DIY MREs.....a tutorial...

Step 4 And Viola!

Choose your foods wisely and you should end up w/a 3-5 yr. shelf life, when properly stored. The line of DIY MREs pictured(18) cost me about 2 hrs and $60 to make (including vac bag rolls)....compare that to a sh*tty tasting, $7 per commercial MRE with a comparable shelf-life, and you figure the savings....

BTW...I also pack a couple of multi-vitamins with each meal to guard against deficiency...

You can view a bunch more survival and preparation info at an online community I belong to...

Survivalismforums.com

Also, please take the time to check out my personal site, www.htwtusa.com for some interesting reading, pro tips, and just plain bullsh*t....thanks!

Thanks for checking out my first "Instructable."

Comments

[kaylaangelkisses]

um...you know a viola is a string instrument, near the violin

[omnibot]

In french it means "see here".

[HTWTUSA]

Aha! Omni gets it...Kayla, not so much...xD

[dohlgren]

I believe you meant voilà.

[hitachi8]

voila mean : here you got, there it is or just like Tadaa!

[kaylaangelkisses]

Im so stupid. X3 Sorry.

[HTWTUSA]

Lol...nah. Sometimes I get brainfarts, too...xD...gets the dust outta your head...:-)

[chris73044]

Great Instructable!!! I will be doing this over the next 2 months since our tornado season will be starting up. I would only add 2 other things a packing list and date....does spam expire? LOL I would also add either gum in every pack or a plastic toothpic that is toothbrushesque.

[SteveAlaska]

Just joined up to this site. I love the creativity and vast knowledge all over the place. I wanted to write my comment to you and say this is fantastic. Great job. Im taking notes. Your instructable is among my favorites already. Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

[middlenamefrank]

One more thought about the advantages of vacuum sealing: There shouldn't be any odor whatsoever, since the packages are hermetically sealed. If air can't get in, smelly molecules can't get out.

Why is this important, you may ask? Simple....bears aren't going to be attracted to them. I'd still suggesting bear bagging for overnight, but they're not going to smell anything on the trail either, nor be attracted into your camp.

[Mrs Bear]

Good in theory, but it's been found that bears can smell through cans.Your best bet is a bear cannister or food vault, stored away from your tent. (In my neighborhood, the bears are wise to hanging, too.) I've buried mine, under the firepit, with pretty good results, but no guarantees.

[arienh4]

It's impossible to smell something that's vacuum-sealed, because nothing can go in or out. If they can be smelled, the odour is on the outside of the bag, not the inside.

[Mrs Bear]

The forest service study determined that black bears can smell through tin, steel and alluminum cans. They can also smell food inside an air-tight container, inside a car. While it's impossible for US to smell through vacuum sealed bags, their sense of smell is several hundred times more acute that ours. Having lived and camped for many years in bear country, I'll still put my money on a bear-vault.

[arienh4]

And I'm telling you, if it is truly air-tight, there are no molecules whatsoever coming out. You still need aromatic molecules to come out for anything to smell anything. So those are either on the outside of the bag or the bag is itself porous.

[middlenamefrank]

Not to try and get argumentative, and not to suggest that the research is wrong, but I would make a couple of points. First, arienh4 has a good point, it would be extremely hard to completely eliminate the odor of food from the outside of a can, after it had been processed in the factory. Perhaps there is some residual odor left on the outside even after years of storage.

Second, bears are also extremely smart animals. I would be surprised if they DIDN'T recognize what cans are used for, even if they only see them inside a locked car. Other containers, well, they might require investigation even if there really isn't any recognizable smell.

Again, I'm not trying to deny the findings of the forest service. And if the odor does adhere to the outside of a can, it will certainly adhere to the outside of a vacuum bag too. But I'll bet it's much reduced from other means of storage, and less likely to draw bears in from a distance.

[vrbnstl]

Great idea! Always be prepared, right?

[kplaisance]

Thanks for sharing! This is a fantastic idea for emergency preparedness. I've been looking for ideas on storing such things in my cellar, you know, for just in case. I'm thinking you could take these, once sealed, then seal them all into a large mylar bag, then into a 5 gallon bucket with lid. Badda bing; you're ready to get by on your own for a pretty good while! (of course, water is already stored in cellar, lots of it) Thanks again, some great ideas here on what to put in them. =)

[JohnMichael]

That is a pretty cool idea. I think it would be useful if I ever actually take that bicycle road trip. It could save on space, cost, and weight. btw; do you by chance know what they use in the military MREs in the heat packs?

[experimentintackyness]

MRE heaters work a lot like those small chemical hand warmers. They are mainly iron, magnesium and some sort of salt (chemical salt not table salt). When iron (or pretty much any other metal) oxidizes (ie. rusts) it gives off heat. This normally happens so slowly that you don't notice the heat, but because of the salt, the chemical reaction happens much quicker giving you some warmth. MRE heaters get hot because they get their oxygen from water (and give off some hydrogen in the process) while the less-hot hand warmers have to make do with just Oxygen from the air. I would ask a chemist for their take on proportions, but be careful. These can get hot enough to make gnarly burns and produce explosive hydrogen

[industrialphreak]

My understanding the difference from chemical hand warmers and standard MRE heaters is on contains magnesium the other doesnt. Oh and chemical hand warmers that are air activated use iron powder, vermicite(sponge for h20).

[hammerhead]

The MRE heater relies on a chemical process to generate heat. See link for more info.

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/frh.html

[JohnMichael]

Yes, I know it is a chemical reaction. I was asking what chemicals are used. According to the article it is a combination of iron, magnesium, and sodium. Any chemistry people out there able to calculate what the proportions should be?

[mettaurlover]

Actually, you can just buy them from a surplus store dirt cheap.

[HTWTUSA]

I'm not sure how the MRE heaters work, but I do know that fire can be mastered pretty easily with practice and the right tools...... :p

[JohnMichael]

True. However, fire is not always desirable on a boat trip.

[KingOfCatfish]

Messing with these chemicals can be dangerous if you don't know the right proportions. Here is a link to buy some:
 http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MRE200-1.html

[teslafan100]

That's cool. :)

[papabob56]

Good Info... I use the Tilla vac packer to seal up my meals, thats some tough plastic. The posters that are knocking you, about having to add the water are missing the point. You've assembled easy to use (ration) food stores in convenient packages. The big bonus thats being missed, is that if required, you can hand these packages out to neighbors in dire need during in an emergency. I'm in the process of doing the thing and I stumbled across your instructable, I got a couple good ideas from your posting. Thanks

[HTWTUSA]

Good attitude, and I'm glad to see more and more folks who "get it"......for the longest time I thought I was gonna be one of a very few "Omega Men" if the fecal matter ever did well and truly hit the atmospheric impeller......

[EleriK]

The thing is, this kind of stuff is good to know and have even if things never fall apart. Look at the people using it for bike trips, almost everything you learn for survivalism is either fun or good stuff to know when camping or saving money on fixing things, and so on.

[twiggness]

well the main reason of mres high price is the calorie content. but that still doesn't make up for the fact that every time i open one up my cracker, ravioli, burritos, and spaghetti always taste horrible

[jbird1981or]

Keep in mind, water is necessary. Not just for the food (you can do it without water), but for survival. You can go longer without food than you can without water.