Does Mountain House freeze-dried food really last 25 years? (Answer inside.)

October 21, 2017, 07:46 AM

I found a couple of packets of Mountain House turkey tetrazzini in my camping supplies dating from well before we moved to our current house 24 years ago. I prepared them a couple of days ago and they were just as good and tasty as I remembered from my backpacking period.

October 21, 2017, 08:31 AM

StorminNormin

Good to hear. I have a few weeks worth of Mountain House just in case. I have a good amount of MREs that are at 10 years so I am thinking of giving them to a homeless shelter and replace with new ones once they are available again.

October 21, 2017, 09:50 AM

KenS

quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
..... and they were just as good and tasty as I remembered from my backpacking period.

This is a little bit ambiguous, were they "good and tasty" 24 years ago?

Ken

October 21, 2017, 09:56 AM

sigfreund

quote:
Originally posted by KenS:
quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
..... and they were just as good and tasty as I remembered from my backpacking period.

This is a little bit ambiguous, were they "good and tasty" 24 years ago?

Ken

Yes, they were.
Especially at the end of a 15 mile hike with a 40 pound pack.

October 21, 2017, 09:58 AM

arfmel

Salt doesn't deteriorate.

October 21, 2017, 10:00 AM

darthfuster

quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
I found a couple of packets of Mountain House turkey tetrazzini in my camping supplies dating from well before we moved to our current house 24 years ago. I prepared them a couple of days ago and they were just as good and tasty as I remembered from my backpacking period .

Which is to say that after a long day of hiking with a 70 lb pack through brush, wasps, heat, cold, water, dust, sweat, blood and tears.........tastes pretty good. lol

October 21, 2017, 10:54 AM

quote:
I have a good amount of MREs that are at 10 years so I am thinking of giving them to a homeless shelter and replace with new ones once they are available again.

Old Turkey:

Around Thanksgiving a few years ago, radio commentator Paul Harvey shared a true story of a woman and her frozen Thanksgiving turkey.

The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in the bottom of her freezer for 23 years. That's right—23 years. The Butterball representative told her the turkey would probably be safe to eat if the freezer had been kept below zero for the entire 23 years. But the Butterball representative warned her that even if the turkey was safe to eat, the flavor would probably have deteriorated to such a degree that she would not recommend eating it.

The caller replied, "That's what I thought. We'll give the turkey to our church."

Make someone else sick!

October 21, 2017, 12:11 PM

signewt

I had a several dozen various back packing freeze dry from 1978 in my personal collection of 'stuff too good to throw away'.....

Finally dug into the stash, even took some to the Freeze Dry factory outside Albany, for advise. They feigned lack of interest.

Granted they were only 37 years past date. Factory advised against consuming.

I carefully tasted a couple. Didn't like the taste of mine, contributed to the local dump transfer site.

Now for them 20 year old MREs.....

October 21, 2017, 01:53 PM

rburg

My dad had some 1950s C-rats. He smoked the cigs and said they were awful, but better than nothing. He offered me the cookies, but I wasn't interested. When we moved here in 1995 we had some Campbells soup that had gone out of code in the mid 1980s. I considered donating it to the local homeless shelter, hoping to lower the population. Those bums have so much alcohol in them it would purify sewage. But my wife tossed them before I could.

My grandkids treat MREs as a treat. They like the opening ceremony and inspect each of the packages as a special event. Then trade stuff to each other. Gotta watch them closely or they'll get the cherry/blackberry cobbler before I can steal it.

October 21, 2017, 03:05 PM

jimmy123x

quote:
Originally posted by 41:
quote:
I have a good amount of MREs that are at 10 years so I am thinking of giving them to a homeless shelter and replace with new ones once they are available again.

Old Turkey:

Around Thanksgiving a few years ago, radio commentator Paul Harvey shared a true story of a woman and her frozen Thanksgiving turkey.

The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in the bottom of her freezer for 23 years. That's right—23 years. The Butterball representative told her the turkey would probably be safe to eat if the freezer had been kept below zero for the entire 23 years. But the Butterball representative warned her that even if the turkey was safe to eat, the flavor would probably have deteriorated to such a degree that she would not recommend eating it.

The caller replied, "That's what I thought. We'll give the turkey to our church."

Make someone else sick!

WTF is wrong with people? If I am not willing to eat it myself, I'm certainly not going to give it to someone else!!!!!! They probably paid $8 for that Turkey 23 years ago.

October 21, 2017, 03:19 PM

sigfreund

quote:
Originally posted by arfmel:
Salt doesn't deteriorate.

And glad I am of it.

When the halophobes come around after the pock o’lips, they won’t be after my stash. “Come on, Moonbeam, let’s find us some healthy food to beg for.”

October 21, 2017, 03:26 PM

Ivan

quote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
I found a couple of packets of Mountain House turkey tetrazzini in my camping supplies dating from well before we moved to our current house 24 years ago. I prepared them a couple of days ago and they were just as good and tasty as I remembered from my backpacking period.

Good to know. Thanks for posting.