CAMPING freeze dried FOOD rating thread.

[RAZR]

Originally Posted by DRZ Charlie

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DEHYDRATED FOODS RATING SPREADSHEET

i also added another column that asks if a food item is vegetarian or not.


i am a vegetarian and would like to know.

most of these camping food pouches say vegetarian on the front so you don't have to guess.

[Toompine]

Anbody try buyig bulk dehydrated and sealing up their own meals? Thought that be away around the high cost and high sodium.

[SteelRain]

At nearly 3000 calories I carry a few field stripped (removing extra packaging, etc) MREs. I can carry one in my vest or four in a small backpack with my clothes. The best part is I can eat one or two parts and leave the rest for later.

From my background I have eaten much worse (and many times nothing) so I may be biased... then again the adventure does not always include 5 star hotels and restaurants.

Funny thing is I have tried many of the backpackers items and think they are worse tasting than many MRE options.

[IgnatiusJ]

A lot of these look good:

http://www.trailcooking.com/taxonomy/term/7+8

I like the idea of creating your own in a ziplock, cheaper and I think better.

My 2 cents

[davsato]

Originally Posted by IgnatiusJ

A lot of these look good:

http://www.trailcooking.com/taxonomy/term/7+8

I like the idea of creating your own in a ziplock, cheaper and I think better.

My 2 cents

some of those recipes look good enough to eat, cheers mate

i love that term "FBC" (freezer bag cooking)

[dutchjohn]

take some whole wheat macaroni noodles in a ziplock baggy a can of tuna ,or chickin or turkey or samon
put a little olive oil in a pan with a onion and sauté in your jet boil boil water for noodles, when onions are done open can of what ever and through in 1st pan and warm when warm drain noodles and dump in with can of warm meat and onion and enjoy only one pan to clean. works for me

[SgtDuster]

Originally Posted by dutchjohn

take some whole wheat macaroni noodles in a ziplock baggy a can of tuna ,or chickin or turkey or samon
put a little olive oil in a pan with a onion and sauté in your jet boil boil water for noodles, when onions are done open can of what ever and through in 1st pan and warm when warm drain noodles and dump in with can of warm meat and onion and enjoy only one pan to clean. works for me
Attachment 278040

What kind of "bread" is that?

[el tortuga]

Avoid the Tiramisu that Backpackers Pantry sells, nasty stuff.

For me, some of the more exotic meals taste the worst so I'd be interested in hearing from some folks that have tried those and can recommend some.
How can you screw up chile mac or strogonoff?

[davsato]

do you have 'pot noodles' over there?

the staple food for every british student in my day, till they started the student loan system and gave teenagers thousands of pounds to spend in a frenzy of partying, not realising the gov now owned their asses and they were financially fucked for life.....

chicken & mushroom pot noodle, a vague chemists version of the flavour but its got crack in it or something, as soon as you have one you want another.... 10/10. the plastic pots are fragile though

[DougZ73]

Originally Posted by davsato

do you have 'pot noodles' over there?

the staple food for every british student in my day, till they started the student loan system and gave teenagers thousands of pounds to spend in a frenzy of partying, not realising the gov now owned their asses and they were financially fucked for life.....

chicken & mushroom pot noodle, a vague chemists version of the flavour but its got crack in it or something, as soon as you have one you want another.... 10/10. the plastic pots are fragile though

We have Ramen noodles....college kid staple here in US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen

[rhicks]

I used to love this stuff but the sodium is just too much for me to handle these days.

[stoney4vida]

Originally Posted by Jäger

Well...

1. I personally despise freeze dried foods
2. Weight isn't a concern on the bike like backpacking
3. I'm too cheap to pay for lightweight freeze dried foods.

So, what do I resort to? Anything that's fast and easy with minimal cleanup.

For example... this isn't freeze dried food, but it does meet the criteria of being simple, fairly compact and lightweight, and preparing very, very quickly. Some of it is ready to eat the instant you turn off the bike. So:

Uncle Ben's Bistro Express rice dishes. Made for microwaving, but tucked into a corner of the bike near the head or radiator, they get warmed up just as good in no time. Eat them right out of the package, no pot required. Anything like this that tastes reasonably good gets a thumbs up from me.

Kitchens of India, for example, has all kinds of incredibly flavourful soft packaged East Indian food - again, heatable just by tucking in a spot of the right temperature on the bike. I like the Paneer Darbari, Palak Panner, and Mild Chilli Pepper Curry. I jazz it up with whatever little containers of curry I bring with me, the concentrated stuff, because I like my food to bite back. If you can't find it in a local store, Amazon.com will sell you six packages of their meals for about $16. That won't break the bank.

Lipton's Sidekicks and Cajun Sides, the ones that don't require milk, just water. For these, you have to get a pot dirty. Both these and the Uncle Bens you can flash up by adding a bit of chicken, fish, whatever.

Western Family canned chili. Again, stash it next to a radiator or somewhere else warm on the bike ahead of time - but put some thought into doing that unless you want to be riding to the sudden smell of burning chili and then have to figure out how to get all the baked-on chili off your bike from where the can exploded.

The nice thing about all of this is it takes up little more room than a package of freeze dried, the extra weight doesn't matter, you can find at least some of it at any town supermarket you drop into - and it costs about a third or a quarter of the spendy, freeze dried stuff and usually tastes better in my opinion.

How about no pot, no stove, no hot bike engine?





The military will provide... Once you break them down and discard everything you don't want, they don't take up a lot of space and the heater packs are really slick. I tend to use these for breakfasts because the bike is still cold and like I said, I only cook when necessary and I hate washing dishes on the trail.

If there's going to be fire... bannock mix. Light, doesn't take up room, and bannock cooked over a fire is one of my favourites. And bannock is so versatile, you can make it a little different each time and every meal is an adventure.

And as an added benefit. Eat the MRE's and you won't have to worry about shitting for a week !

[dutchjohn]

[QUOTE=dutchjohn;16458361]take some whole wheat macaroni noodles in a ziplock baggy a can of tuna ,or chickin or turkey or samon
put a little olive oil in a pan with a onion and sauté in your jet boil boil water for noodles, when onions are done open can of what ever and through in 1st pan and warm when warm drain noodles and dump in with can of warm meat and onion and enjoy only one pan to clean. works for me

its made by orawheat its just a flat beard like a peta packs real flat and works great with goburrs peanut butter and jelly

[Dan Alexander]

I like the idea of using heat from the bike to cook food in those mylar bags. My Wings exhaust is cool enough that while running I can still hold onto it and a nylon strap from my wolfman saddlebags won't melt. Perfect temp for warming a pouch of Basmati and Curry.

When I was a kid my dad would take us camping and use a coat hanger to hold a pot roast wrapped in foil to the top of the V8 manfold. I clearly recall the border agent coming over to the car, stopping with this incredulous look and saying 'what the hell is that smell'

[mtbdemon]

This is really a great thread! I went to hear Austin Vince talk (he went around the world on a DR350) and he was a big believer in getting what you want to eat mostly for that day-Buying from local markets and such-They made it a competition each day on who could make the best meal-On a long trip like that I can see it, but on a weekend end trip I think the freeze dried stuff is much simpler