Ziploc bowl or other UL container for rehydrating food?

Good question. I dunno if a Ziploc “box” is capable of being watertight. They are prone to popping lids under sideways pressure. But a sealable screw top lid sounds good.

Call me Anal Retentive but maybe a Ziploc bag inside another Ziploc would do it for the lightest system. I always put a container of honey inside a Ziplock type bag, as well as my re-fillable tube of mixed PBJ. I don’t trust most containers (of messy foods) in a backpack unless they are double contained.

I use HDPE jars from US Plastic for this application and really like how it works. They seal quite well and are very durable. I’ve got ~30 nights of use on one of them and still going strong.

You guys know I like to dumpster-dive at the recycling center and my favorite bin is #2 HDPE.  Gatoraid comes in a screw-top HDPE container, pretty light but decently stiff because it’s ribbed.  More than 2 cups, maybe as much as 3 cups?  The height/width was pretty good for a bowl/mug.

Something else to consider are the protein-drink containers sold at GNC to weight lifters, body builders and too many high-school athletes.  They are designed for repeated use (another scoop of powder, 5 times a day) and come in various sizes up to 1/2 gallon and more.  Some have pretty tight lids on them.  Bring a hiking staff with a coat-hanger hook on it or one of those meter-long thumb-press grabber things to snag nice containers without having to actually dumpster-DIVE.  If you don’t ID one in the recycling bin, go to GNC and snap some pics of promising looking ones.  Or Google image search on “protein powder” and dozens of brands will pop up.  Then head back to the recycling bin.  Our brains are much better at recognizing something we’ve seen before.

One of the cool things about HDPE is you can wash it in your dishwasher with that really harsh and effective alkaline detergent.  After I do that, I have few concerns about what used to be in it (I would avoid pesticides just to be extra safe, but motor oil and kitty little cleans right up).  Also, it is good above boiling and to below -120F.

Some thru hikers have used ziploc or other brand screw top containers or even peanut butter jars.

The cleanup of my titanium pot after rice and beans is easy…a few mls of water, clean sides with fingers, empty and dry with shop towel.

Reuse a plastic Peanut Butter jar :)  They seal quite securely.

I also use a “Jar” I purchased from US Plastic.

I’m pretty sure this is the one I’m using:

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=63297&catid=1106

It’s 23 oz, and has a wide screw-top lid.  I made a reflectix insulated cozy for mine, and glued a circle of reflectix onto the top of the screw-top lid.

It works pretty well.  I’m not sure the screw-top lid is 100% bomb-proof in terms of being water tight.  I’ve never tried to put liquids in it and then let it slosh around inside a pack or anything.

One annoyance is that there is an inner ring or lip around the opening.  I think it has to be there to give the threads enough rigidity to not deform and leak.  The downside is that it’s hard to drain those last few drops of liquid or bits of food out of the jar.

Otherwise it’s just about right.  It’s HDPE, 24oz is around the perfect capacity to FBC any meal I’m interested in, and it’s a reasonable ratio of height vs width to eat out of like a bowl and drink out of like a cup.  It’s basically the shape of a peanut butter jar.

Jeff, this one has straight sides. It’s polypropylene not HDPE like I originally said. It’s the one I use.

Cool, Matthew.  No issues using it with hot liquids? I don’t think I have any first hand experience using PolyPro containers.

Nalgene may even make one large enough and in bowl shape with screw lid.

Nalgene may even make one large enough and in bowl shape with screw lid.

https://www.nalgene.com/travel-and-home/storage-jars/  Kinda heavy tho…32oz = 6.8 oz, 16oz = 4.8 oz.

Jeff, it’s great with hot liquids and the lids fit really tightly. I wash it every couple of days with some warm water and a drop of Dr. Bronners soap. I just lid it and shake vigorously. They are very watertight. I’ve got the straight lid with the foam backer. (they have way too many lid options!)

I prefer the 16 ounce size over the 24 ounce version. My dinners fit into two cups hydrated and that jar fits into my 550 Toaks pot. The lid doesn’t quite fit on the pot but the stuffsack keeps it all together. The jar makes a nice mug for tea/coffee and I also make protein shakes in it sometimes.