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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
 Posted - 06/30/2010 : 02:24:03
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Someone asked me earlier tonight on my blog why I'm stocking up on canned mackerel instead of salmon or tuna. Here's what I wrote:
Well, for one thing, mackerel doesn't usually carry the risk of mercury content that tuna has -- jack mackerel isn't as high up the food chain, so to speak, as tuna is -- since tuna eat so many smaller fish and typically grow so large, their tissues will accumulate large amounts of mercury, much more per pound of body weight than other fish, including and especially mackerel.
Beyond that, my main preference for mackerel over salmon is that canned mackerel only costs about half as much as canned salmon. According to the info on the cans I’ve got in my pantry, the shelf life of canned mackerel is at least three years, so it’s easy to store a lot of protein for a long time in a relatively small space. Take a look at this photo:
Each case of canned mackerel has 12 cans, and in this picture each case of mackerel on the right is stacked two deep. According to this nutrition information, each can of mackerel contains roughly 78 grams of protein, more than enough protein for the average person per day under average circumstances:
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However, in a grid-down or other labor-intensive environment, obviously our bodies are going to need more protein as physical activity compensates for the lack of machine-assisted activity (we’ll probably be walking and lifting a lot more than we do now):
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Let’s say just for the sake of argument that mackerel is my main source of protein (which it isn’t — I’m storing it as a complement to beans/rice and other cured or preserved meats). If the mackerel were my sole (pun intended) source of protein, I could store a year’s worth of dietary protein for one person in the space in the photo above. And besides being a very compact protein source, mackerel (just like salmon) is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which help lower “bad” cholesterol and promote overall heart health.
And in terms of nutritional density, fish is just about the best source of protein on the planet. There’s only about 12 cases of mackerel in the photo above (the boxes on the far left side aren’t mackerel), but assuming I want to store a year’s worth of protein in the form of mackerel, I can stack 30 cases of mackerel three wide, two deep and five high in the space you see in the photo. And now with my basic protein requirements taken care of, I can focus on the rest of my food acquisitions…which leads me to the point that I’ve had a lot of people really turn their noses up at the thought of eating canned mackerel because 1.) they don’t like fish, and 2.) it’s canned mackerel. That’s why I’ve got at least 30 quarts (you read that correctly: quarts) of spices running the gamut from cayenne to cumin to dehydrated onion to oregano to garlic to cajun seasoning and many other spices. Take a look at these photos:
The thing most of us learn in college is that if we put enough ketchup or Tabasco on the food, it will cover up the taste. But fish doesn’t have to taste bad! And if you add just the right spice combinations, instead of just mackerel, you can turn it into everything from fish tacos which don’t taste like fish to cajun-style stews to just plain vegetable soup with spiced-up mackerel thrown in for protein.
Americans tend to look at meat or fish or chicken or other animal protein as a main dish rather than a side dish, but we really don’t need a lot of protein under most circumstances to meet our dietary needs. So if I can get my basic protein needs from mackerel (or possibly chicken — I have a case or two of dehydrated chicken I’ve made myself) or whatever, we can have incredible-tasting dishes thanks to the spices, get our protein needs and not have to either starve or gag.
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Why I'm stocking up on canned mackerel
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