Freezer bag cooking vs. pot cooking – weight of boil-in-bag bags?

Freezer bag weights DO add up.
A dedicated lightwt plastic dish and cozy is weight-competitive with it.
But you still have to wash it
So FBC wins.

Some people will take a mountainhouse meal, eat on day 1.
Then keep washing that heavy bag and using it for FBC.
Avoids the weight of more freezer bags
but you still have to wash it, and its not easy to wash

I use freezer bags (the kind you get from a grocery store next to the zip-locks) to package my food because they are durable. On longer trips I find that cheap zip locks end up ripping and getting holes.

I hate eating out of a bag. It's just… weird. I can never scoop the food out very well. With a regular freezer bag I can put it inside my pot and fold over the edges which works better and gives me something to hold on to. Here is a picture of what I mean: http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g138/RoundDisc/south%20warner/DSCN0088.jpg

But the convenience is so nice. When I am tired and hungry, I just heat up some water and throw the bag into the fire when I'm done and I have no trash left over.

On the other hand, cleaning a pot isn't that much work unless you have food that is extra messy. I don't worry about purifying the water I use to clean with. Cooking in your pot works better for food that is hard to rehydrate. And eating out a pot is much more pleasant.

So… I do both.

Btw, washing out a pot with cold creek water when it's 15 degrees out is not fun!

I purchased 100 foil lined bags that were originally used for gourmet coffee. They are new bags from a store liquidation sale. I tested the bags for strength after boiling in them for a long period of time. They have a gusset bottom, so they stand on their own just like the Mountain House meal bags. Makes for nice pouring of water into when freezer bagging it. I'm goung to repacage Mountain House food that I purchased in #10 cans. These bags I purchased have supper strong ziplocs designed for multiple opening and closing. Bag size is 6.5×10 inches laying flat.

Testing of the bag:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJE6x3JRHo

Edited to include bag weight. 10 bags weigh 12 grams. My scale would not register just one bag.

FBC is sooo much more convenient, not to mention the ease of multiple entrees per meal, zero cleanup, etc., etc. that it is near impossible for me to see any advantage to in-pot cooking.

In-pot is great for poverty cooking, i.e. where you are carrying nothing but uncooked rice and some stinky dried fish.

Plastic is forever, the cleanup cost is hidden.

–G.B.–

The identity thief is back again.

–B.G.–

Interesting arguments on both sides. Too much waste with freezer bags. I can see it being useful for dry camps.
–E.B.–

another caveat — boiling in plastic or aluminum may leach stuff into your food that you don't want there.

I reuse fruit bags for my food and store all in a big nylo/odor proof bag. That cuts weight, reuses stuff that was in my house already, and avoids me leaching (yet more) chemicals into God knows where in my body.

Cleaning a pot at 15 degs definitely sucks, but it's quick, especially with some sand to scrape anything away…I don't even use soap, just sand or dirt and water. You could always use some after something particularly oily though, etc.

I'm studying to be a medical doctor and I approve of this message…

Props to identity thief (uh, thieves….) above :)

Who's the real thief here?

Bob, have you been cloned?
I go back and forth depending on the trip as far as how much cooking I want to do. Here water is so abundant that cleaning up is never a pain.

I like the FB method for cooking for 2. I'm gluten and dairy intolerant, my boyfriend is not. I make all our food, and can create gluten-free, dairy-free for me, and regular trashy food for him. Boil 1 pot of water, two meals, done.

In general, I don’t like freeze dried food. Since I enjoy cooking (and eating), I make gourmet meals on the trail and prepare them in a pot. I have made lasagna, panang beef as well as quiches on the trail. To me, cooking on the trail is enjoyable and right up there with reaching a summit or swimming in an alpine lake. My 2 cents – Jon

I use a cup/cookpot to eat out of. My cleanuup is a few ml's water and a finger for a few seconds. Cleanup is very conservative on water and I'm not collecting plastic bags with food particles still in them.

I have the best cleaning method known to mankind:

I can use freezer bags or eat out of the pot, and there is never, ever, anything left in my either one. Or on my spoon. Or on the ground. Anywhere. I can fold up the plastic bags and probably reuse them if I were so inclined.

Who needs to clean up with sand??

"Who's the real thief here?"

Now that's interesting

The name shown for a post is the name at the time it was posted, not the current name

Some of the current identity thieves may get stuck with their new-found identity.

–B.G.–

"I hate eating out of a bag. It's just… weird. I can never scoop the food out very well. "

+1
Eating out of a plastic bag isn't for me. This is when I would forgo cooking and just eat cold food.
My little Evernew pot is great, light and serves as a tool. The extra few ounces are well worth it.

"I use freezer bags…I just heat up some water and throw the bag into the fire when I'm done and I have no trash left over."

Really?

I use a 1 3/4 cup Ziplock storage container as a substitute for freezer bags. The container is easy to find in the market, has a snap on lid and weighs less than an ounce. I think that Glad makes an equivalent container. Considering that one freezer bag weighs about 0.35 oz, and probably more with meal residue included, for trips of over a few days there can be a modest weight savings to be had by using one of these containers. I, too, don't like the feel of a rehydrated freezer bag: to me it feels like holding a recently extracted deer liver. I use a non-vacuum heat sealer and thin poly bags to bag up my meals. Typically the package for a dinner weighs less than a gram. To wash, add a bit of water and a drop of soap, snap on the lid, shake, dump responsibly and repeat without the soap.

For those not doing FBC cooking, what ecologically sound alternative are you using to package your food?

> For those not doing FBC cooking, what ecologically sound alternative are you using to package your food?

Plastic sandwich bags, which I recycle once the trip is over.

Ditto. I put together and pre-package my own de-hy meals and just re-fill the bags with the same concoctions.

"But the convenience is so nice. When I am tired and hungry, I just heat up some water and throw the bag into the fire when I'm done and I have no trash left over."

Hey JR, I do the same thing. I use wood as my fuel 90% of the time so I have "contained" fire. My zip bag goes into the fire, poooof! Some things in life are hard to understand I agree.

1.2 grams per bag is not bad at all. I'm thinking the Packit Gourmet bags which I used to use must have weighed around 10 grams or so (that's just a guess). I'm curious, though, how they are so light. If you could post pics, that would be great. (Maybe send some my way, too? :))