The 2013 "No Mountain House Challenge"!

[HellsCanyon]

Just ordered a vacuum sealer and digging out the food dehydrator this week. Planning on doing some mexican rice n beans plus taco meat. Also BBQ beans n beef. Fajitas would be a good idea as well. I could rotate those three meals if they turn out and be good for a season...

Mike

 

[blb078]

Those of you who are eating rice and/or noodles, are you cooking them then dehydrating them or just cooking them out on your hunt w/o dehydrating them?

 

[Sunspot]

This should be interesting because MH food always tasted blah and never seemed to settle right in the stomach. I do like the Granola and Blueberry breakfast.

 

[slim9300]

Those of you who are eating rice and/or noodles, are you cooking them then dehydrating them or just cooking them out on your hunt w/o dehydrating them?

Cook well first or your will have rock solid rice and noodles.

 

[slim9300]

Heavier than a comparably sized mountain house, but probably double the calories (and tastiness). Elk pasta if anyone is wondering.

 

[HellsCanyon]

Look what was waiting for me when I got home!

 

[HellsCanyon]

First attempt at dehydrating my own meal. This is a homemade Mexican rice, pinto beans and taco seasoned elk burger meal. We'll see how it turns out, I was half way tempted to dehydrate the three components separately but figured I'd try this way first. Not the greatest dehydrator but we've had it for a long time thus it was free!


Mike

 

[Sunspot]

Are you cutting down on the sodium doing it yourself?

 

[CrzyTrekker]

Dang, taco seasoned elk burger sounds good!

 

[HellsCanyon]

Are you cutting down on the sodium doing it yourself?

For everything I cooked tonight I had maybe 1.5 tspn of salt. That was for 1.5 lbs of burger, 2 cups of rice and a 29 oz can of beans. The beans had 300mg of salt per 1/2 cup and I added a little more for flavor. I used tomato sauce, granulated garlic n onion powder plus chicken bullion for the rice, garlic n onion powder plus some salt for the beans, and a bunch of stuff for the elk burger. Everything is from scratch.

We had this for dinner tonight so i really think i only have about 1.5 meals dehydrating now. Mainly just want to try it and see how it tastes rehydrated. I am doing this for taste and budget reasons. Thus I'm not really keeping track of my sodium intake for these meals.

Mike

 

[slim9300]

Dang, taco seasoned elk burger sounds good!

That's how I season my elk pasta for my dehydrated meals (pasta included). Due to the reconstituting seemingly 'flushing' all of the spice from the meat, it seems much tastier when the meat is heavily spiced. It seem like reconstituting the meal robs about 50% of all seasoning.

Elk tacos are also one of my favorite weekly meals. My wife and I go through about 100 lbs. per year of elk hamburger by ourselves.

 

[DWarcher]

How are you guys portioning out your meals?

I've been doing 4-6 ounces dry weight before vacuum sealing which seems to be working out okay so far.

 

[slim9300]

How are you guys portioning out your meals?

I've been doing 4-6 ounces dry weight before vacuum sealing which seems to be working out okay so far.

Mountain House:

Elk Pasta:

I could probably get by with only packing 7.0 ounces of food. The above meal was just a tad too much food two weeks ago, but it's not far off. I couldn't go any lighter than 7 ounces of food though.

 

[Tag stew]

which would you rather save???? $$$$ or oz's??? That's a legit question from someone who is new to backpack hunting and both are very important too.

 

[HellsCanyon]

I decided to try my first DIY dehydrated meal tonight. Mexican rice n beans plus taco seasoned elk burger! Turned out great except I had to add some fresh tapatio sauce to it! This was 8 oz dry...


Mike

 

[DWarcher]

Mike, how much water did you use?

I'm finding that if I double my dry weight I'm usually pretty close.

-Dave

 

[HellsCanyon]

Mike, how much water did you use?

I'm finding that if I double my dry weight I'm usually pretty close.

-Dave

Quite a bit. 2.5 cups! I think I'll use the 'straw' trick to pack in some hot sauce or raid the local tacobell for sauce packets!

Mike

 

[blb078]

Has anyone tried to dehydrate any canned foods? Like chilli or something? I'm trying to figure out how many different meals(for dinner) I should make I can go a while just eating ground burger and rice or something but I'm thinking 3 different types of dinner for a 7 day hunt.

 

[Slim Jim]

I like this

It's about the same weight/calorie ratio as mountain house but 1/2 the price. The salmon is $1.79 and the mashed taters are $1.69

 

[jlh42581]

If youre looking for a quick cook noodle get some cheap ramen, chuck the salt pack and use them. No need to dehydrate it. Dehydrate your sauce and throw the noodles in before vac seal.