Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Meals

Okay, Mountain House works but it's pricey and it gets old after a while. MREs are, well, MREs.

Food is a major driver on hunts, and a weight/bulk issue. Cutting down the weight and bulk, while retaining nutrition and energy (and, perhaps, taste?) is probably more art than science.

Anyone have recipes/ideas they want to share?

Meal replacement bars, MH, energy drink powders, coffee. Cost is meaningless when you're stuffing it in a $400 backpack and boiling water on a $100 stove while wearing $300 boots and schlepping a $1,500 (+) rig.

LMAO! Good point on the cost factor. Very good point.

Just whatever you take, make sure you've eaten and schit it at least once before you go...

I will say a Cliff Protien bar covered in almond butter and one of the energy type powders ( Spark or Wilderness athlete) lasts a good long time.

Yep, on certain things lasting a while, and DEFINITELY on having "processed" the meal at least once prior to going out for several days at a stretch. Some of the recipes out there (hmm, think chili) will have you dragging it like a dog and washing stuff in a creek no matter the temps.

Costco stocks Mountain House a couple times a year. Swinging deal.

Believe it or not, Wal-Mart or Fred Meyer usually have pretty good deals on MH. I buy mine through a group buy from a local retailer friend of mine but would probably get it from either of the 2 listed stores if the group buy wasn't available.

It's been mentioned here previously, 100 cal/oz is a good benchmark.

There are food items one can prepare at home. For me, a lot depends on personal preference of how long you can be satisfied/happy with a particular item and how long the trips is expected. I could do MH for a week trading off between 2 or 3 faves. I could do 2-3 days with granola bars, jerky, and water.

I get my MH at Costco too. Great deal. Ramen noodles aren't gourmet, but they're light and pack a lot of cals. They're not too bulky IMO. I always have some of my dried fruit along, and often some jerky. Granola bars or oatmeal packets for breakfast.

I like packing the gatoraid powder (usually in the single serve, and usually generic) to put in the water.

Oh...I also like hitting bulk food stores and getting dried banana chips.

Old skool ramen is some pretty bad stuff. My local hippie grocer had some good stuff. Organic and all that jazz. Pricey, but what isn't?

I'm good with jerky, nuts, bars, etc....but will happily "suffer" the weight to bring hot food ability.

Whether it's 2 nights or 12, I want a hot dinner before my azz goes to bed. MH is easy and I like most all of them. Morning and afternoon can be anything, though instant oatmeal and Starbucks via beats the hell out of just goo and a bar.

Some ramen is better than others. Some of the ramen lunch in a cup stuff is good, too. Don't go with the generic stuff, maruchan or other quality brand are better and worth the extra dime.

Grits and coffee.

Hippie guy said they spray some sort of liquid styrofoam on that schit to preserve the noodles.

We have been making our own meals and having good luck roughly following recipes from the book "The Back-Country Kitchen" by Teresa Marrone. Drying meat and vegetables in our convection oven works great. We make up the meals in bulk and freeze them until we need them. Probably over kill freezing them but for sure they won't go bad.

Get a used copy of the book cheap here: abebooks.com

I still like MH lasagna but our home made meals are generally better - haven't had a bad one yet and a couple have been flat out killer.

My partner does almost all his nighttime meals with his dehydrator. Rice noodles with venison, chili, etc. I make a couple every year mixing 2-3 ramen cups with half a Idahoan potato package in a ziplock and then rubberband a foil of chicken to it. Pretty cheap.

You can take different spices to help out the MH dinners, I take a pepper mix and olive oil.

I'm with MadMooner on breakfast, instant oatmeal w/ whey protein powder and Via. All with one Jetboil.

Sometimes you can just opt for stuff you find laying around in the woods too

I keep coming back to MH for dinners. They pretty much got it as right as it can be.

I've gotten so sick of MH meals over the years. One doctored up MH (I add a handful or two of Thrive veggies) per day is almost more than I can handle.

Anymore I start the day with a oatmeal/seeds-nuts/berries/protein powder concoction cooked and eaten right out of a Ziplock and eat lots of nuts, seeds, jerky, dried fruit and 'Elevate Me!' bars during the day. Then choke down a modified MH/BPP for supper. LOL.

Nuts, Jerky, Dried Fruit .. I find trying to recreate a nice dinner not worth the hassle in my opinion. I make a hot tea, or maybe take a swig of whisky at camp to give me the warm feeling

I've made pretty good dehydrated meals on my own. I recommend it really. Just make chili and throw it in a dehydrator for a while. You can also dry some of the wetter sausages a bit and they end up more landjager like.

I can be convinced into taking sausage and cheese way easier than a mountain house (although they are not horrible, i just don't personally see the value).

There are lots of options really outside of pre-made dehydrated meals. I know most folks I go out with like them, but I prefer more simplicity.