food to carry - advice please

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Mine's a vote for the herbs and spices - get a 7 day pillbox and stick in some herb salt, black pepper, swiss boulllion, basil, tumeric, dried crushed garlic and some thyme. T'is a recipe for success!
 
I made 3lb of oven dried jerky a couple of weeks back to take hiking with me. Just took it down from the cupboard where it was curing,(foolishly) put it in a muslin bag on the table. Came back from the pub to find a ripped bag, guilty looking dog and no jerky!
Ahh well got to laugh aint you :rolleyes: !
 
Lunch and dinner seem to be pretty well covered.

For breakfast I'm a porridge man - and the individual microwave sachets work a treat. Just make sure you have a little hot water left over from the morning brew, tip in the porridge and leave for a few minutes to soak. Add dried fruit for extra flavour and off you go.

S
 
When I was camping this summer I took -

meusli (I ate it with water)

dried soup, instant pasta and oxo cubes (mix them all together)

cereal bars, dried fruit, nuts.

I'm not worried about plain food when I'm camping though (eat to live :) )
 
You can premix your muesli with dried milk and just add water to eat.

Cous cous has been mentioned already - I swear by it. You just have to boil your water then add cous cous and take off the heat - no more fuel needed. I preseason this before I go with chilli etc. ad carry s+p to season when done.

I usually take good meat for the 1st night/brekkie then dried stuff for the rest.

I love the planning stages too, getting everything just right. I've just started making some muslin and leather bags to keep it all in to improve the feel over ziplocks.
 
Camping tommorow (5th)

Friday night is Spanish style paprika and bean stew
FULL monty breakfasts sat and sun
Ox tail stew sat night
Snacks are things like cup a soup, biscuits, maybe tinned sardines/tuna

The beauty of this type of camping is that all the food is fresh made

On a solo trip I will use things like Vesta risotto/curry, instant oats, condensed milk in a tube (reduced now to 67p in Tesco), sardines, rat pack meals etc (I do like rat pack grub)

Always carry some herbs/spices/garlic, they can make all the difference to more bland food
 
Breakfast : A couple of satchets of oat so simple tastes nice with just water, filling quick and easy

Lunch : oat cakes, tuna in a tin or a bag john west do a flavoured tuna in a bag

Tea: You can take pasta and rice and add whatever you like to it get some powdered sauce mixes and add some sausage chorizo or what tickles your fancy or you can get them premade pasta satchets, noodles work well as they are light weight, Beanfeasts are also easy to do and very hearty. I'd normally divvy my pasta and beanfeast into seperate batches cook (well boil) and mix together

Extras : take some cuppa soups, cereal bars, chocolate and fresh fruit if you can spare the weight

I find taking a pill box with salt pepper etc also handy for extra flavour

Basically if its in your kitchen cupboard you can take it there is no real need for these dried packs as they probably weigh in the same for 4 times the price

Also try living off your rations at home and practise your cooking methods over the stove if your no Mr Oliver you may end up cooking garbage and eating all your breakfast in the same day :(

One last thing get rid of as much packaging as possible before you head out and don't burn your plastic it's neither good for your lungs or the environment ;)
 
porridge and plenty of it. I'm not too fussy and only take a staple food like this because i go with the attitude that catching some fresh fish etc is far better - transforms the whole trip in fact.
the thing with porridge is you can add anything from salt to chocolate to fruit and nuts and its always good. you only need to boil one kettle, gets you tea and porridge if you use dried whole milk.
keeps you going for ages, easy to clean, lightweight, healthy and keeps you regular (not good having a bad ar*e in the sticks)
salami etc to chew on the trail is great too, its so rich you dont need much.
little hipflask is a must for those reflective times at night...bliss
 
The time before last for breakfast I thought I would have this

A few nice blackberries in some porridge with sesame seeds sunflower seeds etc.....only problem was forgot to put the porridge in!
Conden milk in a tube??? What do you do with it? In tea on puddings?
Good thread though Dave
 
i take a pot noodle or two theyre light and cheap .or finger t cakes and a tin of hotdogs and a few tomato ketchup sachets ,boil in the tin just take a peice o snare wire to hang your tin over your fire .jaffa cakes are full of calories and light weight
 
certainlysome great ideas comming in here . im always torn between acceptable weight to carry and keeping the luxury side - but as most will know 4 days of food in a pack adds up to heavy very quickly , and thats not including water you need to carry if there are no known scources nearby .
 
You can premix your muesli with dried milk and just add water to eat.

Cous cous has been mentioned already - I swear by it. You just have to boil your water then add cous cous and take off the heat - no more fuel needed. I preseason this before I go with chilli etc. ad carry s+p to season when done.

I usually take good meat for the 1st night/brekkie then dried stuff for the rest.

I love the planning stages too, getting everything just right. I've just started making some muslin and leather bags to keep it all in to improve the feel over ziplocks.

Agreed re- Muesli and oatso simple and couscous. What about Falafel balls ? Only really need water and a bit of oil ?

Nick
 
I tried the powdered egg from tescos, as the thingswelike family will tell you, it takes a while to scramble it! I think Sara was enjoying watching me stir the egg for over half an hour, I can just imagine she was thinking something along the lines of "Blokes! They haven't got a clue!" :rolleyes:

I agree with PJMC's way of things, food in the outdoors shouldn't suffer. Maybe it should be more simple but that doesn't mean it can't be nice and enjoyable. I see that PJMC takes some interesting foods out with him and rightly so! We both ate military rations for a number of years. Why the bloody hell would we want to eat them now?!

:D
 
Oatso simple fanclub here, I like mine with milkpowder and a spoonful of coffee in it. The packaging is really good tinder as well.

I find I am more fussy about premium foods when out than I am at home, like bavarian cured ham is great campfood as it light a very favoursome and doesn't require cooking. Smoked fish is another food i like for the same reason.

I practice cooking up new reciepes at home because let face it you don't find how to cook potatoe pancakes with smash in jamie olivier do you.
 
I do have a few rat pack meals sitting in my kit, but they are purely emergency rations. I am rather partial to the pasta with meatballs and the choc pudding they do now, though.
 
I always take with me the wee sachets of coffee with dried milk already mixed into them. Can also get the hot choc ones too. Very light and doesnt matter if they fold over on themselves cos never burst on me yet.
 
I can't believe nobody else uses instant mashed potato!?

I used to almost live on the cheese and onion smash, but they've changed the recipe/ingredients this year and it is no longer to my taste - The sainsburys own-brand mash is just how I remember the old smash to be and comes in foil pouches that (for me) are a meal's worth.

Very light weight to carry, only needs warm or hot water to make (no long boil times), and actually quite good for you.

If you find it too 'plain' then experiment with your herbs, spices and dried meats :P

Other than that, if I want to be lazy it's supernoodles!

But I can also do a full sunday roast, lasagne, corned beef hash etc if I want to spend a few hours cooking.

Bannock is always great, but if you're too lazy then there are several 'just add water' cake mixes you can buy, there's a lovely ginger cake one that I've used a couple of times, and a cookie mix.
 

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