Food you wish you hadn't taken Bushcrafting.

[Wayland]

Have you ever taken some food with you that you thought would be great but turned into a nightmare...

For me it was the first time I'd tried a fresh mango. Don't get me wrong, I love mango, especially the dried stuff but on this occasion I was stocking up at the local supermarket when I noticed they had fresh mangoes. I'd never seen one before ( It was a while ago now.)

Must try one of those I thought.

So, miles from anywhere, limited water and no soap, I discover that the only safe place to eat a really ripe mango is in the bath with the shower on.

In case any of you are wondering, mangoes are really juicy and very sticky. It took me the rest of the trip to get my hands "unsticky" by which time just about everything I had handled was sticky too.

Great fruit but only take the dried stuff bushcrafting.

 

[george]

Processed flavoured cuscus

I love cuscus and use it a lot but I tend to get plain organic stuff.

This time I saw some with pine nuts and dried fruit and thought I'd try some.

I ended up in hospital that night after a very scary anaphalactic reaction. I'm allergic (big time) to prawns and it seems this company also made cuscus with prawns on the same production line as the one I had got. No allergy warnings on the packet.

Not good. Never again!

George

 

[Wayland]

Ouch... That makes sticky sound a bit trivial..

 

[cubankopite]

you should get in touch with the company or a solicitor i work in the food industry and this shouldn't happen.
worst thing that will happen you will get a voucher for some more cous cous

 

[tomtom]

it wasnt so much i wish i hadn't taken it, its more i wish i had no forgoten i hadnt eaten it all when i got home and left it in my bag (i actually took it as a passenger on a further trip and still didnt realise what i had done) for 3 and a half weeks..

...it was a pack of bacon :togo:


Dried mango is lovely though

 

[havingagiraffe]

So, miles from anywhere, limited water and no soap, I discover that the only safe place to eat a really ripe mango is in the bath with the shower on.

Things were much simpler in the tenth century.

 

[philaw]

I can't think of any really awful camp food that I've taken, but I might be able to help with the mango problem. We have loads here, so I've had lots of practice! Try peeling and eating one half, then scrape down to the stone with your knife. Then you can hold the semi-clean stone whilst you eat the other half. At least one hand stays clean!

 

[jdlenton]

I have to agree with George packet flavoured couscous although my food didn't try to kill me :yikes: i got three meals of the stuff all different flavours i love couscous and could live off it but this stuff oh boy i added nice extras to make it even more nice in the end there was so much chili in it!!!!!! even in the different flavours!!!!! now I don't mind a bit of heat but after one mouth full you couldn't taste anything else but chili after three days of this i couldn't wait to get home and eat something i could taste it ruined my hole trip.

now i never buy things and just take them out i have o give it a try before, after that trip i pretty much stopped buying packet mixed stuff and now take out mainly hole foods fruit and veg


Tom Tom ooooooooooooow man that's nasty


James





ignore me i'm on another planet today why have i just answered a thread from 2005!!!!!!!!!:togo::yikes:

 

[weekend_warrior]

Dehydrated Soya Protein Chunks! I took half a kilo of them to last years summer moot, I thought they'd make a nice, light, no decay meat substitute. I curried 'em, made Chilli with 'em, soaked 'em, everything I could think of - they are vile lumps of pumice like rock - to be avoided at all costs!

 

[underground]

Yep- the chunks are nasty - I even tried the marmite flavoured ones once. Makes me shudder when i see them in the grocers. Try the mince though, we have actually stopped using minced meat at home and only use soya mince, but the trick is to use it sparingly, enough to give a texture and bulk to the (usually chilli or spag bol) without ending up with a rank mass of soya protein 'n' sauce...

 

[Salix]

Back when i was a mere lad i used to go off into the local "Bush" every weekend. Pack loaded with goodies for the campfire. This once i took a tin of tomatoe soup......................and no knife/can opener or other sharp implement. I was starving hungary as only a kid can feel so i put the tin on the fire embers to "Warm through" whilst i found something to open it with. Got distracted, forgot said tin of soup.............................................BANG!!!. Tin of soup now magically open......................................all over me and my mate :11doh:

ray mears i was not :BlueTeamE

Mark

 

[swyn]

Back to Waylands ripe mango for a minute. Did you know that you can pip-race mangos?
First a group buy of said mango... eat and enjoy... do NOT wash. Stand in a line as if on a running race. Squeeze mango pip and it will fly out of your hand. The winner is the owner of the pip that has travelled furthest.
All in all messy fun
Swyn

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Cant remember the make but had some dhydrated mash once - looked at the instructions one cube for two portions me and mate a little hungry and the cubes were small soooo 4 cubes in to pot............the stuff just kept coming out it was like some living thing wort thing was we had to leve it next morning there was loads of it as it had rained a little in the night. We should had built a yurt out of it..

 

[william#]

bean feast
great dryed camping fare
makes me fart like a horse
and waking up with my mate sleeping with head out of tent and his dog wont even come near the tent

 

[fred gordon]

Once bought a packet of bread mix in Tesco and thought it would be great to cook on the open fire during a canoe trip. My wife made it up in a pan following the instructions on the packet and laid it aside by the fire to rise. From then on it went down hill. This thing just grew and grew, overflowed the pan, flowed over the sides and threatened to take over our camp site. In the end we had to break it into bits. Cooked some of it in the pan and made dough sticks with the rest! Lesson learned.

 

[Wayland]

I recently tried some supermarket own brand cuppa soups thinking they would be handy.

I must say they were absolutely rank. :tongue-ti

Is it me or is most prepared dehydrated food pretty awful these days.

 

[John Fenna]

Aged members will remember "Springlow" dehydrated meals...... soak the contents of the packet for as long as you like and it still remained "crunchy", tasted of cardboard and made you fart like a steam engine!
MacDougals dehydrated meals.....when my exped teams eat this on treks I just have plain pasta....nuff said about it except it tastes grim and gives me crippling wind that makes a steam engine look feeble.
Bean Feast......lived (and almost died) on this utter carp in Ghana.....makes the others look good!
Tube condensed milk - love this stuff! Makes great tea, supurb in sarnies and heaven straight from the tube into your mouth! However....if it ruptures in your pack you have a thick sticky gunge with the adhesion qualities of copydex over everything in seconds ....and it goes bad fast making your entire kit aquire the tender scent of rotting milk......nice! :aargh4: I drink my coffee black these days......
Ready Brek - I am not sure if I should include this but it caused me agony on one trip.
My buddy was carrying a whole packet in his kit.
He did not adequately waterproof his pack.
We encountered torrential Welsh rain.
The pack burst in his pack...the rain got to it....
The sight of him wearing, sleeping in and generaly turning into slimy porrige made me laugh so hard that it REALY hurt!
But then we had little to eat unless we scraped the slime off his gear, picked out the fluff and bits and closed our eyes as we ate.....

 

[bigjackbrass]

There's a memorable section in Hamish's Mountain Walk where Hamish Brown mixes up a meal with instant mashed potato in it...

... and discovers that the Horlicks powder he was carrying looks pretty much identical to instant mash...

 

[decorum]

If your brew has goes a bit thick when you add powdered milk you've probably picked up powdered potato by mistake!



EDIT: Beat me to it - But mine's from bitter experience

 

[Wayland]

Yes I learned not to label things in red and then use a red light at night a few years ago.

Ever tried frying with washing up liquid....:tongue-ti