Surprising high cal/oz foods?

Anybody who likes the Honey Stinger Waffles should make a point of trying these. I think Daelman’s is considered one of the best Stroopwafels in Holland (could be wrong…I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong) but IMO they blow away the HSW (which strike me as a version of a stroopwafel) and at $0.88 are less expensive to boot.  At SXSW 2 years ago an airline was handing them out (as many as you wanted) and I damn near OD’d on them :)

I don’t know what KETO bricks are, but I have made pemmican. I dehydrated thinly-sliced steak, then ground up the dried steak into powder in my blender. I mixed the powder (in a mixing bowl) with melted grass-fed beef fat (tallow) that I bought at the farmer’s market. I just sort of eye-balled the mixture. I pressed the mixture into a muffin pan and cooled it in the freezer. Then I wrapped each hockey puck individually.

It was not tasty.

I tried again and added salt. Still not tastey.

I tried again and added dried berries. This was a little more edible, but I can’t say it was tasty.

Even though it never really was very tasty and I’d kind of have to force myself to eat it, I have never eaten anything on trail that left me feeling more sustained. I wouldn’t get hungry for a long time and I felt good after eating it. But because it was so not-tasty, I ended up trying to figure out what I could do with it that would not be so hard to choke down. I melted it into my hot meals and that WAS tasty. Melted into some potatoes it was heaven.

Since I do keto I decided to try the keto bricks, all three flavors, to see if I’d like them enough to take backpacking. Not bad tasting at all. ~1000 calories per brick, each with ~90g fat, ~16g carbs, of which 14g are fiber and ~31g protein. Very good keto macros.

They’re expensive if you buy them individually, $12 per brick including shipping. Cheaper if you buy them in bulk. I liked them enough to buy a 30 bar variety pack for $180 including shipping, so $6 per bar. I see each bar as two meals, breakfast and lunch, so quite reasonable from my standpoint, and they will make putting keto backpacking meals together much easier for me.

Would probably melt in the height of summer, but I rarely backpack in the serious heat of summer, so should work quite well for me.

Girl Scout cookies … Samoas (Carmel Delights) are around 170 cal/oz

If it hasn’t already been mentioned, we just picked up a pack of roasted and salted sunflower seeds (Trader Joe’s) and they measure out to 200 calories/ounce.

Yes and they are delicious and pack into a small volume with very little wasted air space.

I buy two packs at a time mixing salted and  unsalted.

Cheap at $2.99 for a one pound bag.

Delicious mixed in with instant hummus

Lastly, I like the unsalted sunflower seeds mixed with TJs sales sesame sticks.

Toasted pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, macadamias, all @200 calories +/- 10 calories.

Pine nuts also pack down very densely without crushing.

Hostess or similar fruit pies

All Blue Diamond Flavored Almonds are around 170 ca/oz

Costco Autumn Gold Granola is 180 cal/oz

Following in interest.

Dude, this just topped my day! all the way from 2018 and no takers

“I never imagined what the scum around a public toilet tasted like, but if its any worse than this powder I would be amazed. As the carolina reaper is hot, this magically disgusting powder lingers with a nausiating raw egg and cat crap feeling on your mouth”

I find the spreadsheet by GearSceptic very valuable for my food planning. Until I stumbled across it, I maintained a similar spreadsheet with my own data that was very limited to what I usually bring. This spreadsheet has way more entries and by using it I found several new food items that replaced others in my pack. For example the second entry under bars: Grain Free Granola -Cinnamon Almond at 170 cal/oz which I bought at Costco. It replaced my Clif Bar Oatmeal Raisin Walnut bar that has only 104 cal/oz. On our last 5-day trip that alone saved me for the two of us over 2 lbs. in my bear canister (at 1,000 calories per day per person in bars)

and the fifth entry in the category ‘entree’ under freeze-dried meals: Peak Chicken Alfredo Pasta at 174 cal/oz. which I bought at REI. It replaced our Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki that has only 115 cal/oz. At roughly 900 calories in freeze-dried meals per person per day that saved me 1 lb. 

Both choices are tasting better than what I carried before and save me 3 lbs. in my backpack while I’m getting the same calories. It showed me how I had ‘overlooked’ food in the past when trying to minimize my pack weight.

If you read all the way to here, you might enjoy the videos by GearSkeptic

Nice resource, Manfred; thanks. 👍

Those videos and his spreadsheet are great. One of his insights surprised me: I hadn’t realized how much the caloric density varies within a given brand. It pays to look at all the flavors and his spreadsheet makes it easy to see the differences within a certain type of bar.

for breakfast I’ve been mixing a small scoop of powdered butter and a scoop of powdered coconut oil (yes both are a thing :)) into my instant coffee- in the 150-ish calorie range. Eat a Lenny and Larry’s cookie with the coffee for an additional 500 calories. Quick and easy 600 cals to start the day.

The secret weapon though is Fritos with my lunch (dried salami/cheddar/small pita).

Ive found Peak Refuel freeze dried suppers to be high in calories (and protein) AND they taste great. I’ll often throw in a couple of olive oil packets to boost it further.

Fritos are a great addition to lots of backpacking foods and I totally don’t mind eating crushed Fritos.

There is another BPL member who turned me onto crushed Pringles. I believe this member is known to shake up a can of Pringles to break them up so that the can be poured into one’s mouth while hiking without stopping and then returned to the side pocket of the pack. With vigorous shaking one can get 1.6 cans of Pringles into 1 can, iirc. Genius stuff.

Has anyone ever noticed Fritos only have three ingredients?

Pecan pie and peanut butter – those are why I’m fat, so probably great for the trail if you actually need calories.