Soapbox

These selfheating meals sound like a lousy idea for hiking - but maybe an excellent thing to carry in case of emergency winter bivvis.

What do you think?

Judging from the article you can get more calories for the same weight with energy bars and the like. A hot meal may be nice, but in an emergency in winter you will need energy and plenty of it.

Much as I like Wayfayrer products the idea of a self heating meal sounds more like a gimmick.

I thinking more of if you end up bivviing and are staving off the cold - the heat pack could be shoved inside your clothing - then you get the heat inside from the food.

The calories are pretty low, aren't they?

I had a self-heating meal recently. I'm not sure if it was this make or not, as it came out of an assorted caterers pack of a hundred or so, but I have to say, it was delicious, and definitely filled the gap in my tummy. I have spent a lot of time in the past humping food around the hills, and I find food that resembles a meal personally much more enjoyable in the evening than living off energy bars, especially in winter. The best thing about the self-heating things is that you don't have to huddle in your tent cooking for ages, and the food isn't served up spinkled with grass and meths. And there's usually loads of left-over wrappings and uneaten food to carry out using traditional food anyway.

There's definitely a psychological boost to hot food and I'd agree that lack of hassle is the main attraction. I also find the palatability increases the higher up the mountain you go. At around 5500 metres, the fruit dumplings with toffee sauce were some of the best things I'd ever tasted, at sea level however they were distinctly ordinary... Not cheap either.

I was quite shocked by how heavy the, erm, afterbirth was. Loads of packaging: an outer poly envelope, the plastic/foil sachet the meal itself is packed in, the heating pad, the envelope thing that the hearing pad lives in plus the fork and spoon plus cellophane wrapper and salt and pepper sachets.

And as we all know, loads of packaging is not a good idea. How long before the trails are littered with the remnants of Self-heating meals?

On the subject of SHM, does anyone remember those huge 'Hot Cans' you could get?

You still can get those huge "Hot Cans". £7 a time from SP Services.

Over this winter I carried a mini trangia for bivi's prefering pasta soup and tea to carrying solid food.

Anyone tried the new "ever more mini" trangia, it comes in a small mess tin.

From the photo, it looks to me like they've just bundled an ordinary Wayfarer meal with a US Army MRE heater. You can get these from various places for not much money and make your own self-heating meals.

Mind you, you wouldn't want to pop one up your jumper to stay warm - they get REALLY hot, and they give off hydrogen too.

My local Poundshop sells disposable BBQ's; when I get round to it I intend to experiment at making SH-meals with them.
They burn for 20 minutes, apparently, so a mixed-grill supper will be no problem!
Asda sell them for £2, btw.

Aldi are selling delicious prebagged meals for £1.69 a pop.All you need is a mess tin and a small fire brick burning survival stove to have a decent meal.Try the Chilli Con Carne.Its Fantastic for out of a packet.and they're a darn sight cheaper than the wayfairer or meals of that type.Jim.

I've eaten combat US army MREs and there are definitely worse things to eat. I've also seen these types of MRE meals online that I am not so sure about.

They,(ALDI) have Currie Savoury Rice for 35p.A cheaper version of the Batchelors type.I like to add a few extra sprinkles of cayanne pepper to give it a bit of a kick.Cant beat it.Jim.(Night Owl).

I like the way that the refill is out of stock.That sets off alarm bells in my mind.Jim.(Night Owl)
Still cant get the image button to work to send some Piccies of that just now.Jim.

I have a Rapijet stove.It takes a fill of 50ml of lighter butane gas.This gives around 3 hours of continuous burning.Buy a few cans from any pound shop and they each hold 300ml.One can equates to 18 hours constant burning.(For A Quid)?My stove cost me just over eight quid and the seller on E-bay gave me a free eight piece aluminium windshield too.I've since seen them going for around £25.00.(When you can find them).I only wish I could post pictures on here.Jim.(Night Owl).

I have also tried the self heating meals and agree on a cold day in the middle of the moors after a long tab, very nice.

I have to agree about some of these instant meals being a bit off puting.I once bought a tin of "Sweet and sour Chicken" from LIDL,only to find it was more like a Sweet and sour soup.It still went down well as it was a very cold day out there on the day.Jim.(Night Owl).