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Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Mon 29 Jan, 2018 7:43 pm
by ricrunner
I have for the first time tried an Outdoor Gourmet freeze dried meal and wanted to do a short review. I got an 2 man meal of Thia green chicken curry, and followed the directions and found their was not enough water in it as well as the ten minute recommended cooking is not enough time. It seems to be better if left 20 minutes to cook the rice and weird dried looking chicken. I am not really impressed with this meal at the present time, but as family have given me 30 mixed satchels of the stuff for Xmas as well as lots of different camping and cycle touring gear, I will have to learn to cook this type of food and maybe choose better meals in the future. I am ex-army so have some experience in dried foods, but was not that impressed with this flavoured meal as of yet although it does taste really good. There is a lot of rice at least 90%, and although rice is high in carbs and carbs are what I need when cycling long distance, I would prefer more vegetable. Their is just enough chicken, to justify calling it a chicken meal, so if I was to give it a rating out of ten, it would be a 5. Other's may have a different opinion, but I wont eat rough this day and age and you should not need to. In the event of an End of the World scenario, you would have not much choice, and I would than rate it at a 7. So that is my opinion of this one meal so far. I will endeavour to post on other meals as I use Them sometime in the future. I am not affiliated to the company or any other food company and am not being paid to do a review.

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Tue 30 Jan, 2018 3:25 am
by ribuck
I find it helps to place the sachet next to the fire while it's rehydrating, to keep it as hot as possible. If I don't have a fire, I wrap something insulating around it. Even so, I leave it to rehydrate for 20 minutes.

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Tue 30 Jan, 2018 10:09 am
by matagi
We get good results by adding the meal to the water, bring to the boil, then take it off the heat and let it stand for 20-30 mins wrapped in something insulating to keep it warm. Uses less gas that way and consistently produces a good result regardless of brand of food. This method assumes you're carrying a reasonable sized mug/pot.

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Tue 30 Jan, 2018 10:34 am
by RonK
Most people who have tried Outdoor Gourmet or Back Country already know about the issues you raise and have simply adjusted the water and re-hydration time accordingly.

I've never found re-hydrating in the pouch very successful and prefer to re-hydrate in my pot. I add the contents to boiling water then take the pot off the stove and let it stand covered with a pot cosy. Yes, twenty minutes is pretty much how long I leave it stand.

Most of us have also tried the other offerings available on the market and can tell you that there is not a lot of difference between them, so if you don't like to "eat rough" then you need to prepare and dry you own meals or plan to be near a pub each night.

Since you have thirty of these meals you'll have to eat you way through them first, then you might consider Strive, a local product which many here consider is a better choice.

For bike touring, unless you are going somewhere remote there is little need for expensive dehydrated food. I do carry a meal or two in reserve in my touring tucker bag, but generally I'm able to re-supply every day or two. There is a huge range of foods available in supermarkets that is suitable for bike touring.

This thread on BNA discusses touring food and has links to similar threads. What do you eat?

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Thu 01 Feb, 2018 5:16 pm
by ricrunner
Yes, I have only been back bicycle touring in the last 2 years, and as I normally have a dog with me, I also pull a trailer for him. So what I have been eating has mainly been tins, noodle packs carbonarra etc, cold meats sometimes frozen meats if I have access to a freezer every now and then. The main reason I am looking at freeze dried or similar is to save weight and as I am starting back to doing remote outback trips again (travelled the outback by bike in the 80's 90' when on leave from the army), I do need substantially meals after 6 plus hours ride per day. I happened to mention this to my family before Xmas and they went mad and bought food and gear that I had not previously tested or had seen reviewed. So I am stuck with those meals and I will do what RonK and Matagi suggest. I wont exclusively rely on those freeze dried packs and will start looking at using my dehydrator again. Still will use some of previous style meals and as I am out usually for up to a month or more, I have to put up with small supermarkets in little outback towns. Thank you very much for your replies.

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Thu 01 Feb, 2018 8:11 pm
by Gadgetgeek
I don't know how a normal person would go about getting it, but at my work we order bulk bags of freeze dry meat and veggies direct from equipped who distribute for back country. the veggies are a may contain for gluten, but so far I've been good with the meats, the lamb is not bad, and the beef is far better than dehy, and the chicken is often snacked on like prawn crackers. Might be worth looking at just getting some other freeze dry stuff to pad the meals out, use them as a base, then add things like dried mushrooms, FD veggies, and the like.

Re: Freeze Dried Food Satchels

PostPosted: Sat 03 Feb, 2018 3:20 pm
by ricrunner
I will now start using them as base meals to add other ingredients to. As I said I normally take bulky stuff but after speaking with my wife, she is going to help me style dehydrated meals at home using our dehydrator. Thanks for the advice everyone.