 Might need an awful lot of them at 561 calories a go  (kilo calories I assume?)
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Might need an awful lot of them at 561 calories a go (kilo calories I assume?) "In the context of food energy the term calorie generally refers to the kilogram calorie." it says here.
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Ah How odd. Its a silly unit anyway of course! All the packets of food etc I've been looking at vaguely recently (to compare energy bar style things) have been labelled kcal. Not that anyone is likely to get that confused by a factor of 1000
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.jpg) I used these on the Coast to Coast last year and Hadrian's wall path this Easter. They taste better than they look, not too dissimilar to the wayfarer boil-in-the-bag things, just a lot lighter. Watch out for the Bacon with fried potato flavour and the other ones which have 'fried' in the title (meatballs i think). You actually need to make up the 'fried' part seperatly and then fry it - no good for jetboil users!
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| Edited: 29/06/09 19:48 |
 Taste is such a personal thing but I found these revolting. The Be-Well ones are much better, cheaper too.
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.jpg) Hi Eggy, Where do you find the be well ones please?
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 Yes, kCals, sorry for any confusion  I do have some of theTravellunch meals here and will test them at some point and report back. Also on the cards for the future is some sort of comparison test probably also to include supermarket-type dried ready meals etc. Lunch then...
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.JPG) I've used these a few times - they sell them at the local Costwold Outdoors. Very light and convenient. A bit 'gloopy' though Would probably use them again occasionally I tend to take brie and salami plus salad/red pepper for lunch (with ryvita) and also use bits of these foods to supplement the gloop in the evening. What I don't quite understand is why 'outdoor' food costs so much? I guess it's the packaging/marketing and economies of scale. It certainly can't be the ingredients as supermarket 'quick cook' packet foods are a fraction of the price. Aldi do an acceptable packet pasta n sauce for about 75p - it cooks fine with a pot cosy (though instructions say simmer). A little high in msg etc. like most of these foods. Also it's '2 portion' i.e mansize so you get about 650kcal.
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 The scrambled egg is awfull.Also avoid the apple pancakes to much messing about really not worth it
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 What I don't quite understand is why 'outdoor' food costs so much? It depends which type of outdoor food you're talking about, but for freeze-dried meals from the likes of Mountain House and Drytech (Real Turmat) the cost is a) decent quality ingredients and b) the freeze-drying process (which is not at all cheap). When you read people's feedback on these meals it's very evident that you largely get what you pay for. TGO are doing what promises to be quite a detailed review of backpacking food in the Sept issue.
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Sorry for the delay, go to www.be-well.co.uk.
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Cheers! 
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Good chat guys, really interesting stuff about freeze dried meals. Im not a fan at all as they are calorie sparce and hence havent used them since my college days. For me, It really depends on your walk. A high altitude walk will dehydrate you quicker due to the drier air and through respiration. Therefore, I avoid dry foods such as rivitas, pitas and to some extent bread. If I have to, I always throw in them some food groups higher in energy yeild such as cheese. I also try to have them with sauces such as pickle or mayo. Just keeps you from further dehydration. I have just returned from a two day bothy trip in Ben Alder, Scotland. Very warm and extremely humid. In my pack I had stripped chicken marinaded with tikka sauce added to pasta or noodles for tea. (carbs and protein). Through the day, 1 litre of water (top up as and when out of the rivers), 1 bottle of hypertonic sport (low energy, high electrolyte) and things like chocolate raisins, oat bars, small apples, satsumas, rice krispie bars etc. These are high in calories from sugars and carbs. My friend makes up powerballs: which are oats, wheat, honey, nuts, raisins, whey protein, almonds, apricots, flour, roll them in a ball, cover in honey to set and bake them in the oven for 15mins. what you end up with is a tasty, succulent, ball of energy which doesnt weigh much but will keep you going until dark.
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Hi Craig, Welcome to the forum. It is horses for courses as to what people eat but you have a couple of very useful and tasty ideas here, the chicken and the energy balls sound good. I prefer dehydrated if I'm carrying all on multi day hikes and weight is an issue.
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 There are such things as Hi Cal dehydrated meals.
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 I always liked the drytech (turmat/expedition/real) meals and found them to be really tasty, but they then went up to £8 each so i started getting the Expedition foods ones which come in at just under a fiver each. Some of the expedition ones are (IMO) tastier than the drytech ones but other aren't as tasty. I've also tried the reiter ones ...these seemed a bit hit and miss and generally not as good as the drytech or EF ones. Also got some from ebay once, think they were made by a company called raven....they were pretty terrible for the most part ... thats what happens when you pay 99p per meal. I quite fancy giving the be well and mountain house ones a go at some point then i think i can say ive covered most the bases. Always test them before you go though as there is nowt worse than getting to your camp spot and having a crap meal. cheers moggy ps ive also tried the self heating "heater meals" which were heavy but you didnt need a stove, some of those were quite tasty too.
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Make your own. At about £1 - 1.50 a portion and £30 for the cheapo dehydrator you get much cheaper and tastier meals, plus they're less 'chemical' and made to your taste.
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I prefer dehydrated if I'm carrying all on multi day hikes and weight is an issue.
Isn't weight always an issue? Why do some people see a simple overnighter and think weight is not an issue whereas for mulit days you have to start counting the grammes? Not having a go AtlasLion but I have friends (yes I really do) who have carried a mass of extra stuff on overnight trips just because it wasn't an issue. I always think that whether it is 1 day or 1 month or 1 year you pack you bag as light as you can and that means dehydrated food. Or at least with as much moisture taken out or high calorific content such as salamis which means less can be taken.
I have a magic number in my head and that is 400kcal/100g. OK that's two figures or one figure plus one unit with a number in it. This is the kcalorie content per 100g measure (pre-hydration with dehydrated foods) that foods have to make before getting into my bag. I am not totally strict about it but I do find Alpen bars, peanuts (plain) do tend to meet these requirements along with selected dehydrated foods. If you look at all the brands and recipes of outdoors, dehydrated foods you can get values ranging from about 271kcal up to in excess of 500kcals per 100g dried contents. It makes a difference you know, especially for someone like me who has to eat about 4000kcals per day when not on the hills and even more when on the hills (probably due to my height but not excessive weight and a probably high metabolism). Needless to say I always loose weight on backpacking trips, but that is how I judge it. I load up before a trip then lose it during and then enjoy loading it back on after a trip. Sometimes the post trip pig out is the best bit.
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Going to Wales for the first time in a couple of years later this year on two separate occasions. Talking of post trip pig-outs I reckon I will end up at least once in Llanberis in that well known blue walled cafe. I always used to like their solid, home cooked menus with what I know as climbers portions. That means plenty of stodge on your plate and nice tasting stodge at that. Anyone know of good scran in the southern Snowdownia area, in the brecons and near Cadair Idris areas too. Good honest, belly bursting food with none of that gastro-pub stuff a lot of the Lakes pubs are turning out at extortionate prices. Sorry about that, got off topic there. I doubt Pete's Eats has gone down the dehydrated food route just yet, especially since it would take forever to dry out one of their mugs of tea, I like places that do pints of tea.
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 depends if you like proper food for an overnighter. setting up and lazily preparing something nice to eat, with or without a nice chianti, is one of the pleasures. some mass produced expensive dehydrated rubbish that is basically just fuel or a nice two course look what we've found or something you've brought from home? freshly made cheese and pickle sarnies for lunch? it all depends what you want from your trip.
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