The 2013 "No Mountain House Challenge"!

[larryschwartz]

If you are looking for a really quick cooking noodle/pasta, check out the five minute cous cous at the local grocery store. Boil water, add it to the dry cous cous that is already in a freezer bag and a cozy and let it sit for five minutes to rehydrate. Cous cous is great because it is easy to make and is a good base for absorbing the flavors of whatever you add to it; you can add olive oil to it or add whatever flavor of boullion you like to the water before adding it to the cous cous.

 

[slim9300]

I just want to say that I ate the best food of my backpacking 'career' this year thanks to this thread. Every time the dinner bell rang, I was grateful that I took the time to make and dehydrate the meals. It was damn close to sitting at my own kitchen table (which is saying a lot). Thank you Aron (and others) for opening my eyes to something other than Mountain House! It's threads like this that make Rokslide great.

 

[CrzyTrekker]

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.

This sounds good. Also like the taters & spam idea. I'm gonna try these on my hunt next weekend.

 

[jlh42581]

On day hunts theres really no need even to go as far as dehydrated. Yesterday I cooked some hot loose sausage and made this velveeta cheeseburger thing. I added some tomato chunks after it was cooked. Let that cool, broke it up into four meals and vac sealed. They then went in the freezer. On a one day hunt Ill pull the pack on my way out in the morning, by lunch it should be thawed unless freezing temps. Then, boil my water and stick the bag down in the water, you can cook right in the bags they wont melt. After it sits ten mins hot lunch, very little work. Or cut it open and pour it in your cook container, add a teaspoon of water and keep stirring till it warms.

Another good trick is to measure out a portion of cereal, add powdered milk into the bag. Breakfast on the go.

 

[murf45]

A good book for backpacking meal recipe's is "Lipsmackin' Backpackin' by Tim and Christine Conners. In this book it will give you lots of different recipes and the nutritional information, weight, and servings for each recipe. It's a great book and gives you that many more options for the trail.

 

[murf45]

Great recipe! I used wild rice added some red wine, garlic, and a little soy sauce using antelope meat and it was amazing. I'm going to test it to make sure it rehydrates and tastes alright.

 

[beachbunny]

excailbur dehydrator blows straight across and dries fairly evenly, just dehydrate what you make, spaghetti, deer-a-roni,deer stew, jalepenos, all of it ,just nothing greasy, then food saver it up or if you use it fast,stick it in a freezer bag. dehydrated jalapenos definitely add flavor.rehydrate and eat, jerky doesn't rehydrate that well but is a welcome addition to anything. I ate like a king all summer when I was walking,used an alcohol stove and a pot

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

What ever happened to this? Did we all just give up on the idea?

 

[Ray]

What ever happened to this? Did we all just give up on the idea?

Nope

 

[Aron Snyder]

Just made several pounds of dehydrated elk spaghetti and sheep jerky.....good stuff!

 

[Stid2677]

Not that hard,, I weighed mine before and after to know how much water to add back. Takes a little longer than MH to rehydrate, I like to stuff mine into my Jetboil and let it sit covered in a bit of hot water in the bottom.

 

[Jdog]

how is it rehydrated Steve?

 

[Stid2677]

how is it rehydrated Steve?

Really good,, not quite like it is fresh,, but what is missing in texture is made up for by the "view"

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Steve what do you use to keep it from running through the slots? What's the shelf life? Do you put oxygen/moisture absorbers in with the dehydrated food? How do you know when it's done dehydrating?

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Just made several pounds of dehydrated elk spaghetti and sheep jerky.....good stuff!

Do the spaghetti noodles rehydrate well or turn to mush? Do you think it would work with just dehydrating the sauce and meat together then adding the uncooked noodles and reconstituting it all together?

 

[Aron Snyder]

Do the spaghetti noodles rehydrate well or turn to mush? Do you think it would work with just dehydrating the sauce and meat together then adding the uncooked noodles and reconstituting it all together?

That would work for sure, but I've done it both ways and prefer the all in one system.

 

[Stid2677]

Steve what do you use to keep it from running through the slots? What's the shelf life? Do you put oxygen/moisture absorbers in with the dehydrated food? How do you know when it's done dehydrating?

For soups and stews, I use the fruit roll insert that comes with dehydrators, if you look close in the photo you can see it.

I did buy and use the oxygen packs from amazon and put one into each pouch.

For shell life I keep mine frozen until I pack to leave, never had any trouble for a 14 day trip.

It's done when you can break it all up by hand,, helps to break it up some to make re-hydrating quicker.

 

[Ray]

What ever happened to this? Did we all just give up on the idea?

Nope

To be clearer, there is a sticky in the Cooking in the Wild forum that contains many examples of freezer bag cooking. I have put up a few of my meals on there since it seems like a better location for this stuff.

 

[Ray]

Do the spaghetti noodles rehydrate well or turn to mush? Do you think it would work with just dehydrating the sauce and meat together then adding the uncooked noodles and reconstituting it all together?

From my experience the best thing for noodles in the field that do not require additional cooking are rice noodles from Thai Kitchen. They have two types that require just a soak in hot water rather than a few minutes of cooking.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

To be clearer, there is a sticky in the Cooking in the Wild forum that contains many examples of freezer bag cooking. I have put up a few of my meals on there since it seems like a better location for this stuff.

Thanks somehow I completely missed that thread, thought I hadn't been over there in awhile.