Backpacking food on the cheap

[baraqyal]

So, recently, I've been thinking about what kind of food to carry when backpacking. Mostly, when going long distances, I've always used the expensive freeze dried stuff. Occasionally, I've taken along MRE's.

Here's my question: What kind of foods can you take along on the cheap? They have to be able to last a long time, be very light, and have little water in them. Also, they should be available at the nearest grocery store. Also, the foods should be not too difficult to make on a campfire or camp stove.

The foods, of course, need to be high calorie, and as compact as possible. Freeze dried stuff is ok, as long as its available at a grocery store - etc. Imagine you're trying to go for 7 or 10 days without a resupply. Any ideas?

I was thinking somewhere along the lines of the basics, like flour. However, it occurs to me that I have no idea how to make a good meal with flour. If you choose components, be sure to say what can be done with them. Thanks!
-- Rob

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Me fail english? That's unpossible!

 

[Alberta Ed]

Rice and oatmeal are staples that will carry you a long way, particularly if you supplement with a bit of hunting and gathering on the side: berries, fish, small game (an air-powered pellet gun shouldn't be overlooked), the occasional moose, etc. Dried fruit (easy on the prunes) is good, raisins, jerky kept a lot of people alive, and pemmican (if you can find some of the real stuff) would last for years. Also, take your VISA... you never know.

 

[shadowfax]

jerky. . . .pancake mix. . . beans if you have the weight available. . .. anything light and cheap that says "just add water" will work provided it's not a microwave meal. . . you'll probably wanna take some vitamin B along with you as you'll be going 7-10 days without veggies which isn't very good for you (when i camp that long i break down and buy freeze-dried corn, peas, etc. . . .it's pricey but it's better for me)

 

[OwenM]

I'm a big fan of Ramen noodles, granola bars, and oatmeal, myself. Lots of carbs.
I don't like to spend alot of time on cooking or eating.
Along the same lines as shadowfax's vit B suggestion, I always carry multi-vitamins.

Going out for 7-10 days is just a dream for me right now

 

[frediver]

as said rice and oatmeal are great. but I beleive in using some F.D. components.
take a look and the commerical F.D. meals, they are mostly filler. Rice,pre cooked beans
macroni with a Sm. amount of meat? and a sauce pak. why not just make your own.
take a bx. of mac&cheese,add some veg. part of a meat pk. etc. or inst soup gravey mix & instant potatoes or rice. Check out the backpacking sites for more ideas.
it's alittle heavy but I have made a pizza in a alum. fry pan. Pk of Bobli bread a sauce pk. sliced cheese and salami. I just heated it in the fry pan slowly,it came out fine!!<><

 

[Sender]

I'm gonna pimp for Starkist again and recommend the new vacuum packed tuna. It's light, compact, and full of good protein.


similar topic

starkist

[This message has been edited by Sender (edited 06-07-2001).]

 

[Josh Wilson]

I have always been too cheap to buy fancy camping food (except I really like freeze dried ice cream

). Just find a store that sells food in bulk (the ones that have barrels of food and you just scoop out as much as you need). Some of the "all-natural" food stores sell in bulk.

I just browse through the barrels and grab anything that looks good. They'll have pancake mix, granola, dried fruit, jerky, noodles, soup mix, gravey mix, etc at a very good price. Usually they will post the preparation instructions next to the barrel, I always go for the "just add water" kind.

As far as nutrition goes, just make sure you get a wide varriety of food and you'll be fine. Using a multivitamin is probably a good idea however I can usually vary my diet enough that it isn't neccesary.

 

[Roj Avon]

A food dehydrator will give you a lot of options for making your own meals. There are several commercial models available and while you may remember them being fairly expensive back when good ole RonCo started marketing them you can pick them up pretty cheaply now a days at Wal-Mart.

You can remove the water from almost any food with one of these things. The obvious recipes will most likely come in a little book with the machine but experienment a little and see what works and what doesn't.

You can also use an oven to do many of the same things but I think this method would use a lot more electricity and you have to watch it a bit more closely.

Also, don't underestimate the importance of taking spices with you if you are cooking on the trial.

The history and exploration of the world was based on the fact that people were sick of bland food. A few lexan bottles of peppers and other spices will serve you well.

Also, there are many excellent trail cookbooks that will teach you how to make a variety of things on the trail. I don't tend to mess about trying to make pancakes and rubbish like that myself but somefolks enjoy this. I tend to stick to soups and stews for my daily hot meal.

I'd not mess about too much with flour unless you want to take a bit to thicken sauces or stews but actually corn starch will work better and more efficiently for its weight

(As an aside you can also use corn starch as a dry shampoo if you have oily hair, like I do, and make your hair feel a little less matted and nasty after a few days of backpacking as an alternative if you don't have enough water to wash properly)

BTW....taking an airgun with which to augment your food supplies with small animals is illegal in many areas so make sure you know the law before you do that.

[This message has been edited by Roj Avon (edited 06-07-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Roj Avon (edited 06-07-2001).]

 

[DancesWithKnives]

Lipton makes some noodle dishes that come in a foil-like packet and are often less than a buck on sale. Weigh around 5-8 ounces. Many different flavors. Some say you need a little milk and/or margerine, but I make them with water only and they are fine. Rice-a-roni also makes some seasoned rice and noodle dishes that aren't too expensive and go well with fresh trout.

Dried potato dishes are available from several major food companies---some with cheese, garlic or other flavorful additions.

In addition, I like to carry some peanut butter. You get protein and fat in a pretty compact and tasty package.

I second the tuna-in-foil suggestion. A great development.

With regard to flour and other staples, I once saw them used. A friend and I were canoeing down a remote river in the Yukon and met a couple young Germans on their first extended wilderness trip. Their survival guru in Germany told them to bring nothing but the most basic staples. They were surviving fine, but food preparation took them several hours per day. Using food that was already a little closer to edible condition, we were able to spend a lot more time on photography, birdwatching, fishing, kicking back, etc. The next time we got together with them (in the U.S.), they had abandoned the staple approach as too awkward.

DPD.

[This message has been edited by DPD (edited 06-07-2001).]

 

[GREENJACKET]

OXO beef stock cube, or any type you fancy.
Dried tomatos in oil or anything to get your taste buds going: tuna; garlic olive oil; salarmi; sweatened condenced milk; melted Mars Bar; sugar; bacon; sardines wet/oil or dried, dried olives. Small quantities of condenced flavour. Best with some bits in it. There is plenty of tiny tinned flavour packs on the shelves that can transform a meal and they are cheap.

Bulk, carbohydrates:
Dried Pasta,
Dried Meli,
Dried Potato,
Rice,

Vegetables and fruit: freeze dried.

All these are great, so long as you have copious suplies of good water. There are a whole lot of places were water is difficult to find where you would think there ought to be plenty. You'll then have to carry it in or when frozen carry the fuel to convert it.

Bush tucker tastes so much better with supermarket help. I'm all for enjoying myself. Bulk, so long as it is light, is no hardship; infact I prefer a bigger backpack full of air than a small dense one.

If legal, then a Ruger MKII .22 LR pistol would allow you to live like a king.

 

[Sesoku]

Kraft macaronie and Cheese
Chicken Helper Stuffing variety - just add water and a small can of chicken- very good and short prep time

 

[Joe S]

The link is on my other computer, but for anyone looking to go light/ultralight, or those of us attempting to transcend bodily pleasures (right), do a search for Moose Goo. Good all around source of protein, fat, and carbs, and doesn't taste too bad at all, depending on how you modify it.

Joe S.

 

[matthew rapaport]

I made do for up to a week at a time with...

1. 1 loaf dense dark bread. Hardtack might be better still.

2. cup-of-soups

3. macaroni

4. honey

5. dried fruit/nuts

6. jerky

7. tea bags

Note that I camped in places where water was plentiful. I've never tried the new foil wrapped tuna, but that sounds great. MRE's might be OK too if a little heavy. Would worry about those things in bear country though, especially after you open the packages. You don't want to dispose of them anywhere near where you're going to sleep.

Any of you who are lucky enough to live near a real oriental (often Chinese in the US) market will find all sorts of DRIED FISH. This stuff is like jerky, but is fish instead of beef. There are many other forms including dried shellfish (scallops, shrimp), etc. Boil up some noodles and throw some of this stuff into the pot along with a cup-of-soup and eat hearty... Note that you do NOT throw out the water used to cook the noodles in this case. It becomes part of your meal, starch and all...

 

[GREENJACKET]

Tea bags; goes without saying. Just as good on a boiling day. The British Army wouldn't work without them.

I forever forgot to take cup-of-soups with me. They don't taste that good in the kitchen at home, but outdoors they are delish. Best with croutons.

[This message has been edited by GREENJACKET (edited 06-11-2001).]

 

[bill2054]

The archives at this site have info on lightweight trail food:
http://www.backcountry.net/

This is where the ultralight backpackers hang out.

A lot of the ultralighters seem to live on Lipton rice dinners. They cook fast and are therefore economical with fuel. The generic or house brand rice dinners are cheaper. To cook: dump in pot, add water and let rehydrate while you do something else. When you're ready to eat, put one fire, bring to boil, then set aside and cover with your cold weather cap, etc so it will continue to cook. One trioxane bar will cook one of these.

Flour tortillas and bagels keep pretty well- should go 10 days with no problem.

If your teeth are in good shape you can try parched corn. I've always wondered why deer corn couldn't be used- I doubt that it has any fungicides or anything in it, like seed corn. It would be cheap enough.

Brown the corn in a skillet. Stir it to keep from burning. Let cool, then put in plastic bag, wrap with a towel, and use a hammer to crack the kernels. Sort of an early version or Corn Nuts. It actually tastes pretty good.

Mountain House sells what they call pilot crackers, but they come 70 to a can so you'd have to repack them:
http://www.mountainhouse.com/data/nutrition/pilotcrackers-10.html
(Has anyone tried this item from Mountain House?)

MRE version of pilot bread (as well as other goodies):
http://www.longlifefood.com/catalog3.htm#bakery

Other things: small packages of Bisquick- use it to make bannock bread (cooked in skillet- could cook on a flat rock, but I haven't tried that) or make into stiff dough, wrap like a snake around a stick and bake over coals.

small squeeze bottle of honey for the Bisquick bread, etc
small squeeze bottle of liquid margarine

small pkgs of cornbread mix for hoecakes. You don't need the eggs, oil, milk, etc- just water. Make into thick dough, form into flat patties like a hamburger pattie, and bake on a flat rock or in a skillet.

small pkgs of instant mashed potatoes, aka potato flakes.
small plastic bottle of powdered milk will help out the potatoes, as will the squeeze margarine

boil-in-bag rice or precooked rice (or regular rice if plenty of firewood on hand- takes a while to cook)

small pkgs of gravy mix for flavor

The idea is this- a little meat (canned or fresh caught/killed), a starch for filler, and gravy to make it slide down, all dumped into the same pot. Yum.

Raisins

Dried fruit

Semi-sweet baking chocolate, if the weather's not too hot- comes in 1 ounce squares. Sort of a poor man's tropical chocolate bar. Has a higher melting point than regular chocolate candy bars.

Hard candy (I like peppermints)

Moose goo was mentioned. Some people speak highly of it, but I haven't tried it. Sounds like it would work.

Unsliced pepperoni or any hard (dry) sausage. Good with crackers at home, too.

A pretty good book on this subject is 'The Well Fed Backpacker' by June Fleming.

I don't carry all these things, and I haven't tried all of them either- I'm just throwing out some ideas. I would personally try anything new at home or on a short trip before committing to them on a long trip.

good luck
Bill

 

[conrads]

Don't forget the other grains!

I make my porrage out of a mixture of oats weat barley & spelt flakes

which i cook by adding hot water to a small amount in a thermos and let sit for a few hours

bulks up amazingly

also nuts and dried fruit are added for flavour

and then there is cous cous!

add boiling water and let it suck up the water and its ready.

I like dumping some in with the raman noodles for a cup o carbo

conrad