Recipes and food ideas for 10 day Alaskan drop hunt

mcseal2

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I'm going on a 2 man drop hunt for moose in Alaska in 2018. I'm sitting inside watching it rain, cooking dinner right now and got to thinking about the menu for that hunt. The outfitter provides the cooking gear including a 2 burner Coleman stove and skillet, pots, plates etc. We have a 100lb weight limit for our personal gear not including what the outfitter provides.

I'm planning to take a lot of Mountain House meals, enough to eat them for the entire trip if necessary. I figure they are light and having enough of them for the whole trip gives me extra in case weather extends our trip. I don't plan to eat only Mountain House the whole trip though. I've got my gear list pretty much done on an Excel program and it looks like my buddy and I will have about 10-15lbs of extra weight apiece to use on food each not including our Mountain House meals.

I've done trips where I was limiting weight as much as possible and I've done trips where weight wasn't an issue and I could pack a cooler of cold or frozen stuff. This one falls somewhere in the middle. I'm looking for ideas for hot meals, probably evening meals, that can break the monotony of freeze dried food for 10 days. My buddy that's going has issues he thinks is from the build-up of sodium eating to much freeze dried stuff for to many days also. Hopefully we will have fresh moose meat early in the trip to eat but I don't want to plan for that. I don't know that our weight restrictions and the logistics of getting things to the little town we fly out of in Alaska makes bringing a cooler of food that needs refrigerated the best option either.

There is a little grocery store in the town we fly out of we can get basics and some fresh/frozen food in. Probably shouldn't plan on anything to fancy from there but it sounds like we can fill in a few things that need refrigerated or frozen from there before leaving.

Anyone have some good hot meals they use that have ingredients that don't need to be kept in a cooler? Thanks for the help.
 

WRO

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Bring a fishing rod and a lights shotgun, fish and Ptarmigan are great adds to meals.
 

Ray

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cured meat in a tube of what ever style you like. Salami and pepperoni last a long time if kept cool.
two or three onions
a head or two of cabbage (it lasts a long time and does not bruise like lettuce)
huge jar of trail mix
half dozen sweet potatoes (make sure to pack a yard or two of foil)
small bottle of your favorite steak spices

Bethel, McGrath, or Galena (maybe?) all have AC stores and they may not have some types of vegetation, but should have onions and cabbage. Bettles you are on your own as the BRA folks have snack foods at their quick stop store.
 
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mcseal2

mcseal2

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Thanks, Bethel is where I'm flying out of. I was thinking of having some foil and making some taters and onion packs with it.
 
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Replace the MH meals with boxed pasta and rice dinners from the grocery store combined with canned or freeze dried/dehydrated meats like ground beef, tuna/salmon, or chicken. You are eating food that you body is used to eating so you won't have the problems your buddy faces with backpacking food like MH. Dry soup mixes are another good option. Take some extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to supplement your meals with fat and flavor. You should be able to find a small plastic bottle of it at the grocery store when you go to get your boxed dinners.
 

Becca

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Lots of options besides MH, if you have access to a 2 burner stove I would take advantage of it within the confines of your weight restrictions. I have made a frozen meals for 10+ day remote fly out hunts on several occasions, but I had a little more weight to work with than it sounds like you do.

Tortillas are durable, and can be used for lots of different things.
Our grocery store sells dehydrated refried beans. Cook them in the field, roll into a tortilla with a little cheese for a bean burrito. If you are fortunate enough to have moose meat in camp, you can make it more like a carne asada burrito.

Frozen stir fry veggies with peanuts or cashews over boil in the bag rice. Can add meat if available.

Cut the meat off a rotisserie chicken and vacuum seal it, then freeze. Once in the field, boil the chicken in the vacuum sealer bag to reheat and serve with instant mashed potatoes.

As others said above, lots of prefab pasta options. Maybe stir in a foil pouch of tuna or salmon for protein.

I like to bring a few apples, and the pre made veggie trays with dip to eat in the first few days. Nothing like fresh produce to break up food monotony.


I would plan to do as much of your grocery shopping in anchorage as possible. While Bethel does have a store, the options are going to be limited and you will pay premium prices. Much easier to shop in anchorage and put it into a soft sided cooler bag so you can guarantee you have what you want and not have to spend a fortune to get it.
 
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mcseal2

mcseal2

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Thanks for the replies, I will look into shopping in Anchorage and the meal ideas.

I'm a rancher and used to good beef, I never liked any of the MH rehydrated beef meals. Their chicken seems to rehydrate better and taste better to me. I haven't tried the canned or foil packed chicken that's pre-cooked that sound like a good idea as does the rotisserie chicken idea. All the ideas sound good!

If we could or decide to spare the weight I have a Yeti 30 soft cooler we could take. It's kinda heavy at 6lbs 2oz but does work decent, I describe it as better than any other soft cooler I've tried and equal to a decent Coleman or Igloo $40 hard side cooler. It would expand our options if we used it and some dry ice. Anyone know if the store in Bethel has dry ice?

Thanks for the good ideas
 

Ray

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One of the fish packers down by the river/old harbor might have dry ice. It is unlikely that the AC store would. I doubt if a processor would be set up to sell retail to a guy on the street. Also depending on the type of plane you are in, it can't go out. Float plane it could go in the floats, but a cub would be a not going to happen.
 

AdamW

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I'd for sure consider some homemade dehydrated meals instead of mountain house. Real food is hard to beat.
 
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Here are some of my quick fav's:
Knorr rice & pasta meals w/ foil pack chicken.
Bearcreek soups & stews, add dehydrated burger or some of your fresh game meat if you want.
Foil pack tuna, mayo, pickle relish... on crackers.
cup-o-noodles & other nissan Ramen/chowmein meals.
Lots of salami/bagel meals
Butthole samiches
You can make a pretty good spaghetti using powdered tomatoes and a pinch of Italian spice....add fresh game meat to.

Ah hell... the list goes on and on.
Hunt'nFish
 
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mcseal2

mcseal2

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Here are some of my quick fav's:
Knorr rice & pasta meals w/ foil pack chicken.
Bearcreek soups & stews, add dehydrated burger or some of your fresh game meat if you want.
Foil pack tuna, mayo, pickle relish... on crackers.
cup-o-noodles & other nissan Ramen/chowmein meals.
Lots of salami/bagel meals
Butthole samiches
You can make a pretty good spaghetti using powdered tomatoes and a pinch of Italian spice....add fresh game meat to.

Ah hell... the list goes on and on.
Hunt'nFish

I'm guessing the butthole samiches are named for the hole in the bagel?
 

Ray

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All this cooking has me wondering what kind of water source you will have access to? If you are dropped on a ridge top you may be hauling water from way down low. If on a lake then you're set.
 
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mcseal2

mcseal2

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We will be dropped real close to water, either a lake or a river from what I've gathered. I agree, I wouldn't want to tote extra water around just for a nicer meal. We will be using an inflatable boat for transportation and the outfitter requests that it is taken to camp every night to keep it from being damaged by bears so the campsites are close enough to allow that. Past hunters say they camped on the shoreline and did a lot of calling right from camp with success.
 
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I'm guessing the butthole samiches are named for the hole in the bagel?

LOVE butthole sandwiches. One fresh for first day lunch, a frozen one will thaw for day two. Probably stable enough for longer.

Bagel, peanut butter, bacon and honey. Lots of energy calories and protein.
 

peddler

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Check out OMeals, pour 4 ounces of liquid in the bag and it starts to cook itself. Watch their videos.
 
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