[ltlpoppa]

Having never done more than a couple overnighters, I am coming to you for some practical knowledge on what food to take on an 8 day trip. I am going to the Four Corners area with a group of about 8 others. Most of us are rookies. I know there are dozens of books out there, and thousands of recipes for the trail, but I want to get an idea of what some of you would actually take in this situation if you know you are not going to get replenishments. We will have plenty of stoves and cooking gear. The thought of using a lot of pre-packaged dehydrated stuff like Mtn. House or whatever doesn't sound too appealing, but I'm sure we'll at least take a few packages. I personally plan on taking my own mix of gorp, some jerky, snickers marathon bars, and stuff like that, but for actual meals I don't know yet. Any thoughts will be appreciated!

[markv]

i have only done couple longer backpacks, and nothing longer than 6 days. i'm still searching for the right cheese that seems to taste good more than a couple days later. what i have found that DOES seem to hold its own real well is a triple ziplocked combo of sundried tomatos, pine nuts, and olives to use with whatever pasta/noodles you bring. considering the fat and calorie content, it doesn't weight too too much, and it tastes way better than anything i've found pre-packaged.

[Brian Curtis]

My dad and I have been taking 8-15 day trips every year for almost 30 years now. Here's what we take: Breakfast: Every other day we have Applesauce (dried, we reconstitute it hot) Granola (packed for each day with powdered milk so you just have to add water) or granola bars. Tang The other days we have Applesauce Freeze dried pre-cooked eggs (pre-cooked is important, we don't cook anything while hiking except water or fish) Freeze dried sausage patties Tang Lunch: Every other lunch we have a hot lunch. One of those cups of soup or couscous or noodles you just add water to. We take them out of the package and vacuum pack them to save space. 4 Rye Crisp crackers 4 cookies (each packet is individually vacuum packed. This keeps them fresh and prevents breakage) The other lunches we omit the soup and have peanut butter and bacon bars on the rye crisp. We make the bacon bars by vacuum packing bacon bits. Dinner: First course: Nuts and booze. One ounce of Everclear or 151 rum each evening and each evening we have a different kind of nut: peanuts or mixed nuts, or some variation. Second course: Soup. Cup-A-Soup packet. Main Course: Freeze dried dinner Dessert: Half the nights we have 4 cookies, the other half we make instant pudding. The packet is removed from the box, and dried milk added so we just have to add water. Occasionally we’ll have one of those freeze dried desserts instead. Snacks: Highly variable. Whatever I’m in the mood for when I’m at the store. Drinks: Kool-aid and Gatorade powder. All this comes in under 2 lbs per day and we never go hungry.

[Scrooge]

Brian That's the best, clearest presentation of backpacking food I've ever seen. Question: how do you do the vacuum packing? David aka Scrooge

[ltlpoppa]

Yes, Indeed. That is the type of menu that I am looking for! Especially one that doesn't mind throwing in the adult beverages. Anybody else want to share what they take?

[strider]

I like to add "fresh" meat to meal ingredients, which is pretty easy if you have a dehydrator. Take ground turkey breast, or ground *lean* beef, cook it at home with no seasonings. Pat the meat dry with paper towels to remove excess grease, then dehydrate. Two pounds of burger reduces in weight to about 3/4 pound of rubble. I usually pack the rubble in its' own zippy, adding handfuls to this and that as I prepare meals, and seasonings as appropriate to the meal. This rubble will keep far longer than I can stay on trail without resuppy, even in very warm weather. 8 days would be no problem at all. The rubble will reconstitute in a couple of hours in cold water, or much faster in boiling water (test it at home and judge times for yourself). I use unfiltered water to reconstitute, and the water goes in the pot with the meat during cooking, adding more flavor. With some experience, you will get good at estimating how much rubble-water is going into the pot. Then, you adjust the quantity of additional water to add to the meal, to hit the amopunt of water required by the recipie of the moment. I likr to take zippies of dehydrated peas, green beans, celery, and onions as well. With these veegies I can mix and match as the mood strikes me, buffing up soups, pastas, etc.. This opens up all kinds of light weight, grocery store purchased dinner options. Just-add-water hamburger or turkey helpers are obvious choices. Lipton noodle "side dishes" make good main courses as well. Turkey rubble into stove top stuffing (with a packet of turkey gravey to top it off) is another winner, especially with a handful or two of de- and then re-hydreated green beans or peas. The beef will buff up bean paste nicely, for better burritos or tacos (yes, I carry the shells, and dehydrated salsa too!). The turkey works well added to chicken flavored rice-a-roni. Add beef rubble to sausage flavor gravey packets for biscut & gravey breakfasts (spoon the mix over english muffins or tear the muffins into bitesize and fold them into the gravey). Whatever recipie you might choose to try, be sure to cook it up at home at least once before hitting the trail so you know (a) it's palatable to you, (b) how to build the meal, and (c) how to make judgements on volume of dried rubble to use per recipie/per person. I tend to actually cook up most breakfasts and dinners, which makes for slower camps in the AM's as well as a pot and spoon to wash. If you're more of a 'hot water into powder, 5 minute meal and go, no washup' kind of guy, these recipies may not be your cup-o-tea. Speaking of tea..... along with the rum or everclear, you might want to consider hi-octane cinnammon schnapps. One shot with a packet of spiced apple cider and some hot water, and you've got liquid apple pie with a kick. A most excellent apertif....

[Brian Curtis]

We vacuum pack using a Foodsaver. You can buy them at Costco.

[solohiker]

I'm afraid of dehydrating my own meat, but kudos to you Strider, sounds like you have that down pretty well. This makes me pretty dependent on jerkey and summer sausages, but here's my standard "long trip" menu plan, anyway: First night: stir fry chicken - I spoil myself on the first night, and don't use anything dehydrated (except rice). I put cooked, frozen chicken, in stir fry sauce in one ziplock, and slices of broccli, peppers, onions in another and pour them together in a pan for a meal on the first night. (cook rice on a second stove). 2nd night: Beef Strogannoff. I use Tillamook brand beefsteak jerky. It comes in "chunks." I chop the chunks right at the campsight and pour them into the pan, where I'm warming my own blend of "just add water" stroganoff (powdered milk, beef bullion, dried herbs, cornstarch, dried onions and mushrooms), I add a little tomato paste which comes in a tube like toothpaste. 3rd night: Sphagetti. The same little tube of tomato paste used above now becomes the base for spagetti sauce, along with sundried tomatoes and some more dried herbs. earlier someone mentioned looking for a good backpacking cheese .... parmesian my friend. It packs really well. Sometimes I add summer sausage to the sphagetti, it travels ok for a few days. 4th night: Veggie/ministrone soup. Don't use up the tomato paste on the sphagetti, because I need some for soup the next day. (A little goes a long way, anyway, you add a lot of water to a little paste, it's a lot more concentrated than what comes in a can). I use all dried vegies (peas, carrots, green beans, kidney beans ... whatever), some buillion, and chopped up jerky. I like to add pasta, but use something small and thin that boils up in a short amount of time. I always add dried herbs. 5th night: Tortellini. They sell dried tortellini in most grocery stores (I shop Albertson's). I make my own "just add water" Carbonara sauce (because by now I'm tired of the tomato paste) by putting some powdered milk, parmesian cheese, dried herbs, cornstarch, chicken bullion, and a few "bac-os" in a ziplock bag. I pour a small amount of olive oil on the pan, then a portion of the ziplock mixture, cook till it thickens a bit, and then add the rest of the mixture and enough water to bring it to the volume I need) 6th night: by now I'm tired and/or out of jerky and summer sausage (because I've also been eating it for lunch packed between flat crackers), so it's time to move on to nuts and cheese for a protein source. I'll make cous-cous with dried fruit, and throw in some curry and nuts. Any kind of nuts ... pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, sometimes all of the above. For breakfast I don't like dishes because I like to get on the trail, so I stick with just add water oatmeal in a sierra cup, which I can wipe clean with water. For lunch, it's finger food. In addition to jerky, summer sausage and a hunk of parmesian, I carry a tube of peanut butter, and always flat crackers. I usually like dried fruit with lunch, too. Strider made a very good suggestion that you cook things at home at first. It's important you don't get out there and reallize you need an ingredient you don't have, and its also important you have a good estimation of how much you need. Either too much or too little creates problems. Carrying leftovers, once they've been cooked, is no fun (read heavy, and they don't last long before they're no longer edible). I always carry a small amount of olive oil to use in cooking instead of margarine, it's easier to carry IMO. That's about it, but if I keep thinking I'm sure I can remember some more recipies. I like cooking, both home and out yonder. solohiker

[Blake]

BRing more than you think, running out with two days left is no fun. Those foil packets of tuna are good to mix with pasta.

[Slugman]

I like freeze-dried meals if I have a few things to spice them up, or perhaps a side dish. For example, Mountain House lasagne is pretty good, so I bring some extra parmesan cheese, a small baguette sealed in plastic, some butter in a baggie, and some garlic salt and make garlic bread. Now I have a real meal, and still very simple to prepare and clean up after. I would probably go more elaborate and less freeze-dried if I was going to be doing more camping than actually carrying things for miles each day. If you want to cook a little more, I would experiment with some pea soups or chili dishes, since they can be made from dry peas or beans. Breakfast when backpacking for me should be something easy and palatable. Usually I have two unfrosted strawberry poptarts and a cup of earl grey tea. Then right before hitting the trail, I will have a power bar or a protein bar of some kind. Premier Nutrition's Protein Bar is really good, and relatively cheap at Costco in a variety pack. Lunch is rarely cooked, consisting mainly of lime flavored tortilla chips, or maybe saltine crackers, and those little wax-covered cheeses, or perhaps a 4-5 oz summer sausage, like out of a Hickory Farms catalog. I always bring an apple or an asian pear for each day of the hike, since fresh fruit and vegetables are at a premium in the wilderness, except in blueberry season. Chocolate is a must, since it is an energy-dense treat, and very compact. I try to keep weight to one pound per day, but often fail. I always count up the total calories to make sure I'm bringing an absolute minimum of 2,000 per night. I always count just the nights and not the days, since the first day I have big breakfast on the way to or at the trailhead, and the last day I stop for dinner on the way back.

[Backpacker Joe]

Come on Sluggo, give it up. You FLY in gormet meals via helicopter! TB

[Slugman]

I take wilderness rules seriously: they're parachuted in from gliders!

[-lol-]

[Slugman]

Good point, "2". On the first day of a trip, I will often bring luxury foods like California roll for lunch or a steak for dinner, using four or five ice cubes double-ziplocked, and then food and ice wrapped in a down vest or centered in my sleeping bag. A couple (OK, four) of "backpacker's buddies" (Heineken in a can), and it's a real comfort camp! The rest of the trip, it's Baccardi 151 mixed with either hot buttered rum batter (cold weather) or powdered gatorade-equivalent (hot weather).

[Backpacker Joe]

Dang, thems gliders must be expensive. Why not PRE plant with airplanes on skis in the winter. That's what I do. Then you just pick up in the summer time. TB