In an article in the NZ hunter mag one fella mentions "Back Country Mince" What the hell is that?

"Backcountry" is the brand name of some freeze dried foods over here. They have one meal that's called something like "Classic Mince" not bad actually. Can have a good tasty meal made in 15 minutes, by just adding hot water.
Here is the link to their website:
Back Country Cuisine

A client bought some of that crap on a hiking trip just recently... he said "here let me cook you one of these breakfast deals". It was f'n revolting - I doubt my dog would eat it!! That night we had some other slop - lamb and rice or something. "fills a whole" he said....hmmm yeah - I guess so!!

I'd rather put my own meals together than eat that muck. Plenty of good dehydrated and condensed food on the supermarket shelves if you ask me...

Having said that... maybe the mince meal is OK???

You have to remeber that this stuff is made to be very light to carry. A lot of NZ hunting/tramping isnt done from a camp that you can drive to so keeping the weight on your back down is pretty important.

Having said that , some of the freeze-dri stuff on the market is pretty average , to say the least ...

In one article it showed a fella doing his own dried mince dish with a standard dehydrator I thought was interesting. Onde thing I don't mind is the cook in the bag meals in the current military rat packs. Not bad at all.

I don't suppose anyone would know if much of this or other freeze-dried brands' stuff would be gluten-free?

I sometimes take a chance with products that 'might' have traces of gluten, but am asking for trouble if I eat stuff that lists wheat derivitives other than glucose.

Also, is there a place that might sell it anywhere near Christchurch airport?

You know its all the rage now, the Backcountry freeze dried meals. I have a couple of probelms with them though...
One - theres not enough in a packet to feed a small rat for one meal.
Two - they taste very sad. To put this in perspective though, all the other freeze dried stuff is actually revolting.

I just carry what I have to. Still using rice. And venisen. I take great pleasure in the evenings in a hut, cooking up a proper meal of venisen medallians, rice and gravy and whatever else I have and making a proper meal of it (what else you going to do in the evenings?), while the trampers all pour water into the freeze dried packets. They usually look a little sad.

Your dead right Carlson. Watch the others gather round as you carve up a backsteak.
Paul where your heading, there is not much chance of going more than a day or so without fresh meat. Rice and spices are the answer. The one pack of Back country I have here contains Gluten.

I have a mate that takes walk tours through Arhnem land. He has his own dehydrator as dose my mother outlaw. He makes up curries, stews and all sorts, pre cooked and into the dehy.Mother OL. dries fruit and veg. Results are fan bloody tastic and I leave all the hard work up to them!! costs a few rabbits, venison and a beer.I would highly recommend one of these things if you do a lot of back country stuff. Add hot water and bingo. Looking forward to the 7/5. See ya there.

Gidday Guys,

Nah Shanks & Carlsen, its the smell of onions frying that gets the loopies going. Then the backsteaks.

Barry & I drove up the Harper one weekend to the Hamilton Hut and we cooked up a feed of back steak, onions, and mashed spud (fresh). The truck was parked about 15 min from the hut so when the traampers arrived (about 8 female exchange students from the US) the hut smelled pretty good. They were all over us for a try as they had come over the Cass saddle and were pretty hungry. They were just about going nuts when we pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and a couple of 2litres of coke.

We were tempted to try our luck but being the gentlemen we are we left it alone. Besides a couple of 50 year olds would have trouble handling 8 18 - 19 year olds. They were pretty frisky.

Oh for the vigour of youth.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

What you used to do all night takes you all night to do now old fella

Gidday Bakes,

Yeah can only handle 3 18 yr olds a night now but they enjoy the fact it takes allnight Thats why they prefer older gentlemen.

Happy Hunting

Hamish