Sausage carries 12 g of protein a serving against 22 g for the beef and 20 g for the chicken. On protein alone it is the weakest of the three, and we would rather say so. What it does instead is carry flavor — already seasoned, no grease to pour off, and half a cup turns a pan of beans into something people actually want to eat.
Protein figures from each product’s nutrition panel. Ingredients, servings and price from the supplier’s current label and listing.
Ready Harvest pork sausage crumbles are seasoned and fully cooked before freeze-drying. A small amount transforms rice, beans, eggs or pasta into something people actually want to eat.
Most sites selling freeze-dried meat will not tell you how many meals a can holds. Here is the whole picture for sausage crumbles, taken from the supplier’s own nutrition panel.
| Pantry Can | #10 Can | |
|---|---|---|
| Net weight | 8.5 oz | 1 lb 11.7 oz |
| Servings (½ cup) | about 7 | 24 |
| Price | $23.99 | $74.99 |
| Cost per serving | $3.29 | $3.12 |
| Protein per serving | 12 g | 12 g |
| Calories per serving | 220 | 220 |
| Buying it for | Trying it, or a small kitchen | Building an actual reserve |
The gap between the two sizes is smaller here than for beef or chicken — the #10 can is only about 5% cheaper per serving. A pantry can is the honest first purchase: open one, cook with it on an ordinary weeknight, and find out whether your family eats it before you commit to a case.
Every size is between production runs at the supplier right now. The numbers above are still current — and the sign-up further down this page is the fastest way to hear the day it is back.
When the base of your diet is rice and beans for weeks, seasoned pork is what makes it edible.
Sausage seasons a whole pot. Your smallest allocation does the most work.
Already seasoned and cooked through. Hot water and ten minutes.
Sealed cans, oxygen absorbers, cool dry storage.
Pre-browned ground beef in a handy single can. Chili, tacos and skillet dinners in minutes.
Fully-cooked diced chicken breast in a single pantry can. The most versatile protein you can store.
Chicken, beef and sausage together — the fastest way to build a complete protein reserve.
A #10 can of pre-seasoned sausage crumbles to keep flavor on the shelf for decades.
Half a cup of dry sausage crumbles is one serving. It is already seasoned, so hold back on salt until you have tasted it.
Roughly equal parts hot water to sausage crumbles. Hot, not boiling. The seasoning comes back with the water.
Cover and leave it, drain, then fry or fold in as you would fresh crumbles — minus the grease. It can go in dry to anything already wet.
The mistake almost everyone makes is drowning it. Too much water leaves it sitting in a gray pool with the flavor leached out. The full rehydration guide has the ratios for every cut.
One serving of freeze-dried sausage crumbles is a half-cup scoop — 33 g, straight off the Ready Harvest nutrition panel, carrying 12 g of protein and 220 calories. Tell it how many mouths and how many meals, and it works out the rest.
A #10 can holds 24 servings (792 g of dry sausage crumbles). The pantry can holds 8.5 oz (241 g), which is about 7.3 servings at the same scoop. Everything below is arithmetic on those two numbers — nothing is estimated.
| Feeding | Scoops | Cups | Dry weight | Protein | Of a #10 can |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people | 2 | 1 | 66 g | 24 g | 8% |
| 4 people | 4 | 2 | 132 g | 48 g | 17% |
| 6 people | 6 | 3 | 198 g | 72 g | 25% |
| 8 people | 8 | 4 | 264 g | 96 g | 33% |
| 12 people | 12 | 6 | 396 g | 144 g | 50% |
Serving size, servings per container, protein and calories are the figures printed on the Ready Harvest can for this product. Cups are US measuring cups at two scoops per cup.
Sausage is not the protein of the reserve — it is the seasoning. These are the three meals where half a cup of it does more work than anything else on the shelf.
You need 1 cup dry sausage, 2 cans white beans, can of diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder.
The bit that matters Sausage goes in dry with the tomatoes and rehydrates in the sauce. Hold the salt until the end — the crumbles are already seasoned and the beans bring their own.
You need ¾ cup dry sausage, 4 potatoes diced, bell pepper, onion, eggs to finish.
The bit that matters Rehydrate the sausage in a little hot water for five minutes, then drain and add it to the pan for the last three. There is no fat to render, so the potatoes need their own oil.
You need 1 cup dry sausage, 1 lb short pasta, jar of tomato sauce, 2 cups mozzarella, basil.
The bit that matters Add the dry sausage straight to the sauce and simmer ten minutes before it meets the pasta. Dry crumbles going into the dish will drink the sauce in the oven and leave the bake dry.
| Freeze-Dried | Canned (Wet) | Frozen | Fresh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelf life | Up to 25 years sealed | 2–5 years | ~1 year | Days |
| Prep | Add hot water, 8–12 min | Heat and serve | Thaw, then cook | Cook |
| Freezer needed | No | No | Yes | Fridge |
| Survives a power cut | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Waste | None — take what you need, reseal | Open it, use it all | Freezer burn | Spoils |
| Cost per serving | $3.12 | Less | Less | Least |
Fresh wins on price and it is not close. Nobody should buy freeze-dried sausage crumbles because it is cheap. You are paying for the twenty-five years, the empty freezer and the fact that nothing in the can goes off while you forget about it. If none of those matter to you, buy fresh. The long comparison is here.
No. Fully cooked and seasoned before freeze-drying. Hot water is all it needs. Freeze-drying does not kill bacteria on its own, which is why we only list fully-cooked ranges.
Pork, salt, sugar and spices. That is the full published list — the sugar is part of the sausage seasoning, not a sweetener added for drying.
12 g per ½-cup serving at 220 calories. Lower protein and higher fat than the beef or chicken, which is what makes it taste like sausage — buy it for flavor, not as your main protein.
The 25-year figure is for a sealed can. Once opened, reseal tightly, keep it cool and dry and use it within a few months.
Safe, but unpleasant. The seasoning is concentrated and it has none of the texture that makes sausage worth eating.
Nothing in the published list is a gluten source, but there is no gluten-free certification and no shared-equipment statement from the supplier. Check with them first if you need certainty.