I personally think that freeze dried gets a bit of a bum rap. I suppose the pros and cons can be debated till the cows come home but I think it can be useful, especially if weight is a concern.

On shorter trips I find it easier to get by with other options but on longer trips the weight savings make it attractive especially if you can punch it up with some other additions (like some fish). If you are loaded with dough the individual foil serving packets are fine but seem to add up ($) rather quickly if your trip is more than 10 days or so.

Here is what I do. I prefer mountain house and I purchase the #10 tins when they go on sale in the middle of winter. Then I empty the tins into a nalgene 96 oz water canteen. These canteens are mislabeled IMO and should be marketed as food storage containers. Excellent for oats or freeze dried they have a wide mouth air tight seal, are flexible and nearly indestructible. It is easy to manipulate the bag to empty the contents. They are tough to find as most folk don't use them for water and thus they probably sell infrequently.
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You will need a "cozie" for your pan as you now haven't got the option of the foil pouch. Somewhere in the past I have mentioned the company you can get the cozies from (previous thread). The whole system works very nicely. Just boil the water, add the freeze dried and stick it in the cozie for 15 minutes. I like to let it set a bit longer than what is called for. Don't worry, it will be plenty hot.

I actually prefer this method over the individual servings as I don't have the messy foil pouch to worry about after I eat. Yup, you have to wash it out and then you have to store it or burn it (and it doesn't burn that great). No matter how well you wash it there will be some left over food particles and over time it will start to smell and you might end up with some uninvited company.

Help me out here MT. Are you scooping out individual servings of the 10 tin contents, and heating just that?  Are the contents mixed up enough that certain parts don't all settle?  And do you eat the same ting every night for the whole trip?

BillConner wrote on Aug 24^th, 2011 at 4:05pm:


Bill if you hit the sale right it ends up being almost 1/2 price from the foil 2 serving pouches (which is really single serve!). I typically get 4 or 5 tins and store them in the air tight water canteens. Just get an oversized spoon to transfer the contents of the tins to the canteens. Although I don't mind eating the same thing all the time I do mix it up and will bring 3 different things.....again packed in a water canteen. Indestructible. Due to their pliable nature it is an easy task to shake it up a bit to mix.

I like to have a measure cup and just shake out the amount I want into the measure cup. I'd have to look but I think the ratio is 1 part mix to 1 part boiling water but I could be wrong (I make mine a little soupier and let it set longer). You must have some way to retain the heat inside the pan. I suppose you could keep your stove on simmer but that wastes fuel and runs the risk of burning.

I like DD's idea of using a foil pouch for keeping bread warm (or most anything for that matter) but I think the snug fitting cozy is tops. My cozy fits my pot perfectly (they make them to fit a wide variety of cookware). I place pot inside cozy and then place everything in a stuff sack to protect the cozy. Works perfectly.

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Bill
If you are unfamiliar with freeze dried I will broach a side effect. Some folk have gastronomical distress. I have noticed that I become more gaseous but have no stomach discomfort. My stool remains good but I eat oats every morning and that may balance things out. Some folk get loose. You may want to see how you do before committing an entire trip to it. I don't want to steer you wrong.

BTW; the shelf life is 25 years on the freeze dried. Just keep it in the air tight canteens or in the tins and you are set for several seasons.

I agree FD seems to be easy and it tastes fine to me. I've done the grocery store thing and been on outfitter trips where fancier dinners were done. To me it's fun to do fancier meals with  larger groups than solo trips. I think the shared dinners are another way of getting a group to feel together. There's more hands to share tasks around camp. Another reason to use FD while soloing, you do it all yourself and FD leaves time for other things. I always have some FD meals stashed in the food barrel for those days when traveling took a bit more out of you than expected and you're tired.

I think the thing that I miss the most after a few days is something crunchy, or with some tooth, as they say. So I've been carrying apples. Bring a wedge of cabbage too for slaw with your fish dinner. Apple, cabbage, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt & pepper. My GF brings bagels chips for the same reason. Eat'm along with the FD or soup for some crunch.

FD or store stuff, rehydrated mush gets old after a few days.