re: Best food item to have in a truly SHTF situation ?

How “truly” are we talking? Like a complete but temporary shutdown like COVID would have caused if it’s lethality was 10-20% (and no, the lockdown didn’t shut it in. Things got tight in a couple of niches but absenteeism never closed down production/distribution chains. Shortages were at the end supermarket level caused by hoarding demand).

Peanut butter, rice, flour (for making bread and pasta, plus can pass the time processing it)


Protein is always the crimp from SHTF scenarios, especially for protracted periods.

Peanut butter is a source, but even creatively using it as an ingredient (I have a recipe from my college days mixing butter, Sirirachia, and soy sauce over drained ramen noodles) it’ll get old fast.

Canned tuna is another useful and easily incorporated food.

I use have diced ham I keep stocked As well.

The key is finding stuff that you will actually enjoy eating normally and incorporate it into your cooking.

If power loss isn’t an immediate concern, eggs get overlooked quite a bit. Versatile Nutritionally dense food with lots of protein that can go months with refrigeration without going bad.

If you have access to farm fresh eggs, they don’t even need to be refrigerated (US requires packers to process them in a way that requires refrigeration but lengthens shelf life....it’s sold unrefrigerated in European supermarkets).

I stock a couple of 10# tins of dehydrated meat to handle the protein issue.

But keep it as an ingredient. It gets prohibitively expensive to try to stock freeze dried premade meals...which often just sits until it expires.

One pretty good source that gets often overlooked is lentils. It’s one of the few sources of complete proteins from plants and you can use it as a grain. Or make a pasty sauce served over rice.


But go ahead and nix any thought of backpacking any of this. You’d be hard pressed to being able to carry more than a weeks worth or so for food even for one person using traditional canned goods.

Needing to bug out on foot is the only scenario where the super light weight pre made freeze dried meals shine. But that application should be reserved to solely trying to reach a specific preplanned destination.

Reserve any thought of trying to move canned goods to be via car, and ideally already have plastic containers to facilitate packing and unloading.

If it’s NOT looking to hold out on specific scenarios, but rather an indeterminate breakdown, your focus shifts less on stored food (which is obviously still important) and more on gear to facilitate a homestead lifestyle.

That conversation needs to be tailor made to the person’s situation but to illustrate what I mean:

People who have vegetable gardens think they can easily ramp up their harvests to support their family, but lack the stockpile of mason jars and vinegar to preserve the summer/fall harvests for winter/spring consumption.

People who hunt may stockpile the ammo thinking their food is covered, but don’t have salt needed to cure the meat for longer term consumption.


Essentially the minor details we take for granted because we seldom use it/take for granted because it’s so accessible now.

Canned tuna, rice, pasta, canned beans, canned veggies and protein powder.

If the scenario is end of the world as we know it. Currency worthless and no power, a lot of people will die. You would probably be smart to have homesteading and medical books and the supplies needed for that, plus you would want to build a community of like minded friends quickly to secure your area. Otherwise you will be like everyone else and hope you can survive through sheer will and brutality.

If we are just talking short term, canned sardines.

Iodine tablets.

Smoked Vienna sausages.

They are the greatest creation since fire.

Protein bars. Calorie dense and you can pack a lot of them.

MRE'S

MREs. You can fight a war on them.

Tomatoes will reseed themselves as will lots of herbs, etc.

For protein, dried venison and several dried old Virginia Hams that will last for years.

Beans.
More beans. Paw paws and persimmons and some apples. on your own trees. Walnut and pecans.