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David Knopp
Trad climber
CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 8, 2014 - 06:31pm PT
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Going for a few long b/c trips this year, i want to make my own grub. I have the skills( i'm a working chef), have a dehydrator, just looking for some tips, slander, notes of caution, words of wisdom.
Thought i'd start with you all rather than a bunch of toothbrush shavin, barefoot runnin, ultra "lite"
tech weenies. TFPU!
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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I have no clue, but one of my friends makes pasta meals like Chicken Florentine and they are really good. So much better than the commercial salt-laden ones.
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bajaandy
climber
Escondido, CA
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Spaghetti or lasagna. Dehydrates great, re-hydrates well and tastes frikin amazing in the b/c. And of course fruit leathers, jerky, etc.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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For both my trips to Baffin Island (4 weeks each time) I dehydrated all the evening meals using a home dehydrator.
Just made huge batches of thick stews and curries, simmered them down till they were thicker still, then dried them. Beef, chicken, veg, seafood... Once they were dry, I just divided them up into ziplocks.
No problem at all except for the bay scallops in the seafood curry. As far as I can tell, you can soak those little buggers from now till the end of days, and they're still gonna be about as chewable as hockey pucks. They simply would not rehydrate.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Don't forget lots of leftovers will dehydrate/rehydrate really well. Just be light with the salt shaker when you cook. You don't have to be spending your time making special backpacking meals and the diet will be more like what you normally eat.
Shitaki mushrooms are my favorites to take along, although if you have Whole food/ New Seasons / trader Joes / Asian Food markets near you you might save the work. Sometimes they are in the bins.
Hamburger is a great source of protein dried. The secret is to get the leanest you can, then drain and blot the rest of the fat out, then dry it.
The stuff is like gravel dried, but reconstitutes well. Add back some oil when you rehydrate.
And I have the savory foods affinity gene, so the shitaki mushrooms, parmiagano regiano cheese, scallions, etc supplements the dried stuff, adds some freshness, and will keep a few days.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Check out the cooking threads on backpackinglight.com and backpacker.com forums.
One important thing to ensure things rehydrate well is to dice the meat and veggies pretty small.
edit: Oopsie; re-reading your post it seems like you are already aware of those sites.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Put that in your sleeping bag and cover that whole thing up with your pack or what have you.
With all due respect eKat, that has the potential to turn your sleeping bag into a bear magnet.
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julton
climber
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I ran the numbers for the weight of a lightweight cozy versus the fuel I'd use with the stove on simmer and found that the cozy didn't save me any weight. But I don't soak my food for hours. If it's going to take that long to prepare I don't want it. I'm hungry now.
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Urizen
Ice climber
Berkeley, CA
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David,
I have no experience with home food dehydrating, but I have been making my own backpacking meals for several years, out of purchased freeze-dried or dehydrated ingredients. As you probably know, dehydrated ingredients weigh more, but freeze-dried ones are bulkier, which can be a problem when you're trying to cram 10 days of food into a bear canister. The cost of freeze-dried commodities is a deterrent to some, but I think it's a minor issue compared to the other trip expenses, like gas, cars, gear, and time. There are some surprising finds out there in the "prepper" culture: freeze-fried sauteed onions, freeze-dried olives, freeze-dried asparagus, dehydrated cooked legumes, powdered wine.
Freeze-dried tomato and potato cubes are key. The supermarkets have nothing like these. Also essential: fried garlic, which you can find, for cheap, at any Asian market.
Here are some of the recipes I've developed or adapted for backcountry use.
Paella with Chicken, chorizo, bell peppers, and garbanzos.
Risotto with asparagus and chanterelles.
Polenta (de la Estancia brand) with sausage and tomatoes.
Pasta with smoked salmon and tomato cream sauce with chives.
Pizza with sausage, olives, mozzarella, and tomato sauce with herbs.
Hatch green chili with pork, black beans, and cornmeal dumplings.
I usually serve a couple of curry dishes as well. You can source these from any good Indian cookbook. As you know, many Indian recipes start with a set of roasted spices, nuts, or dals that are then ground, or with a blended paste of onion, garlic, and ginger that is then fried with ground spices. Either of these can be prepared in advance and will keep for days, due to the low moisture content after frying; they are mixed with the dried rice, legumes, meat, and vegetables that form the remainder of the meal.
I especially recommend the mulligatawny soup from My Bombay Kitchen. Freeze-dried chicken never had it so good. You'll need a few packets of True Lime, and a spoonful of bottled grated ginger. There is, for better or worse, simply no dried substitute for ginger. But you already knew that, too.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Apr 8, 2014 - 06:14pm PT
I ran the numbers for the weight of a lightweight cozy versus the fuel I'd use with the stove on simmer and found that the cozy didn't save me any weight. But I don't soak my food for hours. If it's going to take that long to prepare I don't want it. I'm hungry now.
You might want to run those numbers again. I can prepare an entire meal with one snow peak cup, an ounce of alcohol fuel and a cozy, and they weight almost nothing. If you are smart, you save pots.
The advantage of a cozy is that you can heat your food in an oven bag in boiling water, and put it in a cozy while you do a second course or bake a small bread and still have all the stuff ready and hot at once. ( the bread will take another 3/4 ounce if you finish it in a cozy)
Baking takes about 20 minutes.
My standard cooking system is a snow peak 600 cup with an aluminum lid available online and a plastic tub and two cozy's. It is also big enough to heat water for a freeze dried meal and a small coffee if you cool the coffee to drinking temp with cold water.
My kit I take if I will be baking more than a muffin is a slightly larger aluminum pot with a cup sized inner pot as the oven and baking tin.
Surprisingly. It weighs the same as the titanium cup.
As to the time, you are talking 15 minutes. Start your meal, then set up camp. The meal will be ready when you have a comfy place to eat it.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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I'm with Ekat. Everything she said about winter food prep. Including the "sleeping bag as slow cooker" thing. Works like a damn!
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Fish Finder
Social climber
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Purchase anything low price at the market and make a snack out of it
what I have found is less is more
Last week
5 trays of plain strawberries, one of the only fruits you dont need to dip in lemon water or some kind of store bought citrus sprinkle (browning)
they dry up nicely and sweet as hell.
mix with m&m or whatever is your fancy, nuts etc
also you can just toss the berries in water for a short period and ...... .. look what just happened to my oatmeal
also drop them in my water to infuse with fruit flavor, brilliant huh
Im a really gettin sick of water by itself, meow, i mean MIO
5 trays bananas dip in lemon water juice and place on tray
ex: less is more, there are many on line suggestions to add shlt like flavored jello to them or honey, but skip it
plain banana dry up leathery instead of like those baked coated banana chips
they were great and I just added some shredded coconut in the bag
Sweet great snack and the beauty is 15 bananas made 2 full sandwich bags
much easier to cary
cut out any bruises ar bad bad things as one rotten thing can ruin the whole batch(metaphor)
5 trays cucumber with cayenne and garlic salt or sea salt, cut them thick
these came out as some nice snack chips
They say online that you can duplicate the Mountain House meals for $2 a meal opposed to the $8 you pay retail
they also say that all the fake crap good for you shlt has preservatives and dye and all that crap
Hey you are wasting your time reading this just google it is whatever you want
Fast Track. leathers or fruit rolls are great
applesauce is the easiest as it is already pureed , just pour and flick the switch
Thats how I fruit roll
we are looking for organic type at the prime for best results
but fukc that I go cheap and big and still maintain quality
Edit: dont get me started on Cowboy Steak Jerky or Smoked Trout Jerky
Edit: trying to bait FISH with the Cowboy Steak Jerky who thinks he'll bite?
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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Freeze-dried tomato and potato cubes are key. The supermarkets have nothing like these. Also essential: fried garlic, which you can find, for cheap, at any Asian market.
Find a Hispanic supermarket that specializes in south American stuff ( Peruvian or Bolivian)
There are several places even in Portland.
Ask for Chuño, (also called papas secas or tunto) which is naturally freeze-dried potato. reconstituted, it tastes like.... Potato.
Lots do S American dishes call for it, but just tastes like potato. There are several varieties including white.
Sun dried tomato is everywhere, and I usually don't need all that much.
I only dry stuff I can't get.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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I've tended to go a bit less gourmet than Urz, but there are plenty of light weight options available in the supermarket,from potato mixes, minute rice,dried soups, etc.
Some freeze dried veggies to supplement and you can come up with some pretty tasty one pot meals.
I'll draw the line at freeze dried meats though, other than jerky,I'd rather carry a can or foil bag.
The supermarket packaging often outweighs the product, or are just the wrong proportions though, so just rebag with vacuum bags or ziplocs and write the instructions, water measurements etc on the bag with a sharpie.
One snack I will go out of my way to run thru the dehydrator are pears. Almost all other fruits are commonly available dried.
Buy the small ones when they are cheap, about 5-10 lb at a time (whatever will fill your dehydrator) and when they are almost too ripe to make it thru a banjo without turning them into juice, slice thin and dehydrate.
Make sure you spray the racks with cooking spray or you'll never get them off.
Sweeter than raisins or dates!
edit;
I'll have to try the strawberries!
As far as garlic, just toss a clove in a ziploc and bring it along.. Weight, next to nothing.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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Oh Yummmmmmm, Great suggestions and ideas by everyone.
I put this thread on my save list it's so great. Only thing I can add is I always take to much food backpacking. I usually bring half back. Since every ounce counts, know exactly what you really need.
Also, if you have free access to fuyu persimmons they dehydrate beautifully especially with a squeeze of lemon or lime, so sweet and weigh pretty much nothing. Cheers to adventure! lynnie
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julton
climber
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You might want to run those numbers again. I can prepare an entire meal with one snow peak cup, an ounce of alcohol fuel and a cozy, and they weight almost nothing. If you are smart, you save pots.
Run those numbers again? Okay....
There are different strategies for cooking. I often travel with a companion so a 600ml "pot" isn't big enough. And I don't use an alcohol stove. They are small and slightly lighter but the fuel weighs about twice as much as butane.
I made a cozy and it weighed about an ounce (28g). My stove burns 20-25g per hour when simmering. Combining simmering with just letting it sit and stew (as it cools) nearly doubles the time. I usually need to let the most recalcitrant foods simmer/sit for 15-20 minutes. So that's about 6-8 nights of fuel just to break even with the starting weight of that cozy. And the thing about fuel is you burn it and it's gone whereas a cozy you carry it both in and out. In terms of average weight over the whole trip using fuel (for me and how I cook) works out to a break even time period that is in excess of how much food I can carry. So basically there is no benefit --- for me.
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littlehammer
Mountain climber
Land of frozen crags
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Sounds like a plan! A lot of us have been through this phase.
Its fun until its a chore.
Realized its the Location that counts.
Dinner is something that happens before sleep and sunrise.
Minimum prep time is important.
Choosing low water content items off the supermarket shelf for
b/c calories (30 minutes of pushing a cart).
Repackage to reduce weight, ( 20 minutes)
And hit the trail.
Strange foods have ruined many trips so try to stay away from things
your stomach is not used to.
Best to eat the same type of things as you have been during training.
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Oregon
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And I don't use an alcohol stove. They are small and slightly lighter but the fuel weighs about twice as much as butane.
You might want to run those numbers again also. 8 ounces of alcohol in a poly bottle weighs just under 8 ounces ( alky is lighter than water) the bottle weighs about an ounce of that, so an ounce is what you carry out v ~7 oz weight in fuel.
Though butane is almost twice as many calories of heat, it comes in a container that weighs more than the fuel and you have to pack that both ways. A 100g ( net) jetboil cannister weighs 201 g.
For 100 g of fuel you carry 201g in and 101 out. Just like the cozy. As soon as a second canister is needed, the cozy wins.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=70774
And if is half full you carry two or you always start with a full cannister and waste fuel. The half full canister is a quarter as efficient.
The simmering thing is a red herring. Get an alky stove that simmers.
For less than a week on the trail there is no comparison. Fuel stoves boil water faster. That's it, and the difference is about two minutes.
And here is the shocker...alcohol in a wick stove is more reliable in cold weather.
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