Bushwalk Australia

I bought a range of dehydrated ready made meals at Coles and Woolies to try them out for at home for Freezer bag cooking on my next trip.

I took some notes on how they turned out that I thought some of you might like to read. In summary the only thing I've tried so far that was decent was the mash.

I brought water to a rolling boil and poured it into the Multix microwave bag shown below ($3.85 for 10) .
The Multix bags were really strong and I even used them to boil in the bag some of the pasta after it failed to rehydrate well in the cosy. There were no visible signs of damage/ wear on the bags after placing it in a pot of boiling water heated by my Trangia stove.

The first to cook was the Woolworths Select Cheese Rice ($1 on special)
I placed 330ml of boiling water in the freezer bag and then placed the bag inside two "keep cups" one of which was upside down. I wanted to see if that made a decent warmer for the rehydration. It turns out that it didn't. After 15 minutes the rice was still undercooked and still after 25 minutes. I thought that might have been because of the keep cups rather than a coozy (insulated bag for the zip lock bag) so I tried the other rice dish with a heavily insulated bag and got similar results. The quantity was about enough for two (rather than the four written on the bag) and didn't taste great even after I took it out of the freezer bag and cooked it normally in a pot.

I tried the Woolworths Select Chicken Rice ($1 on special) and this time placed the bag in an insulated bag. At the 10 minuet mark I moved the rice around in the bag and then stirred it at 15 minuets. After 15 minutes the rice was more cooked than my attempt using Keep Cups but still quite under-done. I took the bag and then placed it in 100ml of boiling water on my alcohol stove. After another 10 minutes it was cooked but by this point was very gluggy plus I didn't really much like the flavour. I need to try a third rice meal by adding it to the freezer bag in an insulated pouch while I bring 100ml of water to the boil and then boiling in the bag for 10 minutes in the water. I expect this would work but would take another 30ml or so of fuel. Still I need to find a flavour that appeals to my tastes.

The mashed potato was much better (lost the receipt).

You are supposed to use a mixture of milk and water at the boil and then add the packet. Instead I added a tablespoon of milk powder to the mash and just added the packet to the water (not the other way around as the packet was specific). The mash was ready after three minutes. It was a bit tasteless to start with but with added salt, garlic salt and cheese (I usually take a block of cheese for the first day or two of a hike) it tasted fine. It was a bit runny with the recommended 625ml of water so I'd probably try about 10% less water next time. It made a huge amount of mash from a 100g packet. I wasn't really sure how I'd use the mash though in a meal unless it was a tuna casserole (i.e add tuna and cheese) or something similar. I didn't add any margarine or oil. It was still a bit lumpy because I didn't whisk it in. However using only a spoon to get out the lumps it was still quite good.

Finally for this round I tried a weight watchers instant custard (lost the receipt) .

With the 250ml of water this wasn't very much custard. After two minutes it was still very runny. I left if for a further 4 minutes but it wasn't going to get any thicker with this method. It also didn't thicken as it subsequently cooled. This might be another candidate for trying to boil in the bag. I tasted the runny custard and it was awful. Very artificial sweeter taste, unrelated to the texture. I won't be trying another weight watchers custard though I do plan to keep looking for a custard that I can just add water to and set aside in my insulated bag.

So three fails and one pass. The multix bags seem like a real winner . I have a few pasta dishes to try, a couscous and a miso soup ($1.99) with dehydrate tofu. I'll let you know how they go though I expect they'll be much more successful as I think this kind of dehydrated rice just won't work with the set aside freezer bag method.

Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Cheers, Neil

Hi Neil,

If you can find it the Foster Clarke single server makes a nice custard.

Plus its worth looking through the smaller chain supermarkets I often find what I need at IGA rather the other two.
Plus different towns often have different stocks, so always worth check the supermarkets out when travelling

Wazza.

+1 for Foster Clark's if you can find it
corvus

With custard, I think you will find that they all need actual boiling themselves. This is to cook the flour component that generally provides the thickening. Be it corn flour or arrowroot or whatever. Without the boiling, you have a somewhat unpalatable sludge.

+2 for Foster Clark's instant custard. One of the nicest desserts on the track I reckon. Poured over rehydrated dried fruit of any sort, leaves a warm glow after a main course of a home dehydrated meal.

It is getting hard to get though, although IGA supermarkets seem to have it more than others where we are.

Neil,

Next time, try some of the instant couscous. It typically cooks in about 3 minutes, which makes it much more freezer-bag friendly than something that suggests it needs 14 mins cooking.

I have used a number of the packets you mention in a cook-pot. I use enough meths to bring it to a boil and say 2-3 minutes boiling. Then let it sit for 5 minutes. Then another 5-10 ml meths to bring it back to the boil - I find this cooks them fairly reliably. I also normally add 20-30 ml of olive oil - helps the texture, and is as nutritionally dense as you can get (9 calories per gram).

Mad

madmacca wrote:Next time, try some of the instant couscous. It typically cooks in about 3 minutes

All cous cous that I have come across cooks in about 3 minutes. What is the other type?

madmacca wrote:Next time, try some of the instant couscous. It typically cooks in about 3 minutes

All cous cous that I have come across cooks in about 3 minutes. What is the other type?

Strider wrote:

madmacca wrote:Next time, try some of the instant couscous. It typically cooks in about 3 minutes

All cous cous that I have come across cooks in about 3 minutes. What is the other type?

The majority of cous cous sold here is the instant type which takes about 3 mins to cook. Normal cous cous takes somewhat longer.

Pearl or Israeli Cous Cous is also available very nice but most certainly not recommended for fast cooking
corvus

Thank you Neil for this great suggestion. Ii certainly works well for mashed potatoes, but I used DEB with Onion 115g packet. This is far easier than the one you described.
The good thing is it only needs 500ml of boiling water and no milk at all. I simply poured the contents into the bag, added the 500ml of boiling water and used a plastic fork to mix it in. It tasted great as it has the onion in it, all I did was add some pepper. It was real easy to mix but there was a little loose powder in the bottom but I mixed it as I ate and it was no problem and so simple. Warning though this is a big feed, so the end of a coolish day would be ideal if you need bulk food to fill up. I'm going to try some other ideas with these bags as I get around to it.

Just a heads up that might be usefull.
All the "Hercules" brand ziplock bags (sold at coles) I took on a ten dayer split at the bottom edge sooner or later. Im not talking jsut one or two.
None of the "Glad" brands split. Ive taken the same small Glad Zip lock a dozen times and it only looks worse for wear.
The OP used "Multix" and their baking papers and foils seem a cut above the rest so Id give them a go.
Split bag could be disappointing if you are hungry.

I still find it amusing people have so much trouble heating up custard rice and potato . Must eat out at home.