap and not too tasty, but it was food. I might pick up some and see if I can figure out something simple to make it taste good!
I use canned Mackeral as a substitute for tuna in a casserole. Being a senior on a fixed TIGHT income, the tuna nowadays seems to be more of a tuna MUSH unless you can afford the higher priced name brands. I could barely taste it when using it in a tuna casserole so decided to try the canned Mackeral that I actually feed in moderation to my lil Yorkie for his Omega 3’s. The brand I got was chunks of whole Mackeral with the skin on & bones. I removed the skin and bones and used the can in my casserole and it was delicious with that fishy taste you want in a tuna casserole as well as chunks of fish instead of tuna fish mush you can’t even see much less taste. It is only about $2-$2.50 a can that is 3 times the amount of fish compared to a can of tuna for .89 cents. I have even thought of trying to make Mackeral croquettes since the price of salmon has gone thru the roof. I think other folks must have caught on to using canned Mackeral instead of tuna as it is getting hard to find in stock since the pandemic hit.
Hi, Grits,
I wouldn’t be so quick to discard the bones. They have been softened in the cooking a can gets. Maybe not okay for little pooch, but we eat the bones in canned salmon anyway and love them. Crunchy and delicious.
Corned beef contains more carbs and less protein. So if your objective is meat/protein, then it may not be the least expensive alternative. If you eat a can of canned beef, you will presumably cook some rice or other starchy item to go with it.
Just sodium chloride is fine, but there are a host of important salts & minerals. Micronutrients are very important. A good source is Himalayan Pink Salt. There are about 99 micronutrients for optimal health. Ignore the, “experts,” who say many of them, “have not been proven to be good for you.”
experts only say that crap because they can’t patent natural materials,thats also why the fda (is it the fda? i dont know for sure) goes after herbal doctors and such, all they give a rats…..you know, about is money.
When I tipped the scale at 205, I put myself on a no sugar, no salt and little carb diet. I lost weight but I felt terrible after awhile. I shared this with my doctor and he told me to add more salt in my diet. I did and I went back to feeling like my old self.I suppose to live by “all things in moderation” might be the way to go for some of us, huh? lol
I want to thank you for this article, I have been very concerned about canned meats and didn’t know who to ask. You have been very informative. It gives me peace to know my family will not have to be vegetarians to survive. Although the guys are hunters and fishermen,that may not be enough.
I once got some canned meatballs from a store called “Big Lots”. They were the best tasting meatballs ever, bar none. They were packed in just a light, thin tomatoe sauce. Very good – never seen them since, anywhere.
I missed Big Lots when they were gone. Great prices and the variety of products was hugh.
I just thought I would share what I found. I like red/coho salmon over pink/chum salmon. I was searching, and found 2 – 14.75 oz cans at Walmart for $10.94, or $5.94 per pound
https://www.walmart.com/ip/2-Pack-Deming-s-Red-Sockeye-Wild-Caught-Alaskan-Salmon-14-75-Oz/974288318
A lot of you folks are better at things than I am, but this may help some.
Great list, adding to my stockpile
Re: canned, evaporated milk shelf life? I opened a can ( passed use date, 9mo-1yr?). Contents light salmon color & thickened.
I’m not a canned milk expert, but from your description of it, I would be inclined to put it on the garden to fertilize the plants. I don’t think I would even be tempted to try to make cheese with it.
I keep a large bag of powdered milk. Might not be great to drink but great for cooking, etc
The key to long term storage of dried milk is using dried skin milk, (no fat). Dried whole milk can go rancid.
Just opened a box of hamburger helper (off brand) dated 2014 and was fine
I haven’t had it for a while, but that’s mostly dry pasta and spices, right? Ya I would expect to essentially treat that as “good forever”. I mean, more or less.
I have noticed that most canned beef is from Argentina. My brother has hunted doves in Argentina and according to him, the beef served on the ranches where the hunting takes place is the best he has ever eaten, I am a little hesitant about foreign canned meats, and while I enjoy Argentine wine, meat is something else, especially with the financial condition of Argentina.
I have noted that the canned beef carried by Costco is canned in the U.S. Just thought I would mention that factoid.
Spam sure gets a bum rap. There is no question it is high in salt. However, I like Spam cooked until it is almost jerky and in doing so, I have noticed that it generates far less grease than most other meats. Spam with boiled white rice is a primo dish as far as I am concerned. The salt in the Spam seems to go just right with the boiled white rice.
I tried a can of Yoder Bacon before I made a decision to stock up on it. Maybe I got a bad can, but it was the greasiest stuff I have ever seen. The taste was not yuck, but nothing to write home about either. The reviews I read of it were that the taste was great. Your mileage may vary, but I would recommend getting one can before ordering a case for your pantry.
If you are getting tuna for hard times, I would second the author’s comment, get tuna packed in olive oil and increase the food value of the tuna. Worst case, you can give the oil to your dog or cat or burn it for lighting.
Wow, we are either having a pretty good earthquake right now or I am having a massive bout of vertigo.
Just heard on the news there was a shaker there. Hope you’re well LCC.
Mak63: Yes, We are okay. I live about 175 miles from the epicenter as the crow flies. Strong rolling movement. Nothing fell in my house. As I was just finishing my post it started and at first felt like the worst case of vertigo I had ever had. Lots of damage in the town of Ridgecrest which is just outside of NAS China Lake. Ridgecrest was just about on top of the epicenter. Ridgecrest is fairly isolated as far as towns go in SoCal. It originally was built to house workers at the American Potash Company which mined potash and other chemicals from semi dried Searles Lake. I haven’t been in Ridgecrest for 50 plus years so my knowledge of it is pretty out of date. Some years ago, operational Navy squadrons were moved from Point Mugu on the coast to China Lake about 150 miles inland. I guess the Navy got tired of people around Mugu bitching about the noise the jets made. I was always happy to hear the sound of jet engines. It meant that our fly boys were getting cockpit time, a vital element in maintaining air superiority in the day of high performance aircraft which also meant that when I heard a jet fighter overhead I didn’t have to wonder if it was ours or an enemy’s a/c.
You are right as usual, LCC.
We live just north of the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and hearing those jets gives me a feeling of pride, peace and security.
What people do not know is that the FDA allows meat to be label as from the U.S.A. If it is received from over seas as meat hanging and not cut up. So you can not tell easy if your steak came from USA or South America.
Shortround: Is that just meat? Produce must be labeled as to country of origin. Sometimes it is coded so you have to know the secret code. Or maybe that is just a PDRK rule to protect PDRK produce. We get a lot of avocados from Mexico which are significantly cheaper than Kally grown avocados and they are very clearly marked “Mexico.”
Country of origin of produce might be a national thing, because we have it here in OH. I know seafood origin is also required. Meat, I sometimes see.
Hey, Grannyprepper, I am in Summit County, Ohio.
Hi Yank, I grew up in Summit County! Live near Cbus now. nice to meet ya!
Hope all is well with you Chuck! I saw it was a pretty significant tremblor!
I just had a rock and roll moment. Thanks for your concern. Nothing in my house fell and no damage. As I indicated in my post, at first I thought I was having the granddaddy of all vertigo attacks. A few years ago I had a vertigo attack that made me go to the E.R. While I was there, must have been five other people in the E.R. for the same condition. I asked the nurse if it was contagious (jokingly, I thought). I guess she didn’t see the joke because she assured me most seriously that vertigo was not contagious. I later learned that not counting accidents, vertigo attacks are the third most common cause for E.R. visits after heart attacks and strokes. Who knew? I now keep a supply of motion sickness meds on hand, although haven’t had vertigo since — except for this morning. According to the news the new very expensive earthquake early warning system gave a 4 second warning of the earthquake. I must have still been asleep because I totally missed the warning. I don’t think 4 seconds would have helped me much. Maybe some emergency services with quicker reflexes than I were able to act on it.
Most of the damage was limited to just the area around the town of Ridgecrest. Those folks suffered significant damage to businesses and some homes. There were gas line breaks that resulted in a few fires. Of course, if it is easy to minimize the damage when it is not your business or home that has suffered. I don’t mean to minimize the damage. Could have been a lot worse. Because it is a small town with, probably a small fire department, it could have been a real bad scene. I did notice in one video clip there was only one fireman fighting the blaze, so I guess they were stretched pretty thin.
The Navy is being mum about any damage done on the base. They have their own fire trucks and maintenance force, so they are set. Civilian planes are restricted from flying over the base so no aerials of the base for the newsies. The ruptured road has already been repaired. Wow! Hard to believe CalTrans could move that fast, especially on a holiday. The pictures of the fissure in the road were impressive. So highway 178 is again open.
I had to turn to NHK to find out that the Chinese had test-fired a new anti-ship missile in the South China Sea. As for all the LA stations, it was all about the quake. The rest of the world had gone dark as far as they were concerned.
Thanks again for your concern — until the next big one which the seismologists keep promising us most definitely will happen. Apparently this one wasn’t THE BIG ONE. I am sure the folks in Ridgecrest are very happy it wasn’t.
Glad to hear that you’re Ok , Chuck. Yes, 4 seconds isn’t much time to do anything but brace yourself – hopefully you’ll get more notice for the next one. Be good and be careful.?
I didn’t hear about a quake, didn’t feel one myself, but I am not too plugged into the news. Vertigo maybe, but I see you posted on the 4th, my first thought fireworks.
I have been on board ship when the five inch deck gun was fired and I have been about 100 yards from the gun emplacement when 120 mm antiaircraft guns were fired and, of course, been to hundreds of fireworks displays as well as surreptitiously setting off a few myself. The closest other feeling that would describe the earthquake feeling is hitting heavy rollers from a large ship passing across your bow at a high speed in otherwise calm seas. Or, as I said in my earlier post, a really severe bout of vertigo.
Chuck
I buy bags of cooked crumbled bacon at Walmart. Not bad on a salad or the cream gravy my husbabd lives over biscuits. I like it in scrambled eggs or an outlet. Not oily. Its the equivalent of 5 lbs of bacon and much cheaper. Good in bag for a few months. I’m thinking of trying a pint of canned peppers, onions and bacon together for longer term storage. Easy to open a pint to drain and add to omlets, pizza, et. Liquid save for cooking or gravy. A pint would do us for a few meals and add a lot if flavor. The whole pint added to rabbit cajin stew would be good with dried celery and dried grated carrots. Since we are living mostly without electricity its rather like SHTF here already.
Hi, Clergylady,
What dept is that crumbled bacon in? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it and I know Walmart like the back of my hand.
Its in the little section with larger sized food items.
Clergylady, I know right where that is. Thank you!
I used to live in Peru and Ecuador years ago. Argentinian beef, as well as from their neighbors, Paraguay and Uruguay, are considered by many the best beef in the world. I would NOT say that about beef from the USA which is given so many drugs and all the chemicals from the GMO feeds used. My advice, but what do I know: BUY the So. American beef!! You will be thrilled with it, as it is grass fed from the “pampas” areas of those countries!
LCC, I buy corned beef in cans by the case from military base commissaries and find that the Argentine beef products are much better than the ones from Uruguay.
“What Is the Best Canned Meat”? I guess it will depend on what your family is use to eating. Like one commenter said, you have to look at the ingredients is someone in your family has health issues. Personally I like Keystone canned meats. Fully cooked–Ready to eat; All Natural–No MSG or other preservatives; No water added. Open and reheat. Wife likes making pulled pork sandwiches and barbecue beef with their products when we go hiking and camping. Very convenient and quick to make, saves fuel. I also like their chicken and turkey. Not fond of the ground beef, will not purchase again.
Available at some Walmart’s. They once made a mistake in their pricing at my local store at $4.99 a can for the 28oz size. I cleaned them out and since then they have been priced normally. Have a family member that lives in Ohio. When I visited last year I stopped by their place in Lima and loaded up on cases of the 14 oz cans. Better deal and easier for my family of three to finish off.
Anyways, the best way to go is to learn how to can your own and purchase your meats in bulk. Not everyone has a pressure cooker or want’s to learn how. So canned meats do have a place in the pantry.
Happy Forth.
Keystone meats are really good but are not stocked at all walmarts. The solution is simple, order them on walmart.com and pick them up at your local store in about 3 days. There is no delivery charge on orders over $35.00 Also keep in mind that many products are stocked by regional demand so if there are other items you are looking for, search walmart.com and chances are pretty good you can find them there.
Hope this helps,
God Bless.
P.S. Yesterday I purchased a can of luncheon meat from a dollar tree store in town. It’s their generic version of SPAM. For a buck a can I had to try it out. There’s no pork in this product so 9 grams of fat compared to 16 grams of fat in original SPAM.
Anyways, sliced it up thin and fried it up in a pan till the outside was crisp. Served it simply this morning with scrambled eggs for breakfast. The luncheon meat was very similar to SPAM in texture and taste, and slightly less salty to my taste buds. Wife and daughter didn’t notice a difference. Next time I’m in the store I’m going to pick up perhaps 10 more cans. For a dollar a can, I can’t go wrong.
Your post misses the most important question I ask concerning my food,—we know it has no pork—what is it? Is it made with trans fat, destined for your blood stream, never to break down, future heart attack?, is it made with soy protein, mimicking estrogen, and wreaking havoc on your endocrine system? I’ve been accused of being a liberal because I educate myself about food, and it’s effect on me. What do we do with most of our food reserves?, consume them before they become a potential health hazard. Historically, it is conservatives, (or at least rural people, and folks who produce their own food), who were the health food nuts, and liberals ate all the crap deliberately put in the food supply to make us sick. Producers of their own food don’t pour drano in the water for plants and animals to disrupt their own health. Everything the USDA and the FDA recommends is aimed at our illness, illnesses we are not to be cured of, but require a lifetime of maintenance on a growing number of medications and hospitalizations. “Eggs are bad, cholesterol,” turns out egg Yolks contain important substances for our brain, most active in runny Yolks. “Fat is bad, Butter, Lard, animal fat is bad, eat VEGETABLE oil.” The industry calls it SEED oil, manufactured after WWI, proven to be detrimental to health. Fats, animal, coconut, olive, Avocado, are very healthful, very necessary. Fat doesn’t cause obesity, sugar, and carbs that quickly turn into sugar, cause obesity. SURVIVAL, wasting away in isolation, sick in bed, well, it’s survival. Taking more meds than you can count, numerous trips to rotorooter your prostate, remove breast cancers, heart bypasses, well, sure, that’s survival, lay down and wait to die survival. I want to store food that I feel good about eating, not because I am ignorant of the illnesses it will cause, but because I do research and find the most healthy alternatives for the food I store, most of which I will not consume in a survival setting, or SHTF setting, but I will be consuming it somewhere this side of the dumpster, when the dumpster will be the only place for that food to preserve my health. I have done my own canning. The jar companies now say their cans will last 1½ years, from just a year in recent years. I canned meat, Stock, and butter less than a year ago. I’ve had some cans lose their seal, mold in one case, better than botulism. I am looking at Freeze dryers, they are expensive, 1 to 3 thousand apiece. Families could partner, take turns using it, there must be a way to monitor hours used, 10 hours use would pay less than 500 hours use. When it needs maintenance, the heavy users pay for most of it. We need to educate ourselves about food/ nutrition/ health issues. We are ready to protect our families against physical assault, someone breaking our window or door and robbing us of life, good health, and our resources; let’s protect ourselves from the deliberate assault on our health through poisoning us. SIDEBAR: the government tells us amalgam (mercury), fillings don’t harm us. Ask your doctor how they discard old amalgam fillings. They treat it like highly dangerous toxic waste. They are happy for them to be harmful in our bodies, which they want to harm, but treat it like nuclear waste once it leaves our bodies. Being healthy, and living without dangerous and expensive, life-shortening disease, is not liberal. Living healthy lives is patriotic.
Good reply. In an other reply on this thread I’ve stated that canning your own meat is the best way to go. You certainly know exactly what goes in the finished product. I also mentioned that some people here on this site have no intentions to start canning, thus the title of this thread what is the best canned meat? SPAM and luncheon meats certainly don’t fit the criteria for healthy as any one reading the ingredients would know. I have also suggested Keystone Meats for those that were looking for options. Meat, water, and some salt if that’s OK with you.
But unlike a select few here, I certainly don’t have the resources to purchase a freeze dryer nor do I have acres of land to grow my own food in large quantities. I also have the non-luxury of living a a metropolitan area that prohibits having live stock.
I have used the finite resources I have and now own and use a food dehydrator and grain mill. I have increased my garden this year to grow more of my own vegetables. And I was blessed with a good turn out of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, onions, radishes, garlic, potatoes, and a hand full of herbs.
I certainly don’t plan on eating SPAM or luncheon meat on a regular basis. I also don’t plan on eating bacon and eggs everyday for 30 yrs as another person commented. I exercise and work hard, have my regular check ups with my primary physician. I have no underlying health issues and currently take no meds. For being in my upper 50’s I’ve been blessed. I’m slim and slightly underweight for my height. I don’t smoke or drink. So yeah, I have taken care of myself the best I can.
You say ” Your post misses the most important question I ask concerning my food”. I don’t see that you ever asked it on this thread. Don’t assume I don’t ask myself the same thing. So I’m going to ask you why can’t I have eggs, bacon, ham, steak, or SPAM once in a blue moon? If it’s because it upset’s you, then to bad.
The best canned meat is the one that is not spoiled
SPAM-squirrel, possum, and mouse.
Prarrie Dog
LLC Last nights (6TH) news shows ongoing tremors. Hope all is still well.
My husband likes fried spam chunks in Ramin with mixed vegetables. Can’t say it’s a favorite with me but it’s quick and easy. I don’t mind it so much in rice. Spam does come in different flavors. Maybe that would help. I can’t stand potted meat or Vienna sausage. Smells like the canned dog food my mom used to buy for my dog when I was a kid. It was horsemeat.
I keep enough edible little critters here that I can always plan on extra to can when I butcher something. It doesn’t take a lot for two of us. I either save up extras in the freezer till I have enough to can or I make a stew and can the extra. With injuries and surgeries this last year + I’ve used up a lot of the stored meats. Will be replenishing stocks again now. Same with garden. Very late planting but planning to can extras and dry some also.
Smoke drifting back into our area from Arizona fires so will aim to just work a while when it cools toward evening.
I need to look for good arrow making wood or buy premaid arrows. Have to work smart with with the heat, smoke and needing the gardens. Lots to get finished up since moving and preps were pretty much at a standstill the last year. Glad to find the two older Bear recurve bows this week. Was also given a nice standing desk with an older but working computer, monitor, and photo printer and a beautiful display hutch. I tend to fix things up, choose what I can use here and sell or trade what I don’t need. The bows I’ll keep. I don’t need another computer or photo printer. The hutch will go in my little sales shop or the living room to display antiques. I’ll need to decide on a 6′ base for it. Probably kitchen base cabinets. I picked up a necklace display stand and two like new but old flour sifters. One sifter for My campkitchen and the other sifter and the jewelry display for the shop.
Getting the moving finished up will feel good. It stopped completly after the injuries. Stating again slowly.
I have different sizes of pressure canners and water bath canners. My mom’s 1950s pressure canner was taken so mine are newer but serviceable. Her old pressure canner could do 1/2 gallons. My new ones are limited to pints and quarts. That’s enough for the two of us. My 1/2 gallon jars are now pantry storage. I may oven, dry can flour and rice in some 1/2 gallons to see how they do. Sealed should keep longer.
The worse canned meat I ever ate was spam made with turkey. The ‘spurkey’ didn’t even taste as good as processed chicken loaf and it had an unpleasant mushy texture. Never had it again! Yecchh!
By definition TEOTWAWKI means you no longer have to worry about saturated fats and nitrites or vaccinations or flouride etc…
Too true, Mike. I always find finickiness about food amusing when discussing end of the world situations. After three days of nothing to eat by dandelion greens a survivor will be so happy to scarf down an uncooked can of Spam it will be like Gone In Sixty Seconds. After three days, I am quite sure I would even be willing to give heavy duty consideration to possum — well, maybe four days. It would probably take me a day to make a final decision. (smiling emoji)
Keystone meats are really good but are not stocked at all walmarts. The solution is simple, order them on walmart.com and pick them up at your local store in about 3 days. There is no delivery charge on orders over $35.00 Also keep in mind that many products are stocked by regional demand so if there are other items you are looking for, search walmart.com and chances are pretty good you can find them there.
Hope this helps,
God Bless.
I took an EMT course some time back. The nurse teaching us gave us some good ideas but one sticks out more than others. While choosing your canned foods, put the can in your cart and push down hard on the lid. If it pops, the can has lost its vacuum and could be potentially deadly if consumed. Doing the same with your canned foods stock piled could be a life saver.
Thanks, Yank. That is a good suggestion that will stick with us.
Self canning is a good way to go. Plus, you can buy organically raised beef, or raise a cow or steer. We have unmarked GMOs in the stores, and are slated to start getting genetically manipulated meat, as well as lab-created fake meat. I want food, not foodstuffs engineered to be detrimental to my health. I do all I can to be healthy. They do all they can to make us unhealthy. For long storage, they make stainless steel lids, (someone told me that on another of these forums). I bought a pressure canner, aluminum, I wish I bought an All American brand, stainless steel, not so hazardous in regards to blowing up or being damaged to unuseable. I have had one meat canning. I canned raw meat, you can go cooked or raw. My meat all came out, (what’s the term?), stringy, strands of beef & chicken. Next time I will brown the meat. Food Dehydrators are supposed to make food last 25 years. Expensive, but I imagine a group of folks buying one to share. Himalayan Pink salt has micronutrients, excellent for health. Virgin Olive oil packed sardines is great, but most are packed with soy oil, soy is an endocrine disruptor, decreases testosterone. Also, a report came out saying much of the olive oil sold is fake. Pemmican is purported to last as long as 25 years. One problem with game is the growing issue of, (not knowing the correct term, I will call it), mad cow disease infecting game.
The olive oil described in the article you are talking about was not “fake” olive oil. It was real olive oil, the part that was fake was the grading. It was graded extra virgin and was not, it was merely virgin or lower. In addition, olive oil gets old in plastic bottles. It gets old in clear bottles. It needs to be stored in dark colored, glass bottles in order to not get stale. It won’t be bad, it just won’t be as tasty as if it were properly stored or fresh according to the folk who claim to be able to tell the difference.
All that said, I personally believe it is kind of the phony haute attitude that attends cheese and wine. How many times in a blind tasting has a cheap wine scored higher than a much higher priced wine, yet when folks know the names of the wine they scorn the Two Buck Chuck as being plonk but the last time they drank it in a blind tasting they raved about it.
The bottle of olive oil I am using right now is about two years old. I can’t taste any difference from when it was first opened. Perhaps if I tasted a newly pressed bottle just opened and my two-year old olive oil I could discern some slight difference in taste. If I have to do that, it isn’t worth the extra cost for “premium” olive oil.
As far as buying tuna in oil, just check the label. If it say soy oil and you think that is poison, don’t buy it. It’s that easy. If it says olive oil, you can be sure it is standard olive oil, not extra virgin olive oil. It still has the same food value and by the time it has been cooked in tuna fish, you won’t be able to taste the olives anyway, it will be fish oil.
I didn’t read the article you mentioned, “…the article you are talking about…” I am referring to an issue that came out through multiple sources, documentation that oil was being produced with mystery oils, using the method of oil production invented post WWII, and thought to be concocted by the Italian Mafia.
All the new oils, vegetable, canola, safflower, corn, soy bean, cotton seed, etc. are produced with copious amounts of CFCs, chloroflourocarbons. I think it is similar to the way some people take pot and direct liquid butane through it and it produces hash. I don’t know if it is real. It is a common practice. Oil producers inject these new sources of oil with copious amounts of liquified chloroflourocarbons to produce these new oils. (For some reason they do not worry about the greenhouse gases being released, but that is because it is a mis-information campaign). They invented the process after WWII. The fake olive oil was attributed to the mafia, and I doubt the FDA even tests it. All the Post-WWII oils are low in omega 3s, and high in omega 6, contra-indicated for good health. I
buy crap cans of food, but am slowly replacing with nutritious food, not FDA, bribed-into-compliance foods, but healthful foods, new millennium technologically understood nutrition.
In Nazi German concentration camps, and Soviet Russian gulags, they drank their urine and ate their feces to survive. I met a pastor who was imprisoned in Nazi Germany, AND Soviet Russia, big gaping hunks out of his flesh, back and chest, from torture. He ate and drank his waste. I want better for myself and my family, though in a pinch I would no doubt do anything it took to survive. I’ll survive if I have to survive, but I don’t just want to survive, I want to thrive.
“In addition, olive oil gets old in plastic bottles. It gets old in clear bottles. It needs to be stored in dark colored, glass bottles in order to not get stale…” plastic breaks down and leeches BPA into whatever is contained. BPA is an endocrine disruptor, the most common, easiest endocrine disruption as example is soy, and it’s disruption of testosterone production, and signals to the body to produce estrogen instead. Aged oils become rancid, it is from oxidation, and is not healthful. I don’t recall the physiologic effects of rancid oil right now, and can’t research it now. I can my ghee, also capable of becoming rancid. One can pressure can, or use one of those vacuum sealers to remove most of the oxygen. Researching freeze drying, they have packets they add to the packaging that specifically absorb oxygen. One way to recognize rancid oil, (besides the off smell and taste), is the change around the lid, from oily and lubricating to sticky and gummy. The bottled oil may be okay, but around the bottles threads can be rancid.
I acknowledge the presence of what you called, “the phony haute attitude…” Many of those touting what they believe is quality is just snobbery. Your mention of wine, you are probably talking about Charles Shaw, I think you mentioned it. In that case, first realize what it is. Charles Shaw is extra wine from all the best vineyards, lesser vineyard’s wines as well. They produce too much, to ensure they can hit their target barrel numbers. They sell their surplus wine very cheaply. Charles Shaw buys these wines, and has a specific goal, to blend excellent wine with crap wine, and produce a consistent product. I am convinced that they had a special bottling of their best wines for the competition they won in several categories. They would no doubt have had different results if someone was sent to Trader Joe’s to pull cases off the shelf for the competition.
That said, there are those who can recognize good quality wine and cheese, just as you, at whatever business you pursue, could inform us about important minutia that is in no way snobbery, but the fruit of your decades at the pursuit. Someone lacking that knowledge would produce an inferior product.
Fuck taste, I make my choices from research into healthful quality, of course taste follows. The FDA has been captured by big capital. Take chocolate. All my life, they couldn’t call it chocolate unless it was made with 100% cocoa butter. They changed the law a decade or more ago. They can use any oil, and they don’t have to tell you on the label. They never mention whether it is made with cocoa butter, (easy to recognize by its melting point), but they ALL say they are made with soy lecithin. I suspect most chocolate today, especially American chocolate, is made with soy oil. Soy is an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors can lead to reproductive cancer, and can cause breasts in men, belly fat, loss of hair, many disorders.
HEY!, I’ve got no problem with whatever people want to do. Go for it. My friends, the ones who always bragged about their affordable meals at inexpensive restaurants, tend to die in their early 70s, but not before a decade of suffering in poor health. I think it is the oil they use at those restaurants.
I am a patron at Tom’s Bar & Restaurant, good quality ingredients, but sometimes he pulls a can off the shelf. Everyone wants to know where it is; it’s at my house.
What do I know?, I’m just a journeyman carpenter & electrical Lineman. My sister is a prominent attorney from a prestigious university. I spoke of the H.A.A.R.P. facility in Alaska. She told me I was full of it. I offered her the GPS coordinates on Google maps, but she is superior in her analytic, scholastic, and debate skills, with which she gave her unsupported reply, “HORSE! SHIT!” Superior intellect in action. Enjoy your life, and whatever you choose to consume, and feed your family.
What were your comments about the H.A.A.R.P. Facility? Was it along conspiracy lines it os used as a Weather Control Weapon? Just curious what you sister was so against what you had to say about the Facility.
You first have to understand liberal college people, mostly graduates. Current students and recent graduates are a different group. First, they feel The Overton Window tells them the appropriate topics of conversation, and which topics their peers find to be unacceptable. In truth, there is a power that is engineering the public through indoctrination, and they get this set of acceptable or not topics. Second is the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which tells them that their views are the obvious logical choice, but that stupid people think they are right as well.
They are trained to oppose radically any encroachment to their dogma, not with logic and rhetoric, but with blind emotion, win the argument any way possible, including: *Ridicule, make supporting your position a source of derision, and laugh, *Talk don’t listen, watch most any discussion between two or more opposing viewpoints. At some point, the parties begin to regurgitate their memorized sales and information speeches, not hearing or responding to the other party doing the same thing.
In my sister’s case, she heard H.A.A.R.P. and defended her position, that HAARP, and any similar topic, (I had brought up other topics she had to oppose), was part of a group of topics that were off limits. If ypu aren’t on the inside, it is hard to discern how there are a set of topics that the party will not address, but somehow, speaking to these people, I come away with a sense of the set of topics that are off limits, without it being said. Around that time, she also began a litany of, “Agree to disagree, agree to disagree.”
For long term home canning of meat the old style wire bail glass top jars are ideal. No exposed metal at all and with the now available silicone reusable seals not that expensive to use. There are a lot of them sitting in attics and barns all over the country.
Pressure cookers, when taken care of last forever. I am still useing my Moms Mirro mattic 8 that she bought in 1953. Also have a couple of the old canners with the 8 screw dowm toggle locks which I retrofitted with Mirro pressure controls so I do not have to sit and watch the pressure gage for hours to maintain a steady 10 PSI.Just be aware that as this makes them an open system you will need to add more water to the kettle at the start to make up for steam loss thru the jiggler.
Long time since posting. Read back through the comments. I’ve been canning meats. Mostly chicken but some soups and stews with ground beef and ham. I’m getting current food supplies from a community pantry. Gardeners here donate a lot in season. I prefer my home raised meats but since that isn’t always possible I’m canning the excess from the food pantry. I’ll try gardening again this year. Long covid is a real thing. It’s been tough and 4 months ago my husband passed away. I grew a small garden last year. I’ll aim for more this year.
Water conservation in the garden is essential. I’ve laid pallets directly on the ground and plant in them. That holds moisture. I use soaker hoses so less moisture is lost to evaporation. I found pallets that aren’t chemically treated. We’re in the 22nd year of drought that exceeds anything in the last 1200 years.
I saw Big Daves post about his moms 1953 pressure canner. I’ve been using my moms 1950 canner. I just passed it on to my son. And he found one about the same vintage and is canning with those two. I added a new canner to my 10 year old one so we each have 2. We are both canning food from the community pantry. Very little waste from careful kitchens. Any scraps and trimming go in my compost. We both get more meat that we can eat so its being canned. Yesterday he made spaghetti sauce. He canned 6 quarts and a pint. Last night he brought me 1 qt and the pint. We trade so we have better variety in our pantries. I gave him 2 quarts of turkey vegetable soup last week. I still have 3 chickens and carrots to can this week. Some times I prepare things ready to heat and eat. Sometimes I just cut a chicken in half and can those in quart jars. Canned chicken, bone in, is tasty and easy to debone quickly. The broth makes soup base or gravy. The meat goes in soup, meat in gravy over rice, pot pies, some many ways to serve it. I can season it with bullion, or choose mixtures of spices and herbs.
Its been fun watching my son take to canning like an old pro.
If the sodium is high in the canned meat you chose, then don’t eat a full serving. That’s like Ramen noodles, if you don’t want so much salt, don’t add the full flavor packet, only use half.
Hunger is hunger and food is food as long as its not spoiled. What I store is going to be the best possible but fact is… If you’re truly hungry you’ll eat things you’d never try under any other circunstance.
I have canned corned beef, canned ham, canned spam in several flavors, canned beef stew, canned beef enchiladas, canned chili con carne, and chili con carne with beans. Each different and each has more than one serving of meat.
” Hunger is hunger and food is food as long as its not spoiled. What I store is going to be the best possible but fact is… If you’re truly hungry you’ll eat things you’d never try under any other circunstance. ”
actually … the fact is history proves you wrong … it is well documented that people have starved themselves to death
rather than eat food they found not palatable or distasteful … for whatever reason.
an historical, documented fact well known by people in the food storage business.
store what you normally eat.
and food you like to eat.
Please sho our documentation here people willingly staved themselves to death.
there are people documented eating their own feces.
ever heard of the Donner Party?
Ever head about the plane crash and the survivors in the Andes Mountain?
People resorted to cannibalism. There are many more cases of such happening and these are not isolated incidents.
I don’t see very many people intentionally starving themselves to death and refusing to eat an available food. PERHAPS some deeply religious people would not eat pork or beef… perhaps lobsters or crabs or shrimp..but Hunger is very powerful motivator.. 3 or 4 days with no food and not due to an illness….or even a week or longer….without food….your stomachs and Will to Live is going to have you eating things you normally would never consider putting in your mouth o as a food source….Insects grubs or other such items. No doubt their are cases of Deeply Religious individuals that would not eat whatever food items that their Religion forbid them from eating. BUT I firmly believe hat there are more that did and and never spoke openly about it or would admit it.
No mater the food as Kosher or Halal or whatever
People eating another human being to survive……People eating their on feces.. should give you a very good example of what Hunger is capable of driving people to do and that Hunger will make people eat anything they can find to possibly eat.
In the US Revolutionary War, there were soldiers that resorted to eating their boots.because they had nothing else to eat.
Dying of hunger is a long slow painful death that no sane person would ever want to suffer. I know people can “WILL” themselves to die and give up living. I know there are far more cases the WILL to Live to SURVIVE is stronger. Look at the Prison camps of BOTH sides from the US so called Civil War…most people do not know about the treatment the North did to captured POWs from the South….Look at the Nazi Concentration Camps. Human beings from POWs in the US and from those Camps wee nothing but walking skeletons YET they continued to survive….despite the Hunger and the Horrors and Mistreatment
People did what they had to do to eat whatever they could find, Eating dirt and feces to put something their belly..
I do agree with stock the foods you like to eat and .even other items you might not like regularly eat to give you some change and taste in hat you are eating to keep you from getting bored with eating the same old thing ever day.
“Hunger is hunger and food is food as long as its not spoiled. What I store is going to be the best possible but fact is… If you’re truly hungry you’ll eat things you’d never try under any other circunstance.”
actually, it is well documented that is not true.
people have staved themselves to death rather than eat food they found not palatable …. for whatever reason.
store what you normally eat, and like.
” Hunger is hunger and food is food as long as its not spoiled. What I store is going to be the best possible but fact is… If you’re truly hungry you’ll eat things you’d never try under any other circunstance. ”
actually … the fact is history proves you wrong … it is well documented that people have starved themselves to death
rather than eat food they found not palatable or distasteful … for whatever reason.
an historical, documented fact well known by people in the food storage business.
store what you normally eat.
and food you like to eat.
Yes, it’s true that people have starved to death from food they felt was not palatable. On the other hand people have also starved due to food fatigue. They might have liked the item before, but repetition of eating the same dish item can quickly make it unappealing. Planning for different options and rotation of your stash helps to combat this issue. I certainly have not planned to eat just beans and rice.
” On the other hand people have also starved due to food fatigue.”
depending on what you are eating.
i have eaten 2 slices of bacon and 2 eggs over easy for breakfast every day for over 30 years.
“I have eaten 2 slices of bacon and 2 eggs over easy for breakfast every day for over 30 years”. No complaints here. I can eat my wifes Spanish rice and potatoe salad every day. That’s just me. But just going in to visit my uncle in the nursing home tells me some of us are exceptions. I’ve seen plenty of old timers refusing to eat the institutionalized food served to them over a period of time. Sure spice’s can make a huge difference. History isn’t going to change tomorrow.
I can eat my cooking every day. I often eat just about the same food, but different spices, different presentation. My ex-wife, my Mother is like this too, can’t eat the same dish for at least a week. She would have to freeze leftovers, and if she froze it, she wouldn’t want it in a week. I conceived a comic, a caveman and his wife in a cave, wooly mammoth keeled over, X-es for eyes, a cross hatch section out of his hind quarter, and the woman is saying, “Mammoth again? We had that last night.” Look of dismay on our caveman. We all have different experiences. I have gone hungry. I can’t imagine not eating if I was hungry. Then again, I have known friends who couldn’t cook. Their food, especially their leftovers, leave me cold.
I like my cooking.
Latest Articles June 24 below is a good example of real hunger.
LCC. any more rock n roll vertigo incidents?
Not on this end, Clergylady, although the number of aftershocks in the Ridgecrest-Trona area is truly amazing. The aftershocks have ranged up into 4 – 5 on the Richter scale which means they are being felt. From about 3.5 on, they can be felt if one is close enough. I’ve read that the Richter scale is logarithmic. Sorry, but I can’t explain exactly what that means but a 4 is a whole lot stronger than a 3.5, much stronger than the numbers might otherwise indicate. I don’t know the quantity of aftershocks at this point but at one point over the weekend it was over 1500 aftershocks. While aftershocks themselves are not most times strong enough to damage a building, if the building is damaged from the initial quake, the continued shaking inflicts more damage until the structure is a total loss. Much like bending a piece of metal. Do it enough times and the metal will break. I think it is called stress fatigue.
It is hard for me to believe, but folks living in the desert apparently don’t have water stored on their property. Emergency services are busy trucking in bottles of water to provide drinking water to the non-peppers. The Ridgecrest-Trona area is desert. Yes, there is a layer of water in Searles Lake which is adjacent to Trona, but that water is saltier than any ocean you ever swam in. That’s the reason for Trona and Ridgecrest to begin with, support for the chemical company surface mining dissolved minerals, mainly boron in the water in the lake. Those two towns are on the road to the Panamint entrance to Death Valley. They are definitely in the desert. I just can’t imagine not having back up water supplies tucked away.
Glad you’re ok LLC. Yes I understand the stress on structures. I’ve been through that country where the earthquake was centered but its been years. I agree I can’t see living out that way without some water stored away. I live in mountain desert with an annual good year rainfall/snow water amount of 12 inches.
I have some water stored and one unused well and a winch.. I’d survive as long as the well didn’t loose its bottom…. That’s an earthquake risk. But this isn’t particularly earthquake country.
I was in the 1952 Tahachapie earthquake but in Loma Linda at the time. It pretty much destroyed a woman’s prison at Tahachapie, earth crevices opened and swallowed road sections and lots of rows of grapes. The bell tower in Bakerfield came down. Most store front windows were cracked or broken out in many surrounding towns. Pretty memorable. Our little home had cement floors and plaster walls. Lots of cracks in both. Mom and Dad tried to walk to me and couldn’t do it because the floor was rolling like ocean waves. I saw others but that was the biggest I was in.
Tom. I keep powdered non fat milk here. Smaller sealed packets for long term storage. They will stay fresh better when opened but I keep large bags as well. Cheaper. I cook and bake with powdered milk. If I need buttermilk I just add some vinegar to sour the milk.
I’ve been without power most of the last year and it was a way to deal with not having refrigeration. Its worked so well I will continue this just for convenience.
“…maybe a little wine in the Cretin people’s case. We must be careful not to through diet in the trash when the SHTF.”
I appreciate the article and the information therein, but I think you meant “Cretan” (someone from the island of Crete), rather than “Cretin” (a derogatory term for a mentally-challenged person). We have to be careful of who we might offend, even if inadvertently.
No, I meant cretin. I am mentally challenged, so it’s like a black person… well….
All the snowflakes openly insult who I am, and in the next breath, say they are, “triggered,” by me for being a traditional American. Careful about lecturing me, or I might lecture back and I’m not armed with generic platitudes, but I am observant, and I will go right to your tender spot and point at it like an Irish setter, (you caught me, more like a blue tick).
I guess this site doesn’t support the sarcasm font that I used in the last sentence of my comment.
I replied before reviewing. I was not using, “cretin,” in a sentence, I was quoting another.
I wrote more content, but didn’t include it. I don’t want to trigger a snowflake.
Lol. Let the snow flacks; flake out.
Actually on an above comment… I’d love an occasional glad of wine. I sometimes make a gallon of grandmas dandelion wine or a gallon of genuine cactus juice.. Juice of the fruit on my long row of nopal cacti with a mild alcohol content when finish and sitting most of a year to develop a nice flavor.
Learned a trick long ago …mix powdered skim milk and a condensed milk … each has what the other is missing … tastes like regular milk.
Sourdough. That sounds like a pretty good idea. I usually just use less water than called for on the package. It helps the milk seem richer. For long term storage I’m still going with powdered milk but canned lasts a long time Also.
I went to my local (east Tennessee) COSTCO yesterday looking for Kirkland’s canned beef. None of it anywhere, and a store employee told me that it was discontinued a few weeks ago. Now where can I find good canned beef?
If you have an Aldi in your area, they have it. Reasonably priced at about $2/can, and tastes good. I use it every couple of weeks for corned beef and cabbage.
Aldi has corned beef, not just canned beef. Sorry, didn’t read your message right.
If you have an Aldi in your area, they have it. Reasonably priced at about $2/can, and tastes good. I use it every couple of weeks for corned beef and cabbage.
Excellent! Yes, we have Aldi’s here, and I will go there today. Thank you so much.
All grocery stores and many dollar type stores carry canned beef and it here meats. Try a Sam’s club for bulk discount sales.
Not mentioned were smoked Kippers/Herring tasty as a snack or fixed with scrambled eggs and numerous other recipes. I have not seen canned minced clams or crab meat or those tiny brine shrimp. All of which can be used in various recipes.
I have also seen canned sausages but have not tried them…..
Having food like to eat means we will need other things
to doctor them up and to add things to create diversity n what we eat so e do not get bored eating the same thing over and over
I also did not see an item I recently found. It is canned BBQ Pulled Pork. It is tasty BBQ sauce and I can make 3 sandwiches on hamburger buns or add it to cooked pasta or rice.
I also got the canned Roast Beef and Gravy an corned beef. the canned corned beef iis also good to add to cabbage or make your own hash.
The brand is Clover Valley. for both the Beef and the Pork. They had different brands of Corned Beef.
Take some Instant Mashed potatoes,a can or two of the Roast Beef and gravy and add some canned vegetables and make a Sheppard’s Pie a nice hearty meal! Or fix the Roast Beef with Pasta or even add some sour cream and make a sour creme sauce with the gravy. Use your own recipes and/or imagination or find recipes on line or create your own new ones.
I was in a Dollar General…. They also had canned Chicken Breast / Canned Turkey/Canned Ham/Canned corned beef hash and numerous other canned related items.
I know this about canned meats BUT consider the following
I will also add Canned Cocktail Canned Pears Canned Peaches canned Mangoes canned pineapple and other canned fruit.
I also have not seen an mention of canned Spinach or other greens or canned Black eyed Peas all ready seasoned… and they had the usual gamut of dried beans.
Good place to find a lot of most canned goods. Well worth checking on items you may not have thought of
or be looking for. Check them at least once a week better a couple of times a week as the may have restocked or have various new items on sale
They had 2 packs of 20 oz cans on sale. I must admit I am not a fan of canned chicken no matter what I do with it it still has that canned taste but it is food and has many uses chicken and rice or noodles or a salad like tuna Salad with mayo boiled eggs and whatever else one wants to add and season it with
A lady in our church makes a great chicken salad sandwich. It’s requested for every dinner at church. I know she uses canned chicken, mayo, finely diced celery and green grapes halved. Not sure what else. There’s some light spice. … Maybe cloves. It’s delicious. Good cooks can make tasty meals from almost anything.
By the way the church I grew up in forbade catfish, all shell fish, any fish without scales, animals need a split good like cows or deer. Off limits were rodent family (rabbits, Prarrie dog, squirrel), snakes, pigs et.
If you read my account of 10 months (June) living off of the land you’ll soon see hunger won.
A lady in our church makes a great chicken salad sandwich. It’s requested for every dinner at church. I know she uses canned chicken, mayo, finely diced celery and green grapes halved. Not sure what else. There’s some light spice. … Maybe cloves. It’s delicious. Good cooks can make tasty meals from almost anything.
By the way the church I grew up in forbade catfish, all shell fish, any fish without scales, animals need a split good like cows or deer. Off limits were rodent family (rabbits, Prarrie dog, squirrel), snakes, pigs et.
If you read my account of 10 months (June) living off of the land you saw hunger won. I still eat meats but love my veggies. I keep a pretty good mix here. I can greens, and whatever I have from the garden. I’ll probably soon can some yellow squash. I may can some purslane, amaranth leaves, and lambsquarters just to fill the canner. My fall greens aren’t ready to eat yet but the wild ones are still doing great.
Frustration, I’m trying to respond to Dan, comment-464572, but the link brings me to the general article, not the response. I had been discussing nutrition, health, science. I criticize cans, but I buy canned food. I eat canned food, gotta’ rotate stock. I don’t have a freeze dryer, wisk I did. EXPENSIVE! I am learning and eating Keto. Look at YouTube, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Berg. All the foods, (generalization), the government recommends are bad, all the foods they vilify are good. Not all-many. The reason is that a very powerful group controls our government, they gain power by making us sick and maintaining us in illness, not curing us. They buy up patents for cures, and bury them. Animal fat is good for us. Nitrates are naturally occurring, uncured bacon is still cured, but with the nitrates in Celery seed instead of chemical nitrates. Manufacturers put sugar in everything, and vilify good fat. There is a lot of science involved with Keto. If your gall bladder doesn’t produce enough bile, (think your liver), fat does not digest. I don’t want to complicate things for folks. I seek a complex path, because I want to be healthy, and I don’t want to grow old eating 2 dozen different prescription pills every day. A lot of medical science is good, nutritional advise, etc. My fight, (I want to say our fight), is to understand the enemy, (the same enemy that says they want to kill off all but 500 million of us, and they aren’t up for removal), on The Georgia Guidestones, who want to do away with our country and create a one world dictatorship. I buy cans, I eat canned food. I’m just always looking for solutions that will lead me to long term health. Great recommendation about Keystone meats, I’ll look for it. I find Hispanic brands of pork, canned chicken, small cans, canned chicken that says it has pork in fine print. I hope Dan finds this, I am unable to answer directly.
Found your reply Tom. Just have to wait a little time before replying as the comments are approved by a moderator. It’s great that your taking the time to educate yourself on nutrition. It’s great that your following through and doing what you think would be ideal for your best interest. I’m just here to learn as I’m getting more prepared to survive what life may throw my way. I’m not generally prepping for an EOTW type event. But I am prepping for financial and other events that have affected me in the past, such as job loss, floods, loss of power and so on. I’m aiming to be more self sufficient and to be the best husband and father I can possibly be. Like many others here, I’m here to learn and share. Keep at it. Take care.
Hi Dan, God bless you, and I wish you all the best in any endeavor you pursue, (that is honest, and positive). Many reasons to be prepared. I heard it discussed yesterday that banks are having crises, (crisis-es?) maintaining their mandated-by-law overnight reserve. Our president viewed it as so important that he emphasized this September being, “National Preparedness Month.” I set a new record, not grocery shopping for 25 days recently. I ate a lot of my canned food. I was constantly feeling my mouth was overly salty, indicating to me I had too much salt in me, and I dropped in my feeling of wellness. I am struggling to cook good meals for myself. Prepping is one thing, but quality of life will be difficult to maintain if/when we are forced to rely on our stock.
Sidebar, I think red, (coho) canned salmon is better than pink/chum salmon. I kick myself for not buying the dollar store out when they had 14.75 oz cans for a dollar a few years back. I found it at Walmart for $10.95 for 2 cans, $5.94 per pound:
https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Sea-Salmon-14-75-Ounce/dp/B003GPXFQC/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=canned+red+salmon&qid=1569264332&s=gateway&sr=8-5
I think it was you recommended a good canned meat source, thanks.
No one on this blog seems to understand Spam. And knowledge of human nutrition seems to be overly aligned with modern mimes rather than facts.
First, contrary to the author’s comments, it is not “mystery meat”. It consists entirely of cuts of pig, with no cow, horse, rabbit, lamb, roadkill, or whatever. It has some seasoning and a little starch, but it is fundamentally just pig. I have no doubt that it includes less expensive cuts that are otherwise of little value. I see no issue there. It does have a lot of fat, but that is an upside, not a downside.
Spam really does have good reason to last longer on the shelf than other canned meats. Most meats are stored in water. The water is somewhat acid. Which speeds the time for the inner lining of the can to be compromised and the contents go bad.
Spam, on the other hand, is packed in fat. There is no liquid when you open a can of Spam. So Spam uses the same method for long life as pemmican. This also means that the number of ounces on the label is the ounces of food (meat and fat) and includes no water, as do many cans of meat.
Fat soluble vitamins are difficult to obtain for sources other than animal fat. Animal fat is very nutrient dense and rich. Without it, your survival meals will be unfulfilling.
As for salt, it is also lacking in most inexpensive survival foods, such as rice, beans, pasta, greens from the wild, or vegetables from your garden. Contrary to popular opinion, salt is a dietary essential. Overdone in prepared meals from the grocery store. But underdone in the wild. And essential for life.
So salt in your canned meat will help add essential salt to your meals, not hurt.
In short, the idea that Spam is “bad food” and canned chicken and beef is “good food” is without foundation.
Spam has been in my survival food pantry for quite awhile. I like the tatste and I like the idea that I can eat it cooked, add it to rice, eggs or whatever else or just eat it out of the can. Contrary to popular belief, we all need salt in our diet but we also need fats in our diet, also. In a shtf situation, you’ll appreciate spam if it’s added to your stockpile. I agree with BillH.
As I have often said, after three days of dandelion greens, a can of Span will taste like the finest cut of roast beef from The House of Prime Rib in San Francisco. You will be thrilled to scarf it down without bothering to heat it. And after three days of dandelion greens you will suddenly feel full of energy due to the fat in the Spam. The lingering headache that has bothered you for two days will be gone because your electrolytes have been rebalanced by the salt in the Spam. Life will not look as dismal as just before you discovered the can of Span in the burnt out Stop n Rob.
After five days of dandelion greens Fido will suddenly take on a whole different aspect. Just this week I read an article entitled “Four Recipes If You’re Forced to Eat Your Pet Dog After the Apocalypse.”
The funniest recipe was the one entitled “Buster Mountain Oysters,” ending the recipe with “Then thank yourself for not wasting money on that trip to the vet.”
The author recommended breading and then frying. Don’t laugh. In “One Second After” the author had the protagonist killing the family dog in order to continue his diabetic daughter’s life a few more days.
I have read that one of the reasons the native Americans kept large packs of dogs in their villages was for hard times when Fido was suddenly in the stew pot. Sort of mobile MREs.
I have it on what I consider reliable information that brown dog is tastier than black dog. No epicurean report on white dogs.
LCC: You didn’t mean to be canine racist did you? I’ll throw in my two cents on meats. Spam is good to store. I favor Yoder’s canned hamburger, sausage, and beef chunks. I also recommend (for those that are able) to get some evil chickens and teach them to lay deviled eggs. (chuckle!)
when it comes down to eating things you may not prefer or starve, most people will eat whatever is available, including pet food, the pets, rats & pigeons, snakes & lizards, frogs, insects, snails, worms, fruit and vegetables they would have previously considered spoiled or garbage, water plant both fresh and salt water, weeds, grass, roots, tree bark, and anything else they think they can eat and not get sick or die from. Just research history for events and places where mass food shortages and famines occurred, including Europe during WWII, and even today in Venezuela.
LCC some tribes did and some didn’t eat dog. Kiowa ate boiled puppies. Hey food is food. Inwouldnt judge. I drank pollywogs to stave off starvation ..
at this time of day,all stores is empty wuth this stuff,, its to late people
Sotres are stocked better now but some areas still thin and prices have mostly gone up.
I buy Walmart corned beef. Not the best I’ve ever eaten but still not bad. Husband loves it in homemade hash made of boiled potatoes, diced onions, and shredded carrots.
I thought it was just food, but there are supply chain issues with other things too. Our washer died to the point it could not be fixed. We have 3 major big box appliance places. The first one said they had no moderately-priced ones as many factories have not been open. They said even when they can order one, the manufacturers are not able to deliver when they promised. The second had floor models but for each one that was at all affordable they said no can’t get. Finally found one at Home Depot, more than we wanted to pay and will take 10 days to 2 weeks to get. I am still doubling up on basic food items each week as you never know if it will be there next week. I do not believe anything I hear. I guess it is good training to learn to be adaptable in uncertain times, but would have liked to skip this particular learning curve.
All factories, food processors, and packing sheds for produce have the problem of workers being close and unprotected. Covid 19 is easily cought in those conditions. Too many out sick means a shut down.
Many individuals who were trucking have quit. Protesters have swarmed trucks coming into towns and stolen loads, beaten drivers, and vandalized the trucks. But it hasn’t been worth reporting on.
My husbands daughter work in a cliff bar factor. With careful testing they have been able to keep working but sales are down so it’s short shifts. The company was hoping sales would stay up based on the long shelf life of their products. They were hoping people looking for food to store would discover their bars and rotate them out around every three years or less in high humidity areas.
She brought so many bars that hubs is still eating 3 year old bars. They look like new bars. He’s enjoying them. She was planning we’d both be eating them. I have eaten maybe 6 bars.
I’m not a big sugar, salt, or fats eater. Been that way all my life. I enjoy a bit of fruit pie or cobbler. Not much for cakes or rich energy bars. If we were in need of dense calories in a hard time I guess I’d eat them. They would be easy to carry in a pocket or bag. Individually wrapped they were first marketed for hickers and outdoor athletes. Until the pandemic they were selling really well.
Didn’t mean to write an advertisement. Just commenting on our supply chains from producing a product to delivery. Everything has been effected by the virus. Often production is stopped.
Thanks, Clergylady. This helps us understand what is going on. I wondered why so many places were closed. I thought well, why don’t they just slow down the production line and have workers stand further apart or have two shifts. Then, I remembered. My Dad owned a small tomato cannery in Ohio when I was growing up. My sister and I worked there summers, after school and weekends. The profit margins in a place like that couldn’t cover masks, etc, let alone plexiglass dividers and it costs to keep it open for a second shift. In the case of perishables, you have to go full bore when the tomatoes are ripe. God decides when it’s canning season and there’s no way to spread out the work. And the workers really need the money so are willing to take the chance. Also it is a wet environment, hot and steamy in some places. They worked long, hard hours so I could go to school and get a nice, sit down job in an air conditioned office. There are a lot of unsung heroes in these terrible times. I forgot about the truck drivers and the food workers, but you helped me to remember. Won’t forget again.
Last post July. Here it is Early October. Canned meats and fresh seem to in short supply. Far less variety than before and too expensive for our social security existence. Now eating more vienna sausages than in a lifetime. Husband eats them in anything I fix. I still give him most of them. We have chickens and a lot of young pullets. I eat eggs just fine. If by chance the 4 month old straight run chicks I bought last week have some roosters in the the batch they will get canned. I have 13 pullets from 2 other sources. Pretty sure they will be all hens.
Chickens and eggs will be our main protein source. If i can’t feed them well later on I’ll can some. I plan to plant a fowel food plot. I have 10 ducks. Rich eggs and makes a good dark meat roast. I love their personalities. I will raise a few rabbits along but not many at a time. They are fryer size in 5-8 weeks. They make a good spicy cajin stew also. Could can some of that.
I didn’t garden much this year or can much. Covid about did me in. Lost 30 lbs. That is good but was tough. Still having trouble eating much. Then hair falling out after being so sick. Took scissors to it. Cut it off short. Its finally growing back. I can rub my hand over the scalp and it feels like velvet. Short hair looked fuller and it’s Curley so wash and wear. 🙂 I still drink a daily high protien Ensure. Meats are the hardest thing to eat since veing sick. I do ok with eggs and chicken. I can eat an occasional hamburger. Iost all my plant starts for the garden. I wasucky to get from the bed to a toilet or to a chair in the livingroom where my husband with alzheimers got his food or bottles of cold water for us. A neighbor did our shopping and set things inside the front door. Husband carefully put things away with my verbal help. So blessed he could do that. I couldnt! Neighbor picked us cases if bottled water. I have my husband put bottles in the refrigerator twice a day. It was a record setting hot summer. I lived on cold water when I couldnt eat.
I don’t recommend catching that stuff if you can avoid it. Husband was sick 3 days is all. Dry cough and diarrhea. I was sick most of 2 months. Thank God no blood clots or pneumonia. Able to stay home to lookout for husbsnd while he waited on me. It worked out OK.
But I lost all the started seedlings for the garden and all my house plants. Forgot all about them.
Glad you’re doing better, Clergylady. Thank God you are so resourceful.
From personal experience I can honestly say the Kirkland canned roast beef is better than other brands we tried, but it has been out of stock at Costco in our area for over a year, both in store and online. The last time we were at Costco we saw Sampco brand Shredded Beef from Brazil, 3LB’s packaged in heavy mylar bags, so I bought a couple but have not tried it yet.
For corned beef I usually buy a case from military base commissaries and prefer the Argentine beef products compared to others such as from Uruguay.
Contrary to popular urban myths, SPAM is actually pork shoulder and is much better quality that most people think, but does have added salt. If you like SPAM you can easily make fried rice with it by dicing and frying it, maybe make some scrambled eggs also, then set aside. Then lightly “sauté” stir-fry some already cooked rice (leftover rice works great since it might be a little dryer) in a wok or large skillet with high sides, add some soy sauce to taste, add some peas and carrots and/or other vegetables you like, including minced garlic and diced onion, add the cooked diced SPAM and eggs and stir-fry until the vegetables are done and the soy sauce is absorbed, you can keep stir-frying until you get the consistency you prefer, and you can always add more soy sauce during or after the process if you want. We prefer Jasmine rice because it is “fluffier” (maybe it has less starch?) and we think it tastes better than Calrose, especially for those who use rice cookers.
Speaking of rice, you can use rice instead of potatoes or pasta for a lot of meals, including rice with gravy, and/or you can mix in whatever meat and vegetables you have on hand whether its beef, pork, chicken, eggs, or seafood.
Salt-free seasonings are readily available both in stores and online if you need to regulate your salt intake. I bought several via WalMart.com to keep on hand for those times I decide less alt is better, especially when using canned and processed foods, including canned vegetables.
Please read the labels on products and research what you don’t already know. What you don’t know can hurt you.
I have a lot of cheap white rice stored. If something is too salty for my taste it will be good with barely salted cook rice and that stretches meats a vegetables further. I even like rice with milk and butter for hot cereal.
You didn’t mention the absolutely BEST canned meat — meat you can yourself, in re-usable, inert glass jars!
We’re mostly vegetarian, but once a year or so, we put young cockerels and old hens in canning jars, to be brought out on special occasions, or when our bodies are desperate for protein.
We skin them, rather than pluck them — much easier! Then we stew them in a huge 30-litre pot until the meat is falling off the bones. Then we pull the bones off, and pressure can the meat and broth.
You MUST pressure-can meat to avoid botulism! But the fluid is never in contact with the lid, and the meat will last many years this way.
We also can the broth and schmaltz — great in soups and stews.
Just avoid commercially canned meat!
I like the Kirkland canned beef better than all other brands I’ve tried, but it hasn’t been stocked at our Cosco for over two years. I am hoping it will be produced and stocked again. Has anyone recently found any Kirkland canned beef anywhere?
DZ:
Found some Kirkland canned meats at Walmart, but no beef. They’re mostly out of stock there now, too, but you might have luck through Amazon. I recently found dehydrated meats there that we’re showing out of stock elsewhere.
Miss Kitty, I searched WalMart.com for Kirkland canned roast beef and it was not shown, so I search again for Kirkland canned meat, and it shows chicken, tuna, and salmon, and also tomato paste, tomato sauce, and dried chopped onion. There are other brands of canned beef, but Kirkland is my favorite so I’m always looking for it. I have a case of dehydrated beef in #10 cans for long term storage, the Kirkland canned roast beef is for my pantry stock.
I keep three categories of food based upon storage:
Perishable – which is the fresh milk, eggs, breads, meats, and produce. We buy most but I do grow some vegetables.
Pantry – canned, bottled, and dry goods with 1 year or more standard shelf life before going stale or spoiling. We buy all of these pre-packaged.
Long Term Storage – dry, bottled, and dehydrated foods which are usually vacuum packed with oxygen absorbers for long term storage, with about 20 years or more shelf life, in bottles, #10 cans, sealed “bucket” containers, and vinyl pouches. We buy all of these pre-packaged.
DZ:
That’s pretty much how I do. I want to try growing more produce, and hope to do better than last year, but it’s a struggle for me – black thumb aside, squirrel damage was a real issue last year, but I’ve been thinking over ways to discourage the little twerps. Hopefully, I’m smarter than a squirrel and can outwit them.??
There was an article in this week’s post from Mother Earth on the most nutritious things to grow, but I accidentally deleted it. However, their archives have a lot of good information on how much to grow per person, ideas on different crops, etc. There’s also a lot of global warming bs, so just wade through that to get to the good stuff.
I went to Costco today for the first time in several months and as I always do, I checked for Kirkland canned roast beef that has been out of stock for about two years, and there it was! 4-packs of 12oz cans at an exorbitant price of $18.99 per pack, which seems much higher than the last time it was available, but I bought four of the 4-packs anyway because we like it, will eventually eat it, and the “best if used by” date is into 2024.