Have you actually tried the food you bought for your storage? If not, you might want to soon. :19 - cryodesiccation! We noticed the mistake right after posting. We know the difference between it and defiling something. It was just a slip and TH-cam disabled annotations so we can't lay the correction over the video.
I have. I have Auguson Farms, Wise and 4Patriots Brands. Out of the three I purchased, Auguson was actually excellent. Wise was good and 4Patriots was good in a pinch. I think of the three, Auguson is something that I could eat every day for a month. All in all, nothing beats homemade but if it ever hits the fan, do you want to be prepared. Honestly if you don’t have a supply on hand right now, you are going to pay double or triple what I paid for my supplies when I got them. You have to buy the stuff when you don’t need it. Mountain house is very good but in my humble opinion over priced.
My own personal review to add a little more in depth analysis of other flavors: I bought quite a few Mountain House meals to see which ones I liked with the plan of ordering more of the ones I like for an emergency food supply. Liked and ordered more of the following: Beef Stroganoff- Great! Spaghetti with meat sauce- Great! Lasagna- very tasty. Not like real lasagna but tastes great. Pasta Primavera- fantastic! Chicken Teriyaki- great! Chili Mac with Beef- very good, noodles a little stiff. Granola- good/not great. Maybe too sweet but need something sweet for change of pace. Did NOT order more of the following: Mac&Cheese- Ok Spicy Southwest Style Skillet- good/not great/ spicy Chicken Fried Rice- didn't order more but it's good if you give it extra time to soak up the water in the pieces of chicken Breakfast Skillet-eggs sucked, too tough Scramble Eggs- eggs sucked, too tough Chicken&Dumplings- tasted great but chicken was like old wood that crumbled when I chewed it All were edible and I would not turn my nose up at any of them in a pinch. Ones I didn't like would probably be better with a little more time soaking in the water. Costco has their bucket of these meals on sale at a ridiculous price right now so I actually did get more Scrambled Eggs and Chicken&Dumplings because they were basically free. The others in the bucket would cost more individually than the entire bucket.
I drive a tractor trailer and always have mountain house food in my truck. Not all truck stops have food 24 hours or I get stuck someplace without food. I have a single burner MSR and water. Always have a decent meal.
I will have to look into that. I work out of a van and sometimes my job has me on a site all day and I bought a couple of cases of MREs for simplicity but I am Finding out that the heaters aren't up to the task and leave an odor long after the heater is evpended.
@@nickm9102 you have to watch using those heaters in an enclosed space. Sometimes I’ll go into the truck stop and fill a thermos with hot water for the freeze dried meals.
Same here if you ever been shut down on the side of a rd a good hot meal makes dealing with it better i use a jet boil myself but I also have a gas grill on the truck
I lived off my Mountain House stash during the grid collapse here in Texas last week. I also used my stash to feed my guys at my EMS station due to all our local restaurants being closed. Not a complaint was heard.
Wow! Thanks for sharing the real world experience, Mike! Please shoot an email to story(at)equip2endure.com, I'd like to get in touch with you. Stay strong out there, amigo. -Rusty
We used a lot of Mountain House during the freeze, too, and it was good! It was my first time trying it. We all enjoyed it. I bought many more since then to keep to the side.
Used to work security in remote locations, always kept 2 or 3 mountain house meals in my pack in case I was stuck doing double shifts. I worked out of a truck and I eventually found I could just add water to the bag, seal it up, and leave on the dash with the heater blowing to warm it up. Worked better during winter when the heater was going anyway. I used to leave it 30 minutes on one side, flip it and leave it another 30. Was always nice and hot.
@@Equip2Endure We used to leave MRE's foil packs on the engine of our ITV's in West Germany, or the Jeep in Ft. Lewis (not moving). Worked well. Just don't leave it there for too long and yer fine.
I used to sell readywise. When talking to the rep from the company, they told us that there regular line was focused on pure survival first and flavor second. The directions have you put extra water in them solely to up your water intake during times of emergency. The Readywise camping line is better then the bulk emergency line as far as flavor goes, most people don't realize they are different from the bulk meals. I would however agree that Mountain House is better on flavor. Mountain House and Readywise started by targeting two different markets. One focused on campers and hikers, while the other was more prepper and emergency focused.
Oregon Freeze Dry (mountain house) was formed in 1963 in Oregon's Willamette Valley to produce dried sliced strawberries for a General Foods breakfast cereal called Post Toasties corn flakes. General Foods executive Ellis Byer was the enterprise's first general manager and later its president and chairman as well. Oregon Freeze Dry was soon working to produce an alternative to canned rations for the military. It also supplied food for NASA's Apollo space program and developed meals for nuclear submarine crews and "Long Range Patrol Subsistence" in Vietnam. By the late 1960s, Oregon Freeze Dry was a publicly traded company with annual sales of about $5 million. The work in military rations led to the introduction of Mountain House brand freeze dried food for backpackers in 1970. Mountain House representatives claimed its products tasted better than those of competitors since the ingredients were cooked together before freeze drying. Within a few years Mountain House was marketing more than 100 different products. Oregon Freeze Dry also owned the Tea Kettle brand of backpacker food. Old AT&T long lines bunkers from the cold war ear can still be found with stocks of mountain house in them to this day, from a time when the phone company was expected to keep the phones working for up to a month without external resupply after a nuclear war.
If they think you should drink extra water, they could just write on the instructions "HEY BY THE WAY take an extra swig of water while you wait, idiot" and accomplish the same thing without ruining their meals. That makes little to no sense.
Mountain House came in almost all of the arctic MRE's (cold weather - white ones) I had in Afghanistan and they were AMAZING, so good sometimes I bypassed regular chow to eat those MRE's since we had tons where I was at way up in the mountains. Needless to say, I have been a Mountain House devotee ever since.
That's good to hear. When I deployed to Norway in the 90s, I don't believe the RCW main courses were Mountain House, just a generic freeze dried meal in a clear plastic container with a white cardboard bottom so it would stand up. But the whole ration was good, packed with nuts, chocolate, little energy bars, soup and drink mixes, and a massive bag of oatmeal that was good with the freeze dried strawberries mix.
This was one of the better reviews I've stumbled across, genuine and informative responses. Loved the kid's reaction too! Thanks for the great content, subscribed!
I’m new to buying freeze dried foods so this was helpful to actually have you prepare and taste it. I’ve seen both brands and now I know which ones I will purchase. Thanks
Me too! My local walmart was out of the buckets but I'll be finding some on payday. Do you know if there is a sample package? That would be great to try. That way I'd know what to store for my family.
Have you seen the price from both brands? Have you tasted both of them? I totally agree that readywise isn't that great but mountain house runs about 5 times the price. They also didn't make the readywise correctly, it looks like they portioned it out and used the full amount of water for multiple portions.
Basically - Mountain House is the way to go - THANKS very much for an honest test. This video was truly helpful for my wife and I making a decision for our first purchase of a product like this.
Hey, Rob! Thanks for watching. MH is some fantastic stuff. Be sure to watch our most recent video where we taste test all 31 meals that MH currently offers (@). The chili mac seems to be a favorite amongst our viewers. -Rusty
If you were in a long term calorie deficit, where foraging from the forest was your only food source, even ready wise would taste good. That said, I prefer MH too.
Two things I've learned from trying a few different brands: Don't use as much water as the instructions say (or you end up with soup, like the ReadyWise did here), and let it rehydrate a while longer before opening up to eat. Usually use about 75 - 90% of the water, and add about 25 -35% more time to rehydrate. The less water to avoid soup, the longer hydrate time to make sure the water has a chance to rehydrate everything (or you end up with crunchy food that's not supposed to be crunchy).
Also when you add things like fatty meats and salt pepper butter etc it makes it much better, mountain house is too expensive for most people but if you have food stores you can you readywise etc as food bases.
My kids and I love Mountain House. We take it camping anf I have a small amount set back with my prepping supplies. It's by far the best my family and I have tried , I love to help promote it too, dont know on what level but if I believe in a product Ive always been know to let others know how great it is. Wishful thinking anyways 🙂
I bought a bucket of the Wise foods to test. Mountain House beats that stuff hands down! The #10 cans are better for long term storage, as you don't have to worry much about perforating packaging. I've lost quite a bit of both Wise and Alpine Aire foods to thin mylar packaging failures. I've heard from other preppers that the Wise food made them sick, and I also got sick after eating one of the test packs. The only downside is that Mountain House has shrunk their lineup, and things like vegetables and fruits have been dropped. Would like to see drinks (milks/juices), baby foods, and pet foods. Babies and pets are parts of the family that need to be prepped for as well! I keep a 30 day supply of pouches, and a year's supply in #10 cans. I also keep a box full in my vehicle for camping while gold mining. I used part of my 30 day supply to help a coworker get through motel living after a house fire. He was glad for the help, and was surprised at the quality of the meals.
Mountain house i would love for you to sponsor me . I pimp your products to everybody i care about anyway on a daily basis. Oh and you guys should try a chicken and sausage gumbo possibly cajun style beans and rice with sausage or jambalaya. A Chunky Texas style chili would be awesome too.
Look at the amount of actual meat in Mountain House vs others. That explains the price difference. It’s a big investment, but it’s food. It will be eaten eventually! It also makes it way easier to get my wife out in the backcountry knowing we have a yummy meal on hand.
Auguson Farms sells hamburger and sausage crumbles, as well as chunk chicken and beef, that is pretty good when reconstituted. The sausage crumbles are a bit hard to rehydrate, but still pretty good. One could always put together their own meals with that and rice or their Potato Shreds. I wouldn't recommend their sliced potatoes though, unless you are baking them in some liquid (like scalloped potatoes) for an hour or two.
True words. I happened to have opened up a #10 can of dehydrated celery (I do random taste tests on some things i have in storage. Tasted terrible - and found they used even the bitter hearts of celery)
I did 500 miles on the Appalachian trail many years back. I couldn’t afford to have mountain house meals every day but when I really needed a good hot meal at the end of a hard day (especially cold rainy days) mountain house was worth the price. These products are made for different purposes.
I tested out a few dishes from MH during the Texas freeze, and they were all great. Despite the circumstances, I was excited to test out some of my emergency food. Cooking on a tiny Sterno stove and canned heat in my garage was my go-to, and these meals were awesome. They were SO easy, and there was more in that little pack than we thought. I have Saratoga Farms, Augason Farms, and MH, and MH will be my staple. I’ve bought much more since the freeze, and I’ll continue to buy more. Great products. Great reviews.
That's how we role, Fergy! Thanks for watching and chiming in. We planning on doing another comparison video where we stack up all the major players in the space. Stay tuned! -Rusty
Emergency Essential is some of the best, they also sell Mountain House in #10 cans. The thing I've noticed the most is to let them set a little longer to have it done. Great company!
I was not too keen on their peas, but everything else was good. The meatballs goes really good with Mountain House spaghetti. Their ground beef soaks up taco spices real well, and the sausage crumbles go good with the MH biscuits n gravy.
And I bet they are in the same price range, right? Equal products with equal prices. Ignoring the fact that mountain house is 5 times the price just makes everybody look shady.
I asked Ready Wise about this review - here is the response I received: They didn’t compare apples to apples. They used Mountain House camping meals, but did not use our camping meals. We have camping backpacking meals that are prepared in the pouch just like Mountain house does. It would be nice if they compared apples to apples and such. Our long term food storage (which they used) does need to be prepared in a pan like they showed. There is no doubt Mountain House put out the most expensive product to the marketplace, and they do have a good product. I am not going to dispute that. Our food holds its own in both the Emergency Food market, and the Outdoor/Camping food as well.
I absolutely agree with this comment. I wondered why they did not compare the same same, I had to double-check the date of this video. I have Mountain House and Wise and Readywise and to be honest, price is the biggest difference.
I wondered this too. I'm a backpacker and I've used ready-wise backpacking meals and they're nothing like what they showed in this video. Although, I don't know why ready wise would put out that as an option either way. In an emergency situation cooking with a pot and pan isn't always practical.
Two of the dishes were the same thing though, so I am not giving Ready Wise a pass. These guys didn’t like the taste of the Ready Wise, so it doesn’t matter what type of products these are, they didn’t look appetizing, and these guys didn’t like the taste.
Lol it doesn't change the fact that ready wise came out as crappy tasting soup. They literally followed the directions and It still came out like garbage.
With mountain house, I use the exact amount of water, but double the wait time, stir & again double the wait time. Then I let it sit unsealed for 5 min before digging in. Absolutely perfect every time. My go to adventure meals.
so far for me it has been at home. so i do add to the products spices, for flavor or just for filling my belly better. but mt house right out of the bag is great. but yes cut back a bit on the water for the eggs.
Thank's for taking the time to do this review. I was on the fence about which brand to go with. Not anymore! Thank's again and great review by the way.
With taxes you are looking at 7100 for mountain or 1700 for wise for a 6 month supply. I doubt you are on the fence if price matters at all and if it doesn't matter then you wouldnt be on the fence either. Are you a real person or just full of it?
I've been backpacking for 55 years, usually preferred Mountain House to the alternatives. Used to love the Turkey Tetrazinie, especially since it came in a very light aluminum bowl that I could reuse for those other meals that didn't cook in the bag. Always expensive, but worth it for the light weight if backpacking. For emergency use though, where that is not so important, I have a box of MRE's. Newer ones even self-heat, and contain other useful items; seasoning, cookie, drink mix, coffee & creamer, sugar, toilet paper, matches, etc.
Thankyou for making this video!! We have Mountain House in our go bags for hunting. I've thought about buying the readywise, but after watching this I won't be. Also I really like the fact that y'all mention whether or not your kids will eat them-i've got picky eaters so that is really helpful!
I had done a lot of reading and shopping with my eyes, until I finally tried one or two Mountain House items. I was sold, primarily on the biscuits and gravy, of all things. If you can freeze dry THAT and get it right, you can do almost anything.
Rusty! It's been a while. So glad I found your channel but I wish I would have found it last week... before I made an impulse buy at Costco of, you guessed it, some Readywise. Oh well. In case of emergency and it came with a dry sack. Yes! Thanks for the info and I'll use your link to grab some Mountain House for our upcoming Uintas trip with a couple of our boys and their wives. Yes, they're all married now. Time flies. Tell the fam hello from me and Melanie. Awesome video! Liked and subscribed! Side note... I really like the logo.
Thanks for the review, and taste test! I've heard that Mountain House is the Cadillac of prep food, and here you can see why. New Subscriber! Came over from Canadian Prepper's page!
Glad you liked it, @Investigator77! We actually just did a huge comparison video between all the major players in the adventure meal/survival food space. Should drop in the next few weeks. Stay tuned! -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure I will watch for that. I have to say that your side kick there, sure looks Canadian! My brother was in the Air Force here for 28 yrs, and all his friends look like your buddy! LOL
If I were shopping for convenient freeze dried meals and compared side by side, either in store, or online, just for the “one-pot” heat and eat by Mountain House, that’s the one I’d bye. Thanks so much for the taste test!
Thanks for sharing real world experience, Joe! It seems like those who say, "just use the cheap stuff!" haven't actually tried the options, right? -Rusty
Rusty I get a kick every time I watch one of your videos as I was still going by Rusty when I attended the best cooking school in the world back in 82! As a Certified Executive Chef and an avid bushcrafter I would relish the chance to do one of these vids with you! Great job bud!
if i had the money ( retired) i would buy a couple 30 day supplys. just me but if what some people are scaring people with can not hurt. if i die. it will help my friends out. if i live i have no worries about my next meal.
I bought a bunch of Mountain House and came real close to actually having to use them during the winter storms that caused huge electric outages in Texas. Like most people I hadn’t actually tried them before that though. I got lucky and didn’t experience a long outage, many people around me did. I decided to try the meals out after the storms passed, just to make sure I’d actually want to eat them during an emergency. I was really surprised at how good they were! I agree, they taste like regular meals someone would throw together during regular times. I’d have no problem eating them during an emergency. Try your food out folks, because someday you might have to eat it. It took almost a week for our stores to start to get back to normal. People were having trouble finding food for a few days.
I think one of the most important differences isn't just taste, but nutrients - the Mountain House has way more protein since it contains meat, so taste matters, but so does the fact that you're getting more protein in the Mountain House meals.
Glad I saw the video... great job guys! I know I like a mountain house because I’ve had many of them. I saw the ready wise and was thinking about them, you saved me from a big mistake!
Hey, Steve! Glad you found it useful. We try to be careful about being too biased and would recommend you try it yourself if you have any doubts about our experience. But after our experience, our tribes aren't planning on buying it again. -Rusty
I've purchased three buckets of Ready wise for an emergency. Never tried it but I guess it's better than nothing. I've purchased a number of mountainhouse from walmart as individual packs. Guess I stick to Mountainhouse. Good info, wish I watch it before I purchased the readywise.
When my niece was at college in England I would send her mountain house she loved it. I sent freeze dried because it was more reasonable postage and made her life a little easier.
My best advice for keeping food like this stored for emergencies is also keep some seasonings in water tight containers and in a ziplock freezer bag so it’s easy to grab. A little salt and pepper some sugar, maybe some garlic powder, Cajun seasoning can make a huge difference. Add a bottle of hot sauce and maybe some bouillon packets too. Instant coffee and some powder creamer if you have the room.
Now I know which freeze dried meals to buy/or not to buy, can you review best way to carry water/purify water. This is necessary since it is a component in freeze dried meals.
Make sure to watch this one before buying any - th-cam.com/video/QxIMNxlCy6Q/w-d-xo.html As far as water, thruhikers love using Sawyer mini water filters. Super lightweight and very effective. -Rusty
Good work, thanks. Looking beyond regular jars, cans, cartons and jugs, "Wise" is only about 5% of my prep supply, MH maybe 20%, AF maybe 25%, and MRE's the remainder. My get-home bag reflects that ; the usual breakout is a full MRE, a couple of supplemental Mains, a trio of MH or Alpine Air dehydrateds, a couple of tuna lunch kits, a couple of Spam singles, a couple of oatmeal pouches, several Clif bars, some peanut butter, a ramen packet, jerky pouch and some other snacks - enough to keep me three days on the move in a variety of circumstances and some to spare to help out others.
Mountain House meals, generally, have a higher protein content too. This provides a longer term energy that will keep you going longer/further than a bag of, mostly, carbohydrates. I've spent a number years just picking up a few bags (or a can) every time they went on sale at a local store, and currently have a nice little stockpile for a greatly reduced overall price. I live in a tsunami zone of the PNW, so I did my research & tasting quite a few years ago.
I've done this same taste test with these and several other brands. Ready Wise was the worst tasting and now sits in the basement waiting for the apocalypse. I'll probably still not eat it and just use to bait other humans. Mountain house is the go to brand for quality, taste, and like they pointed out it comes in its own cooking container. Thanks for the video!
I bought Mountain House kit for emergency supplies around the start of pandemic lock down last year. I also wanted to see if the taste was ok, so prepared one of the pouches, maybe chicken stroganoff(?). I remember that it tasted fairly decent and the pouch preparation was super easy. Like the reviewers, I would generally recommend Mountain House for either emergency meals or even for regular camping trips.
I’ve had mountain house plenty of time, I usually use less water than recommended but I learned that over time. But it tastes the best from what I’ve had. It’s good to know about the readywise packs needing a separate container since my friend bought me one of the buckets, haven’t had a chance to try them though. Alpine aire is decent taste wise but I like it due the amount of sodium in it compared to mountain house. I also recently found omeals, only ate the beef stew and it was okay. I love that the packs have a flameless heater in them.
Thanks for watching, William! How grateful we'd all be in an emergency situation if we have a supply of tasty, convenient, and nutritious meals on hand. -Rusty
Alpine Aire is a NOGO for me! They need to start buying mylar pouches that can withstand a little torture. I've bought new AA pouches and found them to be junk within 2 weeks. Their #10 cans are OK, but not their pouches.
I've found that Mountain House's suggested water amount is right on. I just keep some heat on it while waiting for it to reconstitute. I found that I initially didn't give it enough time to reconstitute.
I’ve backpacked for 6 straight days on Isle Royale eating only Mountainhouse meals. It’s pretty good and very easy to prepare. I packed one small pot and stove and a spork. I ate well all week, but I would say the breakfasts are the best. I could probably live on their Breakfast Skillet meal.😎
Yep. Millions of Americans are seeing the same thing. After trying both of them the low price is no longer tempting to these reviewers. Thanks for watching, Jason! -Rusty
For European viewers, I recommend Fuel Your Preparation. Mountainhouse had a European branch for a long time, but they closed shop here and another company (FYP) took over their facilities and production, and their dishes are even better than Mountainhouse’s was. I’ve had all the Europeans main dishes by MH and FYP and where MH had a few that were not tasty, all of FYP’s are good, and some are really surprisingly good.
Great video guys. Good comparison. As a soon-to-be thru-hiker I'm definitely looking towards Mountain House for some quality products on the trail. They are already my favourite meals out in the backcountry! And I know I speak for a lot of backpackers. Question though... have you thought about trying this with the ready wise backpacking meals? They have those too. Perhaps a follow-up video? Could be a hit!
You know why Mountain House has been around for so long because they make a good product. I found out about them in the early 90's when my buddies got into camping. We bought our gear from a local Army/ Navy surplus and would usually snap up any MRE's they would have, spaghetti being the crown gem. Preparing for one trip there was only one of the spaghetti MREs available but the store owner pointed out this new product called Mountain House that had freezing dried meals for backpacking and they had a spaghetti meal so we purchased a couple. Was blown away by the taste and you got more than the MRE portion. It became our go to option. Eventually tried the other meals and we forgot about the MRE's altogether.
I laughed way to hard on your open case of ready wise give away. I have used mountain house for years and have wondered if the alternative might be better. Thanks for the video.
I keep a bucket of Mountain House around just for emergencies. I've used Mountain House products numerous times when out hiking and camping. It tastes more than good enough. But mainly I just want the calories and nutrients it offers. It works for me.
Girlfriend and I about to spend a week hiking the Great Wall in Bob Marshall Wilderness. One thing that surprised us was the number of options for these meals. You might have saved us from finding something out the hard way! Thank you!
Tastes like real food a great beginning and flavour another go to . First time I've actually seen the food most just talk about it well interesting and informative.🥂
@@SWPG Its quite a long process to make large amounts, And I'm in the learning process, but if your serious, I can send you a preliminary batch of ice cream sandwich bites, if you want. It will be in a mylar bag with oxygen absorber. I plan on selling batches locally, I'm in Washington state...of course It would cost the price of the product plus shipping.
I've only had the Mt House and I've always thought they were good. Being prior service and eating plenty of MREs; these actually taste like something you'd cook in your kitchen. Thanks for doing the comparison so I didn't waste money 👍
SMH, you know the mountain house is 5x the cost of the wise right? Have you tried them? You should try them and compare prices and use cases instead of just going along with the crowd. This channel isn't making any sense... nobody is worried about the price of mountain house and yet here you are talking about not wasting money.
@@craigcutler6919 Sorry... I'll pass on Wise ( and yes... I tried them). Mountain House Rocks... and just like everything else in Life... you get what you pay for..... Quality costs... just sayin....
Do a taste test on 4Patriots if possible. I'm looking to buy some freeze-dried prep foods. Just undecided about the best one to choose. Based on this vid and comments I'm leaning towards Mountain House. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for watching, Bro. Allen M! We'll take that shot if we have it (trying 4Patriots). In the mean time, you will probably want to try them both out yourself anyway to see which you like better. If you read through the comments though you will see that most people with real situational experience will choose Mountain House every time.
Glad you found it helpful! What we like to say on this matter is try it yourself, but don't be surprised if your reactions are the same as ours. -Rusty
I have stuff from almost every freeze dried food company out there, rarely do they ever compare favorably to mountain house in quality and taste. I to wish mountain house was more economical, but i still buy it .
Interesting data points. I might have to try my meals in a few months when i get time. As a positive, if it's soupy, it should be easier to drink down fast ;)
From the review, I would go with the simple hot water mix in bag so fuel isn’t wasted “Cooking” the other meal using utensils that require cleaning = more work. In many hiking areas open fires are discouraged. In a SHTF a fire will divulge your location.
I just bought 4 buckets of the ReadyWise at Costco because of the serving count and ease of stackability. Suffice to say I will be returning all of them. Hopefully they have Mountain House available!!!
Keith- Sometimes it's tough for us to not sound like we're bought and paid for by some product makers. But for real.... that's probably a good decision on your part. If how your emergency food tastes is important to you, I suggest you hold off and watch our next taste test video that should drop within a week. We compared 12 types of emergency food including most of the big brands. If you can't wait for that, and Costco doesn't have Mountain House, you can order it through the link in this site and use code "E2E". It will get you 10% off your order. Mountain House scored #2 in the taste test. -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure Thank you for the quick reply Rusty👍 Taste is a big factor for sure. When you're in an 'emergency' situation food/comfort is huge to morale. And when you're out camping/packing/etc the quality of your food also makes an impact. I'm looking forward to your upcoming video with, uhhh, baited breath. lol Thanks again!
@@shannonofarrell1241 Regardless of sponsorship, Wise food is the worst FD food out there, so it would not take a great product to beat it. On the other hand, MH is really really expensive.
@@FernbarkFrist yeah, I mean mountain house is pretty good for backpacking/camp food, but I don't like the way in which this is biased without any transparency.
Your testing was solid! I have tested, used and stored Wise Company, Mountain House, Augason, Legacy and two or three others that are not even in business anymore. Mountain house tastes best, Augason has somewhat better nutrition *with some meals* Though, all of the meals tested were high in sodium and carbs, not great for long term, but very good for short term needs -
I have a solid mix , but the majority of my stuff is Mountain House and Augason Farms...hell we use Augason Farms stuff regularly in the pantry as it is...
Thanks for watching, Thomas Richardson! That's critical - working your storage food into regular rotation so it's not so disruptive when you HAVE to use it. -Rusty
Augason Farms freeze dried fruit is really great. I used to use it to add to my cereal in the morning (Honey Bunches of Oats Strawberries ftw). I tried a couple different brands but Augason ended up still being cheaper (#10 cans) and tasted way better.
I asked some of the guys on SAR from the Sheriff's office. No question, hands down Mountain House. It is so good, plain and simple. It's what the professionals eat up there in the field! I personally prefer their quality and taste. They have a great variety of meals too.
THAT is valuable input, Thomas! The guys who have to live on these types of products in difficult circumstances should have good insights. Thanks for watching and chiming in! -Rusty
That's actually a great idea! I mean, not doing your neighbors wrong, but keeping this on hand to be able to give food to someone that doesn't harm your own supply. Its a lot less suspicious to say, yeah, we don't have much, but here's something for your family, than to say noope - we've got nuthin (while not having new tighter notches in your belt.
Mountain House is high quality but good grief, look at the prices and the servings/calories...what they call 2 servings is really 1 and you're going to spend $35-$40/day/person. Imagine what that would cost for a 180 day food supply for a family of 4. At best it's $25,200 and at worse its $28,800 and don't forget the sales tax. Compare this with using ordinary canned foods and dry goods that you rotate through as part of your regular diet, stocking up on sales and in most states it's sales tax free. Rather than facing a $25k+ bill, you not only save money with sales but your emergency food stores don't cost a single penny "extra" as it's food you're eating anyway and on less than what folks on food stamps receive. Take the spaghetti entree as an example. As an alternative you could open a couple of 28oz cans of Red Gold crushed tomatoes that were 89cents/can, a 28oz can of Keystone Meats ground beef ($6.29), add some garlic powder, dried minced onions, freshly ground black pepper, dried oregano/parsley/basil, a little olive oil and add a pound of pasta (49 cents) and a little extra water and in short order you've got a really nice batch of spaghetti that's enough to feed 5-6 hungry people for about $9 or $1.50/serving. Coincidentally this is also a really nice and easy dinner on a busy night after a long day, especially if you don't have anything defrosted and are wondering what to make for dinner. You could go with cans of Spaghetti O's for 89 cents each which you can even eat cold right out of the can, but it's so easy to do far better. By stocking the basics like oatmeal in addition to being hearty breakfast fare you've got a good bit of the makings for crumbles and buckles, cookies and bars and even home made granola. Honey, which never goes "bad", canned fruits, veggies, seafood, evaporated milk, etc. and with just granulated sugar and molasses you're ready to make powdered sugar and both light and dark brown sugars. I just ordered 4 cases of Motts unsweetened apple sauce as it's on sale for $2.79/46oz bottle. It's got just 3 ingredients: apples, water and citric acid. Not only is it great by itself but heat it up, add some cinnamon and crumble a few graham crackers over it and you've got an easy dessert. It's nice to add to oatmeal and in your baking recipes too as it can replace a good portion of sugar and oil. Freeze dried foods are nice and convenient but come at a great cost and don't forget you need water to reconstitute them unlike canned foods which will provide you with hydration. Never forget that our military saved the entire world TWICE on canned goods (C-rations) alone and roughly 25lbs of food for a weeks worth of food per person isn't an insurmountable amount of weight to bear. It's also hard to believe that life is really worth living if you can't end the day with a can of sliced pears in light syrup (no HFCS) when things have gone wrong or maybe even if you've just run out of fresh fruit. ;)
I get what you are saying, but the scenario was something to grab and go. For bug in you are 100% right it would cost way too much, but for a week supply to toss in the truck before as you run out the door it's a good option.
@@jeremymiller1088 It's easy to keep a couple of 5 gallon buckets stocked with grab and go meals for a week or so. In just 20 minutes I can have a weeks worth of food, clothes, toiletries, 28 gallons of water, 12 gallons of gasoline, all of our important papers and personal valuables and most importantly a 30 day supply of toilet paper loaded up and on our way. I'm out of breath and happy to be sitting down behind the wheel but I can do it. We never let our fuel tanks get below a half a tank so with that and the 12 gallons we can go at least 500 miles...I only use 100% gasoline so that also boosts our MPG slightly. If we've got more time I can grab more, if we've got less time we can skip the clothes and toiletries and be gone in 10 minutes but realistically if you need to be gone in under an hour, you're not going to make it either way as you won't have the time to outrun anything.
@@mac11380 I agree that Mountain House is the EASIEST prepping option but the extreme costs make it an unrealistic one, even with the sales. I'm also very familiar with Emergency Essentials and I've been receiving their sales emails for years. With my strategy, it's not even "emergency" supplies as they're incorporated into our normal diet which is the very best way to handle food storage. In addition to oatmeal which I can use in part to make granola, I can also dress up the oatmeal with strawberry jam, vanilla extract, apple sauce, maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, a variety of canned fruits and probably a few more items that I'm forgetting. I've also got instant pancake mix and enough A.P. flour to make all sorts of breakfast goodies. I can also be up and running with laying hens in just a few weeks. I haven't to this point because we like to go on several vacations each year and prefer the autonomy. We also keep almost a month's worth of eggs on hand. Additionally, millions of people get by on breakfast cereal every morning and I'll take good old fashioned oatmeal every day of the week over that. If I look back at just the past few days it's almost hard to notice all of the food storage items we've used. The other day our last 2 bananas became over ripe so my wife and I split a can of pineapple chunks at breakfast, we've split cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (99 cents) at lunchtime along with a half of a sandwich. Don't worry about those 2 over-ripe bananas, tonight I made a banana snack cake with buttercream frosting out of them, for little more than $1. Let's see, the stick of butter came from our freezer as we stocked up when it was $1.99/lb, the A.P. flour we keep on hand and was also bought on sale, the sugar is the same story, as is the vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, etc. It's all items we keep on hand and buy on sale. I also made fish for dinner tonight from our freezer along with tartar sauce made with mayo, a diced Milwaukee Kosher Dill Pickle, freshly ground black pepper and finely minced onion which were fresh but I could have easily re-hydrated some dried minced onions instead. In a few more days, considering the leftover tartar sauce, I'll break open a can of salmon and make salmon cakes. Again, everything we keep on hand, all bought on sale...we just picked up the cases of Mott's unsweetened apple sauce that I ordered a few days ago. We'll rotate through our food many times over but again, it's just our everyday food and not an additional cost as the MH would be and it saves money to boot. Likely tomorrow I'll make a Sicilian pizza from scratch using our bread flour, instant yeast (which I recently opened and is 7 years out of date but is still alive and kicking), a 28oz can of Red Gold crushed tomatoes that I'll strain for a few minutes to make the sauce and I'll chill the drained juice to drink the next morning for breakfast. The Italian sausage and pepperoni are stashed in our deep freeze, I can use either fresh mushrooms or the canned ones we bought on sale and we keep 6 one pound blocks of mozzarella cheese on hand in the fridge. For next week's food storage dinner I'm thinking turkey ala king or chicken pot pie, but who knows, I may just make stew. We also enjoy our "little store" that we have downstairs, my wife loves to "go shopping". In the next few months I'm looking for good sales to restock our pickles, yellow and brown mustards, ketchup and maybe a few jars of mayo too. Next it'll be brats in May for grilling season, as regular as clockwork.
@@tomj528 I get it for cheaper than that but i get you, I do a mix of it all, my wife is a deal seeking freak and we have 2 freezers stuffed with the best deals and we also have canned, MH etc. I do have a very good income so sometimes I forget what it was like. The one thing we can't get off our butts and do is canning, even bought a nice steam canner etc, but just can't bring ourselves to do it for some reason. Well, either way, sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders so you will do fine. Another thing to get is a camp stove and stash some tanks of propane if you can. They can be used to heat a portion the house if there is a power outage while you cook at the same time. I am a propane fan when it comes to generators also, propane never goes bad and gas can gum up after a while and if it a large area power outage, gas pumps don't work but every store sells propane anymore, but you would have to be quick about getting it in an emergency. Good luck my friend.
My wife and I lived off of Mountain House for a week after a hurricane and no power, she is really picky and liked the food. We also now bring them backpacking and she enjoys them when we do backpack camping.
Thanks for sharing your real world experience, Bento. You echo what those who have actually been in an emergency situation say... Mountain House is good stuff! -Rusty
Have you actually tried the food you bought for your storage? If not, you might want to soon.
:19 - cryodesiccation! We noticed the mistake right after posting. We know the difference between it and defiling something. It was just a slip and TH-cam disabled annotations so we can't lay the correction over the video.
I do need to try out a bag of the patriot pantry my dad has stocked up on but I do have so.e mountain house and have enjoyed every kind I've tried.
Stowaway gourmet is the best hands down
I have. I have Auguson Farms, Wise and 4Patriots Brands. Out of the three I purchased, Auguson was actually excellent. Wise was good and 4Patriots was good in a pinch. I think of the three, Auguson is something that I could eat every day for a month. All in all, nothing beats homemade but if it ever hits the fan, do you want to be prepared. Honestly if you don’t have a supply on hand right now, you are going to pay double or triple what I paid for my supplies when I got them. You have to buy the stuff when you don’t need it. Mountain house is very good but in my humble opinion over priced.
I've lived on both Mountain House meals, MREs and LRPs for months at a time during emergencies or between jobs/relocations.
My own personal review to add a little more in depth analysis of other flavors:
I bought quite a few Mountain House meals to see which ones I liked with the plan of ordering more of the ones I like for an emergency food supply.
Liked and ordered more of the following:
Beef Stroganoff- Great!
Spaghetti with meat sauce- Great!
Lasagna- very tasty. Not like real lasagna but tastes great.
Pasta Primavera- fantastic!
Chicken Teriyaki- great!
Chili Mac with Beef- very good, noodles a little stiff.
Granola- good/not great. Maybe too sweet but need something sweet for change of pace.
Did NOT order more of the following:
Mac&Cheese- Ok
Spicy Southwest Style Skillet- good/not great/ spicy
Chicken Fried Rice- didn't order more but it's good if you give it extra time to soak up the water in the pieces of chicken
Breakfast Skillet-eggs sucked, too tough
Scramble Eggs- eggs sucked, too tough
Chicken&Dumplings- tasted great but chicken was like old wood that crumbled when I chewed it
All were edible and I would not turn my nose up at any of them in a pinch. Ones I didn't like would probably be better with a little more time soaking in the water. Costco has their bucket of these meals on sale at a ridiculous price right now so I actually did get more Scrambled Eggs and Chicken&Dumplings because they were basically free. The others in the bucket would cost more individually than the entire bucket.
I drive a tractor trailer and always have mountain house food in my truck. Not all truck stops have food 24 hours or I get stuck someplace without food. I have a single burner MSR and water. Always have a decent meal.
That's smart, Daniel! I imagine you've got some really good ideas for preps living life on the road. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
I will have to look into that. I work out of a van and sometimes my job has me on a site all day and I bought a couple of cases of MREs for simplicity but I am Finding out that the heaters aren't up to the task and leave an odor long after the heater is evpended.
@@nickm9102 you have to watch using those heaters in an enclosed space. Sometimes I’ll go into the truck stop and fill a thermos with hot water for the freeze dried meals.
Same here if you ever been shut down on the side of a rd a good hot meal makes dealing with it better i use a jet boil myself but I also have a gas grill on the truck
@@nickm9102 Use a propane powered single stove. It heats up the water quickly.
I love how that veteran is so honest. No bullshit.
It's true!
😂😂😂😂😂 they are paid by mountainhouse
@@Jesusissaviorofworld actually we weren't. We bought these ourselves to test them. 100% genuine review with no vested interest.
@@Equip2Endure Doomsday prepper is sponsored by Ready.
Anything but crystal clarity costs lives in combat.
I lived off my Mountain House stash during the grid collapse here in Texas last week. I also used my stash to feed my guys at my EMS station due to all our local restaurants being closed. Not a complaint was heard.
Wow! Thanks for sharing the real world experience, Mike! Please shoot an email to story(at)equip2endure.com, I'd like to get in touch with you. Stay strong out there, amigo. -Rusty
From a fellow first responder (EMT-B) in NY, well done, brother! Well done, indeed!
If you need any help replacing what you used to help others, please let me know how I can help..
Anything tastes good if you're hungry enough!
We used a lot of Mountain House during the freeze, too, and it was good! It was my first time trying it. We all enjoyed it. I bought many more since then to keep to the side.
Used to work security in remote locations, always kept 2 or 3 mountain house meals in my pack in case I was stuck doing double shifts. I worked out of a truck and I eventually found I could just add water to the bag, seal it up, and leave on the dash with the heater blowing to warm it up. Worked better during winter when the heater was going anyway. I used to leave it 30 minutes on one side, flip it and leave it another 30. Was always nice and hot.
That's valuable input, Travis. Thanks for watching and sharing your real experience! -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure We used to leave MRE's foil packs on the engine of our ITV's in West Germany, or the Jeep in Ft. Lewis (not moving). Worked well. Just don't leave it there for too long and yer fine.
I used to sell readywise. When talking to the rep from the company, they told us that there regular line was focused on pure survival first and flavor second. The directions have you put extra water in them solely to up your water intake during times of emergency. The Readywise camping line is better then the bulk emergency line as far as flavor goes, most people don't realize they are different from the bulk meals. I would however agree that Mountain House is better on flavor. Mountain House and Readywise started by targeting two different markets. One focused on campers and hikers, while the other was more prepper and emergency focused.
That makes a lot of sense, Caleb. Thanks for chiming in with that insight! -Rusty
Oregon Freeze Dry (mountain house) was formed in 1963 in Oregon's Willamette Valley to produce dried sliced strawberries for a General Foods breakfast cereal called Post Toasties corn flakes. General Foods executive Ellis Byer was the enterprise's first general manager and later its president and chairman as well.
Oregon Freeze Dry was soon working to produce an alternative to canned rations for the military. It also supplied food for NASA's Apollo space program and developed meals for nuclear submarine crews and "Long Range Patrol Subsistence" in Vietnam. By the late 1960s, Oregon Freeze Dry was a publicly traded company with annual sales of about $5 million. The work in military rations led to the introduction of Mountain House brand freeze dried food for backpackers in 1970. Mountain House representatives claimed its products tasted better than those of competitors since the ingredients were cooked together before freeze drying. Within a few years Mountain House was marketing more than 100 different products. Oregon Freeze Dry also owned the Tea Kettle brand of backpacker food.
Old AT&T long lines bunkers from the cold war ear can still be found with stocks of mountain house in them to this day, from a time when the phone company was expected to keep the phones working for up to a month without external resupply after a nuclear war.
Sorry that’s a poor excuse to make it watery soup.
If they think you should drink extra water, they could just write on the instructions "HEY BY THE WAY take an extra swig of water while you wait, idiot" and accomplish the same thing without ruining their meals. That makes little to no sense.
How about good cooking instruction and I’ll drink a bottle of water with my meal vs dumping it in my Alfredo making it watery garbage.
Mountain House came in almost all of the arctic MRE's (cold weather - white ones) I had in Afghanistan and they were AMAZING, so good sometimes I bypassed regular chow to eat those MRE's since we had tons where I was at way up in the mountains. Needless to say, I have been a Mountain House devotee ever since.
Thanks for sharing the real life experience and thanks for watching too, T R! -Rusty
same on all that all the way!
Thank you and God bless you for your service.
That's good to hear. When I deployed to Norway in the 90s, I don't believe the RCW main courses were Mountain House, just a generic freeze dried meal in a clear plastic container with a white cardboard bottom so it would stand up. But the whole ration was good, packed with nuts, chocolate, little energy bars, soup and drink mixes, and a massive bag of oatmeal that was good with the freeze dried strawberries mix.
I loved the white MRE's too, did not know MH made them. Those and the Norwegian rations where the best ones
This was one of the better reviews I've stumbled across, genuine and informative responses. Loved the kid's reaction too! Thanks for the great content, subscribed!
Welcome aboard, Matt Diehl! Glad it was helpful. And yes, kids should be considered when stocking up on food storage. -Rusty
I’m new to buying freeze dried foods so this was helpful to actually have you prepare and taste it. I’ve seen both brands and now I know which ones I will purchase. Thanks
Happy to help and thanks for watching!
Buy some from many different manufacturers and test before buying a years supply or even camping.
Me too! My local walmart was out of the buckets but I'll be finding some on payday. Do you know if there is a sample package? That would be great to try. That way I'd know what to store for my family.
Have you seen the price from both brands? Have you tasted both of them? I totally agree that readywise isn't that great but mountain house runs about 5 times the price. They also didn't make the readywise correctly, it looks like they portioned it out and used the full amount of water for multiple portions.
@@craigcutler6919 do you have a video making it properly?
Basically - Mountain House is the way to go - THANKS very much for an honest test. This video was truly helpful for my wife and I making a decision for our first purchase of a product like this.
Take a look at this first - th-cam.com/video/QxIMNxlCy6Q/w-d-xo.html
I have 12 buckets of MH in my bunker. Bought in 2013. I’ve used a few for backpacking trips. Love MH. The chili mac is the bees knees.
Hey, Rob! Thanks for watching. MH is some fantastic stuff. Be sure to watch our most recent video where we taste test all 31 meals that MH currently offers (@). The chili mac seems to be a favorite amongst our viewers. -Rusty
If you were in a long term calorie deficit, where foraging from the forest was your only food source, even ready wise would taste good. That said, I prefer MH too.
No argument from us on that! Well said, Hawaii Volcano Squad. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure is mountain house food any good?
@@mehchocolate1257 it is good tasting and if you want try it out I recommend testing it. :)
You should try cutting back on the water for the ready wise just to see if it makes a difference
most anything would taste good. compared to starving to death.
Two things I've learned from trying a few different brands: Don't use as much water as the instructions say (or you end up with soup, like the ReadyWise did here), and let it rehydrate a while longer before opening up to eat. Usually use about 75 - 90% of the water, and add about 25 -35% more time to rehydrate. The less water to avoid soup, the longer hydrate time to make sure the water has a chance to rehydrate everything (or you end up with crunchy food that's not supposed to be crunchy).
Also when you add things like fatty meats and salt pepper butter etc it makes it much better, mountain house is too expensive for most people but if you have food stores you can you readywise etc as food bases.
I agree 100%, I usually cook the mountain houses 5 minutes longer and use less water.
Hi guys! We'd love to partner with you on a video! Let us know if you're interested :)
Let's talk! Shoot an email to partner(at)equip2endure.com
My kids and I love Mountain House. We take it camping anf I have a small amount set back with my prepping supplies. It's by far the best my family and I have tried , I love to help promote it too, dont know on what level but if I believe in a product Ive always been know to let others know how great it is. Wishful thinking anyways 🙂
@ Mountain House. I love your product! Keep up the good work.
I bought a bucket of the Wise foods to test. Mountain House beats that stuff hands down! The #10 cans are better for long term storage, as you don't have to worry much about perforating packaging. I've lost quite a bit of both Wise and Alpine Aire foods to thin mylar packaging failures. I've heard from other preppers that the Wise food made them sick, and I also got sick after eating one of the test packs. The only downside is that Mountain House has shrunk their lineup, and things like vegetables and fruits have been dropped. Would like to see drinks (milks/juices), baby foods, and pet foods. Babies and pets are parts of the family that need to be prepped for as well!
I keep a 30 day supply of pouches, and a year's supply in #10 cans. I also keep a box full in my vehicle for camping while gold mining. I used part of my 30 day supply to help a coworker get through motel living after a house fire. He was glad for the help, and was surprised at the quality of the meals.
Mountain house i would love for you to sponsor me . I pimp your products to everybody i care about anyway on a daily basis. Oh and you guys should try a chicken and sausage gumbo possibly cajun style beans and rice with sausage or jambalaya. A Chunky Texas style chili would be awesome too.
Look at the amount of actual meat in Mountain House vs others. That explains the price difference. It’s a big investment, but it’s food. It will be eaten eventually! It also makes it way easier to get my wife out in the backcountry knowing we have a yummy meal on hand.
Auguson Farms sells hamburger and sausage crumbles, as well as chunk chicken and beef, that is pretty good when reconstituted. The sausage crumbles are a bit hard to rehydrate, but still pretty good. One could always put together their own meals with that and rice or their Potato Shreds. I wouldn't recommend their sliced potatoes though, unless you are baking them in some liquid (like scalloped potatoes) for an hour or two.
Mountain House Chicken with Mashed Potatoes - 2 Servings& Mountain House Beef Stew
These are my go to freeze dried meals
Same
Same
That's cuz mountain house needs their food to be good cuz hikers use it. Readywise doesn't expect u to actually eat it
Omg I’m laughing right now! That’s hilarious!
True words. I happened to have opened up a #10 can of dehydrated celery (I do random taste tests on some things i have in storage. Tasted terrible - and found they used even the bitter hearts of celery)
@@theShamrockShepherdWagon ugh
So true!
100% dead on!
Remember. If you’re not always prepared, you’re never prepared. Keep the new content comin’
@Billt - Thanks for watching and the continued support!
I mean I get the sentiment, but that's objectively not true, lol. If you're prepared 50% of the time, you are, factually, not "never prepared"
I did 500 miles on the Appalachian trail many years back. I couldn’t afford to have mountain house meals every day but when I really needed a good hot meal at the end of a hard day (especially cold rainy days) mountain house was worth the price.
These products are made for different purposes.
I tested out a few dishes from MH during the Texas freeze, and they were all great. Despite the circumstances, I was excited to test out some of my emergency food. Cooking on a tiny Sterno stove and canned heat in my garage was my go-to, and these meals were awesome. They were SO easy, and there was more in that little pack than we thought. I have Saratoga Farms, Augason Farms, and MH, and MH will be my staple. I’ve bought much more since the freeze, and I’ll continue to buy more. Great products. Great reviews.
One of the best reviews I've ever seen on TH-cam, great job
That's how we role, Fergy! Thanks for watching and chiming in. We planning on doing another comparison video where we stack up all the major players in the space. Stay tuned! -Rusty
Emergency Essential is some of the best, they also sell Mountain House in #10 cans. The thing I've noticed the most is to let them set a little longer to have it done. Great company!
I was not too keen on their peas, but everything else was good. The meatballs goes really good with Mountain House spaghetti. Their ground beef soaks up taco spices real well, and the sausage crumbles go good with the MH biscuits n gravy.
The difference is consistency is pretty surprising. Glad you tried them out so I don’t have to!
It was really surprising to us. We were not expecting that big of a difference.
And I bet they are in the same price range, right? Equal products with equal prices. Ignoring the fact that mountain house is 5 times the price just makes everybody look shady.
I asked Ready Wise about this review - here is the response I received: They didn’t compare apples to apples. They used Mountain House camping meals, but did not use our camping meals. We have camping backpacking meals that are prepared in the pouch just like Mountain house does. It would be nice if they compared apples to apples and such. Our long term food storage (which they used) does need to be prepared in a pan like they showed. There is no doubt Mountain House put out the most expensive product to the marketplace, and they do have a good product. I am not going to dispute that. Our food holds its own in both the Emergency Food market, and the Outdoor/Camping food as well.
I absolutely agree with this comment. I wondered why they did not compare the same same, I had to double-check the date of this video. I have Mountain House and Wise and Readywise and to be honest, price is the biggest difference.
I wondered this too. I'm a backpacker and I've used ready-wise backpacking meals and they're nothing like what they showed in this video.
Although, I don't know why ready wise would put out that as an option either way. In an emergency situation cooking with a pot and pan isn't always practical.
Two of the dishes were the same thing though, so I am not giving Ready Wise a pass. These guys didn’t like the taste of the Ready Wise, so it doesn’t matter what type of products these are, they didn’t look appetizing, and these guys didn’t like the taste.
Lol it doesn't change the fact that ready wise came out as crappy tasting soup. They literally followed the directions and It still came out like garbage.
@@DayBowBow but. it would be nice to compare equal to equal products.
These are great reviews. Most people won’t know how good or crappy these are until they need them.
You're spot on, @. Glad you enjoyed it! Be sure to watch the latest taste testing video we put out (if you haven't done so already). -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure I will watch your latest reviews before making my purchases.
With mountain house, I use the exact amount of water, but double the wait time, stir & again double the wait time. Then I let it sit unsealed for 5 min before digging in. Absolutely perfect every time. My go to adventure meals.
I pretty much do the same
so far for me it has been at home.
so i do add to the products spices, for flavor or just for filling my belly better.
but mt house right out of the bag is great. but yes cut back a bit on the water for the eggs.
Mountain House biscuits and gravy, and breakfast skillet are stellar!
I’ve been wondering about the biscuits and gravy. Going to pick me up some!
@@micahwatson9017 if you buy the skillet, use slightly less water. Mix it well.
Honestly canned Sausage gravy is way better and biscuits are easy, flour,salt, butter,baking soda,& water.
Thank's for taking the time to do this review. I was on the fence about which brand to go with. Not anymore! Thank's again and great review by the way.
Glad to hear it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
With taxes you are looking at 7100 for mountain or 1700 for wise for a 6 month supply. I doubt you are on the fence if price matters at all and if it doesn't matter then you wouldnt be on the fence either. Are you a real person or just full of it?
I've been backpacking for 55 years, usually preferred Mountain House to the alternatives. Used to love the Turkey Tetrazinie, especially since it came in a very light aluminum bowl that I could reuse for those other meals that didn't cook in the bag. Always expensive, but worth it for the light weight if backpacking. For emergency use though, where that is not so important, I have a box of MRE's. Newer ones even self-heat, and contain other useful items; seasoning, cookie, drink mix, coffee & creamer, sugar, toilet paper, matches, etc.
Always Appreciate Chris' Candor!!! Stay Strong, Live Long!!!
I've always been a huge fan of Mountain House. I almost bought some Readywise for my long-term food storage, but I'm glad I watched your video first!
Happy to help.
Thankyou for making this video!! We have Mountain House in our go bags for hunting. I've thought about buying the readywise, but after watching this I won't be. Also I really like the fact that y'all mention whether or not your kids will eat them-i've got picky eaters so that is really helpful!
Thank you for confirming my suspicions about ReadyWise!
Check out Freeze Dried Wholesalers, I can get you 15% your entire order if interested.
I had done a lot of reading and shopping with my eyes, until I finally tried one or two Mountain House items. I was sold, primarily on the biscuits and gravy, of all things. If you can freeze dry THAT and get it right, you can do almost anything.
I love biscuits and gravy 😋
That's my favorite mountain house! I keep a bunch of those in my go bag
@@mhernandez3078 Only 7 bucks on Amazon. That is, if you want to help the biggest corporation on the planet.
I want to get those ones so bad to try but as a canadian, amazon sellers are ripping you off or there not even available at all.
Rusty! It's been a while. So glad I found your channel but I wish I would have found it last week... before I made an impulse buy at Costco of, you guessed it, some Readywise. Oh well. In case of emergency and it came with a dry sack. Yes!
Thanks for the info and I'll use your link to grab some Mountain House for our upcoming Uintas trip with a couple of our boys and their wives. Yes, they're all married now. Time flies. Tell the fam hello from me and Melanie.
Awesome video! Liked and subscribed! Side note... I really like the logo.
Glad you found it useful, Dave! Costco has a great return policy. If you put in an order, be sure to try the curry. -Rusty
Thanks for the review, and taste test! I've heard that Mountain House is the Cadillac of prep food, and here you can see why. New Subscriber! Came over from Canadian Prepper's page!
Glad you liked it, @Investigator77! We actually just did a huge comparison video between all the major players in the adventure meal/survival food space. Should drop in the next few weeks. Stay tuned! -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure I will watch for that. I have to say that your side kick there, sure looks Canadian! My brother was in the Air Force here for 28 yrs, and all his friends look like your buddy! LOL
If I were shopping for convenient freeze dried meals and compared side by side, either in store, or online, just for the “one-pot” heat and eat by Mountain House, that’s the one I’d bye. Thanks so much for the taste test!
That would be a good choice based on our experience. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
starving situation: “...I’d rather not eat it.” kept me entertained. great vid.
I've tried several of the emergency food brands and Mountain House has always been above and beyond the others. Perfect for camping.
Thanks for sharing real world experience, Joe! It seems like those who say, "just use the cheap stuff!" haven't actually tried the options, right? -Rusty
Try the ready wise with 1/2 or 1/3 of the water
Rusty I get a kick every time I watch one of your videos as I was still going by Rusty when I attended the best cooking school in the world back in 82! As a Certified Executive Chef and an avid bushcrafter I would relish the chance to do one of these vids with you! Great job bud!
Love cooking myself. I see what you did there... a chef "relishing" the opportunity. Glad you're liking the videos. -Rusty
Looks like my readywise costco pack is now considerd part of my barter stash. Will order some mountain house to replace it.
😆 At least you found out now, right? Thanks for watching, Steven! -Rusty
Same!
@@Equip2Endure oh yeah. Thanks for the review. Is there a code yet to use at mountain house so you get some of the proceeds?
@@Gonz.0 Thanks for thinking of that. We're actually in talks with them right now.
@@Equip2Endure should i hold out a few days to purchase? Or is this something that take time?
Never use as much water as they say, 20% less or so. If you need more you can add but I found that helps tremendously.
Thanks for the tip and for watching!
Hey Chris! Thank you for your service!
Mountain House Pasta Primavera is crazy good. The veggies are what makes it legit.
Thanks for this video. You just saved me from making a big mistake. I just ordered the 14-day Mountain House emergency food supply kit.
if i had the money ( retired) i would buy a couple 30 day supplys.
just me but if what some people are scaring people with can not hurt.
if i die. it will help my friends out.
if i live i have no worries about my next meal.
I bought a bunch of Mountain House and came real close to actually having to use them during the winter storms that caused huge electric outages in Texas. Like most people I hadn’t actually tried them before that though. I got lucky and didn’t experience a long outage, many people around me did. I decided to try the meals out after the storms passed, just to make sure I’d actually want to eat them during an emergency. I was really surprised at how good they were! I agree, they taste like regular meals someone would throw together during regular times. I’d have no problem eating them during an emergency. Try your food out folks, because someday you might have to eat it. It took almost a week for our stores to start to get back to normal. People were having trouble finding food for a few days.
WrathfulTexan- Thanks for sharing you real life experience and thanks for watching. -Rusty
I love mountain house, I look forward to eating it whenever I go backpacking
That's when you know it's good stuff! Thanks for watching. -Rusty
I think one of the most important differences isn't just taste, but nutrients - the Mountain House has way more protein since it contains meat, so taste matters, but so does the fact that you're getting more protein in the Mountain House meals.
Nailed It!
Glad I saw the video... great job guys! I know I like a mountain house because I’ve had many of them. I saw the ready wise and was thinking about them, you saved me from a big mistake!
Hey, Steve! Glad you found it useful. We try to be careful about being too biased and would recommend you try it yourself if you have any doubts about our experience. But after our experience, our tribes aren't planning on buying it again. -Rusty
I've purchased three buckets of Ready wise for an emergency. Never tried it but I guess it's better than nothing. I've purchased a number of mountainhouse from walmart as individual packs. Guess I stick to Mountainhouse. Good info, wish I watch it before I purchased the readywise.
Thanks for watching! If the cases are unopened, you may be able to return them. Or craigslist them. -Rusty
When my niece was at college in England I would send her mountain house she loved it. I sent freeze dried because it was more reasonable postage and made her life a little easier.
As a backpacker, I always say with Mountain House: less water, let it sit longer.
And MH's Lasagna is freekin delicious. 😄
Legit my favourite dehydrated meal on the trail! Heck I'd eat that at home!
Agreed.
Had the beef stroganoff 10,000 feet up Rainier the night before summiting, one of the best meals of my life.
Flavor is good. Cheese stuck to my to my titanium spoon. A pain to bite it off. Chili is my favorite
Also mountain house bags can be used to store water after you rince it out.
My best advice for keeping food like this stored for emergencies is also keep some seasonings in water tight containers and in a ziplock freezer bag so it’s easy to grab. A little salt and pepper some sugar, maybe some garlic powder, Cajun seasoning can make a huge difference. Add a bottle of hot sauce and maybe some bouillon packets too. Instant coffee and some powder creamer if you have the room.
Yes!
Basically how they packed MRE's for the military 20 years ago. I heard they nixed the Tobasco.
Thank you for doing this comparison. I’m getting ready to do a taste test between Mountain House, Peak Refuel and Next Mile Meals.
Sounds good. Always good to test things before you need them. -Rusty
Now I know which freeze dried meals to buy/or not to buy, can you review best way to carry water/purify water. This is necessary since it is a component in freeze dried meals.
Make sure to watch this one before buying any - th-cam.com/video/QxIMNxlCy6Q/w-d-xo.html As far as water, thruhikers love using Sawyer mini water filters. Super lightweight and very effective. -Rusty
Good work, thanks. Looking beyond regular jars, cans, cartons and jugs, "Wise" is only about 5% of my prep supply, MH maybe 20%, AF maybe 25%, and MRE's the remainder.
My get-home bag reflects that ; the usual breakout is a full MRE, a couple of supplemental Mains, a trio of MH or Alpine Air dehydrateds, a couple of tuna lunch kits, a couple of Spam singles, a couple of oatmeal pouches, several Clif bars, some peanut butter, a ramen packet, jerky pouch and some other snacks - enough to keep me three days on the move in a variety of circumstances and some to spare to help out others.
This was an excellent comment, Steve! Thanks for sharing your experience and thinking. -Rusty
Mountain House meals, generally, have a higher protein content too. This provides a longer term energy that will keep you going longer/further than a bag of, mostly, carbohydrates.
I've spent a number years just picking up a few bags (or a can) every time they went on sale at a local store, and currently have a nice little stockpile for a greatly reduced overall price.
I live in a tsunami zone of the PNW, so I did my research & tasting quite a few years ago.
I've done this same taste test with these and several other brands. Ready Wise was the worst tasting and now sits in the basement waiting for the apocalypse. I'll probably still not eat it and just use to bait other humans.
Mountain house is the go to brand for quality, taste, and like they pointed out it comes in its own cooking container. Thanks for the video!
What other brands have you tried? Any warnings you can give the community?
Thrive Life has great tasting food!
We'll be sure to try it out when we have the chance. Thanks for watching!
Haha bait other people. Just a rabbit snare and you see a readywise bag in the middle, it'll gather dust out there lol.
Good points on ease of cooking/cleanup and ability to eat on the move. Nice to be able to eat some of it and have the rest in a sealable container.
I’ve almost bought readywise. Thank you! Thank you! Saved me! Well done!
Glad it was helpful! -Rusty
I bought Mountain House kit for emergency supplies around the start of pandemic lock down last year. I also wanted to see if the taste was ok, so prepared one of the pouches, maybe chicken stroganoff(?). I remember that it tasted fairly decent and the pouch preparation was super easy. Like the reviewers, I would generally recommend Mountain House for either emergency meals or even for regular camping trips.
I’ve had mountain house plenty of time, I usually use less water than recommended but I learned that over time. But it tastes the best from what I’ve had. It’s good to know about the readywise packs needing a separate container since my friend bought me one of the buckets, haven’t had a chance to try them though. Alpine aire is decent taste wise but I like it due the amount of sodium in it compared to mountain house. I also recently found omeals, only ate the beef stew and it was okay. I love that the packs have a flameless heater in them.
Thanks for watching, William! How grateful we'd all be in an emergency situation if we have a supply of tasty, convenient, and nutritious meals on hand. -Rusty
Alpine Aire is a NOGO for me! They need to start buying mylar pouches that can withstand a little torture. I've bought new AA pouches and found them to be junk within 2 weeks. Their #10 cans are OK, but not their pouches.
You can always add water if you need to but you can't always take it out.
I've found that Mountain House's suggested water amount is right on. I just keep some heat on it while waiting for it to reconstitute. I found that I initially didn't give it enough time to reconstitute.
I’ve backpacked for 6 straight days on Isle Royale eating only Mountainhouse meals. It’s pretty good and very easy to prepare. I packed one small pot and stove and a spork. I ate well all week, but I would say the breakfasts are the best. I could probably live on their Breakfast Skillet meal.😎
Thanks for sharing your real world experience, RC Heas! And thanks for watching. -Rusty
Thank you so much for doing this video! It has helped me make an important decision. Well done and thanks again.
Happy to help, @Bizz! -Rusty
The mountain house is sitting next to the readywise at my Costco. Was going to buy a few buckets until now. Good review
Yep. Millions of Americans are seeing the same thing. After trying both of them the low price is no longer tempting to these reviewers. Thanks for watching, Jason! -Rusty
For European viewers, I recommend Fuel Your Preparation. Mountainhouse had a European branch for a long time, but they closed shop here and another company (FYP) took over their facilities and production, and their dishes are even better than Mountainhouse’s was. I’ve had all the Europeans main dishes by MH and FYP and where MH had a few that were not tasty, all of FYP’s are good, and some are really surprisingly good.
Summit To Eat are pretty good too
Great video guys. Good comparison. As a soon-to-be thru-hiker I'm definitely looking towards Mountain House for some quality products on the trail. They are already my favourite meals out in the backcountry! And I know I speak for a lot of backpackers.
Question though... have you thought about trying this with the ready wise backpacking meals? They have those too. Perhaps a follow-up video? Could be a hit!
You know why Mountain House has been around for so long because they make a good product. I found out about them in the early 90's when my buddies got into camping. We bought our gear from a local Army/ Navy surplus and would usually snap up any MRE's they would have, spaghetti being the crown gem. Preparing for one trip there was only one of the spaghetti MREs available but the store owner pointed out this new product called Mountain House that had freezing dried meals for backpacking and they had a spaghetti meal so we purchased a couple. Was blown away by the taste and you got more than the MRE portion. It became our go to option. Eventually tried the other meals and we forgot about the MRE's altogether.
Good review, wish you'd have put some of the MH in bowls to see it better, and price difference?
Please check the more recent taste test video. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
I was going to buy a bucket of Readywise, but now I'm going with Mountain House.
That is a WISE decision. -Rusty
I laughed way to hard on your open case of ready wise give away. I have used mountain house for years and have wondered if the alternative might be better. Thanks for the video.
Great video, you should compair Mountain house verse augason farms
I'd watch that
And Patriot Supply
I keep a bucket of Mountain House around just for emergencies. I've used Mountain House products numerous times when out hiking and camping. It tastes more than good enough. But mainly I just want the calories and nutrients it offers. It works for me.
Girlfriend and I about to spend a week hiking the Great Wall in Bob Marshall Wilderness. One thing that surprised us was the number of options for these meals. You might have saved us from finding something out the hard way! Thank you!
Tastes like real food a great beginning and flavour another go to . First time I've actually seen the food most just talk about it well interesting and informative.🥂
*Ive tried them all for my job, Mountain House 100% or make your own !! HOOAH*
Thanks for sharing your experience and for watching!
I just bought a Harvest Right freeze dryer...gonna start making my own!!!
@@shuff1111 wow awesome, Ill buy some food from you !
@@SWPG Its quite a long process to make large amounts,
And I'm in the learning process, but if your serious, I can send you a preliminary batch of ice cream sandwich bites, if you want.
It will be in a mylar bag with oxygen absorber.
I plan on selling batches locally, I'm in Washington state...of course It would cost the price of the product plus shipping.
@@shuff1111 brother if you can make it, we need to sell it. I sell Freeze Dried Wholesalers Meals, can add you to the deal !
I've only had the Mt House and I've always thought they were good. Being prior service and eating plenty of MREs; these actually taste like something you'd cook in your kitchen. Thanks for doing the comparison so I didn't waste money 👍
Happy to help, Hooks! And thanks for your service! -Rusty
SMH, you know the mountain house is 5x the cost of the wise right? Have you tried them? You should try them and compare prices and use cases instead of just going along with the crowd. This channel isn't making any sense... nobody is worried about the price of mountain house and yet here you are talking about not wasting money.
@@craigcutler6919 Sorry... I'll pass on Wise ( and yes... I tried them). Mountain House Rocks... and just like everything else in Life... you get what you pay for..... Quality costs... just sayin....
I've eaten ready wise camping pouches and they were thick and creamy. This video is a bad comparison
Do a taste test on 4Patriots if possible. I'm looking to buy some freeze-dried prep foods. Just undecided about the best one to choose. Based on this vid and comments I'm leaning towards Mountain House. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for watching, Bro. Allen M! We'll take that shot if we have it (trying 4Patriots). In the mean time, you will probably want to try them both out yourself anyway to see which you like better. If you read through the comments though you will see that most people with real situational experience will choose Mountain House every time.
@@Equip2Endure Thanks. I will.
Alpine Air has been pretty good for me. And XMRE too, a meal with several "courses" costs little more than a MH from most retailers.
@@stevekillgore9272 thanks for the info I'll be looking into that.
Thank you for the video. Very informative. I was going to buy Readywise myself, alike your friend.
Glad you found it helpful! What we like to say on this matter is try it yourself, but don't be surprised if your reactions are the same as ours. -Rusty
Really thanks guys. It's been a long while that I have been wondering what brand to purchase for "Just in Case" instances & now I have my answer. 👍🍷
I have stuff from almost every freeze dried food company out there, rarely do they ever compare favorably to mountain house in quality and taste. I to wish mountain house was more economical, but i still buy it .
Heck, I'll take the opened box of ready wise lol. It beats starving 😂🤣😂
I have tried ready wise, you are better off trying to catch a fat pigeon with that stuff than eating it yourself, its pretty damned bad.
Interesting data points.
I might have to try my meals in a few months when i get time.
As a positive, if it's soupy, it should be easier to drink down fast ;)
It will help it exit quickly too. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
From the review, I would go with the simple hot water mix in bag so fuel isn’t wasted “Cooking” the other meal using utensils that require cleaning = more work. In many hiking areas open fires are discouraged. In a SHTF a fire will divulge your location.
Astute observation, Steven. Those cook in the bag options are high speed - low drag for sure. Thanks for watching! -Rusty
I just bought 4 buckets of the ReadyWise at Costco because of the serving count and ease of stackability. Suffice to say I will be returning all of them. Hopefully they have Mountain House available!!!
Keith- Sometimes it's tough for us to not sound like we're bought and paid for by some product makers. But for real.... that's probably a good decision on your part. If how your emergency food tastes is important to you, I suggest you hold off and watch our next taste test video that should drop within a week. We compared 12 types of emergency food including most of the big brands. If you can't wait for that, and Costco doesn't have Mountain House, you can order it through the link in this site and use code "E2E". It will get you 10% off your order. Mountain House scored #2 in the taste test. -Rusty
@@Equip2Endure Thank you for the quick reply Rusty👍 Taste is a big factor for sure. When you're in an 'emergency' situation food/comfort is huge to morale. And when you're out camping/packing/etc the quality of your food also makes an impact. I'm looking forward to your upcoming video with, uhhh, baited breath. lol Thanks again!
I just got a bunch of Ready Wise buckets, now I'm going to start buying Mountain House
😆 You probably won't regret that decision, Henry! Thanks for watching. -Rusty
don't feel too bad, this guy is sponsored by mountain house
@@shannonofarrell1241 Regardless of sponsorship, Wise food is the worst FD food out there, so it would not take a great product to beat it. On the other hand, MH is really really expensive.
@@FernbarkFrist yeah, I mean mountain house is pretty good for backpacking/camp food, but I don't like the way in which this is biased without any transparency.
Minotaur Trading Company has a lot of awesome options as well...
Your testing was solid!
I have tested, used and stored Wise Company, Mountain House, Augason, Legacy and two or three others that are not even in business anymore.
Mountain house tastes best, Augason has somewhat better nutrition *with some meals*
Though, all of the meals tested were high in sodium and carbs, not great for long term, but very good for short term needs -
I believe the only one out of business is Legacy
I have a solid mix , but the majority of my stuff is Mountain House and Augason Farms...hell we use Augason Farms stuff regularly in the pantry as it is...
Thanks for watching, Thomas Richardson! That's critical - working your storage food into regular rotation so it's not so disruptive when you HAVE to use it. -Rusty
Augason Farms freeze dried fruit is really great. I used to use it to add to my cereal in the morning (Honey Bunches of Oats Strawberries ftw). I tried a couple different brands but Augason ended up still being cheaper (#10 cans) and tasted way better.
I asked some of the guys on SAR from the Sheriff's office. No question, hands down Mountain House. It is so good, plain and simple. It's what the professionals eat up there in the field! I personally prefer their quality and taste. They have a great variety of meals too.
THAT is valuable input, Thomas! The guys who have to live on these types of products in difficult circumstances should have good insights. Thanks for watching and chiming in! -Rusty
Thanks for doing this. Good to know what's the better brand/flavor/texture
This is why I buy a few of each brand. I'll probably be saving the readywise till the end or giving it to my neighbors haha
That's actually a great idea! I mean, not doing your neighbors wrong, but keeping this on hand to be able to give food to someone that doesn't harm your own supply. Its a lot less suspicious to say, yeah, we don't have much, but here's something for your family, than to say noope - we've got nuthin (while not having new tighter notches in your belt.
use it for currency when money is useless haha
Mountain House is high quality but good grief, look at the prices and the servings/calories...what they call 2 servings is really 1 and you're going to spend $35-$40/day/person. Imagine what that would cost for a 180 day food supply for a family of 4. At best it's $25,200 and at worse its $28,800 and don't forget the sales tax. Compare this with using ordinary canned foods and dry goods that you rotate through as part of your regular diet, stocking up on sales and in most states it's sales tax free. Rather than facing a $25k+ bill, you not only save money with sales but your emergency food stores don't cost a single penny "extra" as it's food you're eating anyway and on less than what folks on food stamps receive. Take the spaghetti entree as an example. As an alternative you could open a couple of 28oz cans of Red Gold crushed tomatoes that were 89cents/can, a 28oz can of Keystone Meats ground beef ($6.29), add some garlic powder, dried minced onions, freshly ground black pepper, dried oregano/parsley/basil, a little olive oil and add a pound of pasta (49 cents) and a little extra water and in short order you've got a really nice batch of spaghetti that's enough to feed 5-6 hungry people for about $9 or $1.50/serving. Coincidentally this is also a really nice and easy dinner on a busy night after a long day, especially if you don't have anything defrosted and are wondering what to make for dinner. You could go with cans of Spaghetti O's for 89 cents each which you can even eat cold right out of the can, but it's so easy to do far better. By stocking the basics like oatmeal in addition to being hearty breakfast fare you've got a good bit of the makings for crumbles and buckles, cookies and bars and even home made granola. Honey, which never goes "bad", canned fruits, veggies, seafood, evaporated milk, etc. and with just granulated sugar and molasses you're ready to make powdered sugar and both light and dark brown sugars. I just ordered 4 cases of Motts unsweetened apple sauce as it's on sale for $2.79/46oz bottle. It's got just 3 ingredients: apples, water and citric acid. Not only is it great by itself but heat it up, add some cinnamon and crumble a few graham crackers over it and you've got an easy dessert. It's nice to add to oatmeal and in your baking recipes too as it can replace a good portion of sugar and oil. Freeze dried foods are nice and convenient but come at a great cost and don't forget you need water to reconstitute them unlike canned foods which will provide you with hydration. Never forget that our military saved the entire world TWICE on canned goods (C-rations) alone and roughly 25lbs of food for a weeks worth of food per person isn't an insurmountable amount of weight to bear. It's also hard to believe that life is really worth living if you can't end the day with a can of sliced pears in light syrup (no HFCS) when things have gone wrong or maybe even if you've just run out of fresh fruit. ;)
I get what you are saying, but the scenario was something to grab and go. For bug in you are 100% right it would cost way too much, but for a week supply to toss in the truck before as you run out the door it's a good option.
@@jeremymiller1088 It's easy to keep a couple of 5 gallon buckets stocked with grab and go meals for a week or so. In just 20 minutes I can have a weeks worth of food, clothes, toiletries, 28 gallons of water, 12 gallons of gasoline, all of our important papers and personal valuables and most importantly a 30 day supply of toilet paper loaded up and on our way. I'm out of breath and happy to be sitting down behind the wheel but I can do it. We never let our fuel tanks get below a half a tank so with that and the 12 gallons we can go at least 500 miles...I only use 100% gasoline so that also boosts our MPG slightly. If we've got more time I can grab more, if we've got less time we can skip the clothes and toiletries and be gone in 10 minutes but realistically if you need to be gone in under an hour, you're not going to make it either way as you won't have the time to outrun anything.
@@mac11380 I agree that Mountain House is the EASIEST prepping option but the extreme costs make it an unrealistic one, even with the sales. I'm also very familiar with Emergency Essentials and I've been receiving their sales emails for years. With my strategy, it's not even "emergency" supplies as they're incorporated into our normal diet which is the very best way to handle food storage. In addition to oatmeal which I can use in part to make granola, I can also dress up the oatmeal with strawberry jam, vanilla extract, apple sauce, maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, a variety of canned fruits and probably a few more items that I'm forgetting. I've also got instant pancake mix and enough A.P. flour to make all sorts of breakfast goodies. I can also be up and running with laying hens in just a few weeks. I haven't to this point because we like to go on several vacations each year and prefer the autonomy. We also keep almost a month's worth of eggs on hand. Additionally, millions of people get by on breakfast cereal every morning and I'll take good old fashioned oatmeal every day of the week over that. If I look back at just the past few days it's almost hard to notice all of the food storage items we've used. The other day our last 2 bananas became over ripe so my wife and I split a can of pineapple chunks at breakfast, we've split cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup (99 cents) at lunchtime along with a half of a sandwich. Don't worry about those 2 over-ripe bananas, tonight I made a banana snack cake with buttercream frosting out of them, for little more than $1. Let's see, the stick of butter came from our freezer as we stocked up when it was $1.99/lb, the A.P. flour we keep on hand and was also bought on sale, the sugar is the same story, as is the vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, etc. It's all items we keep on hand and buy on sale. I also made fish for dinner tonight from our freezer along with tartar sauce made with mayo, a diced Milwaukee Kosher Dill Pickle, freshly ground black pepper and finely minced onion which were fresh but I could have easily re-hydrated some dried minced onions instead. In a few more days, considering the leftover tartar sauce, I'll break open a can of salmon and make salmon cakes. Again, everything we keep on hand, all bought on sale...we just picked up the cases of Mott's unsweetened apple sauce that I ordered a few days ago. We'll rotate through our food many times over but again, it's just our everyday food and not an additional cost as the MH would be and it saves money to boot. Likely tomorrow I'll make a Sicilian pizza from scratch using our bread flour, instant yeast (which I recently opened and is 7 years out of date but is still alive and kicking), a 28oz can of Red Gold crushed tomatoes that I'll strain for a few minutes to make the sauce and I'll chill the drained juice to drink the next morning for breakfast. The Italian sausage and pepperoni are stashed in our deep freeze, I can use either fresh mushrooms or the canned ones we bought on sale and we keep 6 one pound blocks of mozzarella cheese on hand in the fridge. For next week's food storage dinner I'm thinking turkey ala king or chicken pot pie, but who knows, I may just make stew. We also enjoy our "little store" that we have downstairs, my wife loves to "go shopping". In the next few months I'm looking for good sales to restock our pickles, yellow and brown mustards, ketchup and maybe a few jars of mayo too. Next it'll be brats in May for grilling season, as regular as clockwork.
@@tomj528 I get it for cheaper than that but i get you, I do a mix of it all, my wife is a deal seeking freak and we have 2 freezers stuffed with the best deals and we also have canned, MH etc. I do have a very good income so sometimes I forget what it was like. The one thing we can't get off our butts and do is canning, even bought a nice steam canner etc, but just can't bring ourselves to do it for some reason. Well, either way, sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders so you will do fine. Another thing to get is a camp stove and stash some tanks of propane if you can. They can be used to heat a portion the house if there is a power outage while you cook at the same time. I am a propane fan when it comes to generators also, propane never goes bad and gas can gum up after a while and if it a large area power outage, gas pumps don't work but every store sells propane anymore, but you would have to be quick about getting it in an emergency. Good luck my friend.
Auguson farms freeze dried food is just as good and high quality. Not to mention alot cheaper!
Good to have in survival situations. Mountain house is the way!!
Love mountain house been uSing these for couple of years. Rice and chicken is one of my favs! Good job!
I am one of those people that buys it and stores it...thanks for the review! Hello from Chicago.
Mountain house makes eating in the rough not to bad. Best tasting meals out there.
Mountain House Chicken and Rice is so popular with one of my kids, we got him a #10 can of it for Christmas!
YOU, SIR, are a parent who is making good gift decisions! Thanks for watching. -Rusty
I would love to see a taste off between Mountain House and Legasy brand freze dried food.
My wife and I lived off of Mountain House for a week after a hurricane and no power, she is really picky and liked the food. We also now bring them backpacking and she enjoys them when we do backpack camping.
Thanks for sharing your real world experience, Bento. You echo what those who have actually been in an emergency situation say... Mountain House is good stuff! -Rusty