A giant waxed cheese wheel is the apocalypse prep you didn’t know you needed

Fat and protein present a greater challenge when preparing for long-term food storage compared to other categories like grains and vegetables. These essential nutrient groups often have a short shelf life, meaning if you want them to last for years, you typically have two main choices: canned or freeze-dried products like those from Mountain House. But what if I told you there’s a food that checks all these boxes?

• 28% fat (by weight)
• 25% protein (by weight)
• No sugar
• Rich in calcium
• Affordable in terms of cost per ounce of fat and protein
• Vegan-friendly
• Ready to eat without any preparation
• Can be stored for over 25 years

I'm referring, of course, to the 10-pound waxed cheese wheel shown in the image above. You can purchase this enormous and delicious chunk of fat and protein from a restaurant supply store or order it online for around $80. Proper storage allows you to keep it for decades. For more details, check out our in-depth review of popular emergency food brands. I got the idea of using cheese as part of my prep back in February, inspired by the lockdown as an opportunity to finally fulfill my lifelong dream of owning a full-sized waxed cheese wheel. The more I researched, the more I realized how incredibly rich in fat and protein a waxed cheese wheel is, especially compared to other prepper staples like canned chili or freeze-dried meals. Here’s what you need to know:

• A waxed cheese wheel is a vegetarian and keto-friendly alternative source of long-shelf-life fat and protein.
• If you use part of the wheel (or buy a partial wheel), re-waxing it is simple and inexpensive.
• Cheese requires specific storage conditions to achieve its full shelf life.
• In terms of fat and protein density per ounce, cheese is nearly as good as freeze-dried food.

The Case for Waxed Cheese Wheels as a Prep

An unopened waxed cheese wheel can last over 25 years if kept under the right conditions. Many cheeses are aged in wax for a year or two before reaching consumers. With proper temperature and humidity (more on that below), you can achieve the necessary conditions in cellars or basements in many regions, eliminating the need for constant refrigeration. You might think a massive cheese wheel is impractical to use as a prep since cutting into it reduces its refrigerated lifespan to a few weeks. However, there’s a clever solution: simply re-wax it. If you've removed a piece of your wheel and want to return the rest to long-term storage, or if you can't afford a full wheel and opt for a half or quarter wheel, you can easily and cheaply apply fresh wax to the exposed cheese and reseal it. Unlike many long-term storage foods, cheese is always ready to eat, with no additional preparation required. Just unwrap it and enjoy. I can’t think of another food that you can take off the shelf after sitting for 20 years, peel with your hands, and put directly into your mouth. Most cheeses have zero carbs, making them extremely keto-friendly. Even if the apocalypse never happens and you eat your doomsday cheese during normal life, many people will appreciate this keto-friendly choice. Cheese is an excellent source of calcium, which can be challenging to obtain in a grid-down situation. Depending on the variety, cheese also contains several other essential vitamins and nutrients. Lastly, cheese can help regulate digestive issues. Sudden dietary changes, like switching to canned food due to a crisis, often lead to diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. Consuming cheese can help manage these issues.

How a Waxed Cheese Wheel Compares

The prepper gold standard for long-term, shelf-stable fat and protein is likely Wolf Brand Chili, the no-bean variety. Wolf Brand Chili is affordable, delicious, and available in large cans that can last for years if properly stored. If you don’t already have canned chili in your preps, stop reading this article and go buy some before it sells out in the next panic-buying spree. Another common item in many preppers' doomsday stashes is freeze-dried meats and proteins (like eggs). Mountain House is the top choice, but there are alternatives, and you can store plenty of fat and protein for decades this way. However, it’s extremely costly. For this comparison, I chose the eggs and bacon meal as the most fat- and protein-dense option I could find. (Note: If you're vegan, your doomsday alternative to storing canned meats or waxed cheeses is likely to die in the first wave of the apocalypse and have your stash looted by those who prepped appropriately. Sorry, but I don’t make the rules.) So how does a large, waxed cheese wheel compare to canned chili and freeze-dried packs in terms of price, nutrition, and fat/protein density? Check out this table: Before we dive into the details, here's how I selected the two cheeses for this comparison:

• Dutch Gouda: A wheel of Dutch Mill Dance Gouda was what I found at Restaurant Depot when I visited. I don’t remember the exact price, but it was less than the $100 I found on Amazon. I think it was around $80. While it’s not the most “prepper” cheese out there at about 7g of protein per ounce, it’s still quite good.
• Costco Parmigiano-Regiano Wheel (75lb): Italian Parmigiano-Regiano is the king of prepping cheeses from a protein, fat, and nutritional standpoint. It only comes in very large, very expensive ($950) wheel sizes, so you’ll likely need to go in with a group or get a partial wheel. If you find good Parmigiano-Regiano wheels in the 10lb range, please let me know in the comments.

I also bought a smaller wheel of sheep’s milk manchego-style cheese, but its nutrient profile is similar enough to the gouda that I didn’t include it in the comparison.

Value

Wolf Brand Chili clearly dominates in terms of raw value. If your goal is to get the most fat and protein for the least money, then the Wolf Brand Chili No Beans 106oz can is the way to go. The cheeses fall in the middle in terms of cost per gram of fat and protein. The Dutch Gouda I purchased is competitive with the chili in terms of price per gram of protein, but it’s about twice as expensive in terms of cost per gram of fat. At the far end of the value spectrum is the Mountain House Eggs and Bacon meal, an extremely pricey source of long-term fat and protein. This stuff is roughly ten times more expensive per gram of fat and five times more expensive per gram of protein than the chili, and about 3 to 4 times more expensive in both areas than the cheeses. Winner: Chili

Space, Weight, and Nutrient Density

One major downside of the chili is the space it requires. There’s a lot of liquid in those cans, making them less energy-dense. This will be an issue for people living in apartments or homes with limited storage space. This space/density issue also makes canned chili a poor choice for an on-foot bugout. It’s strictly a bug-in food option. The cheeses are excellent in terms of the percentage of their weight that’s made up by fat and protein. In fact, the two cheeses are so good that they’re competitive with the Mountain House in this area. No wonder cheese is such a staple for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts—the fat and protein density is almost as good as what modern science can offer. Finally, freeze-dried food does edge out slightly in terms of percentage fat and protein per unit weight. It’s an expensive win, but it’s still a win. Additionally, you can compress this stuff down smaller in your pack than you can cheese, so it takes up less volume. Winner: Freeze-dried, but just barely.

Accessibility in an Emergency

If you go with chili, you’ll need a way to open the can. This isn’t too difficult even without a can opener. And while the classic P61 can opener is small and cheap, there’s no reason not to have a couple on hand. Still, needing a tool to open the can detracts from convenience. Cheeses are by far the most accessible of the foods listed. Just peel and eat. No tools or preparation required. Freeze-dried food options require boiling water to prepare, which is a significant downside. In an emergency, you may not always have safe access to boiling water, or you might be too exhausted to bother with it. Rehydrating them with cold water works in a pinch, but it’s not ideal. Winner: Cheese

Shelf Life and Ease of Storage

Most canned food is generally considered to have a shelf life of three to six years. Depending on the type of food and storage conditions, taste, texture, and nutritional profile may change over the years, but it will still be edible. In fact, there is some scientific evidence suggesting that canned food can remain safe to eat virtually indefinitely. Scientists once opened cans of corn and oysters that were decades old and found no significant safety concerns. For safety’s sake, we’ll stick with the widely cited USDA six-year maximum for canned goods of any type. As for storage ease, you want a location that’s cool (50F to 70F is ideal, but don’t exceed about 80F) and dry (humidity will corrode the cans). Most indoor spaces out of direct sunlight should work fine. Cans are therefore very easy to store in a closet or pantry and forget about until it’s time to rotate them. Storing a waxed cheese wheel for decades is, frankly, a project I’m still working on. (This guy is my hero.) Initially, I placed my two wheels in the fridge and left them there for most of the summer until I learned more and realized I should turn them periodically (to prevent moisture from settling on one side). My refrigerator’s 40F temperature is a bit too cold for optimal cheese storage—45 to 58F is better. I also moved my cheese to the salad drawer of my fridge because the humidity is higher there. You want humidity above 80%, depending on the cheese type, to keep them from drying out. I’m actually considering upgrading my cheese storage game with some sort of specialty fridge container that also regulates humidity, but that’s a topic for another article. In fact, I may even get really ambitious and build my own cheese storage cave out of cinderblocks and earth (it could double as a berm for target practice). I could add a solar-powered mini-split and humidifier for temperature and moisture control. This could also serve as a fallout shelter. When the bombs drop, we just head into the cheese cave and survive on cheese… we probably wouldn’t even need to install a bathroom in there, you know? My wife hasn’t approved this plan, which is still a work-in-progress, but a man can dream. The bottom line is that achieving the full 25-year shelf life of a waxed cheese wheel requires research, the right equipment, and regular attention and maintenance. This is far more involved than simply tossing some cans in a closet. As for freeze-dried food, keeping it below 75 degrees ensures you can get 30 years out of it. Winner: Freeze-dried

Yes, You Need a Cheese Wheel (Eventually)

I don’t think a waxed cheese wheel is your first-line food prep—it’s probably the canned chili—but as a backup prep, it’s a fantastic, time-tested option. In fact, doing this research has practically eliminated my desire to stock up on more freeze-dried food. As a bug-in prep, I think the waxed cheese wheel beats the freeze-dried options hands-down, even with its more complex storage requirements. The freeze-dried food is just so expensive that if you have the fridge space, the cheese wheel is a dramatically better value. So, once you’ve got your basic food supply squared away, you know what to do—head to the cheese aisle. I’ll see you there.

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