As a followup to the last bit of culinary advice I gave, I thought I would do a followup. Whilst I appreciate that if you are doing a long carp session such as a week in France ( or even 5 years) you might want to eat fresh food, for a quick overnighter freeze dried food cant be beaten. Then again our troops exist on these kinds of foods for months at a time and they seem to be doing perfectly fine. Anyway lets look at the food stuffs on the menu, we have 3 freeze dried foods and 1 boil in the bag / reheat.
1, Mountain House Pro-Pak Chicken Teriyaki with Rice
2, Trek’N Eat Aaardappelstamppot met rundvlees ( Translated, potatoes and meat from Holland but available here in the UK)
3, Adventure Food Rice Satay
4, Wayfayrer Lancashire hot pot ( Not dried food)
So how do they taste ?
Well surprisingly good, all of they have some texture so that you don’t feel like you are eating gruel, which over a few days is vital. Trust me, you need food that has some texture else it feels like you are eating baby food for a few days which will quickly become tiring with you longing for something you can chew on. Basically all of them apart from the Lancashire hotpot, are made by 1st cooking the ingredients and then freeze drying.
1, Mountain House Pro-Pak Chicken Teriyaki with Rice
Not bad at all, needs the full water absorption time else the rice is a little chewy and hard but well reccomended. Lots of meat which was a bonus. 7/10
2, Trek’N Eat Aaardappelstamppot met rundvlees
Best of the lot, nice meaty taste flakes of potato sit well on the tongue, does not need further salt / pepper really satisfying meal. 9/10
3, Adventure Food Rice Satay
OK ish… needs lots of salt adding and the rice will chip your teeth if you don’t leave it long enough, perhaps to sweet for UK taste buds 5/10
4, Wayfayrer Lancashire hot pot ( Not dried food)
Not the same as the above as you need to boil it in the bag, by far the most “food like” of them all as it is essentially real rood in an air tight pouch. Not as light weight as the other 3 and you need to boil it to heat it up rather then just pouring hot water into a bag and waiting. No extra salt needed and if you can live with the weight and difficulty in preparing by far the best ” real food” 8/10
Conclusion
Well I would look for the Trek N Eat, whilst the Wayfarer is closer to “real” food they are heavy and need boiling in the bag which means you need a big pan of water or you need a pan to empty the contents into to warm it through. If you are fishing with just a small stove or a kelly kettle, you may not be able to do this so the winner has to be the Trek N Eat, available in the UK and is a real treat. All you need is hot water, a pack of food and a spork / spoon and you are done.
The Masterblanker 