Does anyone have any tips for alternatives to the expensive, commercially produced freeze dried pack food? I'm preparing for a fly-in spike camp Moose hunt this fall and my creative self sufficient nature has me wondering if I couldn't make my own dehydrated meals for pennies on the dollar.

I've hunted well on MRE's, but I want to avoid the weight for the flight in.

My thoughts, for example go like this;
Beef/Venison Stroganoff-
Dehydrated Meat
One Package of Lipton's Powdered
Mushroom Soup Mix
Dried Onion
Flat Noodles

Combine all of the above into a Freezer Zip Lock bag and label before leaving home. Then just add hot water stir, wait, and eat. Total cost about $2.

What do you think? - Bill

Earlybugle ----- After many years of backpackand and climbing, I have gone both ways. The cheap route, without buying the expensive stuff is of course not so hard to do, but don't get in the rut of eating the same thing for several meals. Even with the expensive way, you have a tendency to pick only what you have tried and liked, and not attempting something new, for fear of a bad meal. ----- I would say try some of each, thus avoiding a complete bust with only the cheap stuff, pack at least two days of the tried and true expensive stuff for more variety. Whichever route you go, take plenty of seasoning, which is not heavy or expensive, it is worth it's weight in gold if confronted with that bland freeze dried food, either expensive or cheap. Also remember the old salt cured ham or bacon, does wonders for the taste buds in for the morning meals, it gives salt and sustainence for those packing muscles, hopefully preparing you for lots of game meat hauls. Good luck

my fave recipe is mahatma red beans and rice chilli. either use your own hunted jerky or store bought. boil water with beef jerky in the water to reconstitute jerky and add the red beans and rice when boiling. the package contains the spices as well. this reeeely sticks to your bones and is awesome on a cold night. the packets are usualy around a buck to a buck fifty and you will use about 2 or 3 oz. of jerky so you figure 2 to 3 bucks for a damn good and easy meal. let me know what you think if you try it

http://www.carolinarice.com/mahatmarice/product-print.cfm?productid=10504

I carry a lot of dried noodles (not rammon). Stuff like Lipton. Cheap and very filling and tastes great. Last hunt we went on we carried some ready to cook stuffing mix, just add hot water. I'll tell you what, that was the best meal we had after hiking all day and carrying deermeat back to camp.

We make our own. Cook what you like, i.e. lasagna, spaghetti, chili and then put it in a drying oven and dry it until it is hard. Put the desired portions in a vaccume sealed bag and put it in the freezer. When you go hunting just take it along. As long as the seal is intact the food will last a long time. We have used some meals that are 3 years old and they were just fine. Jim

How about buying the freeze dried stuff in bulk?


http://www.nitro-pak.com/index.php?cPath=147

I have used the Lipton type meals. For example broccoli cheese, spanish rice, red beans and rice, even plain old Kraft mac & cheese.

I always throw in some Ramen noodles. I don't mind them and long as I don't have to eat them every meal and they are a great lightweight extra few days food supply, just in case.

I repackage them using a vacuum packer and if they require milk, I add the appropriate amount of dried milk.

I then take some dehydrated preseasoned meat. I have used vension, chicken, wild turkey, beef, pork. It is amazing how much that adds to the meals. But then if everything goes well, fresh meat will be on the menu.

I have used the dehydrated soups, they are good, but I prefer the meals with more substance.

Before my first trip to Alaska. I tried everything out at home first. Then I knew what I liked/worked and what I didn't like/ didn't work.

Just walk through the grocery store and you will get all sorts of ideas when looking through the dried, prepackaged meals. You know what you like, so go for it.

Great suggestions and thanks for the link to Nitro Pack. Their prices are very competitive.

I will buy a couple bulk cans/tins and also try my own recipes so that there are some variety. We have a vacumme sealer and with the suggestions and encouragement you've provided I think I'll be well fed AND have enough cash left over for the taxidemist when we get home!

My wife is a gourmet cook so she'll be able to help me work up some tasty and filling options over the coming weeks.

If anyone has anyother tried and proven recipies send them on!

If anyone is interested, I'll post my winners as well. - Bill

UPDATE -
I spent last weekend experimenting with multiple suggestions and some ideas of my own. I tried the Mahatma brand of dried packages and was very pleased with the result. There are two large servings per package and each sells for $1.70 . I'm a fairly big eater and half a package for lunch was ample for me just doing chores around the house, though I'd probably eat the whole package for dinner while hunting.

I cooked the Black Beans with Dirty Rice with Echridge Smoked (polish) Sausage, and the Sante Fe Rice with grilled chicken. They were very good! Since I split the packages in half, I tried them with the meat right out of the fridge and also with meat that had been dehydrated.

I also tried some grocery store generic Tetrazini mix ($1.49) which consisted of noodles, sauce/gravy seasonings, etc but no meat. I added chicken to it and it was also very tasty.

From the experiment with self dehydrated meat I learned that you need to add the meat to the pot of water at the beginning while boiling (well before the beans/rice/noodles go in) to be sure to fully hydrate the meat. I also learned that chicken takes some time to hydrate. I need to repeat the experiment with the dehydrated meat going in at the well before the rest to see how much time it needs to boil, but I'm going to guess that I'll need to boil/cook/soak the meat in HOT water at least 10 minutes by itself before adding the rest of the meal.

I found tuna (steaks and chunk) in a variety of flavors, packaged in foil bags that do not need refridgeration. This goes on my "to test" list.

All in all I have my answer and I'm now confident I can make my own VERY tasty dried food that is very tasty for just over $2 per (very large) meal. And a "Thanks" goes out to you guyz.

If anyone is interested, I'll post more results as I go. - Bill

We're former backpackers who couldn't tolerate the commercial chemical laden backpacking foods offered so I researched the subject and bought a dehydrator.We made our own food and dried it.One brand we like is Alpine Aire http://www.alpineaire.com .

We've always gone with the Lipton type noodle/rice mixes, like stroganoff, etc.. You can live on them nicely by themsevles and they taste very much improved when you get some fresh meat to mix with them..

Also, pasta, like spaghetti works well...The pasta is light and keeps well in ziplocs, and if you experiement, you can find some powdered sauce mixes that may not be Mama Leoni's, but taste pretty good in hunting camp with perhaps a few herbs and some minced garlic added and a small can of tomato paste..

One luxury I always allow myself is a couple of cans of Spam...Good stuff in camp when sliced and fried after a couple of days with no meat..

Instant oatmeal does well for breakfast... Prepacked meals of trail mix, jerky, and candy bars do well for lunches in the field away from camp..

The foil packed tuna sounds good too, especially if mixed in with a noodle mix..

We made our sauce w/o oil then dried it in our Harvest Maid dehydrator like fruit leather, dried sliced meatballs but they were a bit crunchy tasted great though,cooked pasta & dried it, rehydrated it with hot water great meal on the trail & in camp,made chili dried it in the dehydrator,vegies,fruit,made jerky,trail mix,mixed honey and peanut butter for energy snacks.The booklet that came with our dehydrator has lots of info as did some of our backpacking books on making food for trips. http://www.harvestessentials.com

My standby for light wt/emergency food is a zip lock bag of instant rice and a bag of cup o'soup noodles. They really bulk up and are filling w/o being heavy or expensive.

I also like to take several bullion cubes and a small bag of cashews. Boil a few nuts in the broth before adding rice and it brings out the oil to give it that 'fatty' taste/texture.

I also second the fact that spices are worth thier weight in gold! I never leave the house w/o jalapenos, tabasco, pepper, onoin,.....and on and on

Good luck with your hunt and let us know if you come up with any 'interesting' recipes.

Bob

quote:

UPDATE -
I spent last weekend experimenting with multiple suggestions and some ideas of my own. I tried the Mahatma brand of dried packages and was very pleased with the result. There are two large servings per package and each sells for $1.70 . I'm a fairly big eater and half a package for lunch was ample for me just doing chores around the house, though I'd probably eat the whole package for dinner while hunting.

I cooked the Black Beans with Dirty Rice with Echridge Smoked (polish) Sausage, and the Sante Fe Rice with grilled chicken. They were very good! Since I split the packages in half, I tried them with the meat right out of the fridge and also with meat that had been dehydrated.

glad you enjoyed it!

yes, you put the jerky in the water in the beginning to rehydrate. a great meal with good protein and carbs for the long hike the next day. pass on the recipe to others and i will be happy to know that somewhere in the beautiful wilderness someone is enjoying a good meal

One of my favorites is the dehydrated refried beans mixed with dried meat and stuffed in tortillas for tasty burritos! Beware the tent doesnt smell right for a day or two!

One more thing, if you roll your own, don't try to dehidrate shrimp. They come out like little erasers and never reconstitute. Otherwise, everything we have dryied comes back. Sometimes you have to simmer them for a while. Jim

FWIIW, Mountain House will give DISTRIBUTOR pricing to you ask and if your order is large enough.
A friend and I combine our orders every year and save about 30-40% off retail depending on what is ordered.
Min order for the break is $500.00
we order that much about twice a year and the up side is it stores well for years and is pretty good tasting.