Anyone repackage their Mountain House meals?

About 1/6th of the weight of Mountain House is the packaging. And it’s bulky. And the sharp corners on the packaging will wear holes in stuffsacks.

For these 3 reasons, I usually repackage into lightweight sandwich bags.

This saves weight, space, and wear and tear on my gear.

The only F-D food I don’t repackage is that one emergency, extra meal I wasn’t planning to use. It’s usually the weirdest, vegan odd-ball thing left over from other trips.

The rest of it gets transferred to ziplock bags – the sandwich-weight ones, not the freezer ones.  And reconstituted in a pot in a cozy.

But mostly, I use cheaper, less salty options like pasta and rice sides or a recipe drawing on lots of dehydrated beans and vegetables.

I use them as ‘starting’ ingredients, even when they form the bulk of the meal. Take a bag of NongShim Shin Black ramen (crushed), add a beef broth packet or home vacuum-packed sesame oil & tahini, F/D peas, dried shiitake mushrooms, Mountain House F/D cubed beef or MH eggs with peppers etc. That’s serious calories and flavor. Or just spruce up MH Chili Mac n Cheese with more F/D beef and veggies, sun dried tomatoes, etc. No reason to keep the bulky original packaging if you have a vacuum sealer at home… and as long as you are tearing the package open, improve that cr@p.

And for those wondering; yes, I put in a lot of miles and am not afraid of putting some light/cheap/low-quality k-cals back in. :^)

Hmm.  I gather most of you DO NOT re-hydrate in your plastic bag but in a pot/bowl?  I have gotten so used to (A) not have to wash pots (B) not have to have every member of my family need a pot/bowl.  We usually just eat out of the pouch.

I never let food touch my Jetboil. It strictly heats water (or melts snow… same thing). Bag-food rehydration only. Weston vacuum bags, mostly.

I’ve been repackaging Mtn House meals in freezer bags or microwave bags for 12 years. I pour hot water into the bags to cook my meal, and I use Mtn House for almost 100% of my dinners. I do freezer bag cooking for my morning instant oatmeal breakfast. Tastes fine to me.

I ditched the MH meals long ago for reduced salt/increased nutrition DIY dehydrated meals, but the MH freeze dried ingredients are good quality.  I vacuum pack all my meals in zipper bags like these…they work the business for repackaging any food items. An inexpensive vacuum sealer is in my top 10 most useful “backpacking” purchases.

We’ve switched to waxed paper bags. One meal per bag and then two or three meals in a larger ziploc. Not only do the bags take up less space but the waxed bags are easy to burn if the conditions allow for an open fire. Yes we do use bowls but find we are less likely to spill food on our clothes if eating from a bowl compared to trying to clean out a pouch.

For 1-2 nights, I don’t bother repacking. For longer trips, I repackage meals into freezer bags. I don’t notice any taste. And they’re easy to eat out of – just put the bag in your pot/mug, and wrap the edges down around it.

“I never let food touch my Jetboil. It strictly heats water (or melts snow… same thing). Bag-food rehydration only. ”

Why? I’m sure you’ve got a very good reason and I’m genuinely curious to learn.

Why? my guess is to keep food smells out of the pot and so also the pack that carries the pot. That’s my rationale.

MH also makes a line of vacuum sealed meals that I like. they take up much less room in a canister and still can be used for re-hydrating the food.

The heat exchanger fins on the Jetboil works great with water inside to absorb the heat.  When you have some gloppy, viscous stuff inside, the heat going through the fins is more prone to scorch food inside the pot, making dinner taste like charcoal and the pot hard to clean.  Also, some Jetboil pots are prone to the fins failing if they get too hot (for instance, if you ever run the stove with an empty pot, or potentially with very viscous food inside.

If you wanted to NOT scorch food, you’d have:

– a wide pot

– a shallow pot (easier to stir food and to clean afterwards)

– no HX fins

– a low temperature flame (a la alcohol or Esbit)

– a low output flame (which can be done on a Jetboil, but lots of its appeal is its speed).

– a very conductive pan bottom (like thick aluminum)

– a wide flame pattern from the burner head (like a home stove).

None of that is true of a JetBoil.

I typically repackage my MH meals in Dutchware’s Bowl Bags.  Not cheap at $0.60 ea but I’ve reused them numerous times.  The low-profile makes eating directly from the bag much easier and the gusseted bottom makes them pretty stable.

I repackage any pre-made meals, and usually just package my own creations in ziplocks. I wash out and reuse all my ziplocks when I return home; most get used 7-8 times before falling apart or the zips tearing. I use a pot to cook and cup or bowl to eat. Or if solo, I eat from the pot (MSR Windburner). I hate eating out of plastic bags; it’s not the taste, just dislike gooey grungy plastic to pack out. I also find it hard to hold onto compared to a bowl or cup, it’s all wiggly, and just feels like a weird, dumpster-diving sort of activity, somewhat desperate. I’ve also seen someone accidentally swallow some plastic that melted and almost choke to death, vomiting everywhere. That was not a pleasant dinner. I have an MSR Windburner and it’s similar to the Jetboil. I’ve never scorched anything in it. Cleanup is easy. I have never understood the eat out of a bag thing, but I see most people do it, so they must enjoy it.