Best or Worst freeze dried foods

[boatbldr]

OK, I've never really wanted to dig out the big bucks on Mountain House or other freeze dried prepared foods without knowing if I could even eat them on the trail even if ravenously hungry. I've heard too many horror stories about horrible pre-packaged food.

Please post your favorite or more importantly, most disgusting pre-packaged food story! It would be great to have a buyers guide!

[thr0ttles]

[QUOTE=boatbldr]OK, I've never really wanted to dig out the big bucks on Mountain House or other freeze dried prepared foods without knowing if I could even eat them on the trail even if ravenously hungry. [QUOTE]

Just came back from a 2.5 day backpacking trip and ate nothing but Mountain House for lunch and dinner. Spaghetti with Meat Sauce tastes like (uh-oh) Spaghetti-Os, not bad. Macaroni & Cheese was bad, tasted like powdered cardboard. Mexican Rice & Chicken was good, tasted like other frozen meals of similar flavor. Beef Stroganoff was good, noodles were tender and beef flavor was tasty. I have a few others to try, but so far so good...if not pricey...but they are light in weight compared to other foods.

[KeithEA]

My experience with Mountain House has all been quite tasty. But remember serving for two is actually for one and serving for four is actually for two. Expensive? Humm. Last big Mac I bought was demn near eight bucks. Keith

[Hiker Boy]

The best I have eaten by far is Enertia's Food's, Mousilauke Goulash.

The worst has got to be Mountain House's Scrambled Eggs...even the seagulls wouldn't touch it.

My other favs are Enertia Food's Parker Pass Potatoes, Mountain House's Beef Stroganoff, and Mary Janes Farm Chilimac.

[GreatDivide14]

I'm not fond of expensive things either, but I recently snagged some Mary Janes Farm backpacking meals on sale and I'm impressed. Many of them (like pasta with alfredo or red pesto...yum) cook just as easily as the vitamin-fortified styrofoam from Richmoor et al, but it actually tastes delicious. MSR's freeze dried food is the same stuff with a different label. For the package of Sicilian polenta in my stash, I'm worried by the recommendation for a nonstick pan, but I'm sure it tastes good.

I don't generally pay that much for my backpacking food, though. Some good alternatives I've had include whole grain couscous and spaghetti, both available in the bulk bin of a good natural-foods store. I'm still trying to find the perfect topping; Knorr powdered sauce mix gets the job done, and just mixing the pasta and sauce mix in the same water in the same pot is much less vile than it sounds, but I'm not big on the MSG, and if you're dumb like me and keep putting in the entire serves-8 sauce packet (sorry, Skyeward), your guts won't like you. Sun-dried tomatoes go well with anything. Instant refried beans (Fantastic makes good ones) are light, nutritious, and can be prepared with instant brown rice. I'm still looking for more alternatives, but generally, the aforementionied bulk bins are goldmines.

[boatbldr]

OK, got some good responses. Stay away from the Mac & Cheese and scrambled eggs. Beef Stroganoff has to votes, so that will definately be tried.

Keith has a great point on the costs of fast food, you don't always get what you pay for.

The dried refried beans are a good suggestion, I never thought about that, I'm pretty sure that's what Taco Bell uses, and if they are good enought for 8 million high schoolers, they're good enough for me! :D

I've had darn good chicken & dumplings, but it has been so long, I don't remember who made 'em. Most stuff with chicken has been decent, I think beef re-constitutes poorly as a rule.

How about dessert stuff, ice cream and the like, any comments? Maybe too much of a luxury?

Some of the stuff you've posted I've never heard of. Any internet links?

Maybe if the post grows more, I'll tabulate the best and worst of trail food.

Thanks guys,

Keep 'em coming!

[Jay H]

I have had a bunch of MH foods, I agree to stay away from the Mac And Cheese.. It's also very messy! as cheese gets caked onto my Snow Peak ti-spork...

MH Pasta Primavera is good but IMO, way to salty, it's really salty and its not like I just didn't mix it well. I tend to do a good job in mixing and shaking the bag while it's rehydrating...

The rest I've had but can't really comment on as it's been awhile.

Jay

[GreatDivide14]

Colin Fletcher recommends semisweet baking chocolate as a good dessert that doesn't melt as readily as Hershey's. My default backpacking breakfast is currently my dessert staple at home; non-instant oatmeal with raisins, cranberries, cinnamon, and honey. (For backpacking, I forego the messy honey in favor of the hard brown sugar cones available in a lot of Western supermarkets-- I think they're a Mexican tradition, so they're prevalent in places with Spanish radio stations.) Instant oatmeal works, but I think the non-instant stuff (cooks in about 5 minutes) tastes more like food. Otherwise, you can just stash extra trail snacks and raid as necessary. I thought the freeze-dried desserts we were issued at Philmont a few years back were too much of a hassle, but they did taste pretty good.

[thr0ttles]

OK...another weekend and another batch of Mountain House...

Stay away from the Sweet & Sour Pork w/Rice. It smells bad, meat is real chewy and the pinapples give it a real odd tast. Had the Beef Stew. That wasn't too bad. Potatoes and carrots give it a nice taste. Meat isn't bad, a little chewy, but not bad.

[djmutiny]

I'll second the vote on Enertia food ... any of them. Diffferent flavors, some real sundried veggies mmm mmm good. Also, barilla tortellini with a dehydrated alfredo sauce packet is the best backpacking meal 4 dollars can buy. Splurge on some sundried red peppers and tomoatoes if you have the bucks. Lastly, if you are forced to eat mountain house or backpacker's pantry, I'v had good luck with lasanga from both companies.

Dan

Anyone have any recoomendations for backpacker (weight concious) recipe books?

[ChristopherG]

Just to add my two cents: I also think the mountain house are fairly tasty. My favorite is the cheesy potatoes and broccoli (I think that's the name). But as mentioned before, the single serving can actually feed two. Bad thing is the sodium content, but you must expect that from freeze dried meals.

[Gam]

just finished a backpacking/MTB trip up through Zion, Bryce, Escalante, Canyonlands, and Arches. I didn't feel like dragging all the food I would need on a plane, and didn't want to spend hours wandering grocery store aisles once I got there, so after landing in Vegas I went to the REI in Henderson, NV and filled a bag with freeze dried. I found all the entrees mentioned by others to be pretty good, I think there must have been some improvements since I last tried Mountain House (at least 15 years ago), they aren't nearly as gross as they used to be. The only entree I take issue with is the Lasagna, but not for the taste, it tastes ok, but that cheese must have rubber cement in it. As you eat, an accretion of cheese substance builds on your spoon. By the time you finish eating your spoon looks some kind of cheese orb. I waved it around and proclaimed myself king of the desert rats. It doesn't come off easily either. The big shocker was the granola, milk, blueberry breakfast cereal, I was sure it would be nasty. That stuff was a great bonk preventer, just add a little cold water and it is ready to eat and tastes fine, lots of blueberries. I still won't carry freeze dried on the usual weekend backpacking trip, but it's a good thing when time and/or weight are of the essence.

[stagefright]

My friend and I really like the mountain house lasagne with meat sauce. If there is only one left we fight over it lol. J/K It has a good tasting sauce. Beef Stroganoff not bad either...

[stormking]

With all the attention regarding too much sodium in our diets these days, I decided to to post my concerns about the Mountain House line-up. If you read labels like me you know what I'm talking about. Many MH meals contain almost the entire days RDA/RDI of sodium in one meal. (2400mg is the RDA/RDI). I contacted them three years ago wondering if they would consider introducing a lower sodium meal. They replied "the formulation has been this way since day one & salt was necessary to improve taste." In other words they weren't going to change a thing. Mega amounts of salt are not necessary to improve taste. Backpackers Pantry & especially Natural High/Richmoor have proven this with their meals. They are just as simple to prepare, weigh the same, & have better/newer selections to choose from. In defense of MH, I do like the new Beef Pattie & Chicken Breast meals. They are not only innovative, taste good, but also contain far less sodium than their other meals. If they can do this with these two meals, they can do it across the board. Salt is a necessary nutrient in our diets, but not in massive amounts!