Best tinned food options for a seven-day emergency food hamper

[Linnende]

In light of the recent government guidelines in preparedness for any emergency. I am trying to put together a 7 day emergency food hamper. I do not normally eat tin food. What are your favourite tin food options? Is there really any difference between supermarket own brands. Have you started preparing, if so, what are you storing away?

What emergency are you preparing for?

I love tesco tinned mackerel in spicy tomato sauce. Its delicious cold.

some great ideas. Hadn’t thought of the microwave rice, that’s a good shout as most say can be eaten cold so could mix with tinned tuna.

I think a camping stove is a very good idea!

A packet of flour tortillas in your freezer take up no room and can then be used to make wraps with whatever your chosen tin contains- tesco bean chilli with long life guac, salsa, sour cream for example or mango chutney with a curry tin and so on.

I also like the alpro soya pots- chocolate or vanilla, need no refrigeration.

I guess anything is possible at the moment. I was thinking more about the grid going down, but who really knows 🤷‍♂️ 🤔

Sounds really nice, thank you!

Since 'The beast from the east' we've kept a store of food, but only stuff we actually use so can rotate.

Food that can be eaten cold.
Tins of beans and spaghetti - (M&S 50p ones are great).
Corned beef, spam, hot dog sausages.
Tinned fruit, custard, rice pudding.
Cereals.
Loads of bread in the freezer.
Crackers and biscuits.
Powdered milk.

Idahooan mash is pretty good if you can heat water. Same for quick cook pasta.

We have a wood burner with a kettle on it. We always have a lot of wood.

Lots of cold packs in the freezer and a cool box on standby. Cheese/butter is fine out of the fridge for a while but after that I'd put it in the cool box then keep that outside.

We've got some bottled water and loads of starbucks coffee in the glass bottles that don't need a fridge (costco!). I need my coffee.

Wine 🤪

Our electrics are dodgy in heavy rain so we have a cupboard full of candles, matches, powerbanks, a couple of rechargeable lanterns and a fully charged solar/wind up radio/torch combo.

Books, colouring books, art stuff, board games etc in case of boredom.

The M&S tinned curry’s and tinned steak is lovely! If you can afford the extra £ I would say they are worth it. Not tried to Spag Bol.

Ive just remembered fruit cake lasts forever out of the fridge - adding one of those. Also peanut butter and crackers. I think I could last for three days on those.

I don't have a camping stove as I am irrationally scared of gas, but they are a good option. Also BBQ, fire pit, Kelly kettle, sun oven, hay box, wonder bag, Dutch oven, pizza oven.

Wonder bag and haybox extend your fuel by letting the heated up food continue cooking by it's own heat.

You pick a couple of options, eg plenty of no heat food and at least one option to heat up food. Have flasks to store hot food and water in. Cookware that you can use to heat the food in on/in your chosen method.

Different methods useful for different conditions. Having neighbours you can share with will help. They might have the BBQ and gas and you have the food.

Tinned mac n cheese. I used to eat it cold as a student. Absolutely disgusting, yet I do kind of like it!

chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans. borlotti beans, chopped tomatoes, baked beans

pears, peaches, grapefruit, mandarins, custard

sardines, tuna, mackerel

rice pudding, custard, steamed pudding maybe?

If it is a hamper as a present, I'd add some less basic things, like jars of roast peppers, almond-stuffed olives, artichole hearts, nice pestos or other sauces.

DH got a load of those John West tuna pasta things from B and M, they are eaten cold

@ThatPearlSnail - thank you for mentioning powdered milk - it's something I always forget. Also, lactose free milk stays fresh far longer than normal dairy milk, so could tolerate a power cut better.

The pouches are good:
Pataks veg biriyani
Jamie Oliver grains
Leon meals
etc

And tinned fruit.

Apparently a great "hack" is to put tea lights into a muffin tray and then sit your pot/pan on top so you can cook! I've stocked up on tea lights for this!

Excellent idea and the best part is it requires a trip to ikea! Yes I know I can go elsewhere I choose to ignore that

Good time of year to pick up fruit cake bars from Aldi. Can confirm lasts ages.

John west silvery tuna salads there’s a bean one and one with pasta and some varieties and one or 2 are gluten free aswell - I e had them for work they don’t need to go in the fridge and they are really tasty

Silvery
I mean so some

https://www.trolley.co.uk/explore/john-west/on-the-go

here they are they’re fab

You do need a space between the tealights and the pot / pan otherwise the tealights go out. Also, obviously, keep children and pets away.

For some reason poppadoms have just popped in to my mind, obviously you need heat or a microwave to cook them but I think they last a while.

Also if you have an Indian / Chinese / Polish grocery store near by it might be worth a trip for some more unusual tinned foods, because lets face it even if you love tinned tuna you don't want to eat just that. A tin or jar of tamarind paste or a tin of Punjabi tinder could brighten things up and ghee lasts forever even without fridge.

Yes, they are the ones that DH gets from B and M, they are £1.75 in there, you can sometimes get them on offer elsewhere if you buy 2

Same here. A great hangover cure with burnt toast!

Aldi's own version is pretty good and so is their tinned ravioli. Not something I'd choose to eat every day but definitely worth having a stash for emergencies.