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The Insider Pick:
A hot meal of real food can make all the difference when you've been hiking all day and still have miles to go before the trek is through.
With the right backpacking food, you can enjoy a real dinner or a hearty breakfast with minimal prep required.
Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles is our top pick because this freeze dried food won't weigh you down while you trek but will fill you up once prepared using nothing more than boiling water.
I've climbed many a mountain and hiked hundreds of miles in my day, and in the course of those ascents and traverses, I've eaten my fair share of CLIF BARs, beef jerky, trail mix, and gross high protein goo packet thingies. While those foods have their place when you're out in the hinterlands (and hey, I'll eat a CLIFF BAR or trail mix while I'm running out the door at home, too), they're not what we're talking about today. When I say backpacking food, I mean a real meal — the kind of filling, nourishing, meal that replaces not only calories spent but that revitalizes the spirit as well.
From a thick, hearty stew enjoyed on the summit of Mt. Whitney to rice and chicken scarfed down beside sacred lakes high in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains to mac and cheese enjoyed while car camping with my young son, I know firsthand how beneficial a hot meal can be when you're far afield. Fortunately, enjoying a great "real" meal while you camp, trek, or climb isn't all that hard to do provided you planned ahead. None of the meals on this list require anything fancier than a pot, some water, and a stove (or fire) to prepare, and some don't even require the pot.
When choosing the right backpacking food for you, consider your foodstuffs as part of your overall gear, and I say that both in terms of sheer gear weight and logistics. Will you need to bring lots of water to reconstitute a freeze-dried meal, for example, or does your route lead past plenty of sources from which you can filter water for cooking? And if there aren't water sources, should you instead consider meals that don't require additional liquid? How much fuel do you need to ensure you have enough to cook the meals you're planning? These and other considerations, including simple calorie count, should inform your thinking about the best backpacking food for you.
Oh, and also make sure you get food you like to eat.
Here is the best backpacking food you can buy:
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
The best backpacking food overall
Why you'll love it: A packet of Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles weighs only around four ounces prior to the addition of water, yet it serves up 520 delicious calories.
I ate the best beef stroganoff of my life while camped out some 12,800 feet high in the stunning Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Granted, I was ravenous at the time after an all-day hike, so shoe leather probably would have tasted passably good, but still I was unduly impressed with the flavor of the Mountain House Beef Stroganoff I enjoyed that late afternoon. And all the more so because, prior to the addition of about 14 ounces of boiling water, the pouch of food added a scant four ounces to my gear weight.
Each pouch of Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles serves up 22 grams of protein and 520 calories, so your overworked muscles and generally depleted energy stores will be greatly revitalized after your meal. It's nice to know that this stuff is backed by a stunning 30-year taste guarantee, so don't worry if you have a few pouches left over after your trek, you can always enjoy it in the 2040s.
With hundreds and hundred’s of reviews logged on Amazon, Mountain House Beef Stroganoff has a commendable 4.5-star average rating on Amazon. One avid outdoorsman speaks for many when says the stuff is "very easy to make" and "actually tastes fantastic."
A writer from Trailspace called the Beef Stroganoff "creamy and smooth" with an "excellent flavor" and noted the ease of prep as well.
Pros: Great taste, lightweight prior to prep, extra long shelf life
Cons: Quite expensive
The best backpacking food for easy prep
Why you'll love it: You can tear open a Western Frontier MRE Meal-Ready-To-Eat any time and anywhere for a major infusion of calories.
These are MREs (AKA Meal Ready to Eat) are sold by Western Frontier, but make no mistake, they are genuine military surplus products made by the Department of Defense and for warfighters. MREs have a multi-year shelf life and, as the word ready implies, they are ready to be consumed at any time and with minimal required.
In fact, many MREs are ready to be eaten without any cooking or prep at all, though if you use the included heater to warm the entree (think chili with beans or chicken, noodles, and vegetables in sauce) it will taste that much better.
Each MRE pouch does indeed contain a meal complete with a main course, crackers, beverage powder, freeze-dried coffee crystals, and even a sweet like a fudge brownie. The taste might not equal the multi-course dinner you get at a Michelin star restaurant, but when you're far afield, enjoying a dinner with multiple components is a genuine treat. And the fact that each MRE delivers approximately 1,250 calories will be welcome after an arduous trek.
With several dozen reviews posted on Amazon, these MREs have a solid 4.1-star average rating. One shopper loved the fact that the MREs came with "a healthy snack and dessert item," and was "pleasantly surprised by the taste" of the meal. Another called them the ideal "emergency food" to keep stocked in the house.
Just note that with all those calories comes a fair amount of weight, so lugging multiple MREs along during an extended trek might not be the best idea.
Pros: Minimal prep required, diverse foodstuffs in each pouch, high calorie count
Cons: Rather heavy for long hikes or climbs
The best backpacking soup
Why you'll love it: Once heated up, a pouch of Fishpeople Alder Smoked Wild Salmon Chowder tastes almost as good as the soup you'd get along with your sandwich at your favorite family diner.
Alright, confession time... I've never eaten Fishpeople Alder Smoked Wild Chowder while camping. But I have had several pouches of this soup at home. I've also had many a serving of the bisques. The reasons I have yet to tuck a pouch of Fishpeople soup into my pack is that I genuinely like the stuff and it's wildly easy to prepare, so I just heat some up for a quick lunch when I'm trying to get work done. If you're at home or at the office, you can microwave this chowder right in its pouch.
While in the backwoods, you can heat the pouch in boiling water and eat it right out of the pouch. The ease of prep is one of the positives here. The long shelf life with no refrigeration required is another. And the taste, courtesy of wild-caught salmon, sweet onions, fennel, garlic, and heavy cream is another.
There are only 310 calories in a pouch of Fishpeople Alder Smoked Wild Chowder, which is on the lower end, but you can always just eat something else as well. Also note that a lot of those calories come from fat, but we're talking about backpacking food here, so you'll burn right through that. Assuming, y'know, you actually eat it while backpacking and not while writing...
One Amazon customer left a review that cuts right to the chase, simply saying: "this chowder is delicious." And while many others echoed that sentiment, a number of people did comment on the rather small portion size. So bring some crackers, or get two pouches per meal.
A writer from DrGourmet called Fishpeople soups "incredibly convenient" thanks to their easy prep and praised the taste and consistency of the chowder.
Pros: Great taste, easy to prepare, great for backpacking or everyday
Cons: Not filling enough
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