What are some good 'emergency foods' to keep on hand?

August 27, 2016 5:32 PM

Currently I'm not so well off financially and would like ideas for relatively inexpensive, healthy 'emergency foods' that last ages and are good to keep on hand. Think steel cut oats and peanuts, foods that can fill you up over and over before you run out. I want to fill my apartment with such foods.
posted by GlassHeart to Food & Drink (39 answers total)

Lentils and dry beans
posted by rmless at 5:35 PM on August 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

Sardines
Peanut butter
Lentils
Chia seeds (surprisingly filling!)
posted by veery at 5:36 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Hardtack. You'll never be tempted to eat it unless you actually need it.


For a less tooth-shattering meal, dry pasta, bags of rice, spam. They're healthy in the sense that they prevent starvation.

You could look into freeze-drying. For future google searches you're looking for 'Survival food'.
posted by FallowKing at 5:37 PM on August 27, 2016

Any allergies or parameters for emergency? Job loss or power loss? What part of the world are you in?

I keep about 40 gallons of water in 5 gal jugs but I have 4 people and hurricane season. When one heats up I crockpot beans and rices (and can cook them on the grill) from dried.

I'd go with canned beans and lentils, and some hearty soup mixes you can just add water to (discount stores have them too).

Also a fan of potatoes, I buy and eat several pounds a week. If the fats you eat with them need to be shelf stable, try various shelf stable oils.

Keep eyes peeled for canned meats you'd eat. Chicken, fish. Look for grocery discounters that sell odd lots of not quite expired food for a deal.
posted by tilde at 5:38 PM on August 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Steel cut oats are OK, but you do have to spend energy and time (which is also at a premium) cooking them. Look for rolled or instant oats.

I'd enrich the oats by adding a little cut-up dried apple and some cashews, plus, if you can, cinnamon. Keeps forever -- maybe put in the refrigerator to keep the nuts extra fresh.

You can season lentils, beans, etc. with just a _little_ sausage; this will enrich the meal, but you can stretch the sausage out for a loong time (I use veggie sausage personally).
posted by amtho at 5:41 PM on August 27, 2016

Honey.
posted by vrakatar at 5:43 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

A dozen eggs, hardboiled and sitting in the fridge, ready to eat.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:46 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Brown rice

Kidney beans and chickpeas (dried would be cheapest, but canned is most convenient)

Canned tomatoes / tomato paste

Spices

If you do stock up on grains, do be careful about pantry moths. It would be a shame to stock up and then lose everything if you get an infestation. You can kill the eggs that may be in dry goods by putting the item in the freezer for a period of time.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 5:48 PM on August 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

Those eggs? Pickle them. They'll last a long time without refrigeration, and to my mind they make the best egg salad sandwiches.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 6:00 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Canned tuna or salmon
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:12 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Definitely lentils. Canned tuna can be great in pasta sauce (with garlic, olive oil, and red pepper flakes, or you can add crushed tomatoes), or as a salad mixed with mayo, or as a salad mixed with olive oil and white beans (and arugula or watercress or other spicy green, if it's around). And a jar of red pepper flakes can be helpful in cooking many pantry meals! (And "pantry meals" is a good search phrase for finding other ideas and resources.)
posted by lazuli at 6:31 PM on August 27, 2016

Canned soups. You can "reinvent" the texture and flavor, and enhance the nutritional profile by adding an egg or pre-cooked wild or brown rice. No watered down taste, and it will only add a negligible amount of sodium.
posted by invisible ink at 6:37 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I would stock up on whole grain pasta (They're really not that much more expensive than regular ones.), sardines, nut butters (I spoon them on oats, cereals, apples, etc.), canned tomatoes, sweet potatoes/potatoes. If I see vegetables and fruit on sale, I buy large amounts, wash and cut them up before freezing.

Seconding the suggestion for spices. They really make a difference especially if you've been using almost the same ingredients for meals repeatedly.
posted by theappleonatree at 6:42 PM on August 27, 2016

Most everyone upthread has got the basics down...but rice and beans eating, while life sustaining, is soul-sucking. Some of the best meals in the world revolve around those staples, but add in just a few adjuncts to flavor and create a fantastic experience. As the great Shepherd Book once said "The important thing is the spices. A man can live on packaged food from here ’til Judgment Day if he’s got enough rosemary."

Most whole, unground spices will last an inordinate amount of time, if kept away from light, moisture and heat. They, like other flavor-packed preserves can make a lifetime of legumes and grains much more bearable.

Dried peppers of every stripe. Rehydrated they can bring some serious life to the blandest of dishes. I mean, the most basic of bean-chili recipes is almost entirely made out of dried, shelf stable ingredients (namely beans, chilies and jerky, along with a few other sundries) with the addition of water. Omit those chilies and you've got a bowl of life sustaining, gross, thick soup. A couple of jars of loosely packed peppers of every stripe will get you pretty far in the flavor department. Also, tinned peppers in adobo can stretch flavor quite far; this is intense stuff.

Canned fish is another great way to stretch that flavor to great lengths. There's a great diversity in canned fish beyond your typical tunas, anchovies and sardines. While I love tunas, anchovies and sardines there are a couple other fish that I wouldn't be able to make it through the apocalypse without. Smoked sprats are amazing on rye toast with some mayo and a hardboiled egg. Mackerel has a bad rap, but it's right up there with tuna for me. Smoked trout. Oh god, smoked trout. Best eaten furiously in your underwear over the sink. Or on any type of grain bowl.

If you have an eastern european grocer in your city, they will have an inordinate amount of awesome fish in tins. They'll often give you a discount, and a weird look if you buy them by the case.
posted by furnace.heart at 7:01 PM on August 27, 2016 [18 favorites]

If you have the freezer space, considering storing extra grains, beans, and nuts there to extend their lifespan. Whole grains in particular have more oil in them than refined products and are more prone to oxidizing and going rancid.
posted by defreckled at 7:06 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ramen noodles! I like them just barely boiled so they're still slightly crunchy, eaten without the water (so, like pasta rather than like soup).

Throw any veggies you have into the water as the noodles cook (thinly cut matchstick carrots, bok choy, kale, whatever) so the veggies steam.

Make a little mixture of soy sauce, a dab of vinegar, and hot sauce, pour that on top. Throw on a fried or poached egg if you have one handy. Delicious!

A sauce made from 1 spoonful each of soy sauce, peanut butter, and honey (microwave 30 sec so the peanut butter melts, then stir) is also shockingly tasty. Free honey in little packs at Starbucks.

If you like kimchee (Korean spicy pickled cabbage)- a jar of it keeps forever in the fridge and makes rice, veggies, noodle soup, or eggs taste more exciting.

If you live in a city, Chinatown has super cheap produce so you can have a few greens in your life at a low cost. Apples, carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and oranges are very long lasting.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:09 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Potatoes can nearly sustain you on their own, can be made a jillion different ways, and there are many varieties of them. They are a bit short on B vitamins. A little buttermilk or cheese can remedy that. Potatoes are my go to staple food. I am willing to eat new potatoes cooked in butter with a few spices by themselves as a light lunch.

Hard cheeses keep better than other cheeses. Cheese is on the expensive side, but a bit of parmesan or romano can help make pasta and tomato sauce be a lot tastier and more filling.

If you can't afford fresh dairy or it just won't keep long enough, buy powdered milk and learn to cook with it.
posted by Michele in California at 7:09 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Canned baked beans (you can find them without high fructose corn syrup). I watch for a sale and stock up if our shelves are getting bare. We do eat them regularly -- I can't see the point of stocking up on something you don't eat regularly that just sits there until it's time to throw it away and get some more.

The thing about canned beans is that all you need is a can opener. Heated they're grand, but cold and dipped out with your fingers they'll fill you up. You can stir all sorts of things in them, or put them next to something else, or have them on toast. Dry beans means you have a pan, water, and some way to heat them.

Remember you don't want to fill a freezer with emergency supples; power goes, you've got a lot to eat, and then you don't.
posted by kestralwing at 7:11 PM on August 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

If you're looking for protein that keeps a long time, beans are one option; high-protein grains like quinoa are another. Though it's not exactly cheap per gram of protein (especially since a lot of what's available is organic) it's comparable to animal-based proteins, which aren't pantry products.

Check out this price breakdown of different protein sources. He didn't include TVP (textured vegetable protein), one of my favorites, and very cheap ($0.02/gram protein). It's a soy-based thing you can toss into any soup - not much flavor, but good for nutrition, looks like ground beef, keeps in dry storage for months/years.
posted by aimedwander at 7:28 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Canned pumpkin is a good add-in to many soups or baked goods, and with eggs makes a nourishing savory or sweet custard. Goes on sale before and after Thanksgiving. IIRC rounds out the nutrition of other disaster staples. Edible straight out of the can in a real disaster.
posted by clew at 7:36 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Canned beans are OK, dried beans are better. They're cheaper; they reconstitute beautifully without the grainy mushiness of canned beans; they come in bigger bulk per dollar, meaning you get more than one meal out of them; and they take endless flavor variations. People think of them as a pain, but they're not. Toss a bag of dried beans in a pot of water the day before you want to eat them. The next day, discard the water, immerse in fresh water, and boil them until done. Or use a slow cooker.
posted by Miko at 7:37 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

all-purpose flour and instant yeast (Saf Yeast - you can keep it in the freezer) for this
(if you get into bread-making, consider a sourdough starter you can use to make once-a-week bread)
posted by sallybrown at 8:02 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

The mention of sourdough starter reminded me that for several years, I never bought bread, just made a sourdough loaf every 4-5 days in a breadmachine. And I got the breadmachine for free on Freecyle - people are always trying to get rid of them. Talk about some cheap, healthy, delicious fresh whole wheat bread - just buy a bag of flour and some yeast every month or so, keep that starter fed, and you're never out of bread.
posted by Miko at 8:06 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think it's really important to think about what you'd be most willing to eat. Obviously, in an emergency, things will change, but: Are you likely to eat rice and beans in a lean time? Polenta and cheese? Quinoa and black beans? Tuna and canellini? Pick what's most appealing and then build on from there.
posted by lazuli at 8:25 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

If you can, head for a thrift store and grab a pressure cooker for all those beans. It makes a light, airy, quick dinner salad possible. I just did this.

Fried rice with an egg.

Russian "potato" salad with chickpeas: add carrots, pickles, onion, boiled egg, and just a little mayo. Yes, pickles!

Lentils with tomato and onion.
posted by 8603 at 9:29 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you have access to Costco, say through a friend, you might want to buy a few things in bulk-- canned tuna, pouches of flavored lentils, anything you enjoy. These still aren't the cheapest foods you can buy, but they really are a bargain compared to grocery stores.
posted by BibiRose at 9:29 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

And don't forget the salt! !!!!
posted by 8603 at 9:32 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yes to dried legumes and pasta.

My tip is that decent olive oil in the pantry makes many many other staples more bearable.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:44 AM on August 28, 2016

Blocks of hard cheese like cheddar that are vacuum-packed in plastic last a surprisingly long time if they are not opened. They do go off at a normal rate once you open them, so small blocks are better than large ones, unless you are planning to eat a lot of hard cheese at once. Grated cheddar freezes pretty well too. Dried sausages like chorizo or salami also last a surprisingly long time and are great for making pulses taste more interesting.

Dried pulses are more economical to buy, but do cost more to prepare in time and labour than tinned. I buy tinned chickpeas and kidney beans because they take forever to cook from dried, but dried lentils because they cook quite fast from dried.

The key is to have plenty of flavourings - spices and long-lasting stuff like worcestershire sauce make all the difference. Ideally, if you have some way to grind them, buy spices whole and grind them just before you use them, and they will last for ages.
posted by Fuchsoid at 3:04 AM on August 28, 2016

Cans/Jars of pasta sauce (very versatile). Boxes of cereal (great comfort food). I stock up on these whenever I find them on a really good sale, they never go to waste in my house.
posted by lizbunny at 5:39 AM on August 28, 2016

The things you squirrel away now need to be rotated through. This is GOOD because it means you will be more inclined to buy things you enjoy. If you never eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, or put peanut butter in anything....then peanut butter is not a smart thing to hoard.

That said, lots of people forget about Fat and Oil. Beans and rice with no oil is absolutely awful if you have to eat it all the time. Butter is harder to store long term. Keep your stored oil away from light and heat and air. Decant your large bottle of oil into a smaller jug for daily use and be sure to screw the top of the large jug on tight. Start with a medium size jug of oil. Write the date you bought it, the date you opened it, and note the date you finished it/noticed it had gone rancid. This will help you plan for an actual emergency because you'll know what you actually use and will be less inclined to panic.

The best kitchen staple I can recommend is connections to people in your community. Americans need to let go of this bootstrap idea that people who can't 'feed themselves' have something to be ashamed of. Very very few of us survive without vast amounts of help in procuring food. Publicly funded roads, subsidized corn.

I am so lucky to be sharing a portion of a CSA share this year and at the end of each weeks distribution there is so much food left over. We have a couple people who come each week for specific items that might be left over. your social safety net might include someone who works at a bakery or coffee shop and can get end of day items. Or someone who is friends/family with a fisherman or a deer hunter who sometimes has extra/feels generous. Build these connections of sharing now and the practice will help for when you're in a tough spot.
posted by bilabial at 6:39 AM on August 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

It would help if it was clearer what your timespan and storage options are - if you have a freezer you can stock (it's slightly more efficient when full even) then preparing yummy batch-cooked meals like single-serving soup portions or tortilla-wraps that you can chuck in a toaster or microwave will give you 6-months of cheap meals. And there's quite a lot of freezer-related meal parts (eg: cheap cuts of meat on sale, marinated and ready to cook when thawed) that will save meal prep and money.

If it's the pantry shelves, borrow a copy of Homemade Pantry for a thorough look at what you can make from scratch or replace in a pantry as basics. She's got good advice on what to keep and storage and so on, and the recipes I've made are decent. I used her oatmeal guidelines to come up with a steelcut oatmeal mix that I use, made in bulk with 2/3 of the massive amount stored in my freezer for now.

And look at what's cheaply available to you locally. Cheese is horrifically expensive for me locally, so I use parmesan mostly for flavour at the end of meal only, but spices and fruit is relatively cheap so I cook a lot of dishes with them. After I finish the current cookbook I'm working through, I want to try an Indian vegetarian cookbook because the ingredients are cheap and abundant here, but I would never try a classic French cookbook - the ingredients are available, but so expensive.

Most people end up having about 20 familiar recipes they cook over and over, variations of such. If you can figure out what your recipes are, then you can get those - I have to have in my family for example, back-up pantry stock of jars of olive-vegetable mix, cans of chickpeas and olives, dukkah, UHT skim milk and earl grey tea, and I stock up whenever there are sales.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:51 AM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also, a really neat trick if you have the pantry space is to move things that are expiring soon to a shelf near eye-level and have that as a rule, that you review your expiry dates every month and tidy up your pantry shelves and fridge/freezer. Then you don't end up throwing away two year-expired slimey fish eyeballs in a jar (speaking from vile experience).
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:53 AM on August 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Popcorn is a cheap and easy snack, when you want a little treat. I buy butter when it's a loss leader, usually around the holidays, and freeze it.
posted by cyndigo at 10:04 AM on August 28, 2016

Canned chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice. I ate so much homemade hummus when I was first out of college.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 3:46 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Trail mix ingredients.

- Sunflower seeds are usually the cheapest nut/seed in the bulk aisle where I live.
- raisin are usually the cheapest dried fruit
- assorted other nuts/seed/fruits
- chocolate chips (optional)
- dried coconut, this part is not optional. It's lightweight and a little goes a long way. If you like coconut, this turns trail mix from "meh" to "how'd you make that?!"
posted by aniola at 4:20 PM on August 28, 2016

If one isn't bothered by the source, there is time tested information about food storage from a group whose millions of members have been doing it since the 1800s. Of course, it's about modern foods and storage methods. FAQ Family Home Storage, Longer Term Food Supply. Source is LDS, AKA the Mormons.
posted by Homer42 at 5:59 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

You can buy bulk bags of rice at ethnic grocery stores that will save you tons of money over the long haul. If possible buy your foods wholesale or bulk to make your dollars go further. Nuts are usually more expensive even though they may have a longer shelf life. Canned foods are a very good option but you may also want to make your own preserves from fruits and veggies that are on sale because of ripeness. Try farmers markets at the end of the day.
posted by JJ86 at 7:51 AM on August 29, 2016

I don't know if you have access to a chest freezer or a way to keep one in the house, but I've long believed they're really the key to eating cheaply. You can buy fresh produce in bulk when it's in season (corn, spinach, zucchini, whatever) and process it pretty simply by cutting up or blanching, pop it into Ziplocs or wrap it in plastic wrap and then have it live in the chest freezer for, heck, years. Same with meats - you can go in on a side of cow or pig with some friends, and for $100-200, get so many pounds of meat you will be eating it for a year. Or you can use coupons + Costco and buy something in bulk when it's on special, then hold it for ages. There's almost nothing more cost-efficient, but it does require the space for one, a small supply of electricity, and it helps if you're not a renter because it's kind of a pain to have to move. Though they do make compact models now, they hold less, so it's kind of a tradeoff.
posted by Miko at 9:48 AM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]