Hawk Vittles

[whalen e]

Does anyone have any experience with Hawk Vittles, who sells dehydrated meals? If so, any recommendations, any favorites? How was the company, shipping, & prices?

Thx

[Paul Ensley]

I love Hawk Vittles. I've always found their single meals to be the right amount of food at the end of a long day of hiking.

I really like the Cowboy Pasta and the Beef Stew.

The company was fine to work with, shipped fast, I think USPS. I thought their tiered pricing structure for shipping was a bit wonky. I actually ended up removing one of the meals from my order because it would have bumped me up into a higher shipping price, so the marginal cost of the meal was going to be like $9 instead of $5. Oh well.

Definitely recommend Hawk Vittles!

[Ben C]

I have used their foods. They arrived fairly quickly. I liked how There were few ingredients and I knew what the ingredients were. I thought the food was good, but not great. The meals tended to be sweet to me. I usually don't like my savory meals to be sweet. For example, a past a dish with tomato sauce was too sweet for me. It reminded me of chef boy ar dee. I added a little hot pepper and it was quite good. Your taste may vary from mine regarding sweetness. Other than that issue, I was pleased with their meals.

[Edward Z]

Used them for a five day and was ok…but found the flavor just so so…. Not too impressed. But as much as any non home dehydrated others. It's good but nothing made it stand out.

[Mark Cashmere]

I've bought them a few times and find them quite tasty, but as can seen by other replies tastes can be different. I have stick mostly to the Spicy Sausage Pasta, North African Stew and Moroccan Stew which were all very good. I was going to try the Black Bean Stew, but alas my 4-legged friend got into my food bag and polished it off before one of my trips. A buddy of mine tried (and I had a taste of the Has Browns and Sausage breakfast and while it didn't look great it still tasted quite good.

I like that he uses fresh ingredients and the dehydrates the cooked product — no preservatives, etc. I usually buy the double sizes and break them down with a scale to single portions into Ziplocs at home. Not too hard to figure out the smaller water quantity needed from there. We have found that the 2nd level of shipping (was like 6 double meals) worked out best for me and a friend I ordered with. Product was usually pretty quick (within a week or so).

HTH

I have ordered thousands of dollars worth of food from HawkVittles.

Just pay attention to the calories count because some of the individual servings are half or more less calories than what is listed. Open a spreadsheet or grab a piece of paper and start keeping track of that. Just something to pay attention to. Just click on the image next to each one for a pop-up that will show the nutritional information, and at the bottom of that pop-up is the package weight. Do the math to get the total calories per serving.

They tend to have a slightly higher calorie count than most others out there – and two or three of his are really high and very good.

He does tend to over hydrate his foods a bit to make sure they have a longer shelf life (which is a good thing) but it does tend to take a bit longer to get the food rehydrated (which is a bad thing) so I have found pre-soaking them while you are hiking to be of benefit.

+Abela

[Ryan Smith]

Hawk Vittles are my favorite meal so far. They have simple ingredients, good taste, and a high caloric content. Most other meals have pees, onions, and carrots in nearly every single meal which I am not a fan of. My favorite is the Buffalo Pasta.

Ryan

[John Hansen]

Based on these reviews and others, I bought some Hawk Vittles for our JMT trip this month. I violated my cardinal rule of not taking new food without trying at home, but the reviews were so positive. I used the cook-in-bag method and I also placed the bag in a cozy to ensure it stayed hot while cooking. I also let it cook for a few minutes more than the instructions.

First dinner – Beef Stew. Now, we were high (10,000'+) in the Sierra's, but the noodles were undercooked. But more importantly, the taste was bland. Was the double pack sufficient for 2 people? Yes, because we struggled choking it down.

Second dinner – Lasagna. This time, I let it cook 5 minutes longer in the bag in the cozy. But still the noodles were crunchy. And it was more bland than the Beef Stew. This was after a hard day of climbing over Muir Pass and we were starving. I added some hot sauce, but the taste profile was just bland.

Breakfast – Packers potatoes. In the hiker bin at Muir Trail Ranch…

If I'm going to pay twice the price for a specialty dehydrated product, it should be better than Mountain House. I'm tired of Mountain House, but the equivalent product (Beef Stew and Lasagna) is better than Hawk Vittles. Since this product was originally designed for cooking in a pot for 15 minutes over a low flame, my guess is that the cook-in-bag method only works in the low hills of the East Coast. I can't even imagine the result without a cozy.

[Ken Larson]

I passed this on to Redhawk this is his return:

"Thanks for the info Ken. Didn't see that particular post in the thread. It's interesting, one individual talks about the "noodles" in the beef stew not rehydrating well, Curious because there aren't and noodles in the beef stew. As far as Johns (Abella's) post he is incorrect in that the posted nutritional values are for single servings, therefore a double serving would be twice the nutritional value, not vice versa. Can't post on the forum unless you're a member and they charge for membership. So those errors will not be addressed. I do make sure the food is well dehydrated, not to increase shelf life but to assure that there is no chance for bacteria or mold to form.

[Jeff Sims]

I have to say that I have converted from Packit Gourmet to Hawk Vittles pretty much exclusively. I eat hot for both breakfast and dinner with snacks and bars throughout the day and have found that my body responds much better to Hawk Vittles than any other dehydrated food that I have tried (no head aches, constipation or other stomach issues)

I for one really enjoy most of the dinner options, Bison Stew and pasta, there was a shrimp meal that really sticks out as well. Most of the breakfasts are pretty good as well. I found the grits to be a bit bland, however they are grits, and grits are bland so a little home dehydrated hot sauce of choice and maybe some shrimp and it is a breakfast of champions.

I used the HV exclusively on my 9 day JMT NOBO and every meal was completely rehydrated . I do use the cook in bag process and I drop the bag in an insulated cozy of sorts.

I have also found Redhawk to be extremely accommodating when it came to shipping everything in an extremely timely manner when I had to rearrange my trip dates.

As always YMMV but I will stick with Hawk Vittles and mix in a bit of the Packit Gourmet stuff that I like as well.

Jeff

[Bradley Attaway]

I too was disappointed with Hawk Vittles. After reading a ton of positive reviews I ordered about 10 of their meals as well as their coozie.

Each meal was boiled-in-bag-in-coozie with the prescribed amount of water and given 30+ minutes to rehydrate, and each was disappointing: watery consistency with bland flavor that sent me to bed still hungry.

They're also frustrating to boil because the bags can't stand up on their own like MH pouches can.

I'm back to Mountain House and thankful for it.

[Larry De La Briandais]

I have never tried Hawk Vittles, but I to plan to try a meal or two. I currently only use Packit Gourmet and love their meals. They are also excellent at getting my order shipped with time to spare. I just put my departure date in the comments and they make sure it ships with enough time.

I can eat Mountain House, but it doesn't taste very good. ;^)

[Randy Cain]

The front page of the Hawk Vittles site says, “…the portions are generous. When we say double serving, we mean it satisfies two people with big appetites.” On their FAQ page, it further says, “Q: Is each double serving really 2 servings? A: Yes, I base my serving size on the appetites of two full sized men who have spent a day of hard exercising. Many of the meals have been more then my hiking partner and I would finish.”

With that in mind, here's a photo of an individual serving size of the Beef Stew, before and after I rehydrated it. It’s in a 32 oz Ziploc container. Remember that it's supposed to be enough to satisfy someone with a "big appetite" who has "spent a day of hard exercising." Obviously it will depend on how much other stuff you have for dinner….

So here’s what I’ve tried so far:

▪ Sierra Spaghetti: A little bland, but not too bad. I ate every last bite, so that says something. I’d probably buy it again, although just dehydrating my own spaghetti is a lot tastier and more filling.
▪ Moroccan Stew: Bland. Tiny serving size. Would NOT buy again.
▪ Fiesta Frijoles: Bland. Tiny serving size. After a few bites, I tossed the rest down the drain and went on to the next one (see below). Would NOT buy again.
▪ Beef Stew: Bland. Didn’t rehydrate quite enough. Tiny serving size. After a few bites, I threw the rest down the drain and headed to Subway for something tasty. Would NOT buy again.

I have six more of these to try, so I’ll update this post to reflect my thoughts about them. I don’t need a lot of tasty freeze dried meals. I just need to find a small handful that I really like and that have large enough portion sizes to fill up my scrawny 160 pound frame after a day of hiking. So the experiment will continue…..

Another update:
▪ Chicken Pilaf: Very bland. Didn’t rehydrate enough, even in a cozy. Better serving size that most of the others so far, but that’s to be expected when the dry ingredients are up to the 5 oz range rather than the 3-4 oz range. Two bites into it, I threw it down the drain, which has been the norm for most of these meals. Would NOT buy again.
▪ Shrimp Cappellini: Did we bother putting ANY flavor in this one at all?!?! This is like eating plain, unflavored noodles. Serving size is good, but bland beyond belief. This one didn’t rehydrate enough either, even in a cozy. Two bites and it went down the drain, just like the last one. Would not buy again!!

Honestly, this experiment is getting old fast. I still have four more of these to try, and I’m tempted to just throw them all in the trash. VERY disappointed at this point. I’ve tried numerous brands of freeze-dried food over a lot of years, and Hawk Vittles is by far the absolute worst I’ve experienced. I've tried six meals so far, and only finished one. That's an 83% failure rate.

Yeah, I had to stop buying the HV meals.

They lost all of the flavor they had when I first started buying them.

They also got significantly harder to fully rehydrate – they are keeping the food in the dehydrator waaaaaay to long.

The portion sizes also kept getting smaller and smaller – I use to buy their spaghetti and lasagna in the large size and I could get three or four dinners from them.

I know at one point he just got so swamped with orders that he had to stop taking on new customers. It was at some point just before than that his meals went downhill in quality.

He told me once that he had three 9-tray excaliburs running 24/7 just to keep up with other orders. I had been placing orders of 50 meals and sometime shortly after my above post stopped buying from HV, I just could not take the decline in quality. They were awesome a few years ago though!

[Five Star]

I have to respectfully disagree with some of the above reviewers….EYOE (eat your own eats!). I have used Hawk Vittles for years, and love many of their meals. Also a big fan of PackitGourmet.

Sierra Spaghetti- very filling and generously-sized portions, I like to add a bit of tabasco or Cholula.

Mushroom Linguini- outstanding with some extra parmesan cheese

Southwest Lasagna- a favorite of my wife.

Moroccan and North African Stews- my personal favorites….just a hint of sweetness.

The Italian Sausage and Pasta dishes are awesome. The hot one is spicy!

Breakfast grits and country quiche are a nice change-up for breakfast.

A couple of dinners that I didn't like so well were Cashew Curry and Stir-Fry Salmon

[Jamie Shortt]

I must say I am with John. Great experience with Hawk Vittles. This is hot off the press. I placed an order placed on Oct 8th. I think the order arrived the next week (it was quick). I went on a 3 day trip this week eating cowboy pasta the first night and black bean stew the second night. These were both absolutely fantastic.

The first meal was cooked at 6000' elevation with a temp in the upper 30's.

Cowboy Pasta

The second meal was cooked at maybe 4500' (not positive) at a temp in lower 40's.

Black Bean Stew

My method…boil water, add more than recommended (probably 3/4" higher than top of contents), and let sit in coozy for 20+ minutes. The meals have always been hot and well hydrated using this method. My max elevation is 6k feet. If going to 10k you might actually want to consider adding water and simmering. I am not sure you can get water hot enough for a good rehydrate at higher elevations.

On the amount… I personally find the amount of the meals to be perfect, but I am not a "big" eater. The "stews" are a smaller portion that I am not sure are intended to be a full meal. They would make a great lunch or can be supplemented with some dense bread. I brought 2.7 oz of bread with me to eat with the stew and after a 20 mile hiking day I can say it was absolutely amazing.

Blandness…the meals I had were not bland at all, the Black Bean pasta was exactly the opposite…it was full of taste. I don't think HV uses salt which might contribute to blander experience. I will say there were a couple of meals I have had in the past that yes I would call "not spicy". The two meals I ate this week were indeed full of flavor and spice. I think it depend on the recipe not the particular batch. One recommendation would be to bring a salt and pepper packet. Also read the ingredients and decide if you think a particular meals will be spicy enough.

I was a freezer bag guy…doing my own dehydrating and meal prep, but after trying Hawk Vittles I have not made my own meals since. These are simply too easy and too good.

Jamie

[John Rowan]

I'll chime in from the pro-Hawk Vittles camp as well, having used them for about 90% of my backcountry meals for the last two years.

While some of them are a bit on the blander side of things (linguini mushroom sauce and the country quiche come to mind), they've all been enjoyable and very filling meals for me, and I'll keep using them for everything that I do (unless I go through with my plan for a PCT thru next year, in which case I'll be going way, way cheaper). The big thing for me is that I feel like I'm eating real food, rather than just putting a ton of garbage into my body (a la Mountain House or pretty much any of the other food we all eat during our trips).

(Worth noting: I am a vegetarian and have been targeting the higher calorie meals. Thus, my experience is limited to about 6 of the offerings on the HV "menu")

[Adam Holbrook]

I hope to find HV to be a good option.  I placed my first ever order on Monday 8/6/18.  on Tuesday I received an email notification that my order was in process.  I ordered a variety, mostly dinners, all single serving size.  The total product cost was $120.07 and the shipping was 22.95.  I believe I upgraded shipping to priority, which I wouldn’t have done if I knew there was a wait.  It wasn’t a big deal as it was only about $2.00 more if I recall.  I was disappointed in the shipping expense though if I’m honest.  This is just an initial taste testing order to try them out. I prefer mildly seasoned foods for the most part, so they may be great to me.  I usually let my dehydrated/ FD meals sit quite a bit longer than recommended as I use a nice koozie and they stay hot a long while in them. I hope this helps prevent any issues with rehydration with HV.  I have recently started using an evernew 900mL and a Trail design Ti-Tri for “trail cooking”, so I may end up using that system for these as the freezer bag method seems to provide mixed results.

I like a few of the packit gourmet meals.  I think they may have larger portions, but they also cost more.  I was glad to see that they have updated their packaging.  I don’t think they charge as much to ship, so that will also offset their higher prices some.

I haven’t liked the Good to Go meals and I tried several.  Their flavors are too bold for me and rehydration seems to be an issue for me as well.  I’ve given up on them.

Mountain house are fine, but get old quick.  The newer ones have helped add some variety into the rotation.  Biscuits and gravy aren’t too bad.

I haven’t received my shipping notice yet (8/9/18).  I’ll try to update with my impressions once I receive and try them.

Adam

8/10/18  Shipping notice received

8/11/18. Received all items as ordered. Some are not dated but most all have July 2019 as exp dates, so that’s good, about a year from when I placed order. Seems like packit gourmet were dating theirs for 6 months, but maybe it’s longer now with the new packaging.

I guess they’re actually located in NY not SD as listed on their site.

My order shipped in a flat rate priority box that should have cost $13.65 to ship and includes $50 insurance. I paid $22.95 shipping, so that’s a bummer I could have gotten another meal or two for the difference.

I also noticed they have a recommendation on how much water to add to the meals now. Seems like before they just said to add water to cover the food, so that’s good if the measurements are accurate.  I’m curious why they use vacuum packaging to pack the meals, but unfortunately they don’t vacuum pack them. Seems that would be really nice to save space and remove air which would help with shelf life as well.

Next will be actually trying them out which I’m excited to do.

 

 

 

 

[David Hartley]

I am also a hawk vittles fan.  I do find that some of them need a little extra salt and pepper for the flavor to pop – Cowboy Pasta and the Linguini and Mushrooms are examples of that.  But some of the spicy recipes are very spicy – the Hot Italian Sausage Pasta is quite spicy without anything added.  Some of them do take quite a bit of time to re-hydrate.  I like to incrementally add water as they re-hydrate – boil some water, add stir and let sit, stir again, reheat the water still in my pot and add a bit more, etc. until it is ready.  20-25 minutes is not unusual for some.  What I also really like about them is that they are low volume compared to Mountain House.  That really helps when you are trying to get more nights out of a bear canister.

I also tried several of the good-to-go and found them to be ghastly.

[Renais A]

Note that most, if not all, of the Hawk Vittles food recipes appear in Linda Yaffe’s book Backpack Gourmet.  Making the recipes yourself allows for changes to the spicing of the food, as well as selection of sometimes more flavorful alternatives.  For instance, Yaffe uses olive oil in a number of her recipes while Hawk uses canola in the same place.  Yaffe uses fresh salmon in the stir fry, Hawk uses canned salmon.   I’ve tried a fair number of the recipes and find them better tasting than many of the standard dried meals.   If you have a dehydrator, the recipes are really not very difficult to prepare, and they do add variety, especially on a long hike.  On the AT for months, I looked forward to some of these home dehydrated meals in packages to add variety to the standard grocery fare.

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