I have some emergency food on hand in case of whatever. Maybe whatever will take the form of a hurricane with power outages and roads closed, a nationwide strike of leftists, civil unrest, and earthquake (even NY lies on a fault line), a military invasion, terrorism or a fucking zombie apocalypse (who knows what the future my hold and it may be as weird as that last one). t's not a lot of food, really it is not. I have enough on hand for my immediate family for maybe a month (or two if we stretch it). Every now and then, I buy something new and throw it in with the rest. Sometimes I remember to mark it with the date I figure it would best be used by. In the past, I wrote down a date a few months before the best used by date on the packaging; now I don't pay that nearly as much mind as I used to. You see, I forgot to label something back in 2011 or was it 2012. It had a best used by date of around may 2013. I found it a few days ago - a case of can chicken - whoops. I was hungry so I opened one of them but only after throwing a badly dented one in the trash. Yeah, it was probably good but I remember when I was a kid that dented cans often meant the seal got broken but that was back then. Nowadays, I think they seal them better but why take a chance, so out it went. Anyway, I put can opener to tin, gave it several twists of its handle, and I had myself what looked and smelled like some wholesome, if not delicious, canned white meat chicken.
I made myself a bowl of chicken salad by tossing in about 4 or 5 tablespoons of mayo (or more), a small handful of dried onion flakes, some garlic powder, a goodly amount of black pepper, some few dashes of sea salt, a nice dollop or three of Bauer's mustard and some Japanese green mustard sauce. It took me a big mouthful or two to realize it was excellent. I had it with a single slice of heavy rye bread (I am on a sort of on a spinoff of the Atkins diet - cutting back on carbs but eating almost everything else). That I am still here today testifies to the fact that it did not kill me. Heck, it didn't even make me belch or fart.
I can't wait to have another can of that stuff (not that I am big on canned food but I eat it when convenient). I am in no hurry though and should that chicken sit around for another year or two, I probably would not hesitate more that to give it a quick sniff and look before glomming it down. I figure it has got to be good in those cans for at least 10 years, maybe more. Hell, if I was starving after a zombie apocalypse or the devastation of a nuclear holocaust, I would eat it if it was 20 years old and still sealed. I don't know if I would go much beyond that but then it is emergency food after all.
Now, normally such is not the case with me and I usually rotate what emergency food supplies I have on hand as time goes by. As I think I wrote up above, I normally mark a date on the outside of the packaging - a date by which I figure I should use it, but it is no longer a date prior to the best if used by date. Now it is a year or two, maybe even three, after that date. If I see that the food is getting close to the date I wrote on the packaging, then I break it out and eat it. Well, I may not eat it but it does get eaten. In the case of canned green beans or corn kernels, I feed that stuff to my tortoises. They love it. When it comes to caned tuna, the whole family will wolf that down, my son will probably eat some of the chicken, maybe even my daughter when she visits but I doubt my wife will touch it. Something else, that I know my wife will not eat, is Spam. No worries there though, my son and I both love it. Of course, if it truly was a SHTF situation where food was low, everyone would be glad I had it stashed away. If it comes to TEOTWAWKI, heck they would be happy not only to have it but to fight for it to protect it from vandals, thieves, scavengers and berserkers (or in other words from leftists). Still though, I am guessing it would be best to rotate what emergency food stores one has in stock about no more than within a year or three of the expiration of the best used by date. I know, it doesn't say "expires on" or "must use before", it says "best used by"; so it will almost certainly always last loner than that, but why take too many chances.
Luckily, we don't have to depend on an old man in a cave to tell us whether or not the food we have in store is bad or good; I use my nose for that and if worse came to worse would use a Geiger counter. Then again, it might not be such a bad thing to have an old geezer watching out for you!
I made myself a bowl of chicken salad by tossing in about 4 or 5 tablespoons of mayo (or more), a small handful of dried onion flakes, some garlic powder, a goodly amount of black pepper, some few dashes of sea salt, a nice dollop or three of Bauer's mustard and some Japanese green mustard sauce. It took me a big mouthful or two to realize it was excellent. I had it with a single slice of heavy rye bread (I am on a sort of on a spinoff of the Atkins diet - cutting back on carbs but eating almost everything else). That I am still here today testifies to the fact that it did not kill me. Heck, it didn't even make me belch or fart.
I can't wait to have another can of that stuff (not that I am big on canned food but I eat it when convenient). I am in no hurry though and should that chicken sit around for another year or two, I probably would not hesitate more that to give it a quick sniff and look before glomming it down. I figure it has got to be good in those cans for at least 10 years, maybe more. Hell, if I was starving after a zombie apocalypse or the devastation of a nuclear holocaust, I would eat it if it was 20 years old and still sealed. I don't know if I would go much beyond that but then it is emergency food after all.
Now, normally such is not the case with me and I usually rotate what emergency food supplies I have on hand as time goes by. As I think I wrote up above, I normally mark a date on the outside of the packaging - a date by which I figure I should use it, but it is no longer a date prior to the best if used by date. Now it is a year or two, maybe even three, after that date. If I see that the food is getting close to the date I wrote on the packaging, then I break it out and eat it. Well, I may not eat it but it does get eaten. In the case of canned green beans or corn kernels, I feed that stuff to my tortoises. They love it. When it comes to caned tuna, the whole family will wolf that down, my son will probably eat some of the chicken, maybe even my daughter when she visits but I doubt my wife will touch it. Something else, that I know my wife will not eat, is Spam. No worries there though, my son and I both love it. Of course, if it truly was a SHTF situation where food was low, everyone would be glad I had it stashed away. If it comes to TEOTWAWKI, heck they would be happy not only to have it but to fight for it to protect it from vandals, thieves, scavengers and berserkers (or in other words from leftists). Still though, I am guessing it would be best to rotate what emergency food stores one has in stock about no more than within a year or three of the expiration of the best used by date. I know, it doesn't say "expires on" or "must use before", it says "best used by"; so it will almost certainly always last loner than that, but why take too many chances.
Luckily, we don't have to depend on an old man in a cave to tell us whether or not the food we have in store is bad or good; I use my nose for that and if worse came to worse would use a Geiger counter. Then again, it might not be such a bad thing to have an old geezer watching out for you!
All the best,
Glenn B
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