Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: Dehy food.
|
Author | Message Text | ||
AlexanderSupertramp |
Frenchy19: "Most retail options are freeze dried and not dehydrated. Over the years, Mountain House, I believe, is the best. Recent week long solo had me trying Peak for the first time, and you could not pay me to eat any of their garbage ever again." What did you not like about Peak? Although I still like them more than most others, I always find that none of the pastas ever seem to rehydrate all the way and no mater how long I let them sit, I end up with crunchy noodles here and there, and I hate that. |
||
Blackdogyak |
Having said that, I see them as a treat. Five nights out would mean $55 of dinners. As others have said, soup mixes with added dried or vacuum sealed meat is good, easy and very affordable. We will sometimes have some meat like chicken pouches and then instant mashed potatoes and gravy mix. Easy, cheap and good. Dehydrating your own stuff is fun. It takes a while to get the hang of it and find what works and doesn't work. I added a vacuum bagger so I can take the dehydrated meals and pack them up to last a long time. When I'm going on a trip, I'll go to my bucket of meals and pull out what I want. Lasagna is a good one. It's more like "tossed" lasagna...chips of noodle, sausage and hamburger floating in the mix...but it's pretty good. The other thing is that you can make the size of meal you like and put in more or less of what you like or don't like. I tried making squares of noodles and squares of sauce and building up a "real" 3D lasagna, instead of the casserole -like approach, but it didn't work out that well. Not worth the trouble. KevinOutdoors is a good YT channel. I learned a lot from him. Hamburger is fairly easy. Many people add breadcrumbs to make rehydration easier. It's never going to be like real hamburger though. You have to put some significant energy into eliminating as much grease and oil from the meats as you can. Especially hamburger and sausages. Which of course removes some flavor. I make a killer jumbalaya at home. I tried drying that and it's mediocre. Shrimp and fish do not do well whatsoever in this process. In general, you have to amp up the seasoning stronger than you normally would. I did chili with hamburger and it was awesome. 10/10. You almost couldn't tell it was a rehydrated meal. You can dry tomato sauce and it becomes like tomato chips which rehydrate kind of alright. Some of this is a bit fussier than the ready-to-go dehydrated meals. If those say hot water, wait ten minutes...it's going to be pretty accurate. I've found that with my own dried meals, it's not usually sufficient to just pour hot water over them and wait fifteen minutes. Often I find that they will need some boiling or I will put the pot in an insulated "cozy" and wait like THIRTY minutes. Dried pineapple is REALLY good. And it's pretty easy to do your own beef jerky. Not any cheaper really, but you put real stuff in it, not all the junk that's in the store packs. The boil bags for minute rice (Success brand) are pretty good and easy. Add gravy or whatever and the rice will soak it up. |
||
ockycamper |
|
||
lionman |
Go to freeze dried company/meals I generally like to dehydrate my own for better flavor/preferences. There are some details here for how to do that: Basics for main meal dehydrating |
||
thatguyjeff |
|
||
myceliaman |
|
||
boonie |
Do you have any specific questions? |
||
gravelroad |
|
||
AlexanderSupertramp |
Personally, I have found most of the boutique brands to not be very filling and are usually a bit overpriced in terms of meal content. Healthier? Maybe... but while tripping I am less concerned about that than I am about energy output. And both Peak and MH both do a really good job of creating well-rounded meals that don't leave me feeling hungry. The MH Chili Mac with beef I think I could eat every damn day. So good. When buying MH though, just be aware that their pro-paks are single servings as opposed to their regular meals which are two. Though they claim they have higher protein and "focused calories", whatever that means. Some day when my life slows down a little and time allows me to, I will dehydrate my own meals. Perhaps I will buy myself a nice dehydrator for Christmas this year. |
||
TreeBear |
|
||
okinaw55 |
|
||
Frenchy19 |
|
||
kjw |
|
||
doorbluff84 |
|
||
kjw |
|
||
billconner |
section hiker article. an excerpt from above: "Freeze-drying removes 98% of the water in foods while dehydration removes about 80% giving freeze-dried products a much longer shelf-life. Freeze-dried food is flash frozen and then exposed to a vacuum, which causes all the water in it to vaporize. This requires expensive equipment and isn’t something you can do at home, but it makes it possible to store freeze-dried foods for 20 to 30 years, compared to dehydrated ones, which typically last one to five years. But the biggest difference between freeze-dried and dehydrated foods is nutritional. Freeze-dried foods retain all of taste, smell, texture, and nutritional value they has in their original form before the freeze-drying process. Dehydrated foods lose about 50% of their nutritional value because they’re subject to heating during the drying process and can become somewhat chewier, since the heating process “cooks” them over a long period of time as they dry. Freeze-dried foods also rehydrate more quickly, usually in 5 minutes or less (dried berries, almost instantly), in hot or cold water. Dehydrated foods usually take 10-20 minutes to rehydrate, provided you use boiling water, requiring a longer wait and more stove fuel, which are both anathemas for backpackers!" |
||
Lawnchair107 |
AlexanderSupertramp: "Frenchy19: "Most retail options are freeze dried and not dehydrated. Over the years, Mountain House, I believe, is the best. Recent week long solo had me trying Peak for the first time, and you could not pay me to eat any of their garbage ever again." I find Peak Refuel hands down the best out there. I would make sure once water is added, you give a hearty stir with your utensil before resealing. |
||
lindylair |
|
||
Frenchy19 |
Lawnchair107: "AlexanderSupertramp: "Frenchy19: "Most retail options are freeze dried and not dehydrated. Over the years, Mountain House, I believe, is the best. Recent week long solo had me trying Peak for the first time, and you could not pay me to eat any of their garbage ever again." I stir the bejeebers out of it; I just did not like the flavor of any of the meals I had. The breakfast skillet and pasta marinara, in particular, were just flat out horrid. Cannot recall what else I ate, but those two stand out as uber nasty, and none of the others I had stand out as memorable. I know a number of folks who love the Peak Refuel; just not for me. |
||
Lawnchair107 |
Frenchy19: "Lawnchair107: "AlexanderSupertramp: "Frenchy19: "Most retail options are freeze dried and not dehydrated. Over the years, Mountain House, I believe, is the best. Recent week long solo had me trying Peak for the first time, and you could not pay me to eat any of their garbage ever again." That’s fair. Those are two that I have not had yet. Still hard for me to go away from Ova-easy eggs. My favorites from Peak are the beef stroganoff, chicken alfredo, sweet pork and rice and biscuits and gravy. But to each their own! |
||
Grandma L |
|
||
AlexanderSupertramp |
Lawnchair107: "AlexanderSupertramp: "Frenchy19: "Most retail options are freeze dried and not dehydrated. Over the years, Mountain House, I believe, is the best. Recent week long solo had me trying Peak for the first time, and you could not pay me to eat any of their garbage ever again." This could be my issue, and I know it says that on the bag but I usually just mash it around with my hands after I close it. Will try stirring next time. Heck maybe I'll just do it tonight since I have some downstairs and I am out of groceries... and too lazy to go to the store. I wanted to add too that the cold water breakfast berry and granola meals from Peak are pretty freaking fantastic. I love them. The milk tastes so fresh and like it's not powdered milk at all. |
||
Gaidin53 |
Best meals you buy is chicken pad Thai from BP. Ryan |