I labeled this hiking food versus camping food as there is a huge difference between the food used for car camping and that for hiking. I am going at add a string of blogs related to various meals to my site.

 For me there are several considerations when dealing with food when I hike. Obviously size and weight are key as both come at a definite premium when you have to carry it on your back. The flavor and texture is also important to me. When you are out on the trail for several days the same old rather bland flavors gets old. The nutritional value is also a big deal. Being Diabetic I have to watch some of the high energy items, namely sugar that complete many hiker’s menu.  Ease of cooking and cleanup is another factor which is easy to overlook.

 There is a wide selection of dehydrated and freeze dried foods available, in our area you can find a good selection at a local grocery store. These are flavorful and easy to make, and since they generally use their packaging to cook the food, clean up is a breeze. For me, the downside is that they tend be heavy on the starch and salt.

 What I discovered was the world of home dehydrated foods. I started with a book, Backpack Gourmet by Linda Yaffe, where she provides great information on dehydrating foods and a bunch of good recipes. The first thing that I had to do was to buy a home dehydrator; I bought a fairly inexpensive basic unit. The two key features are having adjustable heat and a fan to move the warm air. Mine has trays that stack on top of each other and has both mess screens and plates that can used.

 To make the meals you simply cook the recipe as if you were making dinner. Take the completed and fully cooked meal and divide it into serving size portions and put them in the dehydrator. Dehydration can take several hours, so I generally do the cooking in the evening and let it dry overnight. From what I can tell you really can’t over dry the food. Once dry I place each portion in a Ziploc bag, with the cooking instructions and description written on the bag. These bags then go into my freezer for storage.

 I have not done exhaustive testing, but the meals seem to last a long time in the freezer, I have eaten meals that I dried a year before and they didn’t seem to have changed. On the trail I have had meals for a week, but I understand that will last much longer, especially if dried very well.

 To cook the meal I place the meal in my cook pot, add water, the amount varies depending on what you are cooking, and bring the water to a boil. You can simmer the meal for four or five minutes, or just let it sit to fully hydrate the meal. Some of the recipes that I have found suggest using the storage bags that can be used to cook the food. This would eliminate the cleanup, but I worry about cooking in plastic bags, so I use the cook pot. I don’t find cleanup to be a problem, since you are basically adding water and not cooking the food itself things don’t seem to stick.

 As a quick hint on clean up, I use a 6″ square of mosquito net material as a cleaning pad. It has just enough texture to scour the pan and it weighs almost nothing. I keep it in a plastic bag.