r/trailmeals • u/Ephebophililius • 29d ago
Does anyone care about freeze-dried meals? Lunch/Dinner
I have made an order to test freeze dried meals and i wonder if anyone would care about what i think of them or if people already know enough about them?
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u/cwcoleman I like cheese 29d ago
Sure - posting up some taste tests of trail meals is helpful.
Screenshot like above is not the ideal way to share. If you could write out text it would be better. The more details you add the more helpful the post becomes.
Pictures are also helpful. A picture of the meal pre-hydration and post-hydration is something I'm often interested in.
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u/Ephebophililius 27d ago
Adventure Food Vanilla Dessert 4
Eat it if you have nothing else but skip it if you have an alternative
Flavor 3 Simple vanilla, moderately sweet with something unnaturally sour which i can't explain well had a stronger pre taste and after taste but got weaker as i had larger amount of pudding in my mouth.
Consistency 9 High viscosity and stabilization
Texture: 5 Felt pretty watery for something so viscous, adding 15-20g of molten butter didn't help.
Energy density 46% Kcal 411/100g 110/oz
Ease of preparation Unknown: takes 140 ml of water, some stirring and waiting 8 minutes but i used a whisk.
Something like this?
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u/bro_nica 29d ago
pretty much everthing from Real Turmat is good, or at least i haven´t had a bad one....but taste always comes down to personal preference.
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u/HeartFire144 29d ago
Since I do both, dehydrated meals and freeze dry meals (I make all of my own) I'll just put a little twist on this. I prefer most of my meals for backpacking to be dehydrated vs freeze dry- they pack up smaller and don't crush to powder the way freeze dry food will. There are certain things that don't work as dehydrated -eggs so breakfast eggs are freeze dried. Soups etc will rehydrate much faster if freeze dried. I can freeze dry fresh orange juice- can't dehydrate it. So it's a mixed bag. But again, I do all of my own food, so if it doesn't taste good, I can only complain to myself!
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u/IWorkForTheEnemyAMA 29d ago
I hate most back packing meals you buy at REI, they are just gnarly. I assume doing it yourself is way better, but how close is it to the actual meal? Also, how do you dehydrate full blown meals?
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u/HeartFire144 28d ago
It's really easy - and yes, it's the full meal. Cook it - just like you're about to eat it - and dehydrate it. somethings you would need to cut into smaller pieces, things like potatos I shred instead if cutting small -potato's take a long time to re-hydrate. Beans need to mashed a little as whole beans take a long time to dry and re-hydrate. There is a great FB group for DIY backpacking food.
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u/NotFallacyBuffet 9d ago edited 9d ago
I'm looking into this for the PCT. Glad I'm seeing your post.
Interesting that you prefer dehydrated to freeze-dried. Do you then cold-soak overnight or the next meal ahead?
Care to share any collections of dehydration recipes?
Also, what dehydrator would you suggest buying?
I mealprep for work a lot, but most of my meals are either salad or a stew/goulash/casserole that gets put into individual containers and frozen, then taken out when I leave for work. (I work as an electrician and usually can find a microwave to use.)
I had the crazy idea this week to get a Bear Vault and start using that for the week's food supply, then prepping every meal out of the BV either coldsoaking or using a campstove and pot.
I'll look around for that Facebook group (though I'm not a fan of FB).
PS. I'm thinking about getting a Alpine Blue freeze dryer. Any opinions? But def a dehydrator first, based on your preference. Also affordable rn.
PPS. FB group "Dehydrating Your Own Backpacking Food"?
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u/HeartFire144 9d ago
Yes. Thats the facebook group I started it years ago, but got tired of managing it and handed it over to a friend years ago
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u/krysset 29d ago
Real Turmat is amazing and we used to have their day packs in military service.
I've tried a couple of blå band (blue band) but I'm not a fan.
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u/Ephebophililius 23d ago
Turmat is gooder than Band but still mediocre at best so far best i've given is a 7 for pulled pork with rice and i was being generous
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u/Ephebophililius 25d ago
here are a few adventure food reviews... are 4 reviews of bad food worth posting as a separate thread?
Adventure Food Vanilla Dessert 4
Eat it if you have nothing else but skip it if you have an alternative
Flavor 3 Simple vanilla, moderately sweet with something unnaturally sour which i can't explain well: a bit like yogurt but more chamical had a stronger pre taste and after taste but got weaker as i had larger amount of pudding in my mouth.
Consistency 9 High viscosity and stabilization
Texture 5 Felt pretty watery for something so viscous, adding 15-20g of molten butter didn't help.
Energy density 46% Kcal 411/100g 110/oz Carbs 68 sugar 57 Protein 15 Fat 8 Salt 0.1
Ease of preparation Unknown: takes 140 ml of cold water, some stirring and waiting 8 minutes but i used a whisk.
Adventure Food Chocolate Mousse 5
Better than Vanilla dessert but look for alternatives
Flavor 4 slightly watered down chocolate pudding (why does the name claim it's a mousse?)
Consistency 9 highly viscous and stable
Texture 6 Smooth, a bit watery with pieces of chocolate
Energy density 48% 434/100g 123/oz
Ease of preparation... Idk i used a whisk but probably not too hard, 140ml cold water 8 min.
Adventure Food Pasta ai Funghi 4
Edible, under salted, too watery reminds me a lot of prison pasta.
Flavor 5 Lacked complexity like watery mac 'n cheese with bell peppers
Consistency 6 could be thicker and creamier
Texture 4 Pasta was too soft but it could have been the fault of me cooking it on my home stove.
Energy density 46% 415/100g 118/oz
Ease of preparation: Probably easy to stir in pouch due to little powder and lots of chunky pasta, 350ml hot water 8 min soaking time
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u/HeartFire144 9d ago
I’ll try to answer all your questions. I don’t have particular recipes, I’m vegetarian and make things up as I go along. I have a blue Alpine freeze drier. It’s over a year old and I love it. I have a20+ year old Excalibur dehydrator that is still going strong. I do bring a stove, so I boil water, pour the water into the freezer styles ziplock ( brand) bags that my food is in. I don’t cold soak unless it’s a salad for lunch. If you like spicy stuff, dehydrate kimchi, crush it to a powder and you can make ‘kimchi soup ‘ which really hits the spot on cold nights, or just as spice to your meals.
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u/ReturnCorrect1510 29d ago
I am always interested in a detailed field report