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ctxguide Site Admin
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject: Backpacking is Good Food |
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Backpacking is Good Food
Eating is usually one of the most pleasurable experiences out in the backcountry, but every now and then something goes wrong. When my hiking buddy, John, and I were cooking over our little backpacking stove back at Glacier National Park, we encountered a little mishap. We were hungry enough to eat a horse but lucky for us, we had rice. We added lots of spices and some dehydrated vegetables to the soup and it was really starting to smell good. Before we knew it, the stove was flaming-up and the soup started boiling over, but we couldn’t lower the flame on that sputtery old burner. The handle was too hot to touch, so John ran to get a hot-pad.
After quickly digging into his backpack, he returned with a couple of filthy socks. They were absolutely dreadful. He wrapped the socks around the hot handle and pulled the pot from the burning flame. I handed him the spoon, but just as he began stirring one of the socks unraveled and fell into our soup. The rice instantly turned brown. In a panic, John quickly flicked the sock from the pot, but it was too late. We sat there just staring at our tainted soup hoping that it looked worse than it really was. John took the spoon and slopped some of the brown goop onto our mess kits. The soup emitted a strange sweet and sour aroma, causing us to hesitate before taking a bite. I finally scooped up a spoonful and slipped it into my mouth. The taste was unbearable, remarkably similar to the smell of dirty socks. I coughed the rice onto the ground spitting and choking trying to rid my mouth of the horrid concoction. John sat across from me with a scowl on his face in complete disbelief that I couldn’t eat his masterful creation. He ate a few spoonfuls with slow deliberate chewing and commented that the rice soup really wasn’t so bad. I gave John my portion and he finished the entire pot without wasting a single spoonful. It was a terrible thing to watch. I was quite happy to go to bed hungry that night.
It is my experience that cooking is more trouble than it's worth, especially miles into the wilderness. My advice is to pack ready-to-eat meals that can be prepared at home. One of my favorites is to use the "Rice Crispy Treats" recipe using a more hearty cereal mixed with dried cranberries, mixed nuts, and M&M's. This makes the old trail mix easier and more fun to eat. Beef jerky and extra sharp chedar cheese works well to satisfy the salt craving and bagels with peanut butter works well for an alternative to the trail-mix treats. Another option is to use a heavy "trail bread" usually made with molasses as a powerful punch to go with the peanut butter. A fantastic trail bread recipe can be found at Outlaw Ranch near Custer South Dakota. I beleive they sell a recipe there. A variety of dried fruits, especially figs and dates, is also a good way to go. Be sure to pack at least one pound of food/day or more to power-up after a long day of slogging. It's also a good idea to bring two extra days' worth of food when taking a week-long excursion, just in case.
Bryan McFarland
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ctxguide Site Admin
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Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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This message was posted on www.alpinezone.com and my reply is below.
"I used to go to summer camp in the Adirondacks, it was sports camp but there was an emphasis on hiking. Last year was my last year there but this summer they offer a backpacking/sea kayaking trip to the rocky mountains or the cascades out west (they haven't decided yet). I'm pumped, as the trip sounds awesome, and it's with a group of people I have spent my last 5 or 6 summers with. Each person needs to bring a recipe for good, lightweight food on the trail. I'm a good cook at home but I'm clueless when it comes to cooking on the trail, with the weight of the ingredients being a factor. Any suggestions?"
Last edited by ctxguide on Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ctxguide Site Admin
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Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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Don't think of food as needing to be light weight, but think of it as needing to be dense. For example, if you make trail mix out of Cheerios, you'll notice it's light, but you'll need to eat ten bags of it to get full. If you make trail mix using Grape Nuts, it'll fill you up with half a bag. The best rule of thumb is to pack 1.25 pounds of food/day (or more) and you should be ok. You can't go lighter, it's against the rules of hunger.
That said, the less actual cooking you do, the better. Stoves and fuel can become a pain and operating a liquid fuel stove in high elevation is risky; sometimes they flair up from the low air pressure making it impossible to cook. I would lean more toward dry goods such as trail mix, beef jerky, cheese (extra sharp chedar should last about a week), and trail bread (find a good recipe). A good alternative to trail mix is to use the Rice Crispies Recipe, but to use a more hearty cereal instead and then add mixed nuts, dried cranberries or raisins, and m&m's. The trail bars are yummy and filling.
If you have to cook, I have some advice as well. Go to the grocery store and look either near the spice section or near the soups. There should be a miriad of small kool-aid-sized packets of powdered sauces. These are what the world of backpacking depends upon. These sauces can be added to either pasta or rice (buy the minute rice). I suggest buying a bunch and then running your own taste-test. The next step would be buying freeze-dried chicken or beef and vegies. You can get this from the internet and can be bought seperately from pre-made recipes. For added flavor, you can bring small packets of butter (the kind you get at restaurants) or a tiny bottle of olive oil as well as salt & pepper or any other spice.
Don't experiment on the trail. Cook-up your ideas at home using fresh meats just to try your ideas. Once you get a good meal, write down the steps replacing the fresh meats and vegies with freeze-dried. The freeze-dried goods will taste remarkabley fresh on the trail. Also, don't forget desert. The best think you can prepare is a cheesecake from a powder. You can use crushed graham crackers for the crust and add fruit preserves on top for added flavor.
I've backpacked in both the Rockies and the Cascades; they're both amazing.
Good Luck and Have Fun! |
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ctxguide Site Admin
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