I am pleased to announce the return of the much anticipated Prepper Cook-Off Challenge. This will be the fourth installment.

Test your cooking skills by trying to prepare the most palatable meal out of two random storable food items.

Many of us in the homesteading community have prepping tendencies so I decided to come up with a challenge that plays off of those habits, and requires both luck and skill. This challenge will be a fun test of your ability to utilize storable food items in a SHTF scenario. lf you aren't into prepping, that is OK you might still find this entertaining.

The Prizes

The prize package this time around will not disappoint and should be a great opportunity for newer as well as seasoned bloggers to give their stash of Hive a boost. It is possible to win more then one category.

1st Prize - 20 HIVE + 10 Hive SBI Units
2nd Prize - 15 HIVE + 7 Hive SBI Units
3rd Prize - 10 HIVE + 5 Hive SBI Units
Most Gag Worthy - 2 HIVE + 2 Hive SBI Units
Most Creative - 2 HIVE + 2 Hive SBI Units
Bushmaster - 2 Hive + 2 Hive SBI Units
All other qualified entries - 1 HIVE

What is Hive SBI? It is a program where you sponsor people by buying them shares. Both the sponsor and the sponsored get a share which provides continued upvotes to member content.

Learn more about Hive SBI.

The Scenario

In the near future, a massive EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) from the sun has knocked out the electrical grid and the world has devolved into chaos.

EMP Source

At first, you and your group hunkered down at home hoping for the chaos to pass but eventually you had to flee because of the threat of marauding gangs. Your original plan was to relocate to a safe secondary location but the bridge you needed to cross had been destroyed. Not wanting to be exposed out in the open near the bridge, your group followed a small unmaintained road that eventually led you to a cabin in the woods.

Cabin In the Woods Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The cabin was deserted and seemed safe enough. A thorough search of the cabin yielded a few food items and you even managed to forage up a decent amount of food to feed your group. Unfortunately, the last few days of foraging have yielded very little and the food situation is getting dire.

After much debate, your group has decided to risk going back to the where the bridge was to see if there is a way to cross the river. You still have hopes that you can get to your secondary location.

When you return to the bridge it is eerily quiet. The gangs appear to have moved on but you do notice a solitary figure hunkered down under what remains of the ruined bridge. You carefully approach and his raspy voice asks you an unexpected question. "Got some rare things on sale, stranger! What're ya buyin?"

Merchant Resident Evil 4

He appears to only have three food items in his coat and luckily you happen to have a roll of old silver dimes to buy them with. What could you possibly make to feed your hungry group that won't have everyone gaging or running to the bushes?

How to Enter

Note: The rules have been revised since the last Prepper Cook-Off Challenge. Make sure to read them entirely before entering.

1. In the comments section declare that you are entering. Once you have done this I will use a random dice generator to give you two numbers.

Dice 1 (Item 1)

Dry Rice
Dried Black Beans
Dried Pasta (gluten free is acceptable)
Flour (or gluten free alternative)
Oatmeal
Raisins

Dice 2 (Item 2)

Canned Chick Peas
Canned Pineapple
Canned Peas
Canned Diced Tomatoes
Canned Pumpkin
Can of Evaporated Milk (or coconut milk)

I will do the dice once a day so please be patient. There used to be dice generator that worked as a command on Steemit but it no longer appears to be functioning.

2. After thinking about what you want to try making with the items you rolled choose your 3rd item (Bonus Item) by declaring it in a reply to your first comment. This item can basically be anything that can be stored without freezing or refrigeration for 6 months or longer. Hopefully, this will allow you to make the first two items complimentary.

I have tried to keep this challenge as inclusive as possible and realize that some participants may have dietary restrictions or live in parts of the world where these food items are not available or affordable. If you do, I will try and provide a suitable substitute but you have to declare the restriction before you roll.

If, for example, you are allergic or intolerant of tomatoes and you let me know before rolling then I would allow a substitution of canned carrots or something similar. However, these substitutions are up to my discretion and I have to be careful not to take them too far in fairness to the other competitors.

3. Cooking oils, sugar, salt and spices are permitted but they must be used in a reasonable amount. You can't use so much that they become a main item.

Herbs are fine as long as they are dried or in some other shelf stable form. No fresh ingredients. They have to be storable.
Stock cube is fine.
Corn starch or other starches used as thickeners or binders are OK if only a tbsp or two.
Wine, hard liquor, or vinegar is fine but keep the combined liquid condiments to a shot glass worth. The idea is that they don't contribute much to the meal other than some flavor. Once again, they need to be shelf stable so sauces and condiments kept in the refrigerator are not permitted.
If it isn't obvious, water can be used in any quantity.

4. If for some reason you really don't want the items you rolled you cannot re-roll but you can trade them if you can find someone to trade with you. You must trade both rolled items, you cannot trade one or the other that would make the challenge too easy!

Remember that you are allowed to select a third storable item (bonus item) of your choosing and use spices. You may be able to get creative and make poor item combinations work.

5. Create a post where you cook your meal and describe the ingredients and steps that you used to make your dish. It could be a single dish or two or more; it is up to you as long as you stick to your ingredients.

6. One of your tags needs to be #preppercookoff so I can find all the entries.

7. Mention and link to this post in your entry post.

8. You have until May 19, 2021 at 11:59pm MST (UTC -7) to submit your entry.

The Judging

I will be picking the winners for this Prepper Cook-Off Challenge. I will do my best to be unbiased and take into consideration peoples physical location and resources.

I will be judging based on a number of factors as follows:

Overall quality of post and effort level.
Was the meal preparation well documented.
Difficulty of items rolled.
Creativity of item use and how the meal was prepared. Utilizing off grid cooking/preparation and bushcrafting will be scored higher.
Staying in character and adding to the storyline details.
Presentation of the meal. Photo quality, plating, etc.

I will score each factor on a scale on 1-10 and the highest total scores will win. There are also prizes for most creative meal, most gag worthy meal and the coveted Bushmaster. These are more subjective and won't necessarily be scored on the same point system.

Conclusion

Hopefully, that all makes sense. If not, take a look at the first Prepper Cook-Off Challenge Winning Posts.

1. @riverflows - https://hive.blog/preppercookoff/@riverflows/making-something-out-of-nothing-cooking-post-apocalypse

2. @sagescrub - https://hive.blog/dlive/@revisesociology/4926eb10-759e-11e8-827c-49f76fdbeab3

3. @roselyn028 - https://hive.blog/food/@senorcoconut/a-prepper-cook-off-challenge-i-m-making-smoked-oysters-in-rice-with-seet-potato

I will also be participating just for fun so you can always watch and see what I end up doing. I am hoping to see a lot of friendly competition and interaction.

I am sure there will be some pretty interesting ingredient combinations. Time to get cooking everyone!

🌽 🥘 🍗Prepper Cook-Off Challenge #4 😅 🤢 🤮