Mountain House Diced Beef | Freeze Dried Survival & Emergency Food | #10 Can | Gluten-Free

Bottom line up front: This type of food is a great choice for an emergency food supply, especially for sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle. The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life, so you can buy them and not worry about rotating your stock for a couple of decades. The biggest downside is that once opened, they need to be used up right away.SHELF LIFE - The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life (unopened). The biggest downside to #10 cans versus individual pouches is that the 25-year shelf life turns into a 1-week shelf life once they've been opened. Since each can has enough for 10 servings, you'll be eating the same thing for several meals unless you're cooking for a group.TASTE - In my experience, Mountain House food is really tasty. Let me caveat this review by saying that although I've eaten other Mountain House freeze-dried food, I haven't had occasion to open the ones in the #10 cans (see my review of the "Mountain House 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit"). That having been said, the Mountain House food I have tried has been very, very good tasting -- not just good compared to other survival foods, but good period. I have no reason to expect that these would be any different.WEIGHT/CONVENIENCE - As steel cans, they're reasonably durable and reasonably lightweight (not backpacking light, but you don't have to be a weightlifter to move a large box of them). They do take up a bit of volume, but since the overwhelming majority of long-term emergency scenarios involve sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle, I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker (personnally, I have a stock of individual pouches just in case I have to leave on foot, but most of my food is in these cans).CALORIES - The problem with most freeze-dried emergency food is that a so-called "serving" has too few calories to meet an adult's energy requirements (2500 a day for men; 2000 a day for women -- more with heavy exertion), so you end up consuming more than you planned. These are no different. So even though a typical can ostensibly contains 10 1-cup servings, you really need to eat two servings per meal to get enough calories to survive -- perhaps more. Plan your purchase accordingly.

Flad I took the chance & ordered.

I really like this beef. I use it almost on a daily basis in my Ramen, making beef and broccoli and other recipes. It’s great because as a single person, I can portion exactly what I need without having to worry about going to the grocery store and purchasing a piece of beef That will end up being freezer burnt from the portion I don’t use. It’s fast, tasty and just plain good.

No, I’m most definitely NOT a “prepper”, but realizing that during a large scale emergency we can’t always expect the government and NGOs to come blazing to our immediate rescue, I’ve been slowly laying in a stock of freeze dried food in #10 cans. I realized, however, that many of the standard, just add boiling water one pot meals are relatively low in protein and high in carbohydrates, so I decided to supplement them with freeze dried meat, also in #10 cans, serving size portions of which can be added during the reconstitution process.I figured that “freeze dried meat is freeze dried meat” so I first purchased Nutristore product, which came in at a slightly lower price point than the tried and true Mountain House brand. During an Amazon Prime days, however, I found that the price on Mountain House diced cooked beef was slashed by around 35% so I grabbed an unplanned can.When I received the can it felt “different”; lighter than the matching Nutristore diced cooked beef, which triggered some label comparisons.• #10 can of Nutristore contained 600 grams, 24% more than the 482 gm in the Mountain House can.• Nutristore had 25 24 gm 130 calorie servings, Mountain House had 15 32 gm 140 cal servings• Nutristore beef had 0.3 gm total fat per gram beef, close to 3 times as much as Mountain House’s 0.08 gm total fat per gram beef.• Nutristore had 21 mg sodium per gram of beef, 35% less than Mountain House’s 28 mg sodium per gram beefAs I was planning to only add portions of freeze dried beef into various freeze dried meals, and consequently NOT using a large portion of the can at once the one other consideration is that Mountain House says that remaining contents needs to be used within 7 days of the can being opened. Nutristore, however, says that as long as the container is promptly closed and stored properly the contents of an open can should be good for 6-12 months.My conclusion – gotta pick your poison – Mountain House product has a lot less fat but more sodium. Nutristore on the other hand will hopefully do better if I’m only using a scoop or two at a time from the can. And I’m gonna go lie down because my brain’s gonna explode.

Can feels light for a lb! Arrived in 5 days undamaged inside a box. Yes, I could have dehydrated my own, but with the price of everything going up, this is gonna be saved for when SHTF, and I am tired of rice & beans!