Have a favorite trail recipe or technique you'd like to share? Please do! We also like reviews of various trail food products out there. The Backcountry Food Topix forum is the place to discuss all things related to food and nourishment while in the Sierra wilderness (as well as favorite trail head eateries).
1) Put the food in freezer bags that are safe for boiling water, then:
2) Add the hot water, then:
3) Drop the freezer bags inside the Mountain House freeze-dried bag to hold in the heat?
That's essentially what we do. Lessons we've learned:
- only use name-brand freezer bags. Ziploc® Brand quart size freezer bags work really well.
- put the Ziploc® bag of food inside the Mtn House bag (cheap cozy) first. Be sure both are fully opened.
- pour in the hot water. Stir. Squeeze the air out of the Ziploc® bag & seal. Squish this bag down into the Mtn House bag / cozy and seal the Mtn House bag.
- put the Mtn House bags / cozies all together so they can share heat.
Early in the trip, finding stuff in the bear can is a problem. On long trips (8-9 days) I cut out circles of wax paper same size as the bear can, put last day's food in bottom, top with the wax paper cut-out, next day, and so forth. Keep spices and condiments or anything you use every day (such as coffee) on top. This avoids having to stuff everything back in the bear can. I really stuff the can at home, and usually cannot get it all back inside if I have to dump the whole can to find stuff. Once you are down to about four days food, then finding stuff is no problem.
You do not have to re-pack everything. Just take a needle and prick a hole in the top of the packaging and squeeze out the air. Some packaging is pretty light weight and good right from the store.
Also take low-volume choices- for example, flat noodles instead of macaroni (it has lots of air space). Small granular food packs better- like Malt-o-Meal vs oatmeal, bag of gorp vs trail bars. Anything square and stiff is going to waste space.
I also just eat out of my pot. I never have found washing the pot after cooking in it a problem. Just pay attention so you do not burn food and fill it with water as soon as done eating, even if you wait a while to do the final washing.
Thanks for the help everyone.
Got Ziploc freezer bags, repackaged, will try the "freezer bag/Mtn. House bag/pour in the water" method as described by Nacci.
Just get one of Sarbar's cozies from her site; http://www.trailcooking.com/trail-cooki ... ooking-101" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They aren't that expensive, work great, last forever and help support someone who has helped so many.
A little late to the party here.... Because of food sensitivities, we now make all our own dinners. We order freeze-dried meats and veggies (although we now have a dehydrator and will experiment with making our own) and we buy instant potatoes, converted rice, and instant polenta. We throw together each dinner into freezer bags, and just add boiling water directly into the bags on the trip. The downside is you wind up with a lot of plastic garbage to haul out. But there is no clean up except of the sporks.
