Best Tasting Dehydrated Camping Food

[dagsands]

We are headed to the Abel Tasman Track in NZ and will be stopping in Nelson en route. Has anyone tried Nelson based dehydrated meals: Absolute Wilderness? Would be keen for a few suggestions of the better ones in their range. http://www.absolutewilderness.co.nz/about/

[ofuros]

Good find, dagsands.....hopefully a local will chip in with some suggestions, since they're only available in NZed.

[Gimped]

Just back from a 7-dayer in Tas.
Backcountry "roast lamb with vegetables" was great! 9/10
Need to rehydrate for 20mins rather than 10.

Spag bog 8/10...another great meal

[dagsands]

I can recommend the absolute wilderness berries on yogurt (add less water than they say) if you are in NZ/ can get that brand.
Also bought their scrambled eggs but didn't eat it (yet) due to whopping 1000 odd calories for a single serve. Will save it as an emergency ration instead.

My fave from the 6 days last week was bc roast lamb and veg.
Also my man loved the bc venison risotto.
I know people love the OG coq au vin but we found it too rich. The OG butter chicken was good. And the bc mex chicken was good - especially nice treat to have a few corn chips, and very spicy, but the kidney beans were a bit hard.
I know people like strive but I wouldn't have the laksa again, didn't taste like laksa ( I'd call it 'noodles in curry sauce') and not enough veg. The spag Bol was ok but not awesome. The creamy veg pasta was ok but a bit lacking in flavour. Their packs are less stable (one punctured just from pressure) and of course there is the washing up and they weigh more than the bc and OG. Also on weighing the packs, strive total weight including packaging was considerably less than the advertised net weight (by up to 50g!). The bc and outdoor gourmet all weighed in more than net weight.

Looking forward to eating my own concoctions now, but enjoyed the 'just add water' ease of prep of bc and OG.

Bon appetite!

[Bret Critchley 1959]

Back when I was a Boy Scout
40 yrs ago Vesta had some fabulous dried food options
Chicken Supreme was my favorite but I can't find them any more
Does anyone know if they are still available

[SueO1988]

We are currently in the process of dehydrating meals for the Larapinta. We have two dehydrators (thanks Alddi) and have always dehydrated our own meals. My favourite is definitely Rick Steins Vegetable Makhanawala, the kids favourite (21/25) is homemade slag bog. Also don't mind mushroom risotto. All four of us are doing the E to E so lots of meals to make. Might even try the Dinner Delux Scrambled Egg!

[Bill P]

"Slag bog" ? Don't you mean Bag Slog?

[SueO1988]

Ha meant spag bog!!

[TerraMer]

I have recently discovered Campers Pantry.
I have tried a lot of dehydrated food, even DIY fruit, veg and curries but was keen to try the freeze dry veggies instead of dehydrated.
Campers Pantry freeze dried veggies are so much faster to cook, taste great and are more nutrient rich than dehydrated veggies.

[Gunner55]

I've watched this thread - sort of hungrily, and sort of not hungrily too, knowing commercial camping dehydrated quality. My contribution is to flag Strive Food from Tasmania. I think they are relatively new players and they only seem to retail from their website or Hobart store. I have tried two of their meals (beef massaman, vegie laksa) and I have ordered more. They provide what is clearly the best tasting dehydrated camping food I've experienced. The only downside, and so far I think it is a small one, is that the meals require more water to cook/hydrate, a reasonable size pot and more gas to cook. So there is a weight and space issue, but I think it's a pretty minor one. And I have definitely improvised with their cooking instruction! Anyone else tried their meals??

[ChrisJHC]

Also a big fan of Strive. Don’t agree with your mentioned downsides - I just boil a cup of water, tip the Strive contents in and leave for 5-10 minutes. May need a little more heat but usually that’s all.

I do find the risotto a little hard to reconstitute in the bush so will stay away from that in future.

The curry laksa is particularly good on a cold day.


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