Freeze dried foods list

[Ben W]

Went through all of our prepared meals and bulk foods yesterday and made a list of the majority of it.  We are going on a 5 day hike out west in a few weeks and are trying to settle on a meal plan without over packing.  Plenty of choices!  All I really need to do is put together a couple breakfast meals from bulk stuff.

I had been trying to aim towards freeze drying foods as “ingredients”, so I could make a larger variety of meals from freeze dried bulk food, nothing is standing out really yet.  Maybe I need to work on drying more “bases” like sauces and such- alot like the dried packets “helper” meals come with.

 

 

[Paul Wagner]

We try to keep things simple in the kitchen when we are on the trail.  Rather than bring ingredients, we bring ready-made meals for breakfast and dinner…whether we buy those or make them ourselves.  And then we add in fruits, nuts, bars–things to make life more interesting. I tend to think of courses, rather than one bowl of something.  So dinner is Miso Soup, followed by an entree, followed by dried fruit, a bar, and maybe some M&Ms…

I actually enjoy planning out the meals in advance, packaging them up, and fitting them into the bear can.  It’s Tetris in real life, but it also is part of the planning the trip…and getting a little anticipation of the trip while we’re still at home.

[Ben W]

Oh- right, I didn’t mean we would pack ingredients on the trail, I meant drying them as separate ingredients instead of a completed meal.  So pasta+beef+sauce for spaghetti, but I could swap the beef and sauce with chicken and a white sauce for a totally different meal.

[Bonzo]

Homemade Pot Roast FTW. Or the Beef Pot Pie; that was some good stuff.

[Ben W]

I was also surprised how well the pot pies turn out!  Thats why I got the breakfast ones to try, Its just the same little $1 pot pie, but its filled with sausage gravy mix.  I think they would be nice mixed with a bit of eggs.

I did put together 5 breakfast meals this morning, 40 grams scrambled eggs, 20 grams shredded cheese, 20 grams sausage patty pieces, 10 grams garden salsa- and a touch of corn (just because?).  I also seasoned them with some dried fermented cayenne pepper mash I had from some hot sauce I made.  Not the kick my habanero salt I usually use has, but, its not adding sodium either I guess.  I tried one, it seems like a nice variety from the usual sausage-gravy based breakfasts I’ve been making.

 

[Roger Caffin]

Once it has been chewed up and eaten, it is all the same in your stomach.
(Counter-cynic)

Cheers

[Bonzo]

Thats why I got the breakfast ones to try, Its just the same little $1 pot pie, but its filled with sausage gravy mix. I think they would be nice mixed with a bit of eggs.

Pretty sure I just blew a fuse.

[AK Granola]

Do I understand you correctly that you have all of this food on hand, in your pantry? Holy smokes! That is some serious prepper action. I think I have a couple packets of ramen somewhere. And all the bars I didn’t eat on the JMT because of altitude-induced nausea. The very sight of them still makes me a bit queasy.

I don’t even have tonight’s dinner planned out.

[Ben W]

Hah!

I don’t consider myself a prepper…  (Maybe I’m a closet prepper!?)  Its fun to freeze dry foods and try new stuff, so it adds up pretty quick I guess.

But yea, we are up to 9(!) – 27gal rubbermaid totes full of freeze-dried foods.  The majority of it is bulk, 1 gallon mylar bags.  2 of the big totes are full of “single serving”- ready to go hiking meals.  A handful are meals that didnt work out the best, that I dont have the heart to just throw out yet really.

I used them for work lunches often as well. As the weather cools off I’ll probably start bringing camp stoves with me and doing lunches outback in the wooded area.

 

[Bonzo]

I used them for work lunches often as well. As the weather cools off I’ll probably start bringing camp stoves with me and doing lunches outback in the wooded area.

I’m not alone! 😍

In all seriousness: at-work lunches are some of the greatest opportunities for food tasting/testing.  I keep a few “wonder if this will be good?” options available at all times in order to not discover that they suck when I’m miles from the nearest Domino’s.  Not sure that I have even a tenth of a tote saved up, though, much less nine full ones…

[Mina Loomis]

How do you “freeze dry” things at home?  I thought it required industrial equipment.

[BlackHatGuy]

There have been ‘home’ freeze dryers for quite a while now. Here’s a BPL thread talking about the, I think, biggest company offering them.

 

[AK Granola]

I tried a few camp meals at work but blech, they were all terrible. I don’t mind it when camping, because it’s camping and I’m hungry. I admire your dedication!

[Ben W]

Your right- it requires a machine.  We bought a Harvest right FD last summer.

While we’ve found some meal combos just don’t work out well as a single bag- add water and steep type, most of them do well- rivaling- at the least, the fridge leftover version of fresh (Which is what they are after all).   I had a freeze dried stuffed pepper mix for lunch last week that was amazingly good.  When a camp meal is something you want to eat in the kitchen, you know its going to be great on the trail!

 

[JCH]

“I tried a few camp meals at work but blech, they were all terrible.”

“When a camp meal is something you want to eat in the kitchen, you know its going to be great on the trail!”

These 2 statements pretty much sum it all up.  If the meal is not interesting at home, it won’t be all that great on the trail.  But if it’s good at home, it will likely ROCK on the trail.

I wish I could justify the financial investment in a home freeze-dry machine, but alas cannot.  I am however quite happy with the results I have achieved with a simple dehydrator.  I have perhaps 10-12 really good to great meal recipes I rely on.  I routinely make them at home for lunch or dinner just to make certain I still like them…I do!

[Ben H.]

You have your own freeze dryer?  That is awesome! I once bought jumbo shrimp from Redwicks (some place on ebay that I don’t think is doing business anymore). I made shrimp khao soi that was spectacular. I used freeze dried coconut milk and khao soi mix.

[Ben W]

Yep, we love it!

Makes me feel so much less wasteful.  Or atleast, delays the feeling of being wasteful- if I don’t make use of the stuff in the next 5-20 years then I can feel bad!

We had looked into the business idea/side of things a bit, well, quite a bit really, but its one of the most regulated food biz’s out there due to altering/preserving the foods it seems.

 

[SIMULACRA]

While we’ve found some meal combos just don’t work out well as a single bag- add water and steep type, most of them do well-

Can you elaborate on which combos of foods didn’t work so well soaking? Help alleviate the trial and error. I’m considering the investment

[Ben W]

A few examples I recall  – rotini pasta/sauce.  I had made chicken “alfredo” using rotini instead of alfredo noodles like usual. The sauce caked into the pasta spirals, and made the pasta slow to reconstitute.

We’ve also learned to use caution with instant potato flakes with meals.  A smaller amount works fine, but large amounts of potatoes seems to block water from getting to items like meat chunks.

I also had some sausage chunks that proved slow to reconstitute, in a red beans and rice dish I made a long time back.  Not sure if it was just that type of sausage or not, I actually haven’t tried making anything with that type again yet.

 

I can’t really think of any other meals that didn’t turn out well for use as “trail meals”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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