UKH

OK, I haven’t been solo wild camping for about 30 years, but I am planning some trips doing just that. Food back then was Batchelors rice, instant mash and packet soup.

I have no idea what the best food available is these days. I see loads of dehydrated meals in the shops, but which are good and which aren’t? 

Any other tips for a reincarnated beginner?

Its all expensive  but I like mountain house stuff.

Your old suggestions as good as any.

Fancy specialist meals are overpriced and really not needed. I take- if lightweight is a priority- a mixture of flavoured rices, smash, oatcakes, porage, couscous, chorizo, sardines (worth the weight!), dried fruit, a bit of oil, that sort of thing.

Cold camp - no stove/pots pans - hard boiled eggs, salami and whisky 

Cooking trips - couscous and tinned fish, packet noodles with some precooked chicken/turkey, packet soups, and err whisky (not for cooking)

Enjoy your trips

I'm going off into the hills this weekend for two nights; my food:

Evening meal 1; One fancy Mountain House style veg curry and a pack of super cheap noodles

Evening meal 2; Two packs of Batchelors Pasta 'n sauce (one is not enough!) plus some salami to add

Breakfast; Two packs of instant porridge with golden syrup plus dried fruit to add.

Lunch; Flapjacks, more dried fruit and flatbreads with a squeezy tube of flavoured cheese to squirt onto them.

Personally, I loath bad food in the outdoors and that includes all forms of packet-soup/dehydrated stuff. I carry a big pack and put real food in it. It has always been worth it and a few extra kilograms in my pack has never worried me. If I wanted to carry less, I'd lose some of this beer-induced fat around the middle.

That said, there are some very sensible things to do to at least carry real food efficiently.

Firstly, cous-cous is lighter than rice or pasta and needs less water and less gas to cook. All three tick the starch box and none of them are exactly mind-blowing so one might as well go with the most efficient.

Secondly, hard cheese adds more flavour, per gram, than gouda or the like. Nuts add flavour and protein, too. I'd much rather have cheese and cashew nuts than tinned tuna and neither of the former require me to carry a tin in or out of the mountains.

Spices are "free" from a weight perspective. Curry powder, also.

The best wild-camping I ever had involved aubergines, carrots and other robust produce with cheese and nuts for protein and real spices for flavour. Not a dehydrated morsel or tin in sight and, because the produce was tough, not even much packaging to lug around after the meal was eaten.

Better still, real produce comes from a farm and doesn't require the processing and tonne of plastic, single-use packaging like all that dehydrated shite.

Venison steak

Too many frikin deer in the hills.....

Fresh filled pasta (cooks in minutes, if that is a factor), couscous, quorn sausages. I'd avoid rehydrated as it tastes rubbish, better to eat sandwiches til you get to a pub.

I remember a long weekend in Arran in the 80's, running out of food and money but the weather and adventure was so good we hung on one more day. Two bits of Soreen and an apple for the A'Chir ridge. When we got back to the tent our last 2 packets of Bachelor's savoury rice and a tin of peas was the most amazing thing I've ever tasted!

I read somewhere that dried pasta is more 'useful' nutritionally, to do with the carbohydrate content IIRC. Cooking it in the water from cold, and then turning it off to let the heat continue to cook it is something I can forget to do.

I’d be very surprised.

I suspect someone misinterpreted the labels as dried pasta doesn’t contain much water before cooking and fresh pasta does.  

It’s not a fair comparison.  

garlic too - one clove goes a long way !

I did one trek in NZ with a huge bag of oats, veg stock powered, herbs, and dried fruit. Sweet porage for breakfast, savory poarge for supper

However, it soon got supplemented by the leftovers from lavish hunting parties flying their goods in by helicopter ! 

These are all great suggestions. Super noodles are class. 

OP - hope you have a great trip! 

Agree very much with all of this. The shrink-wrapped dehydrated stuff is astronaut food, if that. Onions, potatoes, carrots, apples, it's all good exercise.

Does water content affect how the body absorbs carbohydrates, or carbohydrate content of food?

Blox to the lightweight approach if it’s for less than 2 nights. 

Either home made frozen chilli or a frozen curry with cous cous ( poncy but easier than rice). Use beef not chicken as it’s less risky if it defrosts on the way.

If you need ‘lightweight’ then Beanfeast chilli is good, although can no longer find it in the local supermarkets.

No, the water content changes the weight and the relative proportions.  

Firepot are nice (Alpkit sell their stuff). Good for a treat but too expensive to take many of them

Depending on how many meals you need to make now and in the future, it may be worth buying a dehydrator for making your own food. Once made they last for ages in the freezer, and you can make pretty much anything you want. Small chunks of bits are better than large chunks, so cut your meat and veg up small.

No puddings?!  Swiss Roll and instant custard (the standard).

I dont 'think anyone has mentioned cous cous yet.  It is 200kcal per 100g, which is better than pasta and you can cook it just by putting boiling water in a sandwich bag so you don't need to mucky your pan.

mix it with cup a soup and bits of chorizo before you go and it's a one bag meal.

I have just looked up quick cook rice and thats 350kcal per 100g, but you will need more water and fuel and time to cook it, but I have been doing mountain marathons for years and have never considered rice.

I assume you are kidding. I count 5 mentions for the "poncy" stuff.

I use Golden Sun microwaveable rice (approx 50p Lidl), several flavours. Parboiled so a bit heavier but 460 kcal in the 250ml. Add 45ml water, heat, boil only 2min. Uncle Ben's etc also from other outlets but often double the price.

If you want to make stuff from scratch, you can buy dehydrated mixed veg and onions in most supermarkets. Add to noodles with a good stock cube and some dried flesh of your choice and away you go.

Depends on how critical weight is for your planned trip. If you need to carry food for three weeks there is pretty much no way around freeze dried food, especially as proper cooking generally requires more fuel. For that, Mountain House is good, but also Trek'n'Eat, especially their Swedish Elk stew with blueberries......

If you want to cook, it is for the same reason much better to base your dishes on bulgur or couscous, which, unlike noodles or rice, do not need to boil for an extended time.

In general, I also take some onions and garlic plus some mixed spice (some creole stuff my brother mixes, or Harissa) to improve the bland stuff. By the time you run out you will be so hungry that you do not care anymore.

CB