Proper food, quick and easy

T

Temper

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
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What do you guys cook to avoid having to take noodles :barf: ?

Last time out we has Sweet Potato, cup-a-soup and salami stew, man it was tasty :). Slice everythign up into 1/4 rings throw it all in a pot with water. leave it for about 20 mins on the coals, the potato is tender and the salami has flavoured the soup.

Clean up is a simple wipe with a sponge or cloth from your clean-up pack.

Next time out I'm going to take a few vaccum packs of Soy beans to add for a bit more protein.
 
I spend quite a bit of time in the off season building most of my own food...

One item I have been making is dried and ground jerkey, cooked down tomatoes, and some other vegies out of the garden.

I make a paste, dry it then break it into little wafers to cook down later into a paste that tastes just like a good meat flavored stew.

I have finally figured out how to make fruit rollups and make a lot of this.

I also dry an assortment of things to eat straight or cook up later.

Nuts are also some thing that is great to take on trips..

All of these items I have mentioned are full of most every thing you need and take up very little space. especially for what you get out of them.

There are a few other things I will haul out with me when I am in the field, if your interested in more, let me know...

Russ...
 
Yes, I would be interested in more ideas. I have often though about the best way to dry good home made food for the trail.
 
My wife bought me a dehydrater last Christmas and I love it. I've done jerky, dried herbs,garlic, onions, and what-not, but I'm always looking for ideas. Thanks,POOL
 
I raise or pick wild most all of the fruit I take with me.

When drying strawberries for example, take off the cap (green frill around the top) then only cut in half, they will dry to paper thin and semi crispy.

Apples, soak slices (1/2 inch or so) in a light sea salt solution first then rub thru a mix of surgar and cinnamon...

Plums can be cut in half seed removed and then dried into prunes, grapes cut in half and dried.

Pinapple slices dried same as apples with out the dips, they do not need any thing extra.

Bannanas also cut into half inch pieces.

If your fruit dries sticky, roll it in corn starch before starting, half way thru the process and at the end. Then before you put it in the plastic baggie, put a little more in the bag if there is still a problem (usually only with the pineapples)

That should do it for a bit..

Would any one like more ideas?

You can always e-mail me and I will tell you what ever I know also, I have been drying an trying things now pretty steady for about 7 years and not to many things aren't game to be put into the dryer...

I have as I stated earlier just this last year figured out fruit rollups and have found an extra use for them besides just stuffing them into the ol' pie hole ;) :)

Russ....
 
As if I know the answer! I do know that freeze dried food couldn't be "proper," and have given up on eating it.

I do like dehydrating jerkey in the oven for trips. Then, it can be re-hydrated by long simmering, along with dehydrated beans, in your cooking pot. Bring tortillas, M&M's, canned smoked almonds, whole-wheat hardtack and dried fruit.

Tabasco(Vitamin "T") is mandatory.
 
I had posted a thread in hardtack a long time ago. I figured I'd repost the info her as well...

As a kid I remember my grandfathers tales of WWI and how he used to have to eat hard tack by soaking it in rainwater in his helmet. I always wanted to try hard tack and finally made a batch of it last night.

All of the recipes I found were all variations on the same theme and all of them gave different instructions for heat and baking time. What it comes down to is you’re making a hard, thick cracker and it doesn’t matter much how you go about it. The method I used was as follows.

5 cups flour (unbleached if available)
1 tbsp salt (more or less, it’s optional)
1 tbsp baking powder (also optional)
(some recipes also called for 1 tbsp of sugar, I didn’t add any)
1 and ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients first. Add 1 cup of water and work into stiff dough. Add additional water by ¼ cup at a time until the dough is pliable but doesn’t stick to your fingers. Don’t over do the water; keep working the dry looking dough if possible. You should only need 1.5 cups of water max.

Roll dough out to a ½ inch thick slab on a greased cookie sheet. Score the dough with a knife into 3x3 inch squares. Poke 9 holes all the way through each square in a 3x3 pattern with a large nail.

Place on center rack of preheated oven for 20 minutes. Keep checking until the center of the dough is golden brown and the edges are slightly darker. To make hard tack really hard once it is cooked turn the oven off and let it sit in the hot oven as it cools.

As long as you don’t burn it you really can’t mess it up. The center may me a little flexible at first but that slight moisture will go away as it dries totally. The stuff is hard as a rock when it’s done drying.

It is easy to see why this simple “bread” was issued to soldiers. It is low cost, easily made, and indestructible and as long as you keep it dry it won’t easily spoil. Traditionally it was soaked in coffee or soup. Some wrapped it in a moist cloth for a day or poured boiling water over it and flavored it with syrup. Trying to eat it raw can damage teeth so be careful.


Two of my standby food sources are instant oatmeal and 5 minute rice. When i take my survival students out this is basically all I give them to eat.

One rice bag and a bullion cube will mostly fill a canteen cup with chicken and rice. Boil the rice first and then add the bullion cube.

The oatmeal I mix (3 packets) with cold water and just drink. You can't get andy quicker and easier than that. Mac
 
I've alway's heard of the name "Hard tack" but never really was able to find out what it was.... Kind of like the substance "Whay" (sp)...

I will give that a try, I have been taking crackers but they always take up so much room and are easily damaged.

This is far more concentrated and should hold up to the rigors such as some of the other items I have mentioned above. It will probably go along with my stew mix most excellent..

Thanks..'

Russ....
 
I like to bring some of the Starkiss tuna in the foil packs and some Ritz crackers with me when I hike.

Oatmeal is good to go after boiling some water (personally I like the maple and brown sugar one).

This might sound terrible but it is actually really good:
Frito-lay corn chips and bean dip.

And peanut-butter is always great (just drinks lots of water unless you like "pushing concrete").

But nothing beats a fresh catch of fish and instant grits (salt-n-pepper, of course)!

Good luck,
Allen.
 
I've always hated hard tack. Just to hard to chew and I've even had stuff that didn't soften up after a soak in boiling water.

A 2 lb sack of frozen mixed vegetables, will dehydrate down to 8 oz and fits into a sandwich sized zip-lock bag.

If you cook a half of a bag of these dried vegies with either some Spam or salt pork, you end up with something very tasty.

I also like to take a zip-lock bag of bisquick. This can make dumplings, pancakes, biscuts. Etc.

Just a couple ideas.
 
Hardtack is rough going. I made up a few batches mainly for the historical interest. It is one food we can reproduce and see exactly what our ancestors had to deal with. My grandfather ate it in WW1 and from the sound of it it was a meal of last resort, helmet, mud puddle, hardtack, quite a recipe!

It does hold up though and with a little experimentation you can make it breakable. You can also use it as a base to add other foods to.

Here in Brazil they issue a thing called "Ração" (ration) to the troops. This is glorified dog food blocks that are supposed to be a complete diet. I haven't been able to get my hands on any yet. It seems the troops throw it away too quickly. It sounds like Orc food to me but I'm curious. Mac
 
Guys, Sorry for seemingly deserting the thread I started but I have been away on urgent fishing business :D

When I said 'Proper' I meant not some over salted noodles similar crap.

The best thing we made was a barley, curry and sweet potato mix, yummo!

Does anyone take Myoplex or MetRx protein powders to get the protein they need then they can just make carb stews which are easier and dont need any particular care with storage? I find taking meats unless its jerkey hard and a protein powder mixed in water is a good way to keep your weight up on the longer trips.
 
Well, if you hike all day and you weigh over 220 and easily burning 3500 calories (Based on a lean mass of 80kg which is being conservative for calorie burn) and you are eating meals that add up to a lot less(like Ramen or dehydrated rice based meals) than you are burning then the result is going to be weight loss. Some foods are filling but not particularly nutritious and so you may feel like you have gotten a good feed, but you are in fact shafting yourself.

I think the bodybuilding packets are a great way to ensure you get enough protein as long as you are near a good source of water as they usually need 15 oz/400cc to mix.
 
Temper,

I think I go on these trips to shed pounds sometimes. In my experience my weight "stays up" and I have to work hard to get it down.

I have had several trips where I've lost between 10 and 17 lbs. Most fo the time on short trips I don't worry too much about nutrition and concentrate on carbs for energy.

The protein powder packs are probably a good idea to build up muscle tissue on the trip. I used to carry a frozen steak wrapped in paper towels to eat ont he second night out. If I take my normal high carb food ona four day trip I start craving meat. Chipmunks and Tweetybirds take notice. Mac
 
Last year I started pushing myself in extreme cold environments with very little...

One of the problems I learned about when on these type of trecks is that there are certain things the nutrition experts tell you are bad for you but when you are pushing yourself, or are stuck in a bad situation that just go out the window...

For example.

I took high protien foods that had a good amount of carbohydrates mixed in.

After only about five days, I was really craving some thing sweet, and things that had a high fat content.

When I got home after 10 days out with very little sweets and nothing with fats in it, I couldn't seem to get enough for a couple days, I am pretty sure I could have just ate a stick of butter.

Common sense told me not to undulge to that point, LOL, but the point is, that there is a reason the eskimos eat stuff we would find repulsive and still get along just fine, don't forget to take into consideration the climates you are going into and the energy you will be burning....

Just a side note, I lost 20 lbs last year over a period of 5 weeks when I was out practicing my survival skills. This year I will be taking a little more fats and sugars with me, not enough to over do it, but enough to keep me from getting into trouble if I happen to stay longer than ten days...

Russ...
 
I find that when I eat is just as important as what I eat. I carry a Brazilian candy called Rapadura. It's raw sugar made from sugar cane. I suck on this as I'm hiking or climbing and it provides loads of energy when I need it and my mouth doesn't get dry.
I feel like I'm just buring it off directly. My survival students have caught on that if they do this they won't feel hungry even on a sparse rationed diet of instant oatmeal and rice. They all end up craving meat after a few days. Mac
 
Pict,
Rapadura looks like a brand name for raw cane sugar. We use a raw cane sugar here (my household) for cooking et al, it is much healthier than the more common heavily processed white sugar. Is this a candy bar with other ingredients (nuts, coconut...) or just crystalized raw cane sugar? Thx
 
Ras,

Rapadura is Portuguese for "block of raw cane sugar". You can buy it here in anything from several kg blocks or processed like candy in small 25 g blocks wrapped in wax paper. I like these small blocks, they taste better and the wax paper is good for firestarting.

Sometimes they add stuff to it like nuts and dried fruits or flavoirings. I like it regular flavor. It tastes like molasses and brown sugar. It's really good in strong black coffee. Mac
 
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