Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: hillbilly on July 14, 2015
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I'd like advice on low weight low bulk high energy food for 2 or 3 day hike in the mournes. I believe pot noodles are light and dried but not sure about energy or plastic carton bulk, waste etc. Any ideas and tips welcome. I have a meths powered trangia and vango tempest 200.
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I would avoid pot noodles unless you can source the water for them on your travels as carrying extra water adds to the bulk and weight. I use a Swedish mess kit with a trangia while camping and at the minute and go for the Uncle Ben's pre cooked rice (theres loads of flavours) I fry up some spam/sausage/bacon 1st then throw the rice in and its tasty! They're £1 in most places right now
I look forward to others suggestions
Rice:
http://m.tesco.com/h5/groceries/browse?search=uncle+ben
Meatballs:
http://m.tesco.com/h5/groceries/r/www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=272385398
Meatballs used on YouTube, skip to 13mins 50sec
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GWaeiuZNBOc
(Hope the links work)
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This is a tricky one as your wanting both low weight and size. I agree to avoid stuff like pot noodles etc but for a different reason. My problem with them is they are crap and do not qualify as food. If you are out working hard for a couple of days and fill yourself with them your body will not thank you nor repay you with performance. I tend to accept that weight is something you have to put up with for food and make my own boil in the bag meals, but they are heavy. There is a cheap diy way I can think of which involves making up your own trail bars with stuff like oats, seeds, nuts etc and combining it with home made energy gels. This will get you through but you will find it somewhat hard on the gut and really isn't a good idea if you are just out hiking for pleasure for a few days. Otherwise the only thing I can think of is to dig into deep pockets and get something like the wayfarer dried meals. You can happily carry plenty of full meals and you just need hot water.
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Folks pardon the pun but it is literally food for thought. I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my query. Calories versus weight. An age old conundrum. I'll take less clothes and carry more food. Thankyou.
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It depends on water really. Whether there will be water available on your route and whether you would be happy enough with it's quality to use it for cooking. (And if in summer the water source will be plentiful enough, I've trekked to a stream before to find it gone).
Pasta is always good for taste and energy but boiling it is wasteful of water. Dried pouch meals are as efficient as it comes but they can be expensive and a bit tasteless. MRE type army rations can be good because they can be eaten cold in an emergency and you can heat the pouches and then use the boiled water for a drink. Personally I like a mix of everything or else things can get seriously samey after a few days :)
You can also dry your own food but that's out of my wheelhouse!
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Cous-cous and hot dogs, pour your boiling water into the cous-cous packet, add in your hot dogs, roll the top of the packet to make a seal and leave for a few minutes. Eat right out of the packet. No dirty dishes to clean up after.
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I like the no dishes no fuss idea. I'll give the cous-cous and the uncle bens a go. Thanks.
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(http://i.imgur.com/Q41PJaj.jpg)
Used this on a hike goes from this to this....
(http://i.imgur.com/r7cLdbK.jpg)
Total cost just under £7.00
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Looking good, where did you get the silver pouches?
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Heggs ebay called Mylar pouches .get the ones with the flat bottoms so they can stand in your pot .
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/jamosolutions/ is where I got mine .
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Heggs forgot to say to seal just use an iron along the top
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Sweet, thanks for that!
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Do you boil in the bag or empty contents into pot? What size bag for a tin of beans? We hike with our 4 kids so dried meals at 5 quid a bag x 6 is way too dear!
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Noble 98 16cm x 10cm will hold enough beans for two . I normally use cocktail sausages .cook in oven prior to trip .put in with beans and Heat( bit of bacon too). You can boil in bag or use a pot whatever you like . with a family pot would be quicker. You can make up any pre meals , spag bol chilii con carne ,stew etc . seal in bag .Just remember not to keep them for too long without eating . normal food rules should apply . Make up night before and put in fridge and they should be good for two days.
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So to be clear, you just make whatever mean as normal, leave it to cool, bung it in the pouch, iron shut and Bob's yer Aunt's husband?
Noble 98 16cm x 10cm will hold enough beans for two . I normally use cocktail sausages .cook in oven prior to trip .put in with beans and Heat( bit of bacon too). You can boil in bag or use a pot whatever you like . with a family pot would be quicker. You can make up any pre meals , spag bol chilii con carne ,stew etc . seal in bag .Just remember not to keep them for too long without eating . normal food rules should apply . Make up night before and put in fridge and they should be good for two days.
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So to be clear, you just make whatever mean as normal, leave it to cool, bung it in the pouch, iron shut and Bob's yer Aunt's husband?
Noble 98 16cm x 10cm will hold enough beans for two . I normally use cocktail sausages .cook in oven prior to trip .put in with beans and Heat( bit of bacon too). You can boil in bag or use a pot whatever you like . with a family pot would be quicker. You can make up any pre meals , spag bol chilii con carne ,stew etc . seal in bag .Just remember not to keep them for too long without eating . normal food rules should apply . Make up night before and put in fridge and they should be good for two days.
You can leave it to cool but I prefer to do mine while it is still hot, ideally as close to cooking as possible. If you are just making food the night before a trip then 99% of the time you will be fine, but if you were to make something and allow it to cool in an open environment you are increasing your chances of the nasties getting in and thus having to take three rolls of loo paper on the trip. If you fill and seal the bag the moment the food is cooked you are doing something similar to canning food, this means the heat in the sealed bag kills any bugs and there is then no way for any more to get in until you open it to heat up again. In theory this way you should be able to happily make food in advance and leave it for a good month or so with no problems. I tend to do exactly this with stuff like curry and bolognese as it is cheaper and easier to make a large pot than faff with small amounts each time.
However I'm no chef so don't complain to me if you copy me and get the squirts, I just happen to have guts of iron and so laugh in the face of stomach nasties. 8)
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Interesting. Do you need to do anything to remove air from the pouch and does the hot food not cause the pouch to expand?
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Interesting. Do you need to do anything to remove air from the pouch and does the hot food not cause the pouch to expand?
I tend to just never fill a pouch more than 3/4 so that when it is then sealed you have room to lay it flat and allow the contents to spread out into the space. This way you get a more even packet rather than a big bulging thing. For general packing it is easier for me this way and I would rather have to mess about and heat up two pouches of food that pack away well. The bags are touch things and you would have a hard time causing them to burst or split but I figure it just isn't worth the hassle to risk it, a beans covered pack just doesn't fill me with warm feelings when on a mountain.
As for expansion when reheating (I am guessing that is what you mean) I haven't noticed much of that going on. You do get a little of it but they only sit in the water for perhaps 5-10 minutes tops, that is going from cold water to hot food. There isn't enough time for any real amount of pressure build up to cause things to go boom.