Freezerbag cooking

[Ahjno]

I think most people here have eaten a army ration when they where out in the woods. Same goes for those boil in the bag meals and other types of (easy-ish) meals from Tesco's or outdoorshops.

A few months ago I posted a link to the freezerbagcooking website:

www.freezerbagcooking.com

This way of cooking originates, AFAIK, from the Ultralightweight camping scene. General idea is to take a freezerbag (zip-lock bag), add all measured ingredients at home, like dried vegetables, mashed potatoe (powdered), etc. and add boiling water in the field. This way you can cut down on kitchen gear (and thus weight, as you only need a pot to heat up water and a stove, if you don'y use a campfire).

Agreed it has less charme than cooking an elaborated meal on a fire / stove, but you'll have more time for other bushcrafty stuff or would be ideal if you don't like cooking (and doing dishes).

I thought it could be interesting for those of you who dry their own meals in a hydrator.

Are there any people on here who have experience with this technique when out? I gave it a try indoors - and must say it works OK-ish. Bit odd to 'cook' in a bag. I reckon when practised a bit more, I could make it work in the field, and in the end save some money on expensive rations.

J.

 

[Waterworx]

I've done something similar, just taken left over tea, cottage pie, chilli etc on a trek for my lunch, not dehydrated but did the job, warmed up in boiling water and used the water for me cuppa

 

[QDanT]

I use these http://www.polylina.co.uk/roastbag.html
most supermarkets tend to sell them home-brand.I'll put my food in at home then use a bag tie and put it in the billy.Saves carrying weight of tins etc. in and the emptys out when food is cooked you can eat straight out of the bag holding in one hand or place bag in water bottle cup to eat from then there's no washing up and you can make a brew with the water
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dinner was a small tin of beans with sliced thin smoked pork kebanos and the wine a South African Shiraz with a buttered and Marmite French stick

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where dinner was yesterdays home made chili sausage casserole heated up, and eaten out of a roasting bag,
in a zebra billy on a stainless Tatonka, (industrial meths) in a Heinz sponge pudding tin windshield pot stand
balanced on the upturned zebra inner bowl for insulation
with a brew made out of the water. Finished off with a Californian Merlot.

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and dinner was last nights home made soup :-
chopped small - potatoes,carrots,onions,leeks, garlic,broccoli.smoked bacon,chiles,pepper,salt,chick en stock cube, water, cook till soft
x2 bags water cress just cover with water - blanch add to above then into blender.Re-heat to serve

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Dinner was last nights home made chilli and rice with home grown chillies Jalapeno and Apache in an oven roasting bag in 500ml of water in the crusader cooker,the lid was cut from a poundland foil serving dish with a cross cut in the top and the tabs bent up to hold the roasting bag, fuel was x2 Gelert solid fuel tabs(millets sell off) to bring to boil and an extra one to heat up the chilli then made a brew with the water and ate the chilli out of the bag with the sides rolled over the crusader plastic cup - no washing up
and finished off with home made bread using Canadian wholewheat and a handfull of yellow sultanas.

cheers Danny

 

[Breeze]

(1) High temperatures make plastics leech carcinogenics at very high rates (2) much of which is absorbed and and builds up in the body without being discharged and (3) which can give fatal diseases to (4) a good percentage whose genetics and/or circumstances makes them susceptible to developing such diseases. IMHO: Stay away. okenest:

 

[SimonM]

I use the roasting bags to make boil in the bag cake.

I use supermarket own brand sponge mix, add the rquired egg to the mix, in the roasting bag. Squish around to mix up and place in a billy of boiling water.

1 hour later - cake!

To be truly decadant - add jam or syrup at the mixing stage - but be careful not to burn yourself on it, as I find it impossible to let it cool down before eating!

Simon

 

[Lordyosch]

I would have thought that 'food grade' plastics would have been tested for exactly these things. You'd never get it to market if they were harmful.

The roasting bags are designed for high temp food use and the freezer bags are 'reasonably likely' to be in this situation so again, I'd guess it should be fine.

If it weren't the case we'd better get rid of all plastic cups too. For boil in the bag food you're not going to exceed 100C so its not *that* high -roasting slightly different, but see above.


Jay

(1) High temperatures make plastics leech carcinogenics at very high rates (2) much of which is absorbed and and builds up in the body without being discharged and (3) which can give fatal diseases to (4) a good percentage whose genetics and/or circumstances makes them susceptible to developing such diseases. IMHO: Stay away. okenest:

 

[hedgerow pete]

I use the plastic bags from lakelend the cooks shop they sell boil in the bag , bags and other stuff,, like you i make up all my own rat packs so when i am away all i have is a empty plastic bag to deal with, i also fill them up with dryed food as well, using what is avalible at the supermarket taking it home and then sorting it out into meals

 

[Breeze]

Right:

1- There is no consensus on absolute safety or dangers of foodgrade plastic leeching in high temps. This is a big subject.

2- There are millions of types plastics many of which are foodgrade.

3- Many are recent inventions and very few with long term data and some might say none!

4- Many are manufactured in China with no proper supervision and no way to check compounds and manufacturing process upon import, just does not happen in real life.

5- Many experts believe the unusually high rate of cancers in modern times is due to petrochemical compounds. These are absorbed and build up in the body and leech proportionally with heat and in enough doses cause high levels of mutations in those with genetic vulnerability.

6- Freezerbags are not also known as boilingbags!

Common sense IMHO: high temps and plastics = :togo:

It's your body, your choice.

Tip: roasting bags are great and ultra light for carrying water!

 

[Exploriment]

Can’t say enough good things about this approach.

I’ve tried it all – Quite often I'll just bring stuff I don't even have to cook - nuts, granola bars, jerky, flat bread, cheese, fresh veggies. Simple, and negates the need for a stove and fuel, but often times in shoulder seasons, a warm meal is a real morale booster. Indian boil in the bag curries. Convenient, but heavy, laden with salt and very oily. MREs and IMPs. Convenient - everything is right there for a day - but they’re heavy and are laden with preservatives. I’ve been on canoe trips with people who’ve taken the “we’ll just throw a bunch of stuff in a food barrel the night before and then we’ll try and figure it out when we get there and prepare gourmet meals from scratch over an open fire” approach. Which turns into a complete clustercopulation. Never again. Freeze dried meals are a step in the right direction and some are quite good, but some of them are profoundly awful. I don’t mean they aren’t that delicious, I mean they’re pretty much inedible. And I’m really not that picky an eater. They’re too pricey for me to be able to pick up one of each to try out before I head off somewhere. And the portion sizing is often kind of wonky – many of them are billed as feeding two people, but they’re too much for one person, and not enough for two people. Not to mention crazy amounts of packaging.


When I started to learn the potential of using a dehydrator – that I could do more with it than simply preserving fruit and making jerky, that I could do actual complete meals as well – there was no looking back. I make so much of my other stuff – stoves, pot stands, wind screens, pots, quilts, under quilts, stuff sacks, pouches, etc.) why not extend that DIY ethic to the food I’m lugging around as well. This way I know what I’m getting, I know I’ll be eating something I like. I can control the portion size. I can control the salt and fat level. I can keep the cost down. I can use ingredients that I have grown or foraged or hunted. I have a lot less packaging. All in all, I will never look back from this approach.

I also prefer to actually prepare the meals ahead of time. Make the stew or whatever, cook it in a pot, then take a serving, put it in the dehydrator, dry it, put it in a bag and then add hot water when I get to where I’m going. I’ve tried the dried ingredients thing, and it isn’t very satisfying. Letting all the spices and falvours mingle while cooking is much better.

If I could find mylar bags I’ll use them, but I don’t have that many fears about using freezer bags. If I did it every day, I could see the point, but given how often I do it, whatever. How much crap am I inhaling into my system living in a city, with hundreds of thousands of cars?

 

[Breeze]

It's simple, instead of using the freezerbag which is not legally designated health-wise to cook or boil in as a pot(!), take out the contents and add boiling water in a pot or at least a more sturdy plastic container that legally is allowed to be used with hot content. Anything else is a personal choice however recommending it to others including those in vulnerable age groups and or unlucky genetic makeup after objections are raised and remain unanswered is simply unethical.

 

[eraaij]

I think it does completely away with the spirit of bushcrafting. This way you keep adding "convenient", modern stuff instead of building up your campfire cooking skills. That's basically just camping out.

The whole point of having a fire and a simple pot is that they are multi-use tools. If you get skilled and organized enough with them, there will be plenty of time left to do other stuff while the stew is getting ready.

 

[myotis]

As regards freezer bag safety, there is a bit here, including some useful links

http://www.trailcooking.com/content/are-freezer-bags-safe

Potentially a bit biased as the site owners are obviously freezer bag cooking enthusiasts, but still worth looking at.

Graham

 

[widu13]

I think it does completely away with the spirit of bushcrafting. This way you keep adding "convenient", modern stuff instead of building up your campfire cooking skills. That's basically just camping out.

The whole point of having a fire and a simple pot is that they are multi-use tools. If you get skilled and organized enough with them, there will be plenty of time left to do other stuff while the stew is getting ready.

The point is this: If you bushcraft at camp in a single location for a few days, fresh food (by this I mean non dehydrated) is THE way to go with a nice pot (or two) and a fire.

If you are on a walking type holiday using your bushcraft instead of "camping", dehydrated freezer bag cooking gives you another option and indeed MORE time for bushcrafting. I would sooner carry a weeks worth of dehydrated food than a weeks worth of 24hr ration packs for instance.

It's a choice.

 

[Ahjno]

Well, I must say I'm surprised with answers given ... Ranging from health issues to not being bushcrafty ...

I was aware of the possible health issues of this technique, though didn't want to discuss that. My aim was to gain info from people who used this method of preparing their meals.

Thank you guys for pointing out the issues regarding plastic & heated water. I'd like to leave it there, for now and ask again: anyone got any experience?

As to not being bushcrafty ... horses for courses! That's a whole different kind of discussion, and this thread is not the place.

 

[Breeze]

That trailcooking site is owned by the woman who owns the freezerbag site and cottage industry who has a pretty organized presence online with a few business friends and regular customers. They (never mention kids or vulnerable) usually say we are taking in so much pollution (don't like the words carcinogenics) anyway or be tough like me or life is short or similar. They never discuss high leeching of carcinogenic plastics with high temps specially with freezerbags which are not legally to be advocated for cooking in. They never mention the higher rates of leeching with boiling water as well as higher transfer rates to the food which hides the taste as opposed to microwaves or ovens. Ever tasted plastics in bladders? Try boling tasteless water alone in freezerbags which dissolve much more than tough bladders and then drink it! Much much more plastics. That is what they have been making many people do day in day out for profit.

Equating dehydrated foods with freezerbag boiling or cooking is ridiculous. I use dehydrateds either as ingredients or ready made portions and use plastic bags for reusable storage. People have always been drying foods using the sun well before the invention of fire or even plastic bags.

 

[myotis]

That trailcooking site is owned by the woman who owns the freezerbag site and cottage industry who has a pretty organized presence online

As this is obviously in response to my link, I will respond only to say that I gave the link as it links to other links and therefore would allow those who want to follow this up a head start.

But as its Johan's thread, and he has said that he would like to leave the H&S issues out of the thread, I will also leave it at that.

Graham

 

[Breeze]

I don't think anyone in the thread so far has a vested interest in the issue. We are just talking and it is useful to have both sides of the coin preserved as archived material in the forum specially with regards to future use by those interested via search engines. So that people have access to the issues and information and make up their own mind on the issue despite commercial disinformation and lobbying campaigns by this small cottage industry on this issue which is prevalent on the other side of the pond. There the support for general minimum H&S standards with regards to industrial foods used to be more in the northern parts but now the south is starting to ask serious questions too and it is no longer a bipartisan issue thankfully. One of the advantages of democracy and freedom of speech, if not stifled by various means usually for commercial purposes these days, can lead to healthier living or at least informing people so decisions are made by aware individuals. It's all good.

 

[Ahjno]

I don't think anyone in the thread so far has a vested interest in the issue. We are just talking and it is useful to have both sides of the coin preserved as archived material in the forum specially with regards to future use by those interested via search engines. So that people have access to the issues and information and make up their own mind on the issue despite commercial disinformation and lobbying campaigns by this small cottage industry on this issue which is prevalent on the other side of the pond. There the support for general minimum H&S standards with regards to industrial foods used to be more in the northern parts but now the south is starting to ask serious questions too and it is no longer a bipartisan issue thankfully. One of the advantages of democracy and freedom of speech, if not stifled by various means usually for commercial purposes these days, can lead to healthier living or at least informing people so decisions are made by aware individuals. It's all good.

Thank you for your input. You've made your point.

Back on topic please.

 

[Breeze]

Thank you for your input. You've made your point.

Back on topic please.

Have I? Thanks for summing up for me but there are more than one point some of which I made and some I have not made, yet. I was on topic too as you named it "Freezerbag cooking". And a final thank you for your overwhelming concern for others' health.

 

[Nagual]

Have I? Thanks for summing up for me but there are more than one point some of which I made and some I have not made, yet. I was on topic too as you named it "Freezerbag cooking". And a final thank you for your overwhelming concern for others' health.

:Thinkingo

I think what Ahjno was trying to say was, he has no problem with what you are wanting to say, however he would very much appreciate it if you maybe made another thread on the subject, rather than in this one?

Anyhoo. I've got a dehydrator and used it quite a bit to various degrees of success. I got the cheap one from westfalia, and while it certainly is worth the cash, the lack of temperature control or variation is a bit of an issue. I've made mince(with carrot and onion, and with just onion, and by itself - with and without gravy) jerky, soup(not such a success really.. ) chicken, sausages, cooked taters, carrots, onions, peppers ooo lots of different veg. So far I'd say my meals have had a slightly burnt taste to them, this I put down to the lack of temperature control. They were still edible, but far from the lovely meal they were before drying. The veggies turned out great, a real time and weight saver for carrying and using veggies outside. For me, dehydration is certainly a good thing for camping more than a few days, if you're trying to keep the weight down.

Cheers,