UKC

Hi all,
Just wondering if any of you lot use freeze-dried grub for longer climbs or camping trips? They’re meant to be dead light, easy to sort with just boiling water, and apparently some stuff keeps for ages, like up to 25 years! Sounds pretty handy for when you don’t want to lug around heavy food or worry about it going off.How do they actually taste and hold up energy-wise after a few days on the hill? Any favourite brands or meal types you’d recommend, especially for proper mains or brekkie? Looking for something reliable that won’t let me down on a few days out.Cheers for any tips, still new to this whole freeze-dried malarkey and could do with some advice!

I used to buy expensive "backpacking" food. Not any more.

They are expensive and hit and miss on taste. They also need to be supplemented by other foodstuff, e.g. soup and custard powder to make up the calories.

I now buy all my needs from my supermarket. It is easy to make up the calories and the costs are considerably less. 

There are plenty of sites on line that are useful for ideas.

I have tried a few different brands/types over the years when out bike packing or on longer trips away climbing and have found that Expedition foods are the best for me, they taste great and are ready to eat in 5mins, other people that have tried the meals I have had have been impressed by the flavour and they come in various sizes of calorific value. I have tried Firepot meals which were ok and a bit cheaper however they take up to 15mins until they are ready to eat.

If it's just a night or two out then I don't bother with the freeze-dried stuff, just go cheap from the supermarket (noodles, fresh pasta if I'm feeling indulgent, packet soup, polish sausage etc). Breakfasts I'll do brioche or individually wrapped croissants, cereal bars etc.

For longer trips where you're having to carry several days of food the expensive freeze dried stuff does start to make more sense. Shop around and you can have a c.900-1000cal meal at 200g for around £10 - as a rough idea that's the sort of calorie/weight/cost calculation I tend to make. I'd go packet dinner and breakfast, with things like soup and sausage to supplement. Then wraps, nuts, sweeties, cereal bars for lunch.

The downsides of camping dinners are pretty big though:

1. They're generally an insufficient number of calories for a big person, so you'll need extra snacks or even a pudding (but that will push up the cost a lot)

2. They're really expensive compared to DIY-ing it from the supermarket or even drying your own food at home (not something i've ever bothered to try, but folks do...)

3. Hit and miss on taste and eating pleasure. Usually a big miss in my experience.

I recently splashed out on a fortnight's dinners from Firepot for a long trip. A couple of them were alright, while others I found barely edible no matter how hungry I was. Some I failed to finish, which says a lot. My mate had Expedition Foods, which generally seemed a lot better. But all things are relative and I'd be willing to bet you would enjoy none of them if you ate them at home. 

I agree about Expedition Foods. I took eight days worth of their pouches, along with some other stuff, when I did the South Coast Track in Tasmania a few years back. It came to the stage where the EF packs were by far the preferred meals of the day, largely because they were good flavour, great consistency and didn't take much preparation.

Summit to eat one's are pretty tasty, expensive but tasty. 

Check the calorie content carefully.  I didn't and suffered on a recent sea kayak expedition

I use them on longer trips, up to two weeks between resupply. There really the only way you can do such trips. Taste wise the more expensive ones are mediocre at best the cheap ones are disgusting. It helps that you're more often than not ravenous after a long day carrying a heavy pack and willing to wolf down anything. After a while they all taste the same, spicey mush, you start to long for something you can actually chew. Other than that they're great. 

At this stage it's worth us re-hydrating this old review of a range of brands:

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/gear/camping/food/dehydrated_rated_-_we_test_...

And I'd agree with Fliss that the Firepot chilli is decent as these things go. In fact it's the only one of theirs I would get again (do not buy their pulled pork under any circumstances).

Friends of ours dehydrated their own meals for a hike across the pyrenees but it took a lot of planning. For a few days instant dried noodles are nice, very light and tasty, but needing 2 packs per person per meal it begins to take up room. One of our friends takes the flavour sachets from instant noodle packs and uses it to make the dehydrated packs taste better.

buy a dehydrator and make your own - its easy enough.

Another vote for Expedition Meals, the ones I tried tasted OK and had a good (800-1000) number of calories. 

Paul

Is it? seems like an initial outlay on a dehydrator that could be quite hit or miss and then a LOT of faff trying to dehydrate the food.

I bought one for £30 years back and still going strong. Faff is not so bad in my experience...

Do you use it regularly? What types of meals do you make and dehydrate?

I've always fancied the idea but dismissed it as too much effort thinking it would just lead to a couple of efforts of creating inedible dry lumps and an unloved dehydrator sitting in the corner of the cellar!

Another shout for Expedition Foods. Rarely I've had to up the seasoning on the mains(not sure if I've ever tried the 1000cal only the 800cal ones). The puddings are pretty good if you don't mind the cost but never been that impressed with the breakfasts (so stuck with porage and and handful of sultanas/cranberries). The used pouches also double us as good storage for rubbish or other stuff(TP) you will bin when you are back.

Not really. Although it's porridge for brekkie for me.

But for bulking up the carbs/calories of whatever else you have, Idahoan instant mashed potato, available in the supermarket in 100g-ish sachets, is a good alternative to rice and noodles. It's quite cheap, genuinely tasty and for my money actually lives up to what it says on the packet. 
(Quite a far cry from the stuff those laughing metal aliens used to advertise on the telly.)

Agree, Idahoan is excellent, I alternate with couscous. Add a sachet of tuna. Yeast flakes are a good alternative to parmesan.

Find a very small seal strip bag somewhere, maybe came with a spare button or some screws in it. Put a teaspoon of smoked paprika and one of chilli powder, mixed together in it - or whatever floats your boat. Add some of that to the dehydrated food pouch when adding water.

Get a long spoon. One issue with rehydrating food is with a short spoon (or fork) you miss corners when stirring and can find a dry crunchy patch when eating.

Some desert ones often don't really need hot water to be acceptable to eat and if you're struggling to get hot water for some reason (although porridge etc is obviously nicer hot) comes in helpful then. Can eat them as a snack or desert .

I like expedition foods too, but these fancy pouches are *expensive* 😞

I’ve done quite a few trips on summit to eat meals and can recommend any of the meat meals, the vegetarian ones not so much. Supplementing with a few shortbread fingers for calories makes a nice desert. 
A small bottle of tabasco (if you like it) can be very useful if any meals don’t end up tasting good as only a small amount of it will overpower any flavour in the bag anyway and it also works well on any other food.

Have used freeze-dried meals for our camping trips since 2007.

Previously used Fuizion, who are sorely missed as they put a lot of spice and flavour into a lot of the meals.

Current options tend to favour a more conservative palate, although you can always carry a small amount of pepper/chile/spice if need be.

Current favourite would be Lyo, nice selection of pretty tasty main meals. Real Turmat are generally tasty too. Firepot quite hit and miss.

They're not ultra cheap....but going to the pub for a pint and a burger isn't cheap either.

I'm with you on the LYO, Kinley, a good range of main meals. Real Turmat and some of the Bla Band meals also very good (and many of the latter come in shallower packets too so easy to reach the corners.

LYO's Apple Crumble dessert is excellent!

I tried out a few and ended up using “adventure food” for a week long hike.

i used quaker (golden syrup flavoured) porridge and added milk powder for breakfast

Can you still get Bla Band meals in the UK? Last time I looked nowhere had them in stock. Their Reindeer stew is a one of my favourites. 

I've recently got Bla Band from Ultralight Outdoor Gear and agree they're some of the best tasting freeze dried and the shallow packets are easier to eat from.

I used to cook my own stuff or use supermarket oodles etc, but it’s a PITA when tired or the weathers bad.

Now I either have Expedition foods which have 1000kcal versions or Real Turmat which have 800 for some meals.

They take around 10-15 to cook and more water than on the bag, around 500 ml.

Firepot, don’t touch unless you want me to post a picture of my daughter’s face eating one at minus 5. Inedible in mine and hers opinion.

Dave

Yes; Basecampfood have them back in stock. The Wilderness Stew is the reindeer one. I particulalry like the Skinnarmo's pasta carbonara.

I believe their lack of availability here for several years was yet another Brexit bonus, but the supply channel reopened a few months ago. Hooray!

Pasta and rice are easy to carry, but need a lot of fuel to boil - noodles and cous cous, etc, are much easier from that respect.

You don't say where you're going, but don't forget to store food such that animals can't get at it - doesn't matter how light/tasty it is if the local fauna scoffs it over night. Extra precautions if you're in bear (or similar large predator) country.

Thanks I'll order some for later. 

I rarely use the expensive packaged brands. Do the research and create your own freeze dried meals using individual freeze dried ingredients.. Have done this for long multi—day trips, carrying 10 days supplies between resupply points. You can create better balanced nutrition than packaged stuff, and tastier too.. When you start looking it’s surprising what freeze dried components you can source…

Noooo....  this thread lead me to check why no-one had suggested Bean-feast (the staple of many Raleigh expeditions) only to discover that it has bean discontinued

Bean feast, also an old student staple!

For anyone who particularly wants to cook rice, dried pasta or something else that needs a long gentle simmer it's just about possible to do that in a vacuum flask.  (A 'food' flask with a wide neck.)

Boil the rice for a minute or two, so it's nice and hot and isn't just cold rice in hot water then into the flask, lid on and leave it as long as you like while you're using the stove to make a brew or cook something else.

Whether that makes it worth carrying the extra weight and bulk of the flask I wouldn't like to say, but something worth experimenting with perhaps in the odd niche case.

Go on then, spill the beans!

Real Turmat do a reindeer stew which is very good if you can’t find Bla Band

Not my favourite site (!!), but freeze dried rice for starters.. (https://www.preppersshop.co.uk/products/fuel-your-preparation-freeze-dried-...)

freeze dried pulses, tomato powder, cheese, quinoa, chicken if meat needed, peas, potato flakes, etc. plus spices… None require cooking - just add hot water and set aside….  

Why buy pricey freeze‑dried rice, when regular pre‑cooked and dried instant rice works just as well? The same for instant quinoa and several other instant staples like potatoes and powdered hummus.

Just bring a sharp stick or stone and forage like our ancestors did!

To (slightly) divert this thread, how do people ensure they get sufficient calories...a quick look at online calculators suggests that for someone of my height (and these days slightly enhanced...) weight, I would need 3,000 calories a day minimum...all of the above seem to be 800-1,000 calories if you're lucky, which implies a *lot* of breakfast and lunch on top?

A good question. When we did the John Muir trail, 17 days with one resupply after six and although eating supermarket rather than expedition type rations I lost 10kg. I was probably 4 or 5 kilos overweight to begin with.

Luckily one of our team was my sister who eats like a sparrow so I usually got more than my "fair" share.

Sure, you can use some of those regular dried products too - including instant peanut butter powder. On long hikes when weight of food is a real issue (eg JMT - see Pedro’s comments) we worked on the nutritional value of the food / and lost less than 2kg over 17 days.. I guess there is always a balance between functional energy giving food for short trips and a more balanced nutritional one for longer trips..

If anyone carries powdered milk for their tea we found that a brand called “Peak” makes the best cuppa.

For the ‘long’ trips I do, up to 5 days or so in the U.K., I just accept a short term calorie deficit and aim to get in 2-2500kcal per day. Targeting stuff above 4kcal/g makes this an ok weight.

for proper long trips guess that’s not really a great option I guess, but sometimes it seems an approach taken in a calculated risk was - thinking of some of Ran Fiennes stuff in the Antarctic where they clearly ran a energy deficit on long trips.

Fat. It has the highest kJ value per weight.

Either internal (expedition deficit of losing a few kg of intentionally previously gained body fat), or much preferably external.

Obviously not only fat, as that would ruin your day pretty quickly (the few crazy expeditioners who tried just that notwithstanding).

You can get whole milk cream powder with up to 70% milk fat content. Mix with baby formula for essential nutrients and proteins, add carbs and you have a pretty hearty breakfast. Garnish with some sour dried fruits or whatever to taste.

I actually saw an SAS thing where they were talking about this time they got stranded behind enemy lines in a sniper hole, they ran out of food rations and survived on that stuff for something like a week 😬 

What's "that stuff"? Just oil? That could have been… quite messy! Though perhaps a bit handy for the leave no trace philosophy, as there certainly won't be anything solid to bury after taking a dump

One old expeditionist (an unsupported winter Greenland crossing and others) tried that as an experiment, and reported that up to 500g of vegetable oil a day can be manageable* in winter conditions of high exertion, although his summer experiments with the same amount ended with inevitable GI issues of the utmost severity (one doesn't really want to ask, even out of scientific interest!)

* though I do indeed wonder what "manageable" really meant there, in terms of co-habiting a small tent on such a radical diet, unless one has well-adapted to it all way before...

And second best after fat is of course alcohol - obviously the Scots are leaders in calorie dense cuisine for these sort of expeditions.

Surprisingly there's more diversity here in NZ - I guess because so much of the 'outdoors' requires multiday trips with enormous packs. 

The Radix stuff can be excellent (but some of it is genuinely inedible). On the whole the mains are better than the protein shakes! https://radixnutrition.co.uk/collections/all they have the major plus of coming eg in 800kcal packs, just add the hot water. The high energy ones by definition tend to have a bit more oil in them. 

The "Local Dehy" ones that came out of Wanaka were fab but they seem to have gone from the market. Your local supermarket will do really good single serve just add water porridge sachets etc for breakfast, can add dried milk and fruit as required. 

b

no, milk powder

Cheese, big blocks of it. Maybe with a small jar of chutney to help it go down

Often not that great calorie density wise, but yummy.

I tend to have cheese and salami, keeps well, and dried figs rather than chutney

Smoked cheese seems to be more travel resilient. "german" cheese easily obtained in uk supermarkets.