D.I.Y. M.R.E.s....a pictorial.....*OFFICIAL THREAD*

[Urban_Cowboy]

***Step 1...gather your fixins....anything that can be eaten either raw or cooked, using ONLY water...nothing requiring refrigeration or milk, butter, etc...

*packaged snack crackers....PB on wheat, cheezy, etc., etc...
*bagged/canned tuna, chicken, spam, sardines....whatever meat you prefer....
*packaged instant rice and potatoes...
*instant drink mixes...coffee, crystal light, whatever.....
*tea bags....
*bullion cubes.....
*ramen noodles...
*single servings of salt, pepper, sweetener, or whatever your taste....
*granola/cereal bars...
*candy bars...
*instant oatmeal packets....



***Step 2.....Dig through your stockpile and arrange the types of meals you want to package...remember to diversify if you don't want the same, boring meal every time you crack one open...







***Step 3...Break out the vacu-suck and shrink-wrap your goodies into nice li'l packs....rinse and repeat....*NOTE...don't forget to pierce your packs of rice, potatoes, noodles, and crackers w/a thumbtack or something, or they'll bloat under vacuum and cause your MREs to be bulky....piercing won't harm the contents, as you're delivering them to a vacuum state, and contamination is not a factor........



Choose your foods wisely and you should end up w/a 3-5 yr. shelf life, when properly stored. The line of DIY MREs above cost me about 2 hrs and $75 to make....compare that to a sh*tty tasting, $6 per commercial MRE with a comparable shelf-life, and you figure the savings....

[Urban_Cowboy]

Almost forgot....add a couple of multivitamins to each MRE, too....if you're living on these as a suppliment to hunting....you'll be thankful to have the full spectrum of vitamins along for the post SHTF when you see everyone who didn't have 'em suffering from deficiencies...

[PorterinMaine]

Wow, great illustration, i just learned alot. Thanks mate

[stonewolf]

tidy little reminder that it doesnt have to come in a single pack to be good ty

[scrappy1343]

Now this is a great post, thank you very much.

[thorjeep]

Yes thank you, could you help out and do tell where to get the condments and such cheaply (not ready to just take at the local fast food) and what is OK to open to vacuum? Such as dry noodles, ok, but cheese & crackers?

[Tango2Echo]

Excellent post.

T2E

[TayoftheDead]

Originally Posted by thorjeep

Yes thank you, could you help out and do tell where to get the condments and such cheaply (not ready to just take at the local fast food)

I would suggest getting them from fast food places and restaurants.

[the hog]

Imformative and interesting, thank you.

[Daywalker]

Very nice post, And great pics

[Guy_Lovejoy]

i have been able to gather plenty of information on what foods to store for the long term.
The problem i am having is trying to replace expensive MRE'S and also replace READY TO EAT ration packs...

i would like to have both of these available to me for different situations...

The ready to eat ration packs must not contain too much wasted weight (no heavy cans etc)

The MRE's can be slightly more of a weight and could include tins of things such as spam is no alternatives are available..

the food needs to be long enough lasting do i dont need to replace them too often if i dont need them

also any ideas on what sort of bag i should use to store the individual meals in would be helpful


thanks in advance for any input

[Mac Tíre]

Hello,
I found that there is a wide selection of canned meat products available at great prices at the Lidl and aldi stores suitable for MRE's. They have cans of steak and goulash both of which are very tasty, as well as many varieties of the corned beef and spam products.They also have great choices in sardines and other tinned Fish and one can stock up cheaply compared to buying the well known brands at tesco and the like.

[Urban_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by thorjeep

Yes thank you, could you help out and do tell where to get the condments and such cheaply (not ready to just take at the local fast food) and what is OK to open to vacuum? Such as dry noodles, ok, but cheese & crackers?

If you're not willing to pilfer your local fast-food dives, you can alays get your single serving condiment packs online...just Google whatever condiment you want and add "packet" or "serving"......if you Google "salt & pepper packets", you'll find a zillion folks wanting to sell 'em to you by the thousands......

[Urban_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by thorjeep

Yes thank you, could you help out and do tell where to get the condments and such cheaply (not ready to just take at the local fast food) and what is OK to open to vacuum? Such as dry noodles, ok, but cheese & crackers?

As far as what foods to pierce before vac-sealing....I only pierce dry stuff....absolutely nothing with any moisture or anything that's already contained in its own vac-pack (like SPAM or tuna). I pierce my crackers, peanuts, noodles, potatoes, rice, or whatever....

[Pixelguy]

You might want to check this thread showing DIY MRE with photos:

https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=43805

[OLDWarrior64]

Gotta love that American ingenuity!!
(I almost said yankee, but I decided not to after seeing your from Arkansas)

Fantastic post!

[OLDWarrior64]

Originally Posted by Urban_Cowboy

As far as what foods to pierce before vac-sealing....I only pierce dry stuff....absolutely nothing with any moisture or anything that's already contained in its own vac-pack (like SPAM or tuna). I pierce my crackers, peanuts, noodles, potatoes, rice, or whatever....

A quick question/suggestion. Do you think if you put an 02 absorber in a bag, the shelf life might be increased, particularly the dry goods?

Any thoughts...anyone....anyone....Beuller?

[Susan4]

I think I've seen condiment single packs sold in bulk at wholesaler places like Sam's and Costco. FWIW I had trouble with the mayo bought like that going rancid fairly quickly though.

[voyuer1]

Great thread, you beat me to the punch on this one. Not only can you save money,but when you buy commercial Mre's, there always is an undesirable "dog'' entree' floating around. If you want to seal crackers or cereal, put them in the freezer for an hour then seal them up. Freezing will help keep the food from becoming broken up or turned into powder.

[voyuer1]

Originally Posted by OLDWarrior64

A quick question/suggestion. Do you think if you put an 02 absorber in a bag, the shelf life might be increased, particularly the dry goods?

Any thoughts...anyone....anyone....Beuller?

If the container is void of air you shouldn't need an absorber. That more like something you would use with a 5 gallon bucket of rice or flour that isnt vacuum sealed.