Your typical BOB is not designed as a permanent “heading for the hills” solution, but rather as a 72 hour kit. Following the rule of three’s, you can survive for three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Generally we do not have to worry about oxygen, which makes water and shelter our top priority in a bug out situation. Food is not high on the list, because it takes at least three weeks to die from starvation. In a typical BOB, this means food is not essential, although it won’t be the most comfortable 72 hours you’ve spent. If you have ever watched episodes of Survivorman, Les Stroud usually eats little to no food for a week, but he still survives because he has his water and shelter requirements covered.
With that said, if food is included in a BOB, you do not have to eat three square meals a day which most of modern society is used to. The foods chosen need to be dense in calories and require little to no cooking. For cooking requirements, the most you should need is a small metal cup with a heat source long enough to bring the water to a rolling boil and pour your food in. Most iso/butane canister stoves on the market today, such as the MSR Pocket Rocket, can bring water to a boil in less than five minutes. A fuel canister is rated for up to 2 hours, which means it is good for almost 24 meals if you only need to bring the water to a rolling boil. Mileage on this will vary depending on the altitude and weather.
Ready-to-eat style foods include MREs, Life Boat Rations, beef jerky, Spam in foil packets or cans, tuna in foil packets and cans, Vienna Sausages, potted meat, crackers, cashews, peanuts, energy bars, granola bars, hard tack, etc. Quick cookable foods include instant white rice, dried instant mashed potatoes, couscous, instant farina (a.k.a. cream of wheat), Easy Mac-N-Cheese, instant oatmeal, Lipton Side Dish Meals (about $1.10 per pouch in grocery stores), and dehydrated camping food (Mountain House, Back Packer’s Pantry, etc.).
Also consider the storage conditions for your BOB. If it is kept in areas subject to high and freezing temperatures, such as a car, some of the ready-to-eat style foods will not last very long. It would be rather unfortunate to get food poisoning or diarrhea when you are running for your life from some impending doom.
My own preference is to go with dry, quick cookable foods, which do not include dehydrated camp food, due to a few reasons. First, they are not specialized items and can be found in any grocery store. Secondly, these foods are much cheaper than specialized field foods. This allows me to buy more, and more importantly, allows me to rotate the foods once they have reached their expiration date. Thirdly, these food items can withstand high temperatures and freezing conditions which most wet packed instant foods cannot. Fourthly, these are foods which I also eat on a daily basis, so it will not be a shock to my system if I suddenly switch my diet over to something else. Again, having a case of “the runs” is no fun in the field.
My food content tends to change from time to time, but usually revolves around instant white rice and farina as the basis. To this, I might add some cashews for a quick ready to eat snack or peanut butter in cold weather. Both are loaded with fat and calories, which is essential in cold weather. These foods are kept in 1 liter Nalgene bottles for two purposes. First, they are tough, water tight containers which will keep my food dry. Secondly, if need be, I can use the Nalgene bottles to hold water once the food has been eaten. In a 400mL Nalgene bottle, I keep some chicken and beef boullan cubs, salt, pepper, sugar (goes great with the farina in the morning), and tea packets. When it is cold out, I may add some cocoa packets to this bottle. Additionally, this bottle also serves as a cooking vessel. I’ll add my seasonings and dry food in this bottle, pour in some boiling water, and screw the cap back on. After several minutes, the food will have absorbed the hot water, in a similar fashion to the Mountain House style meals. In the meantime, the bottle can be used as a hand warmer or simply thrown into your pack while you continue your journey. When you are ready to eat, just pull out the bottle and you will have a piping hot meal ready.
If I am going out for a longer stretch of time, sometimes I’ll add another 1 liter Nalgene bottle of lentils. They do require about 20 minutes of cooking, but this is less of an issue if you pre soak them in a Nalgene bottle with water. Then you only need to add some boiling water as before and they should be nice and tender after 10 minutes. Again, these are cheap (under a dollar a pound) and a little goes a long way.
:
