Backcountry Cooking

by Leezanna Hill

Water
Water is essential in the backcountry. You need it to drink and most meals are prepared with at least a little bit of water. There are three ways to purify your water so that you can cook with it.

Option 1: Boiling
Collect the water from moving water source and bring to a rolling boil for at least 1 complete minute. After one minute of boiling it will be ready to cook with. The pro here is that it is free!

Option 2: Filter
Water filter options are vast. Generally, you will have to have a water source and then pump the water through a filter in order to cleanse it. Filters come in many different shapes, sizes and options. One con to a filters is the cost; between $75 and $200 for a trustworthy filter. They are also on the heavy side, clocking in at about a pound. On a more positive side, once the water is filtered it is ready to drink and usually it will be nice and cool coming from a mountain stream or lake.

Option 3: Iodine Tablets.
Iodine tablets are another way to purify your water. Simply drop the tablet in your water and wait about 30 minutes. The iodine kills the most common pathogens present in natural fresh water sources. A pro is the cost; $7-15 depending on the amount you buy. Unfortunately you must wait for the iodine to do the job and if you don't have a Vitamin C supplement (comes with most tablets) you'll have water that may taste like dirt and iodine combined!

Wikipedia has some good overall information if you want something more in depth.

From Start to Finish

Just like we learned in the 'group cooking' it's important to know what your trip will entail. We're going to set aside our budget while talking about backpacking food to make it simpler. I will say that mountain house, though easy, is not cost efficient or as tasty as what you can do with a little extra planning and time to prep backpacking meals.

Planning backpacking meals is a little more tedious than a regular meal. You have to take into consideration the weight, the size, caloric intake, amount of people, amount of days and what I think is most important; flavor!

I'm going to use an example from the Hill Family Adventures. Last summer Brian (my dad), Mariah (little sister), Jose (sister's boyfriend) and I hit the trail to hike about 60 miles across the High Uinta's Crestline Trail. For the five days on the trail, I had to plan for 15 meals and at least 10 snacks to keep our caloric intake high enough. Here are a few meals from the menu:

Breakfast A: Powdered eggs, dried re-fried beans, tortillas and dried bananas
Breakfast B: Oats, dried craisins, snickers bar, coconut and a boiled egg

Lunch A: Summer sausage, block of cheese, hearty crackers, and dried fruit
Lunch B: Peanut butter, Jelly, honey, Tortilla, Fruit leather

Dinner A: Thai Ramen Noodles with chicken
Dinner B: Angel Hair pasta with dried creamy pesto sauce

Snacks: GORP, Hard candy, Jerky, Granola bars

As you can see these meals meet all of the requirements when considering backpacking food. Most of the things are dried which make them lightweight, but we have some heavier stuff like summer sausage. Eventually it evens out with weight per meal so it's okay to splurge on something like the cheese or meat which tastes amazing out in the middle of the wilderness. As you'll see later on, these meals will fit nicely into a gallon zip lock and will pack pretty nicely into a pack. Each meal includes carbs and sugar which help our energy levels stay high. Throwing in a high calorie granola bar is great too, because it's filling and can help cover some of the calories lost in the day.

Blueberry Crisp: My Favorite!

Four was a relatively easy number of people to plan for. Keeping your numbers even and low will make the weight easy to share and will make it easier to plan meals and keep waste to a minimum. Again, when planning a multi-day trip, it's important to count each meal you will need for each day including snacks. Don't skimp on food because you'll want to have something if there is ever a mishap. Finally, the most important part, flavor! I like to bring different spices to flavor my food. They are lightweight, tasty and make an otherwise bland meal, taste gourmet. My favorite spices include dill, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, chili powder and don't forget good ol' salt and pepper. I also like to have a little sriracha and lemon juice on hand too. If you have a favorite spice or flavor, make sure you add it in your backpacking kitchen or into your meals. We'll talk about how to pack this stuff next.

A great way to pack flavors and spices.

Again, once you've decided on some meals and planned on some snacks, you'll want to make a shopping list like we talked about in 'group cooking'. This one will be a little different so I recommend shopping at WinCo or a store with bulk items, because you can buy a small amount of dried food and save some money. You can also mix and match trail mix and hard candy you may really like. Just like any other meal, it's time to shop. Don't forget to pick up a variety of ziploc bags. Bring your loot home and lay it out so you can see it all, gather any items you already have and get your ziploc bags ready!

How to Pack and Label a Meal

For me, this is the most satisfying part of planning backpacking meals. All that stuff you just bought and had taking over your kitchen, will now become separated, divided, sealed and labeled, leaving you with 15 (or however many meals) gallon ziploc bags ready to be handed out among your group.

Start with food prep first. If you're planning on having boiled eggs, boil your eggs. If you're having peanut butter and jelly, divide out the food into smaller, lighter containers.

Next, get rid of as much packaging as you can. For one of our dinners, I planned on having ramen. First I smashed my noodles, then put them into a separate ziploc bag along with the dry seasonings. If you decide to have cheese, take of the plastic wrapper and put it in a clean, dry handkerchief.

Now you can start to measure and do recipe math. For my group of four I had 8 tortillas, 4 tuna packs, 4 mayo packs, 4 mustard packs and 4 relish packs along with salt and pepper for one of my lunches. Measure spices and condense into your gallon meal ziplocs along with other dry or pack-able ingredients.

Before your put everything into the main gallon zip, be sure to write on the bag; the recipe, what each bag contains, note if anything extra is floating around that is included in the meal and how much water you will need.

For example the ziploc will read:

Dinner B**

Angel Hair Pasta

2 packets creamy pesto sauce

2/3 c. powdered milk

1/4 c. oil

1 c. dried veggies

Bring 2 c. water to a boil. Add pasta and boil for 6 minutes. Use second pan with 1 c. water, oil and bring to a boil. add milk, stir 30 seconds, add sauce and cook, stirring, for 3 more minutes.

**(note: this is not an exact recipe, do not use)

Combine all your food. Make each meal fit into a gallon ziploc (as best you can) and then weigh each bag, making note so it can be divided up evenly among the backpackers.

This is the finished product. 15 meals for 5 days of backpacking!

I hope you noticed that there I used a lot of ziploc bags. I use them for three reasons.

1. They are sturdy - especially the freezer kind
2. They are really lightweight and easy to pack
3. They double as seal-able garbage bag once you've eaten your meal

Now, your meals are ready but we're not finished yet!

You will need to get your backpacking kitchen ready to go. Just like in 'group cooking' in the planning stages we included what kitchen utensils we would need, it's pertinent to do that for backpacking meals as well. Your backpacking kitchen will look different than what you may be used to. It will be small, and finely tuned to keep your pack light.

A simple backpacking kitchen includes:
Lightweight backpacking stove
fuel
cooking pot
handkerchief - for setting things on and wiping down clean dishes
stirring spoon or spatula
2 nalgenes of water - or two 32 oz. water bottles
full water bottles
plate, spork, spoon, fork etc. - dishes to eat from
soap- should be biodegradable
sponge - make a tiny one by cutting a sponge you use in your kitchen

My kitchen often includes (in addition):
paring knife
plastic cutting board
measuring cup
aforementioned spices
spatula for cleaning
a soft place to sit while cooking

Soft place to sit!

You may find that you like having a pocketknife or perhaps you like to have hand sanitizer as well. It's up to you what you bring in your kitchen! I am happy to answer any of your backpack cooking questions - email me at leezanna.h@gmail.com.

Recipe Ideas

First off, I've found there are some staples to backpacking food. There are some in the picture below.


























If you don't like some of the things I mention, change the recipe to something you do like. It's like cooking at home, and since you have control you shouldn't be eating something you don't like while on the trail.

Recipes

The following tried and true recipes are available at this blog:

Salmon Pasta
Thai Chicken
Chicken Curry Couscous
  

Enjoying some well earned pasta and pesto around the campfire.