Years ago dehydrated meals were basically army rations and not all that tasty and nutrition wise, probably slightly better than cardboard! With the advent of modern technology, I wondered what your thoughts and experiences were regarding nutrition, taste, price, quality and brands you prefer, as they're easy and quick to prepare, pack and they last for ages. The last time I looked in the local camping store I noticed they were quite expensive couldn't find anything under $8 AU and some were double the price per meal.

This is not exactly dehydrate meals but chinese stirfry uses dry noodles,with a few sauces and peppers and veggies,we also use canned meat which makes for great camping food. fairly cheap.

I've tried a couple of the dehydrated meals from Anaconda camp store.
Brand is "Back Country" from memory.
Not too bad at all, both in main meal & sweets BUT ! & there always is one....they're expensive, yet they fill a hole well !

I'm also with yokesman. Tin of meat & noodles do real well too.

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My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

What have I found?

I found it best to avoid them.

Overpriced, too small and pretty tasteless. Why bother when I can buy a can of Chunky soup from Aldi for under $2.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Heh,

It's obviously all subjective, but I've found several of the Mountain House flavours very acceptable. Yes it's 7.50 GBP or thereabouts for a Big Pack meal for two, but that's pretty big and masses of Kilojoules for the weight. When either off road desert biking or trekking in the middle of nowhere, every gram saved counts. Add some dehydrated parmesan and all you need now is acceptable dehydrated red wine.

Personally we like Spag Bol, Chicken Korma & Chicken Tikka the best.

In Oz we tried the backcountry brand, but won't be changing over by choice

James

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JT http://leeandjames2013.blogspot.hk/

Hi Dave, hope all O.k. in your world.

Dehydrated meals may taste dull, but beware of them, they are packed with sodium, (salt), which isn`t very good healthwise, and also causes increased de hydration, which for a biker is something we should avoid, esp for the kidneys. They may be better than the old army rations tastewise, and useful as a back up if all else fails, but for regular consumption to be avoided IMHO. Dried packet soups are my standby, still got lots of salt in them but lots of fluid if you make a full packet.

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-''It is better to walk alone than with a crowd going in the wrong direction''. ( Herman Siu)
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G'day Pongo,

All well here thanks, good to hear from you mate, hope you're doing well also.

Packet soup is generally what I carry also and you're right about keeping the sodium level down and keeping an eye on additives ect. Noodles lack content and require extras, cans of stew, fish ect. are good but bulky and heavy too. I hoped there was something I was missing out on.

If your going into a place where you may not get water, say a desert, then there is little point in dehydration as you'll have to carry the water anyway.

The main market for 'dehydrated meals' are bushwalkers.. they do a fair amount of work and sweat - so they need lots of kg + salt... thus the meals have it for them. A bicycle tourer may need 6,000 calories per day! That is a lot, about 1kg perday dehydrated! If your sweating on your journey you too may need some extra salt and food... In Oz the cheapest place for them might be Dried Food for Hiking, Dried Fruits for Bushwalks, Multi Day Bushwalking Food

You can get some interesting stuff in the supermarket! The 'cup of soup' stuff + noodles do wonders for some. Weight saving can be had by not choosing something in a tin can.. Aldi Remano Couscous ( I like the 'Hot & Spicy') - just add hot water stir and wait a few minutes, you might want to add a sachet of fish/chicken. Sun Rice microwave meals 'only' need heating - they are precooked, no can. Coles - Indian section - Tasty Bite Bombay potatoes, Passage to India Dhal Manhani. And there are dehydrated fruits - they tend to have lots of sugar! Mango, banana, apple.

If you want you can DIY dehydrate .. then vacum pack. This works well as you can refrain from the added sugar and salt. And reduce the costs.

A word of caution .. all these things loose their nutritional value from the moment they are processed, at the expiry date there would be a fair loss! So buy and eat fairly close together, don't store. Not something you could use for an extended trip .. you might be able to plan a month, after that your buying what is available, or have a support person at home sending you out stuff.

Pro: light (in spite of what has been said) they last forever

Con: expensive, bland, not much food, high sodium, did I say expensive, require water

I sometimes carry one freeze dried meal as a survival meal. Someone usually gives me one they don't want.

You can eat lighter out of the grocery store. Do a search on calories per ounce. Appalachian Trail thru-hikers are very serious about this, trying to get max calories per ounce. Their goal is 100 calories/oz.

I learnt on my journey from India to Uk thro the Silk Route that the local NAAN served free in all restaurants eaten all by itself is the best food for dehydration. Its time tested.