May 19, 2010
The Best Foods for Backpacking
Cooking over a campfire, courtesy of Flickr user Rev. Xanatos
Today’s guest post is by Smithsonian staff writer Abigail Tucker, who knows a thing or two about roughing it. She’s camped in the Arctic to interview narwhal scientists, schlepped through a swamp in South Carolina in search of Venus flytraps, and ridden snowmobiles deep into the Western wilderness for an upcoming wildlife feature.
Roughing it is always easier if there’s good grub around, but cooking while camping can be tricky. Refrigeration isn’t always available, canned goods are dead weight in a backpack, and sometimes it’s a pain to build a fire. Granted, it is possible to concoct a scrumptious ratatouille in the middle of nowhere, given time and materials (fennel and parchment paper, for starters), and anyone who feels like hauling a pie iron into the wilderness is welcome to a campfire panini. I know I’ll be eternally grateful to the fellow camper who smuggled a watermelon the size of a small sleeping bag in his backpack and unveiled it five days into a college wilderness trip, just when our supplies were dwindling.
But because we can’t all be heroes, here are a few light-weight, ultra-simple and even tasty options suggested by outdoorsy types who got tired of granola. Have better ideas? We’d love to hear them.
1. German bread. Resembling a brick, but ever so much lighter and more flavorful, this pre-sliced bread comes wrapped in plastic, has a long shelf-life, and doesn’t crumble as easily as ordinary bread. There are many flavors, though the sunflower seed variety is particularly good. Look for it at health food stores.
2. Pesto. Out of the refrigerator, it lasts longer than you’d think—a couple of days, as long as it’s not too hot. Mix it into pasta or spread on bread; a little goes a long way.
3. Mini-cheeses. Babybel cheeses come individually wrapped in wax and plastic, making them more durable than larger hunks of cheese. Plus, you don’t need a knife (or clean hands, really) to eat them.
4. Potatoes. Not exactly light, but a nice treat if you’ll be making a campfire the first night. Pack clean potatoes wrapped in tinfoil with a pat of butter (may want to put the whole thing in a Ziploc so it doesn’t ooze in your pack), and nestle them among the coals for roasting.
5. Instant Oatmeal 2.0. Stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter (and yogurt, if you’ve got it) and it will keep you going all morning.
6. Couscous. Less of a cliché than rice and just as light and versatile.
7. Tuna. It comes in foil pouches and you can add it to the couscous with some spices, or if you’re hungry enough, eat it right out of the bag.
Any other tried-and-true suggestions, readers?
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Just last weekend I hit the trail for 15+ miles in the backcountry of Shenandoah National Park. You can’t have an open campfire in most parks and wilderness areas, so cooking in a frying pan or fire-roasting potatoes is out of the question (except at specified shelters & huts). Restricted to a fuel stove for boiling water, we packed freeze-dried prepackaged dinner meals for this short trip. (Backpackers want to minimize weight, but also need to conserve their stove fuel.) The Mountain House brand Mexican chili beans & rice tasted better than the blandish beef with onions & potatoes. For lunches, after 2 weeks on the A.T. in 2008, my daughter and I were sick of tuna from the foil pouches, so for the recent trip we brought both tuna and chicken breasts with herbs and spices, and ate them with Triscuit crackers. We jazzed up our breakfast oatmeal with handfuls of trail mix thrown in. Another thing good on the trail is peanut butter–great with hard crackers, apples, cheese…. I’ve also seen A.T. through-hikers cooking ramen noodles, but I would not want to use all the fuel required for 3 minutes of boiling! Heat-n-eat is my plan.
Two things that I learned while kayaking in 110 degree heat in Baja. Cheese keeps for a really long time in a cloth cheese bag, over a month. We also had a head of cabbage that we avoided eating for about three weeks. After three weeks with just a little salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil it was a wonderful fresh veggie.
My sister, cousin and I came up with the couscous idea (too!) last summer on a backpacking trip in Olympic National Park. It is now our favorite backpacking meal and is also extremely fuel efficient–unlike rice or pasta, you don’t have to boil it for a long time–you just bring the water to a boil, remove from heat, add the couscous, cover, and let absorb. We added some freeze-dried veggies to the water as it was coming to a boil and also a packet of chicken bouillon powder to make a sort of couscous pilaf. When the water had finished absorbing, we added a foil packet of chicken and some roasted pine nuts we had prepared at home. I think we threw a little butter in there, too. A delicious one-pot meal!
We don’t normally go quite so gourmet, though. Hate to admit it, but our “old standard” backpacking food is Top Ramen. We might add something to it…or not. Never touch the stuff at home, but (like most anything) it sure tastes good out on the trail! I’ve tried the freeze-dried meals three or four times. Not good. Top Ramen may not be as nutritionally well-rounded a meal, but it’s tastier and a WHOLE lot cheaper! And if you add some veggies and maybe some tuna/chicken, it’s probably not much different from the freeze-dried ones (they are both high in sodium).
Otherwise, we like to simply nibble on nuts, granola bars, dried fruit, or jerky for a “meal.” You can make a shorter stop if you don’t have to undo the pack!
If you’re looking for greens to keep the old digester pipes moving, wash baby spinach leaves, pack them in a plastic bag with a paper towel, and carry along with you. They’re lightweight and can be eaten fresh or stirred into couscous or other dishes, where they’ll wilt nicely. Also: powdered milk with couscous and dried fruit is tasty. Smoked salmon is another good option — salty so it lasts without refrigeration and tastes great. Relatively lightweight too. Cheddar cheese lasts forever, even without refrigeration
My favorite camping food: instant ramen and smoked sausages. As long as I had access to clean water and a pot, I could whip up this tasty breakfast treat. Another yummy addition, hot sauce packets :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/queenkv/355022355/
My husband and I often go backpacking with a group of other hillwalkers, but only for one day at a time, so while weight is an issue, we’re not quibbling over every ounce when it comes to food. I still remember my first experience backpacking. My (then) boyfriend and I were sharing the “party tent” with another couple. While my experienced backpacker of a boyfriend pulled out a can of soup or beans or something equally unexciting for our meal, the other couple enjoyed a decadant three-course dinner: salad (dressing packed separately), curry and rice, and finally cheese and grapes. Ever since I’ve made sure we have something home-cooked and tasty to eat when we finally settle into our tents. It makes all the difference. We also have little plastic wine glasses to complete our sense of luxury! Thanks for the tip on couscous; I hadn’t thought of that.
For lunch on the way, I like to make non-mayo based tuna salad and cannelini bean sandwiches, from a recipe I found on Epicurious.
Lots of nice ideas here! I usually carry a potato, carrot and an onion to be eaten the first couple of days (carried in a small brown paper bag, it breathes). I’ll get some water boiling in a pot and add some slices of carrot and potato, and cook until tender (but not too tender). Then add some chopped onion and as much Top-Ramen as I think it will handle. When the Top-Ramen is done its eaten, I add the onion near the end so it gives some crunch to the softer carrot and potato. I sometimes use the packets that come with the noodles, depending on the ingredients listed, or I’ll add some rice/noodle seasonings I pick up at the local oriental food store. Wash the onion and potato at home and peel the onion down to usable rings so you won’t have any trash to lug around. If you have a fire going, you can burn the paper bag.
I was about to suggest Babybel , an absolute lifesaver for our two daughters. Then I noticed it already mentioned in the article. Our girls can survive the day on Babybel and small cartons of apple juice. And of course the more they eat, the lighter daddies rucksack becomes.