Cooking Food when wild camping

[coachmacca]

Ok folks we are finally getting into the wild camping soon , have tent (Tempest 200), bags etc and managed to get an Primus Eta Solo (as a Trail freebie - like the Primus Jetboil) for a stove but here's my question...

How do you guys use such a stove to cook - if indeed you do?

Do you use the sealed bags and pout water in? somehow put a bag in the water (like wayfarer) ? or ditch the mug and use a pot?

Any ideas welcome - first camp will be a one nighter for two of us so want to keep it quite simple but enjoy the food,

For my main meal I'm aiming for high calorie (around 400 calls at least ) and high protein (around 30g) if possible

Any ideas , advice, recipes welcome

[Eskimo]

Ive used 'boil in the bag' bags that I got from Lakeland. So you can effectively prepare some tasty grub at home, put into these bags and then boil to reheat when required.

They work well I reckon and it means you can get home cooked food with the conveneince of it being boiled (and eaten) from a bag.

[Barcode]

MugShots and beef jerky for me

[Rudolph]

Probably a personal thing but...

We use stoves for tea coffee at various points on the trip and a hot meal at night.

For the lightest / strongest taste (= most edible!) we use the freeze dried meals which simply need boiling water (350ml) added. Unless I'm ravenous, a whole pack is a bit too much and I have to force myself to finish it. Use a puch snug to keep it hot while the rehyrdation is going on.

I tried wayfarer meals once and was very disappointed in taste, calories and practicality. Because they are ready hydrated they are heavy for the number of calories. Suspect most boil in the bags will be the same. The wayfarer portions are too small. The inedibility of the syrup sponge is aa thing of family legend now.

[tenohfive]

I did some sums when looking at food available from the supermarket (as opposed to the more expensive specific freeze dried meals) and found that cous-cous is one of the best options in terms of calories to weight ratio. I've tried it whilst wild camping but the Ainsley Harriot cous-cous is more than edible (it's a lunch staple for me) and you just need to boil some water, add, leave 5 minutes and eat.

[Cairngormwanderer]

I see no particular benefit in eating rubbish when camping. Sometimes I take tinned food - a nice bit of stew and a tin of potatoes and maybe some peas is nice and filling in the evening. It's only for one night, for goodness sakes, how much difference does a coupole of tins make? Another nice meal is to chop and fry an onion, add in some bacon lardons (get them in a pack), then throw on a packet of microwave rice (various flavours - for this meal I prefer egg-fried), with a wee sup water if needed (whole meal can be done with water rather than frying, if you don't have oil). Then, when it's all cooked and heated through, and any excess water boiled off, add a stir fry sachet of hoi sin sauce. Lovely, and enough for two unless you're a pig like me.
Of course, this requires you to (gasp!) dirty your mess tin. Don't bother carrying washing up liquid and a scourer: there is range available at most campsites. I generally use a handful of heather and/or grass depending on the grade of scourer required. Sphagnum moss is actually very good at cutting fat and grease, but is better of some grass through it to add strength. All much easier than carrying a stinky cloth and worrying that your washing up liquid is going to leak in your sack.
Lightweight food is fine if you're going on a multi day trip, but for a weekend I'd far rather have food I'll enjoy than to save a couple of ounces.

[laconic surf]

I usually take some dried pasta and mix it with a dolmio stir-in sauce. The sauce comes in a little lightweight tub and lasts a year or so, so I usually buy a few when they're on offer. For protein, I usually cook up a whole chicken at home, take the meat off the bone and take a portion in a little tub. I can then add this in to the pasta (not so good in high summer cos of the heat). A matteson's smoked sausage can do the same job.
A filling meal and easy to prepare.
I'm big on my protein so protein bars are a staple in my pack all year round. Get a tasty one and that's dessert covered. It leaves extra weight for alcohol

[Phil the Hill]

Some good tips above.

For a one-nighter, I like Look What We Found bagged gourmet meals with boil in the bag rice. If biking to the campsite I'll bring a (screwcap) bottle of wine.

For a multi-day trip, dried pasta or cous-cous (agree re Ainsley Harriot) and chop up and add a mini Pepparami from the on the go snacks I'm carrying. Dried tortellini are also good, especially with a stir-in sauce or boiled in an instant soup.

It also helps to take with you a walking companion who likes fishing and can catch the odd small trout to add some more protein to your meals!

[Rudolph]

It also helps to take with you a walking companion who likes fishing and can catch the odd small trout to add some more protein to your meals!

Gollum?

how much difference does a coupole of tins make?

Weight I could do without, and hard sharp rubbish to pack out again. Also tend to mean pots and plates etc. to be carried. And I don't find the extra weight / bulk / faff gives anything more palatable - especially if I'm on washing up duties. But that's only my opinion. I don't think there are any right answers on this one - just different preferences

Only possible exception is a dutch oven - which is hardly convenient, even on a "one nighter".

[morag1]

Sainsburys sell vacuum food flasks, same as the ones for liquids but smaller and rounder. If you're going away for one night only you can put some hot food (curry or pasta) in the flask and it stays hot for a few hours. Means you dont need to carry a stove with you, just the flask. You dont even need plates as there is a little bowl on top of the flask and you just pour the food in there. If you also take a drinks flask filled with soup you can have a two course meal al fresco

[Border Reiver]

Last time out, I bought EvaQ8 ration packs via Amazon. Each 1 day pack contains a breakfast, main course & pudding (all boil in bag or eat cold) + isotonic drink (powder), hot chocolate drink (powder) & a high energy bar. Total calories - 2,000. Other packs available from Amazon which contain 2 main meals, biscuits / chocolate bars, tea, sugar etc. & more calories.
I just put the bags in boiling water & used the water after to make the hot choc drink & rinse the empty bags.
All the food was excellent except the energy bar & it was like leather....just as well I had brought other chocolate bars and cereal bars.
Basically, It was laziness, because I didn't have to think out menus, only choose the meals to go in each pack...no regrets though, I'd buy them again.

[basscadet]

I'm with CGW on this one.. When you go out to the hills, you dont go to 'survive' you go to enjoy yourself, like a holiday or something.. so all these dodgy dehydrated meals are a last resort for me. Why wouldnt you want good food?

If it is just for a weekend, there is no excuse not to feed yourself properly. I make spag bol / chilli / stew or suchlike.. boil it on a low temperature for a long time until it is way too thick - almost like a paste- then rehydrate and reheat on the hill. If you take it out of the freezer on the day of departure, it keeps for a couple of days, and you can have fine home made food on the hills of an evening.

For longer trips, i sometimes take a wee macsweens haggis - keep for ages out of the fridge, and yummy with instant mash.. The other dish I like is egg noodles with some dried veg, a sachet of tuna and a couple of thai cup soups added. I dont usually go out for longer than 5 or 6 days, so this menu I find palatable for that long

Rudolph - cooking doesnt mean you have to take anything extra.. I only take one 1350ml titanium pot.. Plenty of room for 2 peoples scraw in there.. Dougie and I dont bother with plating up, we just dig in - whoever is hungriest gets the lion share! This means there is only one pot to wash, but if you have one of these http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/gsi-compact-scraper-p263318 you can get your pan so clean it only needs a wee rinse - dont even have to get out of the tent - and it doubles as an eating impliment too..

How much were your ration packs Border Reiver? I havent seen them for less than £15, which seems excessive when you could get a good meal in a good pub for that.. For a 5 day trip, it would be £75 for food!

[Rudolph]

Hi Basscadet

However good the food is I find eating it as it cools and congeals a pretty miserable affair so I don't think it's worth any extra weight over the freeze dried stuff (which I enjoy about as much as anything else).

That said, you make your system sound very appealing. I'll have a chat with the boss about trying it next time. I'm sure she'll enjoy sparring for the last few mouthfuls!

[Border Reiver]

How much were your ration packs Border Reiver? I havent seen them for less than £15, which seems excessive when you could get a good meal in a good pub for that.. For a 5 day trip, it would be £75 for food!

The one I used are now £13.95. Pricey, yes, but very convenient if you haven't time or inclination to go and buy food ingredients at the supermarket and cook them all up. Each day there's a separately wrapped pack - I couldn't eat it cold though, but boiling the bag of food doesn't take long.
I've just had a good look at Amazon ration packs & there's loads of choices there from different companies.

[basscadet]

Aye, well, if you arent hungry enough to wolf it down while its hot - leave your dinner until a bit later I would of said
I find sometimes even when I should be ravenous, sometimes I am not after a day on the hill, and I have started to recognise that this is because I am a bit dehydrated, so my body is first and foremost craving liquid before it can contemplate hunger.. I think it must happen to others, no?
Its difficult to get enough water in the winter we have been finding.. Water is just too cold to get enough down, and boiling/carrying a few litres of tea to take with us isnt really feasable or attractive either

Border reiver - thats kind of what I expected. I have looked at ration packs before because the ones we used to get in army cadets were so yummy.. They are ultra convenient, but at £100 for 7 days, triple the price of my usual weeks food budget, so hard to justify for a pauper like myself unfortunately. I'd have to starve myself for the rest of the month once I got home