I am always looking for ways to make trail cooking easier, avoid clean-up and lighten my load by reducing the number of pots and dishes I bring.

I cook, dehydrate and vac-seal my trail food. Usually, I'll open the bag and put the food in a pot for rehydrating and cooking. Sometimes, I'll put the food in a zip lock freezer bag inside the vac-seal bag. Then, I'll pour heated water into the freezer bag to rehydrate.

I would like to be able to reheat the food after rehydration while the food is still in the bag. I'm not sure its safe to put the freezer bag in boiling water. I see that pack it gourmet has bags safe for boiling in. Has anyone tried these? Has anyone put the zip lock freezer bags in boiling water without problem? Any other suggestions?

Hey Mitch,

Our Scout troop occasionally makes "Space Eggs" which is essentially 2-3 eggs cracked into a Ziplock with diced veggies and cheese. Squish it all up then put into the boiling water. Usually takes 5 minutes or so for it to be ready. We usually have to have somebody with a set of tongs to suspend the bags because sometimes the zippers don't keep the water out. Also the bags can melt if they hang over the top of the pot.

We've had a family raise concerns about using Ziplocks as the company doesn't recommend cooking in their bags.

If you have a way to keep it upright and closed, the food saver bags are safe for boil cooking/heating

I haven't put the bags with the food down in boiling water but have put boiling water into the bags. We do FBC all the time with no problems using freezer bags. As for the Manufacturer not recommending cooking in them, I see it as a problem with the bag coming in contact with a hot pot and melting do to that contact not the boiling water.

I know I can always count on the 5 tree guys to have the answer.

Thanks to both of you. Next trip is 9/4 so I'll give it a try.

mitch

Turkey bags. Also the bags that bake packer recommends. Both do fine in boiling water, steam, even an oven.

Bakepacker

Crock pot or slow cooker liners also good for googling.

Chicagored-

I have had problems in the past with freezer bags and boiling water, so I use the pack it gourmet bags if needed to replace the original packaging. They actually make two kinds: one for adding boiling water to (has a zip lock top) and another for immersing in boiling water. I have not tried the latter. The former are considerably more robust (5-mil) than freezer bags. If you rehydrate the food in a cozy, you shouldn't need to reheat it afterwards. Mine is still plenty hot after 10-15 minutes rehydration in a cozy. I know Steve rehydrated his last fall in the food saver bags and used spring clips to hold the top closed while they rehydrated in the cozy, which is a technique I've used in the past, but I prefer the zip lock closure.

BTW, Chicagored- if you'd like me to mail you one of the extra Pack-it-Gourmet zip lock boil-in-bags I have as a sample, just email me your address. You can easily make a cozy from reflectix bubble wrap. Just pour boiling water into the bag with your meal, zip closed, put in cozy for the required time, open, eat from bag, zip closed, put in trash bag, wipe spoon clean. That's about as simple as it gets :).

quote boonie: "BTW, Chicagored- if you'd like me to mail you one of the extra Pack-it-Gourmet zip lock boil-in-bags I have as a sample, just email me your address. You can easily make a cozy from reflectix bubble wrap. Just pour boiling water into the bag with your meal, zip closed, put in cozy for the required time, open, eat from bag, zip closed, put in trash bag, wipe spoon clean. That's about as simple as it gets :). "

E-mail sent. Thank you.

mitch

quote boonie: "I know Steve rehydrated his last fall in the food saver bags and used spring clips to hold the top closed while they rehydrated in the cozy, which is a technique I've used in the past, but I prefer the zip lock closure."

I would never have thought to put a zip lock type bag inside the food saver bag. The brand of food saver bags I used claim to be microwave safe, BPA free, and can be simmered. The spring clips used to reseal the bags after adding boiling water worked fine for me, but I did make sure I secured the cozy so the whole thing stayed upright.

The zip lock on the Pack-it-Gourmet sample bag Boonie gave me ended up ruined when we tried to seal it with the food saver machine. So be extra careful if you try to heat seal it above the zip lock.

Email received. Even with the zip lock, I still stand the cozy up against logs/rocks while it rehydrates. I don't think you'd need to seal the bag for short-term use, especially if you added a dessicant. I leave the meals I buy in original packaging and then transfer to the bags right before rehydrating.

I've had great luck using the heavy duty zip lock freezer bags. The "lighter" weight bags don't seem to hold up as well.
My second tip is not to do a "rolling" boil when using a freezer bag. I use a gentle to medium boil and can heat up 2 cups in less then fice minutes. I also use the hot water in some other part of the meal. From a cup of after dinner coffee to making a instant gravy.
A friend makes a "fruit stew" by dropping a handful of dried apples and cranberries into a cup of the boil water with sugar laced with the jello of your choice to thicken everything up as he calls it.