UKC

If I take food for later 'emergencies' I always eat it, being greedy. Has anyone suggestions for something untasty but nutritious for deferred contingencies on hillwalks? Obviously cake and chocolate won't do.

Parboiled carrots; Korean edible seaweed

Marzipan?

I used to take a block of dark chocolate because I don't like it, but now I just chuck in a couple of granola bars.

Kendal mint cake. Nobody has ever eaten it except in the direst of circumstances. I've carried a large bar of it, duct taped to an emergency bivvy bag, for at least the last 5 years.

Thanks, but to be honest neither would last 5 minutes with me - too tasty

There we go again. I love it (not kidding)

Tin of dog food.

Kendal Mint Cake - Horrible

Perhaps your companions should keep your emergency rations for you

Good thinking. That'll reduce my load as well

Pah! dog milk cheese.

I always eat mine  later, when at home watching TV after a drink. I think that's when the emergency occurs.

Try a bag of plain nuts. Not salted or roasted or coated in gold. I find them too boring and a chore to eat.

Tofu? Quorn?

I genuinely ate dog biscuits on the hill once when I was really hungry. They are bloody awful, I can see why my dog is always begging for my food. 

Marzipan? Untasty? Have you lost your mind!? It's the snack of Gods!

With respect to the original question, for what it's worth I'd rather have something tasty for contingencies. If you find yourself in the position of needing it, you may need a morale boost as well as a nutritional boost.

It's something with moral fibre in it you need.

You can have my out of date SIS energy bars, bloody awful things

If you always eat your 'emergency' rations doesn't that suggest you aren't taking enough food with you?

Dave

Dried bananas.  Taste, texture, smell and colour all obnoxious.  Probably because they bring back long-ago hill outings with a dour and dictatorial schoolmaster who swore they were "perfect hill food".

My mate always used to carry tinned sardines. I'm not keen on them, and they also come in a robust container which won't easily release its contents all over the bottom of  your rucksack.

Packets of plain, rough oatcakes. Taste amazing if you're desperate but bland enough to forget you have them in your rucksack. 

I think this may just be me after overdoing it with them on a climbing trip to the USA (they were about 50c each) but Clif bars. Flavour is irrelevant, they're all terrible, dry and synthetic tasting but energy rich and compact.

Any form of snack bar that are so out of date, that you would only eat them in an emergency.

Mine are emblazoned with the London 2012 Olympic logos.

I once climbed with a guy who said he kept a snickers as an emergency snack as he didn't care for them much, but to make sure he didn't just eat it anyway he wrapped it in loads of gaffer tape so that he'd only bother if he really really needed it. Also has a bonus of emergency gaffer tape. 

I had to administer the Last Fudge piece to a fellow climber on a glacier once ...

These days I find it hard to eat anything so sweet

What about Oatmeal blocks?

Energy gels used by runners and cyclists? I am in awe how a product so close to sweets like jelly babies, which are cheap and will disappear in an instant if left open, can end up both expensive and tasting nasty.

Vacuum packed pemmican.  Lasts forever, has loads of calories and is slightly horrifying.

If I have it, it won't last.  Definitely not for rations.

I was going to say that Snickers is my least favourite choccy bar so that would be what I'd likely choose.

I could also (in my specific case) take something with gluten in it, but I'd best take antihistamines and a bog roll up too in that case.

I used to know someone who carried a small can of cat food.  His theory was that if things went horribly wrong he could take it out, look at it and find something else to eat instead.

I used to carry around a pack of Turblokken, a Norwegian survival ration.  When it was long past its expiry date curiosity got the better of me and I opened it.  It seemed to consist of blocks of chipboard, which were allegedly edible but you'd have to be pretty desperate - which I suppose was the point.  This seems to be the current equivalent:

https://evaq8.co.uk/Datrex-Emergency-Ration.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuLPnBRDjARIs...

Glucose tablets/dextro energy or similar are suitably unappealing that they can live in my walking sack for months without being touched. 

If I resort to eating them it's because it's ended up being a much longer/harder day than planned. 

Failing that take stuff you do like and show some self restraint  

That's tough though!

Those look absolutely filthy.  I might have to get some for my backpacking box.

You were packing fudge into a fellow climber?

As a cyclist I'm surprised that energy bars have only been mentioned once in this thread. In fact in the last 20 years or so a massive number of energy bars for athletes have been launched, all based on maltodextrin with various additives like fructose, fruit, nuts or whatever. They can be quite appetising as long as you can summon up enough saliva! Names that come to mind are SIS and Cliff but there are loads more, although they are all quite expensive considering  the cheapness of the ingredients.

The really expensive way to do it is to buy tear-open tubes of energy gels, which, AFAIK, are nothing more than maltodextrin mixed into a gloop with flavours and sugars, the same as Bisto gravy but without the meat flavour and the brown colour.

The cheap way is to buy maltodextrin powder in bulk from myprotein.com and add a couple of fingers deep to your water bottle. This staves off tiredness but doesn't stop you getting hungry and older people who are losing the ability to deal with carbs (as in beer and baked beans) may find they get painful churning guts and lots of flatulence an hour or two after drinking. 

Cheaper still is good old flapjack, still almost the perfect slow-release energy source.

When I lived in Norway we used to have Norwegian stockfish as an emergency ration.....the locals loved it.....I had to have it on one occasion when I was really exhausted. Bloody hell it tasted and smelt so bad I was heaving and fighting my mates who were forcefeeding it to me....alas it worked paradoxically as I somehow managed to ski out the next day with nothing but black tea the night before!

I actually like that stuff...

Protein is usually overlooked when planning high-energy diets. I remember when we used to do Polaris mountain marathons and we discovered dried bananas, then maltodexrin powder, then we discovered the joys of a juicy steak cooked up with the usual pasta at the overnight camp. It definitely helped us to recover from seven hours of hard riding and feel better for the Sunday morning start.

in a nice energising way!

I have a packet  with a mixture of  fruit jellies and chocolate, but so well wrapped up that it would take 20 minutes to get at them! They were really appreciated the one time I had a forced bivvy  at over  4000m.

Lifeboat survival rations sound suitably unappealing:

https://www.mudandroutes.com/seven-oceans-survival-rations/

No just greedy. 

I also tried dog biscuits because they are supposed to contain lots of healthy vitamins and nutrients but I suffered a nasty accident when a car hit me; I was sitting in the road licking my balls at the time.....

I survived on some ketchup sachets I found in my bag once... 

Now some oats bars and salty peanuts live there. Carbs, fat, Protein and salts - sorted. 

Ditto!

Protein bars, it takes hours to chew through them. (even better if they are out of date)

Unfortunately, they are not, they taste like shortbread

They are great for breakfast bars though

sosmix

It will be a genuine emergency before you tuck in - you'll have probably eaten your boots first in preference.

At a slightly lower threshold "tumeric and ginger" biscuits. Not that bad at first but the astringent nastiness builds until you've got the full bitrex effect when you're trying to swallow.

cat food.

You'll only eat it when you are desperate

Take a small bottle of sunflower oil.  It doesn't take up too much space in your rucksack and if you're ever in need of emergency nutrition, then it's an energy-dense foodstuff with the calories you require.  Knock it back in one go.  

It will also give you a particular urgent and personal boost to getting out of whatever situation you've got yourself into that's made you drink it.  

T.

Try the Nuun versions, the texture is so grim they'll make you gag.

The old Compo Ration packs used to have a tin marked "Sweets and Chocolate".  Inside typically you would find a bar of fruit and nut or similar surrounded by individually wrapped loose boiled sweets.   Only a tinopener would give you access to these riches! (The tin was like a normal bean or soup tin but without paper label and with a tropicalised coating for long storage.

My mother-in-law's sandwiches ha-ha-ha (a niche market there)

Personally I like peperami, jerky or biltong 

Cheese in a tube is very transportable, but it's an abomination unto cheese 

Norwegian brown cheese, if you fancy going more exotic.

But, I know it's not whats you asked, for a proper phycological and physical energy boost when you've been on the go for a while nothing beats a big slab of quality chocolate. The question to you is at what point in the trip are you digging into your "emergency" supplies?

I have long give up on the SIS, Clif, NUUN, Torque etc. et. brand bars, Aldi cheapo ones are just as good and taste a whole lot better. 

The SIS Banana ones are my mandatory emergency food for events, i hate Banana and the SIS bars so there is zero chance of me ever coming back having eaten it, i would start on the local flora and fauna before eating it.

Don't even get me started on Gels.....

Oooooo, you're in  BIG trouble!

I know. I've had it. I'm considering barricading myself in a neighbour's shed for a while

Best check the ingredients - any fats are likely to have gone rancid and do horrible things to your digestive tract. No point in eating them if they make you throw everything up or crap it all out an hour later.

In the spirit of this comment i feel someone needs to mention Dwarf Bread

"The dwarf bread was brought out for inspection. But it was miraculous, the dwarf bread. No one ever went hungry when they had some dwarf bread to avoid. You only had to look at it for a moment, and instantly you could think of dozens of things you'd rather eat. You're boots, for example. Mountains. Raw sheep. Your own foot."

home made Vacuum packed salt-fish & gherkin sandwich will be ideal, you'll want to keep it in your bag for sure !

L

Lime flavour jelly cubes what you make lime flavour jelly with

This has got me thinking. I might make some hardtack.

I did it.  There is some baking* in the oven right now.  Only took 10 minutes to prep, so that's my screen break accounted for.

*Baking may be a bit of a strong term.  "Dessicating" perhaps.