Cold instant mashed potatoes are edible - a little better if mixed with warm/hot water. Obviously that hot, boiling water is ideal.

Check out the nutritional values (potatoes vs brown rice vs white rice).

Consider weight ratios of each, and how much water each needs to that ratio.

One can experiment a lot with mixing different things with instant mashed potatoes - it makes an amazing base (ie: add diced pepperoni, cheese, teaspoon of dried tomato paste, mix well when hot = mashed potatoes that taste surprisingly like pizza).

What can you tolerate most?

 

try getting some potato pearls. Ive eaten them cold and they are delicious either way.

 

Instant potatoes have more nutrition, more calories, more protein, and a better assortment of amino acids than rice.

Something to take into consideration.

 

Which brand of instant potatoes? Brown rice is probably alot more nutritious than straight potatoes. Are yours fortified?

We have a lot of wild rice growing in my state, and is probably even more nutritious than brown. I guess it's not technically a rice, is fairly expensive, and takes awhile to fully cook.

Although my kids won't eat much besides plain white rice in this category, I'd never consider it as part of my preps -- it has little/no nutritional value. When they're hungry enough, they'll eat brown without complaint.

 

Was thinking about this same thing yesterday. Go figure. Thanks for the info.

 

I can't buy instant potatoes as cheap as rice .... white long grain is about 40 cents a pound on sale .... even thru a bulk buy at the local Bishop's Warehouse (LDS Church) instant potatoes aren't as cheap ...

 

Apples and oranges. You should be comparing instant versions of both.

Instant rice is 1500-1600 calories per dry pound. Most instant potatoes are about the same. Instant rice just requires hot water, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes. Not as fast as instant potatoes, but not far behind. Both are going to consume roughly the same amount of fuel to heat water.

Why not carry both for some variety? Or widen the menu...

Instant oatmeal, instant grits, instant barley, no bake pasta, and quick cooking lentils could also be in the consideration mix.

 

While i use several instant/quick items from my pantry, i find instant potatoes more patatable than instant rice. As a diabetic the instant potatoes do not upset my blood sugar levels as much as rice does. Maybe being from the Southwest add's to my personal tastes, and I have more uses for potatoes in my cooking. Buy what you eat, eat what you buy, and rotate often.

 

You can get rice in those sachels that are pre cooked.

 

In years past, I used to do a lot of week+ backpacking trips. We generally carried either instant rice or potatoes as a fat carrier to boost calories. In warm weather we carried olive oil and in winter we carried butter. Potatoes will hold more fats than rice. This was a good supplement to the typical freeze dried meals and dry meat/fruit/nut snacks. Since fat is so calorie dense, it let us carry less weight in food.

So, that's an angle to consider also.

 

Its better than having to eat tallow candles... Never looked at the plain starches as a fat carrier, but really what they are. Salty. Add veggies, meat, spice and you have a one pot meal. Ideal trail food...

 

I am a huge believer in carrying fats like butter and olive oil to augment all rations. Olive oil is something like 4200 calories per pound (which just happens to be 16 fluid oz of the stuff). They can really pay off during cold weather.

Butter carries really well in all but the hottest weather. You can add it to just about anything you eat (or drink). Especially good for adding to things like rice, potatoes, freeze dried meals, and oatmeal.

Other sources of fat and protein that last pretty well are hard cheeses and cured sausages like hard salami, summer sausage, Landjaeger, and pepperoni.

 

I like rice somewhat better than instant mashed potatoes. Rice can be added to a lot of dishes and will help expand a meal to help fill you up. I have added rice to soups, fish and meat dishes. Instant mashed potatoes just thicken the dish. Dried soup mixes do very well with added rice.

I carry boullion cubes of different flavors. I can add these to rice and with some added meat make a good meal. Boullion makes a good hot drink in cold weather.

It is best to try different dishes at home cooking the same way you would in the field. You will make better decisions as to what suits you. Vary the added ingredients (think spices/seasonings) to rice and see what makes you happy.

 

Another option, which no-one's mentioned, is cous-cous. It has very similar nutritional properties to brown rice. Tastes good by itself, but also holds other flavours really well, so you can add in a bit of stock, soup powder, whatever.

1 cup of hot water to 1 cup of dried cous-cous, let it stand for 3 minutes, devour. Nom nom nom

 

Good mention! It would not have occurred to me to stock this. I may have only ever had it once in my life. Anything that is ready in 3 minutes has to be on the shelf!

(now off to see just what I can do with it!)

 

I prefer rice over mashed potatoes but my kids really like mashed taters (with gravy). So I store both.

They both pretty much cook the same and offer a variety of flavors as well. Although I think rice is more versatile. I've been trying to grow potatoes with mild success so I will continue to buy more instant potatoes to fill in the gaps. Obviously this is for bugging in and not for a BOB.

 

Cous-cous is dynamite stuff.

There are so many off of the shelf flavor choices out there. Or you can add your own seasonings to the mix. Very compact way to carry fine grained semolina wheat. It cooks as fast as instant rice and gives you ~1700 calories per dry pound carried. Even more than rice or potatoes.

 

I would get both (and couscous as well). Even over a short period of time, you will get tired of one or the other. Its nice to have as much variety as possible to stave this off. I would make the majority rice (the cheapest), but have a few options to substitute occasionally. In my short term disaster survival kit, I have a large bag of rice, but I also have some packets of instant potatoes that I've put into homemade MRE's.

 

I have both sealed in mylar. I can't imagine eating rice OR potatos every damn day for a month, so having both will be appreciated.

I also have pasta and instant oats stored. I figure the more variety, the better.

 

Funny, we were just discussing this here at home a day or so ago. Back around '09, when I was in my big mylar kick, I'd put up a lot of white and Basnmatti rice, as well as several big bags of Idahoan instant taters from Sam's, but LOTS more rice than taters.
But it occured to me several months back, that these taters are surprisingly good, and take much less energy to cook, making me wish I'd done up more of them. So, I ordered a fresh load of mylar and O2's, and since I wanted to use up all the bags and O2's, but didn;t want to buy and keep that much,I contacted a freind, (the wife of a retired Army Ranger) that I had gradually learned was a prepper, and asked if she wanted a big load of instant potatoes, at my cost. She was thrilled, said yes, and I got on it.
I can't remember exactly how much I got, but I literally filled a steel cart at Sam's Club till the bags were falling off if I didn't hang on to a couple of them. I've bought some big loads there, but this one got me the most weird looks,ever. One of them was a wide-eyed,double-take that came from half way across the store,LOL!!
I think I kept about 70 lbs, and gave her around 40. :thumb:

 

FYI, Sam's Idahoan REAL Premium Mashed Potato flakes that I purchased last year:
Ingredients

I hand typed so there may be some spelling errors and left out preservative notations, so use this info at your discretion.

Idaho Potatoes, Salt, Vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: Canola, soybean, Cottonseed, Sunflower) Non fat Dry milk, monoglycerides, calcium stearoyl, lactiylate, spice, Artificial Color, natural and artificial flavors, sodium acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bisulfite, Mixed Tocopherols, Contains: Milk, Soy.

Copied from website today: INGREDIENTS: IDAHO® POTATOES, SALT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OIL (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: SOYBEAN, COTTONSEED, SUNFLOWER), NONFAT DRY MILK, MONOGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, SPICE, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, SODIUM BISULFITE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CITRIC ACID, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS ADDED TO PROTECT FRESHNESS.


I found that commercial store choices that do not have any oils in it are the Idaho Classic flakes:
Ingredients

Idaho® Potato Flakes (dry), Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate. Freshness Preserved with Sodium Bisulfite and BHA.

Contains Sulfite Ingredients.

May Contain Milk Ingredients. (It does not state if the milk is non fat)

I also went to LTS these potatoes and then read the label closer. We buy and use them and I did put some in Mylar last year to see how they last. I plan on opening one a year past BB date and one other 2 years out.

I just wanted to pass on what my experience was and the oils are of concern for me in the Idahoan Premium Potato flakes for LTS of 3-5 years or more.

One thing I do with foods especially powdery foods that I put in 1lb Mylar is that I cut a round ice cream container down the side. I stick it inside the top portion of the Mylar bag to help keep the bag open and help protect the Mylar top edge from powder contamination at the top to seal.

 

Unfortunately I can not give any advice on this, but I would like to thank you for bringing it up. I have a ton of rice, but have never considered instant potatoes. I will check them out tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

The sharing of information is what makes everything work for the group. Others knowledge shared with the us makes trying something new easier for the rest of us.

We have used a chicken and brown gravy dry mixes we bought at a large food store at home for chicken/turkey and meat dishes. It is light in weight and is easy to use. This mix makes bland dishes taste great. There are many chili/meat loaf and other mixes available in the grocery stores. "A Happy Eater is a Happy Family Member, Child or Wife".

Take some time and walk the aisles and look for items you may use in your BUG OUT/GET HOME BAGS or just as regular preps. There are many items on the shelves we may have over-looked before. The grocery stores have a lot of items much cheaper than those "Emergency Prep sites".

 

I buy instant mashed potatoes because they are cheap, about a buck a box, but I have noticed lately that they have stopped sealing the potatoes with an inner bag. So, I open the boxes, repackage them in mason jars with non-fat dry milk so that they are truly a "just add water" deal. Of course, they still taste better with a little bit of butter, but I do have some of that dry butter buds seasoning, as well as butter flavored popcorn salt which could be used in a pinch.

For longer term storage, I suppose I should be sealing the potatoes up solo, in mylar, since I'm sure the nonfat dry milk has a shorter shelf life.

Like other posters, I don't see a reason to choose between starches - personally I store oats, rice (white and brown), potatoes, pasta, quinoa, flax seeds/meal, wheat berries, flour, and even cornmeal - a little bit of everything to make the pantry food more varied and hopefully to appeal to the tastes of our whole family.

 

Like other posters, I don't see a reason to choose between starches - personally I store oats, rice (white and brown), potatoes, pasta, quinoa, flax seeds/meal, wheat berries, flour, and even cornmeal - a little bit of everything to make the pantry food more varied and hopefully to appeal to the tastes of our whole family.

The choice is due to what can feasibly be in my BoB. I will obviously have other foods stocked incase i can also get a BoV to my BoL but in case it has to be me and a ruck i wanna make sure i'm set for the easiest start to hell.

 

A very general rule of thumb is that most common grains and instant starches (rice, wheat flour, oats, grits, potatoes, pasta, corn meal, etc.) deliver ~1500 calories per dry pound. Plus or minus a 100 or so calories depending upon specific item variant.

Beyond the calorie count, you have to realize that those same dry pounds cook up to quite a volume of prepared item. For instance, a pound of dry rice may deliver up to 8 cups of cooked product. For me, a meal portion of rice in the field might be 2 cups. So a pound is going to be quite a bit of rice to put into your stomach in a day...for fewer total calories than you require for that day.

Thus, you need to incorporate other foods to reach your daily caloric requirement. Otherwise, your belly is going to rebel against too much volume of cooked grain in a single day.

 

I liked the single packet of Idahoan mashed potatoes, but haven't seen them lately.
They've come out with some new flavors, 4 cheese is my fav.

Knorr rice side dishes are great too, lots of flavors.

 

I haven't seen the packets here in many years. I really like the Yukon Gold version. It had chunks of potato in it and tasted as close to fresh made as I've ever found. That's what I carried in my backpack years ago.

 

I keep some rice, but much prefer potatoes.

You can throw just about anything in with instant spuds, and I also like to make potato pancakes with them.

 

Rocky Mountain Food Reserves has a #10 can (5 lb. 5 oz.) of dehydrated potato granules that are the best instant potatoes I have ever eaten. They whip up easily with a fork using hot or cool water.

I add more water than called for as I like a lighter fluffier mashed potato. Using the amount of water recommended, the potatoes are way too dense and heavy for my taste.
Once hydrated, these small granules also make excellent potato patties and pancakes.

Can says 88 servings but I find it to be WELL over 125 large servings. A can cost me a few cents over $8.00 - like $8.14 - and I got free shipping when I ordered a full case. This was offered during one of Nitro-Paks big sales events.

I opened a can almost 2 years ago and am storing this opened can in a dark, room temperature pantry. It has kept well with no problems whatsoever.

No MSG - Just add water

 

They sell them everywhere here, costco even has a bulk pack of them. I love them for backpacking.

I'll have to look into the yukon gold version and do a comparison as I really like the idahoan brand.

 

I can find the small single packs in the grocery store but they're really expensive. I used to get them in a multi pack from Sam's Club really cheap. Since I'm a cheapskate, I just buy the bulk powdered potatoes now. I keep hoping Sams will bring back the Idahoan packs. Maybe I should check Costco. I hardly ever shop there.