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Last winter, a nasty ice storm knocked out power across our county for nearly five days. Our chest freezer went warm by day two. The meat we’d stockpiled — gone. Hundreds of dollars worth of food, slowly thawing into something we couldn’t trust.
That experience lit a fire under me. I started digging into long-term food storage methods that don’t depend on electricity. Methods our great-grandparents knew by heart but most of us have completely forgotten. That research led me to The Lost Superfoods by Claude Davis — and honestly, it changed how I think about food preparedness.
But is it actually worth your money? I’ve spent the last several months with this book, tested a handful of the recipes, and I’m going to give you my honest take. No sugarcoating.
⭐ Quick Verdict: The Lost Superfoods
Our Rating: 4.2 / 5
Best For: Homesteaders, preppers, and self-reliance-minded families who want practical, time-tested food preservation techniques
Price: ~$37 (physical book + digital access; periodic discounts available)
Bottom Line: A genuinely useful collection of 126+ forgotten food preservation methods with clear instructions. Not perfect — but far more practical than most survival guides out there.
What Is The Lost Superfoods?
The Lost Superfoods is a 270-page guide written by Claude Davis that covers over 126 long-lasting survival foods and preservation techniques. The whole premise is simple: our ancestors knew how to store food for years — sometimes decades — without refrigeration, and most of that knowledge has been lost.
The book collects these methods from different eras and cultures. Native American pemmican. Civil War preservation hacks. Great Depression pantry staples. WWII-era British egg preservation. Even Cold War-era military rations the U.S. government spent millions developing.
Each entry includes step-by-step instructions with color photographs, nutritional breakdowns, and estimated shelf life. It’s available as a physical book, a digital download, or both — which is actually a nice touch since you can keep the digital version on your phone as a backup.
What’s Inside The Lost Superfoods
Rather than just listing chapter titles, let me walk you through the sections that actually stood out to me:
The U.S. Doomsday Ration — This one grabbed me right away. It’s a calorie-dense survival food developed during the Cold War, designed to feed the entire population during nuclear fallout scenarios. The book claims you can feed an adult for about 37 cents a day with it. I’ve made a batch. The cost claim checks out, though the taste is… functional. Let’s leave it at that.
Pemmican — The Ultimate Survival Food — A complete food (meaning you could theoretically live on it alone) originally made by Native Americans. One pound packs over 3,500 calories. The book’s recipe is clear and easy to follow, and it covers both traditional and modern ingredient options.
Preserving Eggs for a Decade — This was the chapter that surprised me most. It uses a British WWII method involving waterglass (sodium silicate) to keep eggs fresh for years. I’ve had eggs stored this way for about four months now and cracked one open last week — looked and tasted perfectly normal.
Dry Canning for 20+ Year Shelf Life — Covers how to use your oven and mason jars to dry-can beans, rice, and other staples to prevent weevil infestations and dramatically extend shelf life.
Honey-Preserved Meat — Exactly what it sounds like. You cook meat, cube it, and submerge it in fresh honey. The antibacterial properties and moisture removal keep it preserved for months without refrigeration. Weird? Absolutely. But it works.
Sauerkraut and Fermentation — Practical instructions for turning cabbage into a probiotic-rich food that aids digestion — especially important if you’re surviving on canned goods and MREs.
The $5/Week Stockpiling System — A budgeting framework for building up 295+ pounds of food per year spending only five bucks a week. This section alone is worth the price for anyone who thinks food preparedness requires a massive upfront investment.
Portable Soup (Lewis & Clark Style) — A concentrated broth that lasts indefinitely and can literally sit in your coat pocket. Ugly-looking, but the concept is brilliant for bug-out bags.
Amish Poor Man’s Steak — A protein-rich dish from people who’ve lived without electricity for generations. Simple ingredients, satisfying result.
There’s also coverage of canning ground beef, making Aaruul (a Mongolian hard cheese), the Great Depression food that kept America fed, and what to do with all your frozen food when the power goes out — which, given my own experience, I wish I’d known about a year earlier.
Pros and Cons
What I Liked
- Genuinely practical. These aren’t theoretical survival tips. Each method has clear, step-by-step instructions with photos. I’ve personally made the pemmican, the doomsday ration, and tried the egg preservation — they all work.
- Incredible variety. 126+ methods means there’s something for every situation, skill level, and budget. From zero-cost fermentation to more involved canning projects.
- Budget-friendly approach. The $5/week stockpiling system and the emphasis on cheap ingredients make this accessible even if money’s tight. You don’t need fancy equipment.
- Nutritional information included. Every food entry lists macros (fat, carbs, protein) so you can actually plan balanced survival nutrition rather than just hoarding calories.
- No-refrigeration focus. Every single method works without electricity. That’s the whole point, and they commit to it fully.
What I Didn’t Like
- Some claims feel exaggerated. “Eggs lasting a decade” and “food that never spoils” — while the methods are legitimate, the shelf-life estimates are sometimes optimistic. Waterglass eggs realistically last 1-2 years in good conditions, not ten. I’d take the more extreme timeframes with a grain of salt.
- Sales page is overly dramatic. The marketing leans hard into doomsday language and scarcity tactics (“last books available!”). The actual content is solid, but the way it’s sold might turn off people who don’t vibe with prepper culture.
- Limited modern food safety context. Some traditional preservation methods don’t come with enough caveats about food safety for beginners. If you’ve never canned before, I’d recommend also reading up on USDA canning guidelines as a supplement.
- Physical book quality is average. It’s not a premium hardcover. The binding and paper quality are fine — functional — but it doesn’t feel like a book that’ll survive 20 years of heavy use on its own. The digital backup helps here.
Who Is The Lost Superfoods For?
This book hits hardest for a few specific groups:
- Homesteaders building food independence. If you’re already growing food and want to learn time-tested methods to preserve it long-term, this fills in a lot of gaps.
- Budget-conscious preppers. The emphasis on cheap, DIY methods means you don’t need to drop thousands on freeze-dried food buckets.
- Families in disaster-prone areas. Hurricanes, ice storms, extended power outages — if you’ve experienced any of these, the no-refrigeration focus is immediately relevant.
- History buffs who like hands-on projects. Honestly, some of these methods are just fascinating from a historical perspective. Making pemmican or Civil War-era preserved foods is genuinely interesting.
- Beginners who want a single reference. If you’re new to food preservation and want one book that covers a wide range of methods, this is a solid starting point.
Who Should Skip This?
I believe in being straight with you. This book isn’t for everyone.
- Experienced canners and preservation experts. If you already know your way around a pressure canner, have made pemmican, and understand fermentation — you’ll find much of this familiar. There might be a few new-to-you techniques, but probably not $37 worth.
- People who want modern, science-heavy preservation guides. This leans historical. If you want the latest food science research on preservation, look for academic or USDA-published resources instead.
- Anyone allergic to survival/prepper framing. The marketing and writing style are squarely aimed at the preparedness community. If that tone bothers you, you might struggle with it — even though the actual techniques are universally useful.
How The Lost Superfoods Compares to Alternatives
Two products that come up alongside The Lost Superfoods are Alive After the Fall and The Lost Ways. Here’s how they stack up:
The Lost Ways — Also by Claude Davis, this is a broader survival skills guide covering shelter, tools, hunting, and some food preservation. If The Lost Superfoods is a deep dive on food specifically, The Lost Ways is a mile-wide survey course. Both are good, but they serve different purposes. If food preservation is your priority, The Lost Superfoods is the better pick.
Alive After the Fall — This one focuses more on disaster preparedness and post-collapse scenarios (EMP attacks, grid failure, etc.). It touches on food but isn’t primarily a food preservation guide. Think of it as complementary rather than competitive — different focus entirely.
Compared to buying commercial freeze-dried food kits ($200-$2,000+), The Lost Superfoods teaches you to create your own long-term food supply from scratch for a fraction of the cost. Different approach, potentially much better value long-term.
For our complete food preparedness strategy, see our emergency food preparedness guide.
Personal Experience: What I Liked Most
I’ll be honest — I was skeptical when I first ordered this. The sales page felt like every other ClickBank product I’d ever seen. Scarcity timers. Bold claims. Military secrets. You know the drill.
But the actual book surprised me.
The pemmican recipe was the first thing I tried. Took about an afternoon, and the result was… actually good? Not restaurant good, but “I could happily eat this on a hiking trip or during an emergency” good. Dense, calorie-packed, and after three months in my pantry, still perfectly fine.
The egg preservation method was the real game-changer for us, though. We keep chickens, and there are stretches in spring and summer where we’re drowning in eggs. Being able to preserve dozens of eggs for months without refrigeration? That’s practical, everyday-useful knowledge — not just “prepper stuff.”
What I appreciate most is that the book doesn’t try to sell you on expensive equipment or ingredients. Almost everything uses pantry staples and basic kitchen tools. That aligns with how I think about homesteading — keep it simple, keep it affordable, keep it sustainable.
The $5/week stockpiling plan genuinely opened my eyes too. We’ve been using a modified version of it for about four months now. Our pantry has quietly grown by what I’d estimate is well over a hundred pounds of properly stored food. Without any single painful expense.
🏡 Our Recommendation
The Lost Superfoods is one of the most practical food preservation resources we’ve come across. It won’t replace a comprehensive food safety course, and the marketing is a bit much — but the actual content delivers. If you’re serious about building a food supply that doesn’t depend on your freezer staying cold, this belongs on your shelf.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Lost Superfoods a physical book or digital download?
Both. You can get a physical copy, a digital PDF version, or a bundle with both. I’d recommend the bundle so you have a backup if the physical copy gets damaged — or if you want access on your phone while you’re actually in the kitchen working on a recipe.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. There’s a 60-day refund policy through ClickBank, which is the payment processor. If it’s not what you expected, you can get a full refund within that window. I’ve dealt with ClickBank refunds before on other products — they’re straightforward about it.
Do I need special equipment to use the methods in this book?
Mostly no. The majority of recipes and techniques use standard kitchen equipment — mason jars, a regular oven, basic pots and pans. A few of the canning methods work best with a pressure canner, but it’s not required for most of the book.
How is this different from free information I can find online?
You can absolutely find individual preservation methods online for free. The value here is having 126+ methods organized in one place with tested instructions, nutritional data, and a coherent stockpiling strategy. Think of it as paying for curation and convenience rather than information that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
Are the food preservation methods safe?
The traditional methods described are historically proven. That said, I’d recommend supplementing with modern food safety guidelines — especially for canning and meat preservation — if you’re a complete beginner. The book could do a better job flagging safety considerations, which is one of my criticisms.
Final Verdict
The Lost Superfoods isn’t a perfect book. The marketing is aggressive, some shelf-life claims stretch credibility, and experienced preservers won’t find everything here to be new.
But here’s the thing — for the price of a decent lunch for two, you get a reference guide covering 126+ preservation methods that actually work. Methods that don’t require electricity, expensive equipment, or a PhD in food science. Methods that real people have used for centuries to keep their families fed through wars, depressions, and disasters.
For anyone building food independence — whether you’re a seasoned homesteader or just starting to think seriously about preparedness — it’s a worthwhile addition to your library. The 60-day guarantee means there’s essentially zero risk in trying it out.
Would I buy it again? Yeah. I would. Not because every page blew my mind, but because the handful of techniques I’ve actually put into practice have already paid for the book several times over.