Backcountry food

[haithcox51]

What are some yalls backcountry food recipes, meals, bars or snacks?


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[NMframed]

Backcountry food questions

I am new to backcountry hunting and want to know what all you guys pack for food per day. I'm even more curious as to what everyone does for breakfast and lunch. Thanks

www.rokslide.com

 

[NMframed]

Backcountry food

Alright boys, what do your go to backcountry meals/ food lists consist of? I’m needing some more ideas Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

www.rokslide.com

 

[NMframed]

I was reading up on this yesterday. Just thought those two threads might help answer your question.

There are also a few more other threads on this topic if you search the forum.

 

[haithcox51]

Thanks pal.


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[NMframed]

No problem.

One of my favorites is a peanut butter, honey, and bacon sandwich. I’d made with toast to remove moisture from the bread they will last a week and taste great. I am also a big fan of Lara bars and cliff bars. Peanut butter, almond butter, and sunflower butter packets are a great fast high calorie snack too. I also like different flavors of tuna packets wrapped in a tortilla. I just recently tried trailtopia freeze dried meals on a backpacking trip and really liked the Cajun smack rice and the chili Mac. Ramen noodles with jerky added is also a good one and inexpensive if you make your own jerky

 

[Titan_Bow]

One thing that really was a game changer for me, was dehydrating my own meals, and making my own energy/snack bars. You can really control whats going into them and you know all the ingredients. I do things like venison stew, venison chili, chili mac, rice and turkey, etc. etc. One thing I really like is incorporating my wild game into the meals I'm using on my hunts. I use good ingredients, vegetables from my garden, etc. I can limit the amount of sodium, and I can make really high fat and calorie dense foods. If you vaccum seal these dehydrated meals, they take up way less space than a Mountain House or equivalent.
For bars, I will typically throw nuts, seeds, nut butter, honey, protein powder or jerky, dark chocolate and dried fruits or berries into a blender. Then pressing them out and cutting into bars. Again, you can control the ingredients, and really make a much more calorie dense bar than you would be able to buy in the grocery stores.
Another great thing, especially for shorter duration hunts, where you need alot of energy and calories, is the good ol' Butthole Sammich! IE. Bagel with peanut butter and bacon. It sounds gross, but throw a couple slices of a jalapeno on there, and that is money.

 

[SonnyDay]

I never do a hunt/hike/climb without prosciutto. Those prosciutto-wrapped cheese sticks from Costco are the bomb.

 

[ktowncamo]

Hey @Titan_Bow - how do you determine the quantity of water to use when you re-hydrate your meals? Been wondering this for a while as I start down that rabbit hole.

Time has been my hurdle - I'm time poor so I just keep buying the freeze dried meals, which I don't mind honestly. A lot of people love to hate them or bash them (not saying you do this) but honestly they've kept me alive and going.

I found Stowaway Gourmet out of Oregon and their food is legit for taste, but a little more spendy.

 

[Titan_Bow]

Hey @Titan_Bow - how do you determine the quantity of water to use when you re-hydrate your meals? Been wondering this for a while as I start down that rabbit hole.

Time has been my hurdle - I'm time poor so I just keep buying the freeze dried meals, which I don't mind honestly. A lot of people love to hate them or bash them (not saying you do this) but honestly they've kept me alive and going.

I found Stowaway Gourmet out of Oregon and their food is legit for taste, but a little more spendy.

What I do is measure out the portion on a small digital kitchen scale my wife has. So, for example, I might weigh out 16 oz portions of chili mac. Once its completely dry, I will weigh the portion again. Its probably going to be somewhere between 4 or 6 oz. That gives me an idea that I need to add about 10 -12 oz. water . I weigh each portion to start, to ensure they are the same size, but I really only weigh one when its done to get an idea how much water to add. I dont think you need to be exact with it, but adding too much water can make for runny and soupy chili mac, which is no good

 

[Titan_Bow]

What I do is measure out the portion on a small digital kitchen scale my wife has. So, for example, I might weigh out 16 oz portions of chili mac. Once its completely dry, I will weigh the portion again. Its probably going to be somewhere between 4 or 6 oz. That gives me an idea that I need to add about 10 -12 oz. water . I weigh each portion to start, to ensure they are the same size, but I really only weigh one when its done to get an idea how much water to add. I dont think you need to be exact with it, but adding too much water can make for runny and soupy chili mac, which is no good

I dont hate freeze dried meals either, and I tend to grab them if I am in a crunch, but if you try dehydrating some on your own, you'll probably start building a reserve of them, especially if you have the dehydrator tray real estate. Aside from the ability to control whats in it, like I said in my original post, the space they save, especially on a week long backpack hunt, is awesome.

Here is a pic of a hearty elk stew I did last week. These were 16oz. portions and before freeze drying about 550 calories each. As you can see, they take up very little space compared to a Mountain House. As you can see, I also do dried fruit, my kids love the strawberries and bananas.

When I am planning meals for a hunt, I will put each individual days meal in its own vaccum sealed bag, just to make it a little more space friendly.

 

[FS38]

It's only been a short time since I started making "one pot" meals at home, then dehydrating them. For me it's the only way to go. Chili, stew, a la kings, etc! I got some bags you can pour boiling water right on in to rehydrate.

 

[Mechanicsburg]

I feel this is a not so smart question but are you just using a standard (jerky) style dehydrator ? I don’t think so but I’m lost on how you are doing sauce style foods. Thanks

 

[Titan_Bow]

I feel this is a not so smart question but are you just using a standard (jerky) style dehydrator ? I don’t think so but I’m lost on how you are doing sauce style foods. Thanks

I am using a 10 tray Cabelas dehydrator, just a general purpose unit. I also have a 5 tray Excelsior. Both are just standard general purpose dehydrators. What you do is line each tray with a piece of parchment paper. Make sure the paper is smaller than the tray by an inch or so all the around, so you maintain airflow around everything. Sauces will dry out on the parchment and when its done you just carefully flake all of it off into vacuum seal bag and seal them up.

 

[Bigbuckbandit]

I got completely sick of cliff bars last year and switched them all out for ProMeal bars and I loved them!

 

[dingleberns]

I feel this is a not so smart question but are you just using a standard (jerky) style dehydrator ? I don’t think so but I’m lost on how you are doing sauce style foods. Thanks

I make my own as well. Super simple it just takes time. My go to is spaghetti and chili. When incorporating sauces you just need a thin solid plastic tray (or wax paper) so the sauce can dehydrate. once dehydrated its like a fruit roll up. I dehydrate chili on the solid plastic first then transfer to vented trays once the sauce/liquid is somewhat dry. I use an old school 6 tray round dehydrator.

 

[FS38]

Does anyone do vac packing to store dehydrated meals? I wonder about the food safety and right now trying to learn about that.

 

[Titan_Bow]

Does anyone do vac packing to store dehydrated meals? I wonder about the food safety and right now trying to learn about that.

I vaccum seal mine, and store them in the freezer. Not sure what their shelf life would be otherwise, maybe a couple months or so? I've pulled some meals out of the freezer that were 6 months old and they were fine. Never tested how long you could feasibly go with them, but I would imagine vacuumed sealed then frozen, they would last a long long time

 

[North Woods]

One thing that really was a game changer for me, was dehydrating my own meals, and making my own energy/snack bars. You can really control whats going into them and you know all the ingredients. I do things like venison stew, venison chili, chili mac, rice and turkey, etc. etc. One thing I really like is incorporating my wild game into the meals I'm using on my hunts. I use good ingredients, vegetables from my garden, etc. I can limit the amount of sodium, and I can make really high fat and calorie dense foods. If you vaccum seal these dehydrated meals, they take up way less space than a Mountain House or equivalent.
For bars, I will typically throw nuts, seeds, nut butter, honey, protein powder or jerky, dark chocolate and dried fruits or berries into a blender. Then pressing them out and cutting into bars. Again, you can control the ingredients, and really make a much more calorie dense bar than you would be able to buy in the grocery stores.
Another great thing, especially for shorter duration hunts, where you need alot of energy and calories, is the good ol' Butthole Sammich! IE. Bagel with peanut butter and bacon. It sounds gross, but throw a couple slices of a jalapeno on there, and that is money.

you’re right! That sounds gross like the name implies! Haha, might have to give it a try though.
I’m feeling kind of lucky this year as a friend/hunting partner just bought a home freeze dryer. He’s been making meals daily....hoping that works out well!
As for personal experience, I took MREs last year on my 6 day backpack hunt. I was only about 4 miles in. It was 16 pounds worth of MREs and I didn’t eat all of it. In hindsight, it felt like a lot of weight and it took up a lot of space in my pack. The simplicity of the meals was nice, but I don’t think I would bring MREs again...

 

[Titan_Bow]

you’re right! That sounds gross like the name implies! Haha, might have to give it a try though.
I’m feeling kind of lucky this year as a friend/hunting partner just bought a home freeze dryer. He’s been making meals daily....hoping that works out well!
As for personal experience, I took MREs last year on my 6 day backpack hunt. I was only about 4 miles in. It was 16 pounds worth of MREs and I didn’t eat all of it. In hindsight, it felt like a lot of weight and it took up a lot of space in my pack. The simplicity of the meals was nice, but I don’t think I would bring MREs again...

I spent quite a bit of time in the US Army, so MREs in my civilian world just doesn't compute LOL. While 16 pounds for 6 days of food is on the high end of things, your food is going to singularly, one of the heaviest things in your pack, especially for longer trips. There are definitely things you can do to get this down in weight, but honestly, its not as significant as you think, unless you want to be sipping packets of olive oil for lunch. For me, I can hit about 1.5 to 2 lbs per day usually, and that's healthy, good tasting food that I enjoy, and probably 2500-3000 calories a day. I can get lighter than that, but again, that's where you start sacrificing more "normal" foods for things simply because of their caloric content. So, for me, that six day hunt, depending on the terrain, how hard of a hunt I anticipate it to be, etc. I am probably going to have 9 or 10 lbs. of food.
The big benefit of homemade dehydrated (or better yet homemade freeze dried!) is the weight and space saving in packaging. I can vacuum seal my meals and portions in exactly enough material to get them sealed, and not have a lot of extra. I also pack each days food in its own gallon ziplock, and I only bring what I need, nothing extra. So, as the days tick off on your hunt, you are eating all your food, and your pack gets lighter as well.