Sastrugi.com Food Page

FOOD REQUIREMENTS:

Your body needs lots of calories just to keep warm. Add to that the exertion of moving about in a winter environment, and you can easily consume 5,000 a day. Fats are the most concentrated form of calories, though they won't get you far without carbs.

I personally hate to cook in the field so I want things that require one pot, max. That said, I do value that one pot, because hot food gives you calories in the form of heat as well as in the form of food calories, and warms you up. I realize this is stating the obvious, but I have, in fact, tried no-cook winter trips and they aren't much fun.

I used to have a sample menu posted in this section, but it's not really a good reflection of what I like to carry anymore, so I removed it.

PEMMICAN: a mixture of dried meat and fat. Mmm-mmm good. American Indian in origin, originally made with a 50/50 meat/fat mixture, sometimes augmented by dried berries for flavor. My own mixture is 60% shredded beef jerky (a food processor is helpful) and 40% lard. Shred the jerky, melt the lard, mix them together in a bowl and pack about 4 ounces into a plastic-lined form (tuna tins work well), then refrigerate. When it's cool and hard, dip the tins into hot water to loosen it, pull it out of the tin, and wrap the excess plastic over it. Keep it in the freezer. Lasts indefinitely. Tastes like crap at home, but after a day or two in chilly conditions it's about the best-tasting stuff in the world.

SAUSAGE: As in summer sausage and the like. Read the ingredients -- particularly the fat content -- then try to tell me pemmican is bizarre.

GLOP: a good place for your pemmican. "Glop" is a blanket term (as "gorp" has become in regard to trail mix) to describe a thick sort of one-pot meal, usually made with some flavoring base (like soup mix), some protein source (tuna, corned beef), and some carbohydrate source (rice, mashed potatoes), all boiled together. I hate to cook in the field -- well, I hate to clean, anyway, which precludes cooking -- so I'm a big fan of glop. There's no wrong way to make it, outside of adding too little water and scorching it, and no right or wrong ingredients. It doesn't always taste great, but if it tasted better it'd have a better name.

OATMEAL: Oatmeal is miracle food. It keeps me going like nothing else I've found. Starting the day with a couple of bowls of oatmeal always gets me fired and provides quick, clean carbo-energy for hours. This is a classic case of a food I do not eat for the taste. I like to add dehydrated fruit (wrap the pot up in your sleeping bag and let it sit for a few minutes after adding the water), and sometimes peanut butter. (Ed. note: no, I am not heir to an oatmeal fortune.)

PEANUT BUTTER: I read a quote from a guy (I can't remember who) who said: "You can go a long way on fat and sugar." Peanut butter fits that bill (unless you buy the sugarless kind, which would screw up the logic of this paragraph) with the added benefit of protein. The trick is dispensing it when it's frozen. Good luck. (As time goes on, nothing stays the same... since I wrote this I've revised what I tend to carry; peanut butter no longer makes the cut due to the dispensing problems. Still good for dayhikes, though: make peanut-butter "sandwiches" by spreading it between two granola bars.)

CHOCOLATE: See quote in "Peanut Butter", above. This presents no dispensing trouble when frozen, however it can be a tooth-cracker. Thaw slightly before eating.

NUTS: Fats again (Hmm... I see a trend). If you buy the salted kind, you help replace salts you lost through sweating. And it's nice to have something crunchy on hand when you're on a steady diet of oatmeal and glop.

DRIED FRUIT: I suppose this has some health benefits, but frankly I carry it mostly as a morale-booster, especially when I have warm-weather fruits like papaya. Plus you can carry a variety of dried fruit in a minimum of space, which gives you a feeling of having a broader menu.

BREAD: As the Army discovered, bread is a morale-booster (crackers, it turns out, are not). It spent years developing shelf-stable pouched bread so that soldiers could eat bread in the field. You, you lucky devil, have a built-in solution: freeze it. Frozen bread keeps forever and doesn't get crushed. Personally, I prefer pitas and bagels, which are dense and pack-friendly. To thaw, either heat over your dinner pot or (much better!) fry up with some butter. Depending on the time of day, top with either cinnamon-sugar or cheese.

OATMEAL: Did I mention how much I love oatmeal?

DRINKS:

As much as it pains me, neither coffee nor Guinness (nor, for that matter, my home-brewed porter... which is quite good, if I do say so mayself) make my winter-camping packing list. Guinness because it's alcoholic (it does make up an important part of my training regimen, however), and coffee because it's a diuretic, and it's tough enough to stay hydrated as it is. If you're a caffeine addict (and I heartily recommend it), wean yourself off a week or two ahead of your trip; otherwise you'll have a splitting headache for the first few days.

COCOA: Add powdered milk to your instant cocoa to make it a) more nutritious, and b) tasty! I add a LOT of powdered milk -- generally as much milk powder as I have cocoa powder. If you pack in bulk you can combine the two at home.

TANG: Great stuff, loaded (as we all know) with vitamin C, and also loaded (perhaps more importantly for our purposes) with sugar. Tastes great hot or cold.

HERBAL TEA: A nice break if you're sick of sugary drinks, and doesn't have any of that mean, diuretic caffeine.

JELL-O: There's always room... A very tasty, calorie-loaded (sounds better than "calorie-laden) hot drink. Just be sure to drink it before it cools off.

COOKING:

STOVE: You'll need to carry a stove. A one-burner camping stove is good for one or two people. If you're pulling a sled, you may want to opt for a two-burner camp stove - like a Coleman stove - or even a wood-burning sheepherder's stove, if your tent is equipped to handle one. Be careful with stove fuel, because spilling it on your skin in cold weather can cause instant frostbite.

COOKSET: A simple cookset will usually do (and save on the dishes).
        Pot: big enough to whip up noodles & pemmican
        Fry Pan: big enough to fit pitas, bagels, bacon, or whatever else you may want to sauté
        Teapot: at least 1-liter capacity and wide top opening for melting snow
        Bowl(s): if desired; not needed if you're solo or with a friend
        Spoon(s): anything you can do with a fork, you can do with a spoon
        Insulated Travel Mug(s): keeps drinks/soup/oatmeal hot

Don't grab metal cookware/utensils barehanded without warming them up - and don't pop a cold metal spoon in your mouth unless you want your skin to be stuck to it.

VACUUM BOTTLE: I got a vacuum bottle as a present before heading out for a Christmas trip, and lo and behold it was like a new world. No longer did I have to choose between digging out my stove at lunch or suffering through cold drinks and snacks. Now I could boil water at breakfast and it would still be painfully hot at lunch, and at the mid-afternoon cocoa break, and after I woke up from my post-cocoa-break nap, and (if there was any water left) be hot for a quick recharge before setting up camp in the afternoon. Plus, you can fill it after dinner and have hot water handy in case you wake up chilly in the wee hours and need a warm-up (not much flavor, but it's hot).

My notes from that trip contain paragraphs of praise for the vacuum bottle. Extra weight? What extra weight?

-OR-

BOTTLE PARKA: A foam sleeve for your water bottle, either store-bought or homemade. I've discovered that these can keep water (or soup, or Tang, or hot chocolate...) quite hot for most of the day, and they weigh a lot less than a vacuum bottle. I haven't totally converted, but one can compliment the other.