Backpacking Food (page 4)
Of course, don’t forget your liquids, either. You will be drinking mostly water, and a lot of it, but don’t limit yourself there. You will not believe how heavenly it is to add some powdered Gatorade mix or Crystal light when you’ve gone for a few days without juice or soda. You learn to appreciate these little luxuries! While at camp, hot drinks can be wonderful, too. Even on the trail, for me the day cannot start without a cup of coffee. Instead of hauling around one of those heavy coffee-making contraptions, we’ve found that if you’re not too picky, the coffee that comes in teabags or self-sealed “pods” will do in a pinch. They’re easy to transport, and if you’re able to have a campfire, the used ones burn right up pretty nicely. I always must bring along sugar packets and powdered milk as well, as I’m a wimp and can’t handle my coffee black. If you’re not a coffee person, tea is just as easy to carry along: in fact, we love to bring bags of jasmine green tea as a nice warm after-dinner drink to enjoy before hitting the sleeping bags.
Backpacking Recipes
So far, for the most part I’ve talked about meals you can buy to bring along. But why not make some yourself? Often this is cheaper and tastes better than store-bought stuff. Plus it’s fun and helps get you in the “backpacking mode” before your trip even begins. Although there are many good store-bought granolas and trail mixes available, they are not terribly difficult to make yourself, and if you do that, you can put only the stuff you like in there, and not have to pick around the stuff you don’t or try to pawn it off on your trailmates. For instance, my husband absolutely hates raisins, which is a staple in gorp and many granolas, so I often get stuck way more raisins than a person ever wants to eat.
A food dehydrator comes in handy for making trail food. We were lucky enough to have a friend who had one sitting collecting dust in the corner of their garage that we kindly took of their hands. We’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with it, and have come up with some really good stuff—and a few flops, too, of course. So make sure to give yourself time to experiment. Jerky is pretty easy, and you can make more than one flavor to have a bit of variety. But make sure to marinate the meat for at least 24 hours before dehydrating for the best flavor. You can also dry your own fruit (though my success with this has not been as great) and “fruit roll-ups” from pureed fruit. You really need to get the special fruit roll-up trays for these, as we’ve discovered. I tried lining the regular trays with waxed paper, but the roll-ups tended to get hard and crunchy in the middle by the time the outside firmed. It can be done that way, though, if you don’t mind babysitting it and pulling out strips a little at a time when they’re done. Doesn’t look the prettiest, but still tastes good, especially if you used nice sweet fresh fruit.
I’ve had pretty good luck with drying ground beef. I cook and season it well, drain it, and then dehydrate it on a wax-paper-lined tray. I separate meal-sized quantities into plastic bags and re-hydrate it on the trail when ready to use. This can be done by simmering it in water on your camp stove for twenty or thirty minutes, or you can throw it in a water bottle with cold water a couple hours ahead of time and let it reconstitute while still hiking. The stuff is pretty versatile: I have already mentioned it is great to add to powdered soups or pasta mixes. My favorite is to make a shepherd’s pie by layering it with the Velveeta mashed potato mix, which comes with a yummy packet of squishy cheese you can spread over the top. Yes, I know the squishy cheese is heavier than the powdered cheese, but I just can’t resist. And this is usually enough to feed two!
I should note that while the meals I’ve described here may seem sparse compared to what you probably eat on a normal day, many advocates of ultralight backpacking would consider them rather lavish. Those attempting to hike with as little weight as possible will often forgo the stove altogether and bring along only meals which do not require cooking. For me, having a hot meal at the end of the day is worth the extra weight. But if you think you can get along just fine without them for a few days, then by all means go for it.
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