Pre-packed boil-in-bag food

[Digby]

What does everybody think about this pre-packed boil in a bag food? Is it worth the money? Does it taste reasonable? Is one brand better than any other? (Indeed is there more than one brand left? ;) ).

[Taff Craven]

I use the army boil in the bag rations and they are excellent, never tried any of the civilian versions they seem to expensive.

[Emanresu]

I remember some stuff I used many years ago made by a company called Raven. Mostly it was passable but not what you could call a treat. The best one was a strawberry flavoured breakfast that looked like polifilla but tasted fine.

[jbgraham]

I think the stuff is heavy, bulky and not much better than freeze dried. In the american military they are called Meals Ready to Eat or MREs. We call them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians, as starving Ethiopians wouldn't eat them. The best the american military had were LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) rations, these were freeze dried, compressed into a disk, you could carry a weeks supply in a bread bag. The real issue is how much water weight you are carrying around. I do use boil in the bag rice, which is dry in a perforated bag. My wife and I use the rice to bulk up a freeze dried dinner.

[m011i3]

Wayfayrer foods are probably the most well known brand - i've seen them in almost every outdoor shop anyway. http://www.wayfayrer.co.uk/products.asp
The price of £2.99 average for - say - chicken casserole is justified for the preparation and packaging of a speciality food source like this.

As regards to weight I prefer these tasty, nutritious pouched meals over the canned equivalent which are bulky, require a can-opener (usually, some have ringpulls) and need more conscientious waste disposal considerations.
I even think they actually make some of the military rations.

Best thing is to buy a couple and try them at home or on a day-hike and see for yourself.
Boil - in - the - bag rice, instant noodles, pasta or instant Mash - are all good for CARBS and add to a pouch meals calorific value, along with a packet soup starter and pudding of pouch-packed fruit with powdered instant custard (I'm feeling hungry suddenly)

In defence of the pros and cons - the added weight of these meals wouldn't be an issue if you consider dehydrated meals often leave you constipated after a couple of days and never really taste as REAL as these meals do.
Although freeze dried food is almost as tasty I don't think the range of food is as widely available to most of us - any info here folks?

[Ollie]

You're making me hungry already :D

[carbon]

i highlighted the fact that the rations where lousy to the mod & that if i had a sniper rifle i would catch some food of my own accord and to suppliment tho's rations..to which they have not replied

[Digby]

i highlighted the fact that the rations where lousy to the mod & that if i had a sniper rifle i would catch some food of my own accord and to suppliment tho's rations..to which they have not replied

Good idea, but a bit wasteful. What do you do with the rest of the cow? ;)

[carbon]

Salt or smoke it to preserve.;)

[Spear]

I agree with m011i3 (http://www.goxplore.net/member.php?u=136). The Wayfayrer hydrated meals are a bargain at £2.99 a pop, they fit perfectly into my Jetboil meaning that I get a hot tasty meal and a drink in 3 minutes flat. Furthermore, the meals purchased on the highstreet are identical to the ones you get in British Army Ratpacks. Much cleaner and easier than killing the cow :D

[MariaD]

How can £2.99 be a bargain? You can make or buy stuff much cheaper than that.

In fact, most of the meals I cook at home don't even cost that much.

[Special_K]

Have used the good ol' british rat pack (and tend to prefer to use them with my hexy stove when on exercise). When out camping I prefer to make my own meals. Nothing like making a nice sweet and sour pork stir fry on top of a mountain. Smells much better cooking than a shiny silver bag.

Never found the wayfarer meals to be enticing (I could be wrong as I have never tried them) but £3+ for a meal. Think I would rather cook my own.

[Spear]

Ok, let me rephrase :p. In the right situation, they are a bargain:

If you are at home with a full kitchen at your disposal then for £2.99 you could prepare a better meal. You could even store the prepared food to take camping and save some money. The advantage of the hydrated rations is that the meals weigh very little, are sealed shut and wont leak, require no preperation skill (perfect for me :D) and can be warmed up by any source of heat.

If you are out wild camping for fun and have all the time in the world and the landowners permission to have an open fire then cooking your own meal is brilliant fun. However, if your time is limited and you need to consume hot, tasty calories in a short period of time then I think that it is well worth spending a little extra for the convenience.

[MariaD]

Ok - two quick meals that I might eat while wild camping are:

Pasta-n-Sauce: £0.70 (approx)
Beanfeast & Smash: well under £2

Both are cheap, lightweight (not something you can say about Wayfayrer), easy to get hold of and only take a few mins to cook. I could add some parmesan & black pepper for sprinkling, dried apricots for pudding & oatcakes for a snack and still get change from £2.99!

[Spear]

Ok - two quick meals that I might eat while wild camping are:

Pasta-n-Sauce: £0.70 (approx)
Beanfeast & Smash: well under £2

Both are cheap, lightweight (not something you can say about Wayfayrer), easy to get hold of and only take a few mins to cook. I could add some parmesan & black pepper for sprinkling, dried apricots for pudding & oatcakes for a snack and still get change from £2.99!

Do they offer the same calorific value as the wayfarer meals? Where do you get these meals from? A supermarket?

[MariaD]

Yes - any supermarket will sell all those things.

I have no idea about calorific value, but pasta, smash, easy-cook rice etc. are just carbs so they will be pretty high calorie. More importantly, they fill me and my OH up after climbing all day (and he eats masses normally).

Also, they won't leak because they're dehydrated and you're not carrying all the water around with you! Why would you want to lug something around that can be found in any stream?

[Spear]

By 'OH', you mean other half right? Or significant other :rolleyes:

I take your point on the water issue, although filtering / sterilising it can be a real pain. Next time I'm in the supermarket I'll have a look.

[MariaD]

Yes - "other half".

If you're boiling the water for cooking, I wouldn't bother doing anything else with it.

[Marmot]

if you were happy to boild your water for cooking, would you try to filter it in some other way to try and remove any little sediment from it without the need to buy an actual "filter"?

[MariaD]

If you drink from fast flowing streams there shouldn't be any sediment (at least I've never noticed any). I wouldn't bother, but then again, I've never bothered to use any kind of water purification. The only reason my water gets boiled for cooking is because I like my food hot!

But then, I would never use water in an area that was likely to be contaminated. If I was camping somewhere like Coire Leis I would filter and sterilise all water before it touched my lips.

[Marmot]

whys that?

[Anand]

the bad viruses aren't in the sediment, just in the water. if you even see sheep poo or worse, it shouldn't be save. Also cooking doesn't kill all bad things, at sealevel it takes 8 hours of cooking to sterilize water with just cooking it.

[David]

Though some micro organisms (I have read about one that enters a 'hibernating' state to do this) can survive prolonged periods of boiling, and so you need to autoclave equipment if you want to make beer or something, it's very rarely a problem with making water just potable. Though obviously it's safest to go to town sterilising water to bits, it's only a probability game really; there is no 'right' amount of sterilisation (just recommended times etc). It depends on the conditions at the time as to what is safe to drink (rather than 'sterile'). Feel free to say if you disagree though!

[Anand]

well. ok i'm a homebrewer and mushroom cultivator so i might get i little carried away when its about sterile things ;)

and yes i have a 25 liter autoclave even been thinking about a backpacking pressure cooker ;)

[MariaD]

whys that?

Because Coire Leis is one of the most polluted wildcamp spots I can think of. The CIC hut has a lot of users and no toilet... :eek:

Anywhere else I simply don't bother with water purifcation. I've never died or got ill as a result, so I'm not doing too badly.

[David]

well. ok i'm a homebrewer and mushroom cultivator so i might get i little carried away when its about sterile things ;)

and yes i have a 25 liter autoclave even been thinking about a backpacking pressure cooker ;)

Wow, mushroom cultivator - what does that involve? (aside from the obvious!) I'm not sure about the pressure cooker though - sounds like it's weigh a ton (or can you get a special light version?)

[Anand]

http://www.gsioutdoors.com/detail.aspx?a=8&c2=4&p=40500&lu=%2flist.aspx%3fa%3d8%26c2%3d4%26p%3d1%26&

thats still too heavy for backpacking

with growing mushrooms in some cases you need to sterilze the growing substrate

[kingley]

I would use Pasta 'n' Sauce it's cheap, filling, easy to cook and tastes pretty good too.
When I was in the Pyrenees a lot of the french hikers made fabulous meals with couscous, vegetables and a few herbs /spices.
I would take some Biltong / Jerky as well.

[Hillwalker]

I confess to using the Wayfarers when I am camping, particularly if its a wild site. Last year I tried one with the 'self heating' pads which was great, no need to carry a cooker and fuel if its just one night. They work on a sort of exothermic reaction, add water to the plates in a poly bag (just a little) then put the food bag on top. Hey presto - in ten - 15 minutes the boil in the bag is boiling! Just a little litter to take home!

[Marmot]

theyre a bit clever those things arent!

[clunk]

over the past few weeks iv'e been trying out the variouse boil in the bag and the dryed meals in a bag , and to be totaly honest they are both very good , they taste just like they should and they arn't the hot mush that i have read about on some of the walking blogs ,
ok they are expensive , but i cant honestly find fault with them , the only one i wasn't keen on was the strawberry cream cheese , but that was only because it would have been better in a flan case ( just a bit too much on its own )
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
clunk

[outdoor-guy]

i like them they are a bit exspensive as alot of people are saying

[Anand]

Cheap no, but on a longer trip they do provide the needed energy/nutrition that a 50 pence noodles and cheese bag don't provide. Also it does get a little boring eating it for a few days. The lack of proper food does surface allot quicker on the hills then at home, and lowers the overall mood, and gives increased chances for muscle cramps.

As a compromise i starting drying food at home and mixing quick types of food into little dinner kits, with full energy needs.