Field test and review – Back Country
Every time I think back to my first overnight hike I remember how proud I was of my evening meal plan. I’d prepared frozen chicken fillets, fresh broccoli and pasta, all ready to cook and eat once we made camp. It made sense to me at the time, why eat packaged food when I could carry what I’d normally eat at home. It was a good idea in theory, but after a few multi day hikes I worked out it added unnecessary weight, took too long to prepare and cook, and just wasn’t practical, particularly in warmer weather or once you’re three days into a trip. I needed a better solution, so I went looking at my usual outdoor stores to see what else was out there.
What I found was Back Country Cuisine’s Freeze Dri food range, which comes in a good spread of flavours and pack sizes to cover most appetites and dietary needs. The packets are light and filling, and about as simple as cooking gets: add hot water, reseal the bag, wait for it to rehydrate, and eat.
Freeze Dri food suits hiking because it weighs a fraction of fresh or canned food while still holding onto flavour, colour, aroma and nutritional value. The packaging itself is solid, which matters when you’re trying to save space in a pack, and the zip lock top means you can reseal it while it’s cooking, save any leftovers, and avoid attracting wildlife to your camp. It also means that when you’re packing your rubbish out, the food waste and liquid stay contained in the pouch rather than leaking through your pack.
The pouches are easy to pack in and pack out, and the meals carry a genuinely long shelf life, well beyond four years according to Back Country Cuisine’s own testing, provided the bag hasn’t been opened or damaged. The ice cream products are the exception, with a shorter 2-year shelf life. Either way, keep your packages unharmed and stored somewhere cool and dry. Different pack sizes are also available if you want to split a meal between two people.
Preparation
Preparation is simply a case of following the instructions printed on the back of each pack. Add boiling water, reseal the pouch, wait 10 minutes, and eat. Every product needs a different amount of water depending on what’s in it, 200ml for Beef Stroganoff, 250ml for honey chicken soy, 300ml for apple pie, 180ml for strawberry ice-cream. If you’re stuck with only room temperature or cold water it still works, but you’ll need to double the wait time. I generally sit the pouch in an insulated sleeve, which helps it cook properly and stops the outside conditions working against it.
The pouch itself heats up once you’ve added the boiling water, so I hold it from the bottom or right at the very top. That can still be awkward if you’re eating straight out of the bag, so I usually stand it in a bowl to make it easier to manage.
I’m happy eating Back Country Cuisine Freeze Dri food on overnight hikes. I like the taste, there’s a good range of meals to pick from, and the convenience is hard to beat. On multi-day hikes though, I generally carry my own dehydrated meals instead, because after a few days on the trail this kind of food can go right through you. There’s a good range of dehydrated meal options on the market these days, so it’s worth checking a few out to see what works for you.
What makes Back Country Cuisine easy to prepare and good to eat comes down to the Freeze Dri process itself. It combines freeze-dried vegetables and meats that rehydrate quickly with sauce mixes that have been processed to hold onto their natural flavour, which is why a meal can go from pack to plate in 10 minutes with nothing more than boiling water.
The freeze drying process works by taking the frozen ice crystals in the food and subliming them, turning them to water vapour in a vacuum chamber. What’s left is a completely dry product that hasn’t shrunk in the process. When you add the water back in, it moves quickly into the pores the ice crystals left behind, which is why the food ends up juicy and tender rather than tough.
Once packed, the food is heat-sealed into foil pouches with the air replaced by nitrogen gas, which is what keeps it safe and flavoursome for well beyond four years without needing preservatives. The pouches are also light, easy to pack in and out, and carry nutritional information and the grams per serving on the label, which is handy if you’re keeping track of what you’re eating on a longer trip.
Back Country Cuisine’s meals are put together to meet the higher energy needs of a day on the trail, enough carbohydrate and sugar for quick energy, enough protein to help muscles recover, and enough oil and fat to provide a genuine energy store, kept within the recommended maximum of 30% of total energy. The low temperatures used in freeze drying also mean the food holds onto its natural vitamins, and with the naturally occurring minerals and the added salt, the meals give you what you need to stay healthy on a longer hike.
Available from most leading hiking stores.
