food

[alex905]

what do you take with you. i am planign a week ling trip to dartmoor with a freind and i will be taking a 100liter saber or similer with me. so what should i get, something caned like chilicon carny (very cheep in lidel) or some dehidrated stuff or some army rations.

also for army rations whats the one with fruit dumplings in scotch source. cos i dont think i could eat another one of them

 

[baggins]

Hi Alex,
What i normally do is, the day before i go i make up a large pan of homemade chilly or stew, let it cool, then stick it in one of those tupperwear boxes with lockable lids. Good, wholesome food, no additives and i can take as much as needed. Schets of rice and about 40 packets of Jaffa cakes
Failing culinary skills, wayfairer foods are good (pricey). Try and avoid tins as they do add alot of weight. (you can always empty them into aforsaid containers).
Have a good trip
Baggins

 

[Ahjno]

Last summer I hauled a ruck full of equipment and food with me to Dartmoor. A weight of aprx. 20 kg ...
Something I learned was to bring food for max. 3 days. Even on Dartmoor there are some villages (we were near Widecombe) with stores for re-supply and bringing some fresh in.

I brought a few dried pasta meals with me ... after 3 days I got bored ...

Even without a heavy pack those hills are to walk (says me, coming from a flat country ). So - keep it light, and use the facilities (stores) in the villages if you come through them - makes life a lot easier

Have fun and a safe trip!

 

[Bushman_Brett]

con carne is always a good one, home made is better. What about some ingredients to make some bannock bread , Those pasta bags go down well and cook up easy to (u know the ones in a packet just throw in the hot water and boil for a while) again with a bit a bannock bread

I dont know what everyone else's views are but whenever i go walking or camping i try to always have a bit of jerky with me, low in fat and full of everything you need when out and about, tends to stop hunger in its tracks as well.

 

[Graham_S]

what you need to do is this.
plan a menu.
are you planning to have a base camp? or will you be moving on every day?
is weight an issue?
what will you be cooking on? is fuel an issue? do you need fast cooking stuff due to limited fuel availability or can you cook things for longer over a fire?

you can get small coolbags for lunches/picnics. they're ideal for perishables/fresh meat. freeze some for day two/three. it'll act as an iceblock.


breakfasts,
a couple of sachets of instant porrige with a handful of rasins makes a good lightweight breakfast. just add hot water. leftover water can make your morning brew.
why not take bacon and sausages for the first couple of days? you'll be glad you did.

lunches
cupasoups, minibabybel cheese, pepperami, cereal bars,

dinners
i tend to get elaborate here. a good dinner is a heartening experience and (in my experience) can make or break a trip.
a simple meal is a block of 3 min noodles with dried veg and a can of mackrel fillets. it takes a few minutes to cook. quick and easy.

or fry up some chorizo with onions and tomato puree, and add to some cous-cous (just add boiling water and a stock cube to the cous-cous. then leave while you cook everything else)

a thick pot of soup is a nice dinner. it's easy too.
lentil soup.
a cup of lentils, a stock cube, boiling water. boil for 1/2 hr serve with oatcakes.

you can live on ratpacks (now with real rat )
but you don't have to.

and always pack an extra meal or two just in case.

and don't forget some treats. you'll be glad you have them.

also, it doesn't hurt to have a few herbs/spices in your kit.

 

[walker]

porrage,

cereal bars, packet soup, noodles,

sauages, dryedsauage,

rat packs are very good looking now very well packaged compairied to the old days but still as always taste s**t.

dont under any cecomstances forget the sweets

 

[bilko]

Corned beef hash and bubble and squeek can be made before and stored in ziplock bags. Fry them up as seperate meals over the fire.
Apparently all you need is in bananas so take 1 or 2 for the first day.
I think the comment about making supper an occasion is true. Youve made camp and you can tuck in to something wholesome. As well as giving you something to do it lifts the spirits when you have a hearty meal.
bacon and beans can be pre made as you have to soak the beans for min 8 hours. Butter beans are great to use and be generous with the bacon. Maybe add some spinach and refry the lot over the fire.
I take a thin plastic travelpack full of babywipes because whatever you eat you know you will need them
Oatmeal flapjacks are nice and oats have a slow release thingy for the energy.
I recently went wild on the dates at tesco as they had a load of boxed ones cheap ( ramadam ). A handfull will keep you busy on the trail.
Smash now comes with bacon or cheese and has much improved, it will make a good filler with enough carbs to knock you out.
Take more than enough brew kit too as you'll drink plenty with all that stodge.
Have a good time

 

[addyb]

I do pretty much the same thing as Graham with my meals. I've been yearning all year to just go out in the bush somewhere with the clothes on my back, a knife, and see how if I can snare something. Wishful thinking though. I'm not THAT good yet!

But in all seriousness: I vacuum pack all my food into individual meals for each day.

An example would be:

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal (porridge for you Euro types) OR: granola to which I add boiling water and condensed milk powder. I used to pre-package individual coffee filters and a plastic Melita drip filter but I found it took up too much pack space so I've basically switched to plain instant coffee in the morning.

Lunch: I buy a loaf of thick brown bread that will keep for a week in the bush or the mountains, a couple of cucumbers that rarely last more than a couple of days, and some thick sausage. There's a neat little store tucked away in the downtown core of Nanaimo called "The Sausage Shoppe" which is run by an old german couple. They make traditional sausages that keep for quite some time. Also, I buy a chunk of swiss cheese because it keeps longer than chedder which goes yucky in a pack very quickly. This all goes into a sack type thing. Maybe some sardines or kipper I'm in the mood. I've never been big on lunch. I prefer to just eat and keep hiking.

Dinner: I always start with a hot cup of soup to rehydrate any lost salt and fluids sweated out during the day. After that I base all my meals on one of three things: Rice, pasta, or potatoes. I prefer to use instant rice and spuds because they use a lot less fuel to cook. Then I'll maybe add in a tin of bully beef and some Knorr sauce mix. Anyway, you get the idea. And as with breakfast, everything is vacuum packed.

After dinner: I'm fixated with beer nuts. So I take a big bag of 'em and eat some while I drink hot tea or cocoa before I crawl into the sleeping bag.

Uhh...about the last thing I can say is that I don't recommend carrying army rations out with you in the bush. They're heavy and produce a lot of garbage. With my method, all the wrappers or anything garbage goes back into the vacuum packed bag it came from and gets tucked away neatly in my pack. Leave no trace, right?

That's my philosophy for outdoor food.

Cheers,

Adam

 

[Geuf]

I always make sure I make it as luxurious as possible. because bad food can get you down. The thing I always do is to take some army rations and add luxury product to them. I toss out the real bad things like dried fruit or beef stew. but I keep all the good ones like the crackers, the shakes, breadspread, cookies, koffee, fire, milk and just about anything you like. it's light, full of calories and most of the time not edible. there's where the luxury products come in. I always make myself a armyrationstew of some sort and add some luxurythings from the supermarket.
Or.. if you have enough money, just buy all the stuff from the supermarket. although it is quite handy to have american MRE's, because you can heat them without fire
and just as Ahjno said: don't carry 40 kilo's of food if you can find some locally

 

[Mastino]

.. and don't forget a silver or silver plated spoon. It will give you the sense of luxury and kill some of the tommy bugs as well...

 

[walker]

silver spoon top tip think ill get myself one add a bit of upper class to my dinner rather than the stainless one i have at the moment and its true about the anterseptic properties aswell

rice is nice fried up with cornbeef hmmmmmmmmmmm greasey but nice

 

[billycan]

I agree with Graham S, i carry similar things, i spend a week out in the woods each month as part of my course i'm doing at the mo. For breakfast I take instant porridge with a handful of raisans/sultanas with breakfast bars if still hungry and coffee/tea.

For lunch i take Tesco instant soups in small paper packets, or tesco chicken noodles which are cheap at 18p and pretty good, combined with a pitta bread (or bannock) and tesco plastic cheese which doesn't go bad out of the fridge, with a choc bar of some description. Tesco own brand 'snickers' are good and cheap.

Supper i tend to take quick cook pasta or rice or cous cous- the easiest thing to cook ever, and take some of the new sauces in small plastic sachets, cant remember who makes them maybe dolmio?, but the bolognese one is v good.
Salami/ pepperami is a great thing to have, to put in your cheese pitta and toast it over the fire, or cut it up and put it in with you pasta. Morrisons is the best place for dried salami. Not affiliated with Tescos in any way.

Oh and oxo stock cubes are a great addition to rice or pasta if doing things simply.

 

[rik_uk3]

Its strange how time spent outdoors affects you with regard food. Flavour and smell get sharper, and I for one, want food with a distinct flavour and taste, things like chilli and curry, sardines, pilchards, even anchovy’s. As you burn up energy, I think your body tells you its time to eat more fat etc, that’s why so many of us eat things like corned beef and sausage which are loaded with fat.

My recent purchase, a dehydrator has proved a great success with vegetables and while not yet tried “in the field” (still got a gammy knee), I’ve been trying out different ideas at home with excellent results and I’m sure the food I dry will make a big impact on my menu in the future.

For now, here is a selection of foods I keep at home to make up a weekend food pack for two people (I never camp alone)

Dried milk
Dried egg (Tesco)
Corned beef
Spam
Tinned fish including kippers in oil (John West, great with 5 minute rice)
Ready dried veg (will be home made now) and pulses
Instant tea (not much like tea, but makes a good hot drink)
Instant drinking chocolate
Tubes of sweetened condensed milk (Tesco 72p)
Jam
Salt, pepper, various herbs, spices, curry powder etc in zip lock bags
Stock cubes
Cup a soup
5 minute rice
5 minute pasta
Block noodles
Instant spud
Semolina (good with dried milk and sugar as a porridge substitute, great with jam)
24 hour ration packs, strip down and take what you need (all gets used in the end)
Bean feast mince
Long life pitta and nan bread
Mattersons smoked sausage
Chorizo sausage
Vac packed bacon

I carry butter substitute (Utterly butterly etc) and jam in Coghlan’s squeeze tubes which work very well and you can wash out and re-use

 

[bilko]

Rik, what's that condensed milk like?
Spotted it on the shelves the other day but thought it might make the tea too creamy with a funny taste. might be right in coffee. Also doesn't have to be kept in the chiller.
What the hell, i'll push the boat out and give it a go for 72 pence.

 

[addyb]

I was browsing through a small oriental food store today and I came across something really interesting: Individual serving packets of instant tea, sugar, and milk powder. A lot like army ration instant coffee pouches, but these were for sweetened milk tea. I'm thinking of buying a bag as they could be useful for a survival tin as they don't take up much space.

Adam

 

[Martyn]

Rik, what's that condensed milk like?
Spotted it on the shelves the other day but thought it might make the tea too creamy with a funny taste. might be right in coffee. Also doesn't have to be kept in the chiller.
What the hell, i'll push the boat out and give it a go for 72 pence.

I can answer that and you are right on all points. It has a limited shelf life and it's utterly minging. I tried it and really couldnt stomach the stuff. I only really drink coffee and I dont have sugar in anything, so this ultra-sweet, odd tasting synthetic cream just made me retch. I much, much prefer powdered coffee mate, with instant coffee it's really quite nice - even to a coffee buff and it doesnt weigh much in a plastic bag.

On the point of porrige, do try 'Oat so Simple', particularly the golden syrup flavour. It's supposed to be microwaved, but works fine cooked in the usual way just by adding water, and it cooks very quickly. I'm not a huige porrige lover, but I find these very palatable, if a little sweet. They are packaged in individual portion sizxed paper foil sachets, so just take one sachet per breakfast. Throw in a handfull of dried fruit of your choice to enhance the sugar rush.

I find a block of cheese is a must, just for the fat content if nothing else, as is a nice big chunk of salami. If you keep the salami dry and ask for it 'unsliced', it'll keep for ages. You can slice off thin slices to make melted cheese, salami and pitta sandwiches (yum), or slice off chunks to add to pasta or rice. Fat and protein content is high, no waste and no heavy tins to carry.

I like to carry some plain rice and or bachelors savory rice. I like the savoury chicken flavour as it can be adapted to a variety of other meals (everything tatstes like chicken right?), or is nice on it's own or just with a pinch of dried chilli flakes added for a kick.

I always carry a fair amount of salt, a few stock cubes, some dried chilli flakes, white pepper and a little bag of my own blend, universal (add it to anything) spice mix.

I like to take a pack (bag with enough for 1 or 2 meals) of fresh pork sausages too and a little instant mash and a couple of sachets of brown sauce or a little bag of gravy ganules. Sausages, mash and gravy is a fab meal, dead easy to make, filling and doesnt taste like you've cut any corners.

For drinks, plenty of instant coffee and coffee mate and enough powdered malt drink for one just before bed each night.

 

[rik_uk3]

Martyn, sorry mate, I dissagree about the sweentened condensed milk, I love the stuff. It is very sweet (well its in the nature of the beast), but I like it with porridge, coffee and over sliced fresh fruit. Its shelf life is more than long enough for a weeks camping trip.

sweetened condensed milk (60 cal/Tbsp, 1gm protein/Tbsp

A usefull food.

I missed Primula cheese off my list

 

[Martyn]

Martyn, sorry mate, I dissagree about the sweentened condensed milk, I love the stuff. It is very sweet (well its in the nature of the beast), but I like it with porridge, coffee and over sliced fresh fruit. Its shelf life is more than long enough for a weeks camping trip.

sweetened condensed milk (60 cal/Tbsp, 1gm protein/Tbsp

A usefull food.

I missed Primula cheese off my list

I dont doubt it's usefulness as a food source, I just cant stand the taste of it.

But then I dont have sugar in coffee either. If you can stand it (or even like it), I'm sure it's a very good choice.

I like the idea of primula though - good one, spread it on pitta bread with a couple of slices of salami for a quick cold meal. Though I think I would probably just end up sucking it out of the tube.

 

[alex905]

i got to say i dident expect all this help. i think i might just go on a small shopping trip.
in england what shop would you go to to find jerky. would it be oriental or arabic, or tescos

rik im looking forward to going to going around my high street with that shoppping list. also would this be sutible for a 100 liter pack or will i have to keep a car near by to keep most of it.

 

[bilko]

Tesco does jerky somewhere arounbd the crisps and nuts. I have tried it and it nearly put me off trying the proper stuff too as i find it very dry with a processed taste. thet will be all the additives to give it a useful shelf life.
Martyn and rik, i bought some condensed milk and i'll give it a go.
Try NAIRN biscuits sold in tesco, the fruit ones are nice. They are oat with a good sugar release time ( OG scale ? ) anyway they come in handy packs of 4 or so in the box and taste great with princess meat past. Biscuits brown and pate.I have an emergency ( read survival ) stock of tesco ibruprofen and paracetamol products at home now as they are litteraly pence but i meant to mention the tesco rennies fruit flavour. I always get indegestion mainly from smoking too much but they are cheap too.
Vitamin containers with the clicky tops are great for putting 2 or 3 days worth of coffee and sugar in.