BACKPACKING: Dinner

[mrkstvns]

I've noticed a lot of kids packing ramen as their dinner for backpacking trips. It doesn't strike me as very nutritionally rich nor calorie dense (but it sure is light, easy, and cheap...and for 1 or 2 nights, the shortcomings aren't particularly earth shattering).   I think there are more options out there that I'd like to encourage boys to consider.  

Here are 2 lightweight, inexpensive dinner options for backpacking...

1)  Knorr sides (plus):  there's a variety of flavors, most based on rice or pasta.  Most cost only about $1. There's more flavors than with ramen, and the sauces tend to be more calorie-dense than a simple salt-water broth. Boys can add tuna or chicken pouches, but a good alternative to those is diced summer sausage. Summer sausage has about 120 calories per ounce with a fair amount of fat content, so it's a great calorie source when you're burning 5,000 or so calories per day.  The diced sausage works well with Knorr's Dirty Rice and with their Taco Rice.

2) Backpackers Shepherds Pie:  Okay, so it's not as good as making a real Shepherds Pie at home (or at camp in a Dutch Oven). But for backpacking food, it's downright gourmet!  Use instant potato flakes, freeze-dried peas or green beans, and pre-cooked hamburger.  Before leaving on your trip, cook the hamburger, put it in a zip-loc bag and freeze it solid. It will keep a day by itself during cold weather months, or use an insulated bag during warmer weather. It will thaw as you hike and be ready to use by the time you set up camp. Show all your low-rent buddies how good you're eating as they settle for mere ramen...

[DuctTape]

Using Knorr sides, or even ramen as a "base" adding other items can make a great meal. A passable Phad Thai can be made with ramen, some dried veggies, peanut butter, soy sauce.

[69RoadRunner]

I might have to get the digital version of this book. It certainly sounds like several steps up from your usual backpacking fare.

https://backpackinglight.com/book-review-ultralight-recipes-for-outdoor-explorers/

[DuctTape]

also, if you have access to an Asian grocery store, they have aisles of instant ramen. These are not your 6packForaDollar crud, but very very good. Most have 3 or 4 packets of "condiments" which are added. 

[Jameson76]

Just now, DuctTape said:

also, if you have access to an Asian grocery store, they have aisles of instant ramen. These are not your 6packForaDollar crud, but very very good. Most have 3 or 4 packets of "condiments" which are added. 

My scouts prove on every outing that ramen does not in fact need to be cooked, it can be eaten as is and is a great crunchy snack.  The flavor packets are poured over as a "flavoring"

[qwazse]

Oh the beauty of hiking in the land where you face shrinks so tight against the wind-chill that your eyeball's fall out.

Here, backpacking dinner (preserved by a fleece wrapped around a frozen nalgene) is something like a dry-rub Delmonico steak roasted slowly on a bed of coals, potatoes under the coals, carrots/beats, bread baking on a stick over the coals, and your favorite green vegetable fried in butter with dried parsley, thyme, and marjoram and a clove of garlic. (You can try olive oil instead of butter, depending on the temperature.) Desert -- if you have room for it -- may be a muffin mix with fresh milk roasted on a reflector oven jury rigged from the foil used to wrap the steak.

What are the boys eating? Dried noodles. But who cares about them? They're going to be hiking a half-mile up the hill because the oldest needs to check in with his new girlfriend because they let you pick the rendezvous point, and you chose the one which has zero cell coverage.

Edited March 19, 2019 by qwazse

[AltadenaCraig]

Nice tip about the Knorr sides, @mrkstvns ; thanks.  Yes, our troop has hit on the backpacker's shepherd's pie as well.  Our scouts call it "cow-in-the-cloud".

The one tip I'll pass-on is this:  "Nido" whole-milk powder.  You can typically find a large canister of the stuff at Smart-&-Final, which is just fine as you'll use it again and again.  Unfortunately the usual-suspect grocery stores (Ralphs, Vons) carry only the non-fat powdered milk, which is unusable for our purposes.  But the Nido whole-milk powder is perfect for adding to morning Oatmeal or to evening dessert (just-add-milk pudding).  For those of you who like milk with your morning coffee, this stuff'll do ya, too.

[69RoadRunner]

9 minutes ago, AltadenaCraig said:

The one tip I'll pass-on is this:  "Nido" whole-milk powder.  

Wal Mart around here has it near the baby food.

1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

My scouts prove on every outing that ramen does not in fact need to be cooked, it can be eaten as is and is a great crunchy snack.  The flavor packets are poured over as a "flavoring"

Scouts are basically raccoons or squirrels that will eat anything left out.  😀

[AltadenaCraig]

3 minutes ago, 69RoadRunner said:

Wal Mart around here has it near the baby food.

Ooooh, thanks SO much for reminding me.  HUGE SAFETY TIP:  Nestle unfortunately packages the Nido whole milk so it's nearly identical to their baby-powder.  DON'T CONFUSE THE TWO !!

[mrkstvns]

1 minute ago, AltadenaCraig said:

Ooooh, thanks SO much for reminding me.  HUGE SAFETY TIP:  Nestle unfortunately packages the Nido whole milk so it's nearly identical to their baby-powder.  DON'T CONFUSE THE TWO !!

Good advice!!   I'd hate to sprinkle powdered milk on my kid's wet bottom...

[SSScout]

Back in the day, everyone in my Patrol had a specialty.  One Scout cooked bacon especially well. Another, flipped pancakes better than anyone else. My specialty was Mixing Drinks (!)  Tang, Dehydrated dry milk,  cocoa,  that sort of thing....

Here are the basics:

   *(( The true author of this article is unknown. It is here copied from the COME HOSTELING newsletter, Sept. 1980, of the Potomac Area Council of the American Youth Hostels, who received it from Dick Schwanke, Senior PAC Staff Trainer, who read it in the APPALACHIAN HIKER by Ed Garvey, who got it from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Conference Bulletin, which quoted it from THE RAMBLER of the Wasatch Mountain Club of Salt Lake City, which reportedly cribbed it from the I.A.C. News of Idaho Falls, which reported it from the 1966 PEAKS & TRAILS. I offer it here for your enjoyment and inspiration. Note that some of the ingredients are a bit dated. Adjust as necessary. Enjoy!))

 

 

"Courageous Cookery"          by John Echo*    

            Once the convert backpacker or cycle camper has accepted the subtle gustatory nuances associated with sustained operations beyond the chrome, he should try the advantages of ultra fringe living so that he will realize what he is paying for his nested pots and pretty pans carried so diligently and brought home so dirty after every "wilderness experience". The following system works. It is dependable and functional. It works on the big rock. It even works when the weather has gone to hell, you are wet and cold and the wind is blowing down the back of your hairy neck. It is not for the timid. It consists of a stove, a six inch sauce pan, a plastic cup and a soup spoon. If you insist on a metal cup, you must never fail to mutter "I'm having fun, I'm having fun", every time you spill the soup on your sleeping bag.

          Breakfast: Instant wheat cereal-- sugar and powdered milk added-- ready two minutes after water boils. Eat from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water, boil, and add powdered eggs and ham. You'll never taste the cereal anyway. In three minutes, eat eggs. Do not wash pot. Add water or snow and boil for tea. Do not wash pot. Most of the residue eggs will come off in the tea water. Make it strong and add sugar. Tastes like tea. Do not wash pot. With reasonable technique, it should be clean. Pack pot in rucksack and enjoy last cup of tea while others are dirtying entire series of nested cookware.

          Lunch: Boil pot of tea. Have snack of rye bread, cheese and dried beef Continue journey in 10 minutes if necessary.

          Dinner: Boil pot of water, add Wylers dried vegetable soup and beef bar. Eat from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water and potatoes from dry potatoe powder. Add gravy mix to taste. Eat potatoes from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water and boil for tea. Fortuitous fish or meat can be cooked easily. You do not need oil or fat. Put half inch of water in pot. Add cleaned and salted fish. Do not let water boil away. Eat from pot when done. Process can be done rapidly. Fish can even be browned somewhat by a masterful hand.

          Do not change menu. Variation only recedes from the optimum. Beginners may be allowed to wash pot once a day for three consecutive days only. It is obvious that burning or sticking food destroys the beauty of the technique. If you insist on carrying a heavier pack, make up the weight you save with extra food. Stay three days longer.

 

[Eagledad]

18 minutes ago, SSScout said:

Back in the day, everyone in my Patrol had a specialty.  One Scout cooked bacon especially well. Another, flipped pancakes better than anyone else. My specialty was Mixing Drinks (!)  Tang, Dehydrated dry milk,  cocoa,  that sort of thing....

 

Well that explains it, my specialty was knots and I was never invited to cook. 

What SSS's post describes it the technique of sumping (I think that is spelled right). Our troop learned it's back county techniques from an old timer who had canoed and backpacked all around the world. We didn't know any other way until the Phimont Guides asked us what we doing. They weren't impressed. 

Sumping is not really that hard UNTIL THE MEAL IS BURNED. Ohhh! Maybe that is why they kept me at knots. 

Barry

Edited March 19, 2019 by Eagledad

[DuctTape]

The Nestle NIDO is similar in packaging to the baby formula ("fortificado"), not baby powder. 

 

Nestle also owns KLIM (milk backwards), another whole milk powder. This is usually found in asian stores.

Edited March 19, 2019 by DuctTape