Mountain House alternative

[Will_m]

If you were going on a severally weight restricted trip (~50 pounds a person), is there any other option besides mountain house?

 

[DWinVA]

Make your own. There are books and websites with great recipes using a dehydrator.

God Bless.

 

[EasilyExcited]

Alpine Aire has some good flavors of dehydrated food. also available on promotive for a discount if you have access

 

[durangobrad]

Heathers Choice, Alpine Aire, Backpackers pantry are all better than mountain house IMO. Also as stated above make your own if you have a dehydrator. I have had great luck with spaghetti sauce.

 

[jdmaxwell]

I second making ur own..

I do because I get so sick of eating Mt houses..

 

[Will_m]

Little off topic, but has anyone tested the longevity of home dehydrated meals? I can't feasibly make freeze dried meals, but I can certainly go the dehydration route. The only thing that concerns me is the longevity of straight dehydrated meats, outside of jerky.

 

[durangobrad]

I vacuum seal them and throw them in the freezer. I have had venison spaghetti sauce last for months, no problem. I believe the issues are with high fat meats like pork.

 

[DWinVA]

Check out this web-site:

http://www.theyummylife.com/Instant_Meals_On_The_Go

God Bless.

 

[MTredneck]

I pretty much can't stand the MTN Houses anymore but they're always so cheap at Costco that I usually open them up just before a trip and doctor them with dried veggies, spices and whatever else strikes my fancy, then I usually cube some summer sausage into them once I'm out. But I have a pretty high tolerance for eating crappy food.

 

[mallacootasmoothie]

Not sure how accessible it is in the US but Back Country Cuisine from New Zealand is much better than mountain house.

 

[Bmcox86]

Make your own or Heather's choice

 

[ben h]

Packit-Gourmet also has much better meals than MH, but some of them do require some minimal "cooking" not just dumping water in a bag and some of them do require you to bring extra items, such as tortillas, baguette or similar items.

I wish I wasn't a foodie and could just stuff MH into my mouth meal after meal, but I just can't do it for more than a day or 2.

 

[Poser]

Heathers Choice.

 

[Becca]

Lots of good dehydrated options besides MH. We like various entrees from Natural High, Alpine Aire and backpackers pantry. Although MH makes a few flavors I still like too. Just good to have options.

We did a 12 day brown bear hunt a couple weeks ago, and I brought 24 different varieties of entree so each of us had something different every night. When it comes to dehydrated, it's nice to have variety.

 

[Hunt'nFish]

Amen to variety!

As to longevity to dehydrated freezer bags meals.....m
A few months is fine, after that flavor suffers and oils can start to go rancid. That said, I've eaten last year's meals and not noticed anything odd.

By adding the oxygen absorbant pkgs, many of these issues go away.
Hunt'nFish

 

[elkyinzer]

Good thread...Question...

I don't mind the taste of the Mountain House. They are more than a little salty, but after hiking the mountains all day I would probably eat wet boot leather with the right sauce on it.

For me, the problem with Mountain House is the "digestibility factor". One here and there and I am fine. After two or three days of them, let's just say things get ugly and I question how much nutrition I am getting out of them based on the similarity of the inputs to the outputs. Not to mention the bloating and gas pains I get from them. I am not one of those people that has a real sensitive stomach either.

Are any of the other brands mentioned easier on the stomach, based on personal experiences?

What about the homemade (dehydrated), or semi homemade (assembling freeze dried ingredients)? Are they easier yet?

 

[Ray]

Good thread...Question...

Are any of the other brands mentioned easier on the stomach, based on personal experiences?

What about the homemade (dehydrated), or semi homemade (assembling freeze dried ingredients)? Are they easier yet?

Alpine Air and heather's choice never bothered me, but I don't eat them for days at a time. They are fillers to my homemade stuff. My home made stuff is just like eating real food, just at little bit crunchy, and not as much fat unless I dump EVOO or coconut oil into it.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

For me, the problem with Mountain House is the "digestibility factor". One here and there and I am fine. After two or three days of them, let's just say things get ugly and I question how much nutrition I am getting out of them based on the similarity of the inputs to the outputs. Not to mention the bloating and gas pains I get from them. I am not one of those people that has a real sensitive stomach either.

Are any of the other brands mentioned easier on the stomach, based on personal experiences?

What about the homemade (dehydrated), or semi homemade (assembling freeze dried ingredients)? Are they easier yet?

How different are those meals than your normal routine? It might not be anything specific to mountain house and instead flipping a diet to a ton of rice or such (often a big component in these types of meals). That said they could have a preservative that doesn't agree with you either, etc.

 

[elkyinzer]

How different are those meals than your normal routine? It might not be anything specific to mountain house and instead flipping a diet to a ton of rice or such (often a big component in these types of meals). That said they could have a preservative that doesn't agree with you either, etc.

That is a good thought, but I guess aside from the freeze dried/preservative aspect, not really much. That leads me to believe either yes, it's the preservatives or the freeze drying process renders the food to a state that is harder to process. Beef stew, spaghetti, and tetrazzini are my 3 MH go-to's, and those are certainly things I can handle eating otherwise. I eat fairly clean but I am not on any measured or specific diet, I pretty much eat what I want and my preferences lead to pretty healthy choices on their own as in I don't have a sweet tooth or a big taste for junk food.

 

[jquarnberg]

I really like knorr rice. You can add a single serve pack of tuna, chicken or spam. The rice comes in a lot of flavors. I cant eat a whole pack of that rice so I have messed with splitting them in half and putting the half in a zip lock with my desired single serve pack of meat. The chicken flavor rice with spam is my favorite. Chicken broccoli rice with chicken is great too. The negative for me has been that you just cant cook it in the bag. It has to simmer in the pot for a 5-10 minutes or the rice just wont cook. Which means you have to clean a pot.