Eating well while wild camping

[Sisyphus]

Hi, this is my first post after lurking a while, I do enjoy reading the forums.

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of foods to take with me on overnighters or 2 to 3 night trips in the scottish hills. So far all I've got on my list beyond the obligatory sandwich for the walk in is :

Brew kit and snacks:
- crusader cook-set in pouch with plenty ethanol gel, various instant soups, tea bags, instant coffee, hot chocolate, sugar, powdered creamer. A few bars of chocolate and flapjack type things. A few days worth of comfort in 1 pouch if you bin the horrid 58 pattern waterbottle.

Breakfasts :
- pre-portioned porridge oats with powdered milk and brown sugar in ziplock bags
- pre-portioned pancake mix made of powdered milk and egg, and self raising flour (yet to test this) with jam

supplement with seasonal foraged fruits such as blueberries, brambles, rasps etc

Lunches :
- pumpernickel (dark heavy rye bread) with hard waxy cheese like very mature cheddar or gouda and dry-cured preserved sausage like salami (these foods should last well over 2 or 3 days in cool weather) and maybe mayo in fast-food style plastic sachets. A couple of tins of sardines is very little extra weight to carry aswell.
- instant soup

supplement with foraged greens such as nettle added to soup, wood sorrel to perk up the sarnie etc.

Evening meals :
- pre-portioned couscous with stock powder (crumble in an oxo or whatever) and additives like raisins, nuts, dried onions, garlic salt, spice mix etc, add pre-cooked vac-pac pulses and maybe sardines/tuna?

The evening meals is what I'm having trouble with really. I don't think I would begrudge carrying a few potatoes and a couple of carrots with me, its the matter of getting meat protein in there without it going off over time, or having to spend loads of time boiling pulses. Any advice is much welcome.

One thing that seems to be a bit of a mantra here, is that that bushcraft is about being comfortable out in the wilds, but tbh eating spam and instant noodles mixed with cuppasoup is not my idea of comfort, letalone eating MRE's or wayfarer meals.

Most of my trips will have a fishing slant to them, so there is a good chance of fresh fish protein.

Anyway I welcome any suggestions of good tasty nutritious food to carry on such trips, and look forward to hearing what you guys like to take with you!

 

[Limaed]

Hi and welcome Sisyphus

I think you've pretty much got it sorted there! For my main meals I work off a carbohydrate base than add stuff in.
Both rice and pasta are quite easy to cook, rice particulary you can boil and leave in the pan whilst you make your sauce.
Some fresh pasta's will be ok for a few days particulary if its cool outside. Potato Gnocchi is usually avalible ambient so you can just pack it without worrying it also beats smash anyday. Uncle Bens instant rice works well too as its already pre-cooked.
For meat youve already mentioned salami, the other option is to make some jerky, check out the forums and skills sections on here for recipes, they work very well.
Other options are dried tomatoes and olives, both which are strongly flavoured. You can also make up pasta sauces using dried soups as a base but adding less water.
Its worth having a wonder around the supermarket and thinking whats easy to cook and lightweight, thiers certainly a lot more choice these days.
I noticed from your post your using a crusader, is it big enough for all your cooking and will you get enough heat/cooking time out of the gel? Just a though.
Regards Ed

 

[xylaria]

North east scotland has some of the best foragible coasts in Britian. Because i camp with my kids a lot wieght is an issue, I tend to use dried potato, not smash as I think it is pretty nasty, but the lidls puree. If you know where you are going and what resources are there things like bulrush root are good, esspiecally if you know the water they are in hasn't got a chemical plant up stream. You will need a few of the them to fill your belly, but they taste nice. I find I need plan for every meal I am not completly fimilar with where I am going , i don't rely on wild food.

I do like my packet noodles, but I add the foraged food to them to make them interesting. Shedded nettles, ear fungus and rosehips can make noodles edible honestly!!!. It is the wrong time of year but fried sow thistle with sugar and soy sauce with lightly griddled limpets and noodles taste like something you can get in resturant.

I use salami, choziro from lidls, and I find even in the summer it doesn't go rancid. I also make my own jerky. This can be soaked with hot water and used in cooking. I use quite a lot of dried mushroom as well, this is a good protien source.

 

[bushcraftbob]

im another one for dried noodles, and trying to find wild bit to add to them can be quite fun!!

My favourite non wild bits to add to the noodles are cut u pieces of peperami and dried onions.

In the day i just have snacky type hill food, i.e. dried fruit, flapjack, chocolate, rice cakes, all small things really that are light to carry, oh and of course jerky!

BB

 

[HillBill]

As has been said already, salami/chorizo are both good for longetivity and fat/protein.

My evening meals generally consist of pasta, tomato puree(with garlic) and chorizo as the basics then add whatever you want or nothing at all.

Pasta is a good source of carbs, and being slow release carbs/energy its always good to eat on an evening ready for the next day, chorizo has both protein and fat in decent quantities. All bases are covered. Tomato's contain lycopene which is good for the heart, keeping cholestrol down and is a preventative for some cancers. As is Garlic.

 

[Melonfish]

Don't forget Kabanos! excellent sausage, in fact if you hit your local polish shop (there's one sprouting everywhere nowdays) you'll find some excellent advice on which sausages will keep etc. plus some rather interesting foodstuffs
i'm persally going to be taking easy cook rice and pasta along with stock cubes and perhaps even some of those sachets of dolmio pasta sauce which can sit in the billy with the pasta heating up. they come with mince in some too and are cupboard storeable.

 

[Wayland]

There's always Gin Gan Goo

 

[John Fenna]

Hi Sisyphus
Rice/noodles/pasta as a base works well and - as the proud owner of a dehydrator - jerky/dried real veggies/dried fruit and even dried home made meals are all very acceptable!
Good to see you here!

 

[sapper1]

A froen portion of meat taken out of the freezer just before you leave will still be good to eat three days later.Don't forget the best beef is hung for 28 days.

 

[Wink]

Smoked bacon in a plastic pack, and those cooked chicken skewers shrink-wrapped are great for protein. Also packets of smoked salmon trimmings, and John West sachets with tuna, lighter than tins. Don't forget nuts are also high protein, and work well in cous-cous or rice. And olives and sun-dried tomatoes make stuff tasty! Oh, and pepperami.

 

[Broch]

Whatever else you take remember your seasonings and spices bag to add to the wild and bought food. I carry garlic (if wild is out of season) salt, black pepper, crushed chilli (a little goes a long way) and ginger. In season, wild horesraddish is excellent to add a bit of 'wow' to otherwise bland food - remember to add it at the end instead of cooking it though or it loses it's flavour.

Any shellfish (including limpets) quickly steamed with garlic, ginger, and chilli is a feast for kings.

 

[Sisyphus]

thanks for all the tips!

Smoked/preserved meats definately sound like a good idea, I guess that's that why our ancestors came up with those methods of preservation in the first place afterall! I have noticed myself looking at stuff more carefully in the supermarket now, wondering what packaging can be discarded to make it lighter, or what can be prepared easily in the field etc.

Limaed - I plan to use the crusader for hot drinks/soup and porridge, I'll take a mess tin with fryingpan type lid and a gas stove or hobo stove for the main cooking.

 

[forestwalker]

General kit:
* A set of spices (50 ml bottles, orginally urine sample tubes (unused), waterpoof and sturdy). Pick the ones you use most at home.
* A small bottle of olive oil
* Some chinese soy and/or balsamic vinegar (sometimes)
* A small cutting board (or a larger one). Birch plywood.
* There is usually a knife somewhere around...
* Wooden spoon (same one I eat with unless I'm cooking for a large crew)
* 1-2 billy pots
* Sometimes a small skillet (steel)
* Very occationally a small grater (5x7 cm)

Then I carry food that can last, perhaps frozen for the first day or two, then sausage, smoked, dried, etc. Dried onions and misc vegs, rice, couscous, quinoa, bulgur, porrige mix (mixed grains style), pasta... Dry cheeses (parmesan, etc) will last for weeks, butter in a Nalgene container. Usually flour (rye-wheat mix usually), and dry yeast, sometimes baking powder or sourdough starter.

Tea and a strainer (fabric type from a tea shop, I should get my act together and make one from spruce roots).

Then I just cook food, pretty much like I would at home, except where constrained by the ingredients having to be more long lasting.

For quick, simple cooking there are a few handy recipies:

For lightweight meals that are quick one can take a stock cube, some dried ground meat and 3 min. macaroni. Not worse than the freeze dried bags, and takes about as long to cook. Add the meat to water, crumble part of a stock cube in, bring to boil, add pasta, spice as desired, eat. Not great cooking, but ok for a 15-20 minute lunch. Spiced up properly it can turn out quite tasty. Be daring and use rice to make risotto.

Once can use freeze dried soups as base for adding pasta/rice/coucsous and some chopped sausage to make a stew.

Tortellini is great, add some instant sauce, suitably tarted up, or just grate some cheese over it.

I'm not much for sweet stuff, but give me a good spicy sausage or some dried venison and I'm a very happy boy.

 

[clcuckow]

Have you thought my Dehydrating your own miced beef? Also Polish Boczek (sold in Tescos) is nice fried or stewed and with its fat content great for cold weather.

 

[Wild Thing]

I also use Uncle Bens express rice. It comes in various flavours, only needs a splash of water so is excellent in areas where water could be in short supply and is ready in a few minutes.

Pad this out with some meat such as pepperami, or John West Tuna etc in a sachet and away you go.

just a small part of what I use as most other points have already been covered.

Phill

 

[Doc]

Good point about boiling pulses. I like GrahamS's camp soup recipe (lentils, onion, water, stock cube) but you really need a campfire as it needs to simmer a good while.

 

[Shewie]

I`m a bit of a lightweight and tend to stick to pastas, noodles and rice etc with ingredients chucked in aswell. Most of my camping involves long walks so weight it pretty key for me. Canoeing and car camping is different though and then there`s no excuse really.
I should review my camping diet though as it's all started getting a bit samey.

A lot of the guys actually say they feed theselves better when out than at home so I think I need to have few nights out with them.

 

[scrogger]

packet rices and pasta are a main staple for me with items such as chorizo salami and hard cheeses. I also tent to cook more in the winter months spending a whole evening cooking different courses as it helps pass the darkness away.

during the summer I rarely carry a stove preferring to eat cold food snacks etc granola,serial bars cold chorizo with home made bread and cheese though I must admit I do take a nalgene bottle with red wine in sometimes too to watch the sun go down with.

bu~~ger now I want to go wild camping!!!

the nights are drawing out!!

Andy

 

[rik_uk3]

As said, rice and pasta are good and the 5 minute types are not bad either. Cheap noodles have their place as a base to add food too and don't forget instant spuds. If your at a fixed camp and can take a little extra with you, a wide mouthed Thermos flask is very handy; bring your dried pulses to the boil and add to flask then go off and do your thing and on your return some hours later you have a flask full of cooked beans. Vacuum packed (not gas filled packs) of bacon last a good few days without refrigeration, a lot of 'multi packs' you buy contain say four packs of 6 rashers and should be fine for a week as do vac pack frankfurters (lighter than tinned). Strong tasting food appeals to me when camping so tinned sardines and kippers are worth the weight (tinned kippers flaked into curry flavoured rice is great).

Corned beef is a wonder food, great for a sandwich, curry, stew or spag bol, high in fat its a great food for the outdoors.

If you try the thermos cooking method a great recipe is diced Lamb, pearl barley, carrots and garlic. Fry off the Lamb and garlic, bring barley and carrots to the boil with a stock cube, add all to the flask and come back latter to a great stew.

 

[clcuckow]

Thermos flask is very handy; bring your dried pulses to the boil and add to flask then go off and do your thing and on your return some hours later you have a flask full of cooked beans.

Now there's an idea, Hay box cooking in a flask.