Freeze dried Ham in foil pouches

Richard are you talking about freeze-dried or rather the fresh pack, similar to chicken and tuna? Those packs are it seems dead now – but you can get freeze-dried ham in bulk and repack it, go check out something like beprepared.com for that. You can reseal it into vac bags.

An MYOG option is to look for canned ham (seems like few stores in our area carry this) and dehydrate it.

1. Clean out the gelatin that fills the voids
2. rinse well
3. cut into 3/8 inch cubes
4. weigh and divide the weight by your serving size to determine the number of servings
5. dehydrate
6. weigh again and divide by the number of servings to determine how much to put in each package
7. vacuum bag each serving separately

edit: This works well for meat that has been pressured cooked, which includes meat in a can and meat in a pouch. I learned that from Sarah Kirkconnell and have used the technique successfully with chicken and ham. Tuna and salmon in cans or pouches might work too but I have not (yet) tried it. Dehydrating cooked chicken and ham slices yields something that might be useful for resoling shoes … not so useful for eating.

I strongly suggest you go with Sarah's idea–buy a #10 tin and vacuum-seal individual portions. I tried dehydrating packaged ham dices, and they were very hard to rehydrate.

I dehydrated some spiral (really helical) cut ham slices.
I had no success in hydrating them to something you could chew.
It might work if they were ground up and then dehydrated to increase the surface area and break up the fibers.

Gary reports: I tried dehydrating packaged ham dices, and they were very hard to rehydrate.

Timothy reports: I dehydrated some spiral (really helical) cut ham slices.
I had no success in hydrating them to something you could chew.

So true! I should have emphasized and explained the importance of the word canned in my response. I'll edit my original response to make it clear.

Ya know they do have the single size spam in foil I think they are 4oz I have carried it b4. And as the commercial said spam is ham! Remember the monty python skit Spam Spam Spam Spam

+1 on the SPAM single packs. On hike when resupply is over 5 days, SPAM, pasta and olive oil all mixed up is great to keep the carbs & calorie levels up, Yeah…the sodium levels are high, but I can live it.
Regards,
John

If you do Spam, look for the lower sodium/fat version in the single serving packets. :-)

Thanks to everyone for their input. The #10 tin looks attractive pricewise, but since I'll only do 2-3 ham based meals a summer, it's a bit of overkill. I'll try the low sodium spam in the foil pouch.

Again thanks for all the input.

But does anybody really want low fat for backpacking and as much as we sweat and drink is the low sodium really an issue unless on a special diet???

You might want to look for Country Ham. It's cured for an extra-long time and ends up a lot drier (and saltier) than regular ham. Because of the low moisture and high salt it's actually shelf stable.

Mark….very few people "need" a diet screaming high in sodium. We get plenty enough (way too often too much) from a Standard US Diet.
Ham is pretty salty no matter what. Eat it in moderation….

As for the low-fat in ham, high fat foods don't dry well nor do they keep well. The fat can go rancid quite easily. So that is the reason behind low-fat ham for drying.

Good news! I found some ham pouches like they package tuna and chicken! On Amazon, look for Sweet Sue Chunk Ham, 7-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 12). It wasn't exactly inexpensive, but it should be WAY better than dehydrated leather, I mean ham. LOL After doing some web surfing for it, it looks like it may be available at Walmart stores, too.

Look around, and you can find Spam in a pouch as well.

–B.G.–

Look around, and you can find Spam in a pouch as well.

SPAM … Minnesota's contribution to the world's stockpile of WMD's … preferable to starvation but only slightly so.

Our scouts severely test my commitment to the "boy led troop" idea by including SPAM in menu plans. Once they managed to sneak two SPAM meals in one day under my radar … a very black day indeed.

Several years ago we traveled to Estonia for our son's wedding. Finding uniquely Minnesotan gifts for his wife's family was a challenge. Wild rice was a no brainer. SPAM made the list too, resulting in much hilarity.

Love country ham. I can't believe I have never packed it before. How long does it last with no refrigeration?

I am just waiting on the bacon flavored spam in the foil packs

Ahhhhh, you had me all excited! I'd carry a few of the single-serving packs just for that on the last day…

Spam is definitely not one of my favorites either. I think I'd sooner chew the actual shoe leather. LOL But I did want to say "YAY SCOUTING!" And YAY that you let your boys lead! We are veteran Scouters ourselves. Both boys have been in since they were 6. We have been hard pressed to find Troops here in central Texas that let the boys lead. I'm hoping to change that in the Troop we just joined, partially because they want my family to help them backpack… :~) I was actually looking for ham in pouches to make a ham and potato soup as an example for them. That's how I stumbled across this forum. Thanks everyone!

Psssttt…the way to actually enjoy SPAM is to pan fry it in small pieces. Once it is sizzling it tastes reasonably good. In fried rice it is very tasty.
http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/spam-tastic-fried-rice

Also great in Lo Mein!
http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/spam-tastic-lo-mein

I found individually wrapped honey ham stick's by Klements at WallyWorld that I've used in a few meals. Not exactly a ham steak but works if you chop it up and mix it into the meal.

http://www.klements.com/Store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=103

Sarah, while fried spam is good I can eat it right out of the foil packs. I put it on a burrito and add some mayo to it. I also cut it into small pieces and put it in my grits.

Eddy, Hoosierdaddy does that as well on trips. I can't do it but it is good in sushi :-D