Touring food

Up until now I've always relied on eating out and campsite eating (bread, cheese, tomatoes etc) for when I've gone touring but coronavirus means its a bit harder to count on places being open to serve meals up particularly if you're going a bit more off grid.

I've bought a pot and burner but keen to hear people's suggestions for "camping ready meals." I wouldn't do this at home but can definitely see the benefit of meals with the minimum of fuss and space when on the go. Oh, and am also vegetarian...Keen to hear recommendations

Good thread.

For snacks/cold meals:
Ensure you are packing around an average of 4 kcal per gram.
IE if you have 100g of snacks it should have around 400kcals in it.
This is a rule of thumb which I have found very helpful.

At resupply points buy some non-dense and healthy foods, always makes you feel better in the long term. Non-dense things like croissants. Healthy foods like grapes, lettuce, carrots, etc.

For quick resupplies on short rides I like a packet of crisps + lemonade can combo. This really works for me, I have no idea why. On slightly longer rides I will have a pot of yoghurt at one resupply point too.

The goto hot meals are:
Pasta with cheese+nuts+pesto/olive oil
Couscous with cheese+nuts+olive oil
In the 70s British climbers lived on mostly couscous + stuffing mix, this is easy to cook on a camp stove in no time at all, cheap, energy dense, and very tasty.

Attached a meal plan for a 10 day trip with no resupplies (hiking).
I don't normally plan it but wanted to see how to get it just right.
Two breakfast/lunch/dinner combos, one for odd numbered days and one for even numbered days.
I was very happy with everything I took and there was exactly the right amount.
This website: https://hikemealplan.com/

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I'm no expert, but you can't go wrong with a one pot stew if you have a trangia or similar.

Tin of tomatoes, an onion (if you have the energy to chop), tin of beans, whatever else you might want to add. If I'm hungry it's always done the trick and is pretty hard to fuck up. Bread or pasta to serve, chocolate for desert.

Carrying some essentials like a small bottle of olive oil and salt and pepper is a good shout. Obviously tins are heavy so you don't want to be carrying them too far, but I've never found it to be tool much of a problem, though I'm never really in "full bikepacking" mode when carrying a stove.

Butter

Olive oil, and other useful liquids, are fine in those little squeezy silicone travel bottles. They are light, won't break, and allow you to carry the right amount without taking up too much space. Fill four of them, each with olive oil, honey, balsamic glaze, and sri ratcha and basically that's most of the seasoning you need for anything you'll cook. Some veggie stock powder is also a great universal seasoning to take along with you.

For breakfasts, a few small bags of pre-portioned porridge is perfect. Starbucks instant is the best option for that first coffee until you can find something nicer.

Something that I've done endlessly since learning about it is grilling fish in their tins (was amazing in Basque country with all the various fish types).

Essentially you peel the lid off completely, either fold or cut down a tissue/piece of kitchen roll/napkin from a cafe so that it fits the rough dimensions of the tin. Press it down so it absorbs the oil and sits on top of the fish - I'd keep the corners dry. Light the corners and over the space of about 10 minutes the fish grills - and I mean really grills! If you fold it so there's more layers it goes a bit more slowly, but I feels gets more of a nice charred texture on the fish.

I'll eat this out of a tin, or cook some rice/bulgar/buckwheat. Try playing around with different grains - it might just be me, but I hate couscous (it tastes like dust) and prefer more chunky carbs.

Also, if you're in London, Muji is great for small containers and shakers for different spices and oils

If you’re really pushed then crude but effective, pasta and a stir in cold tomato sauce from Dolmio or Aldi (they do various flavour combos) which come in plastic pots. To go really posh a packet of lardons fried off really adds flavour to the sauce but you do have to buy them locally...

I've never done the full on cooking thing but always had some basic supplies:

a pack of wraps slipped in my framebag and a pot of peanut butter in my stem bag as a quick snack / emergency back-up. Also a can of tinned fruit. Fruit was surprisingly hard to come by in a lot of places in the US.

Porridge oats with some chocolate nesquick powder mixed was always a quick easy breakfast too on a different trip elsewhere.

Best think I found for snacks was peanut butter and Nutella in a tortilla wrap. Doesn’t matter if it gets squashed. Small yet energy dense and not just 100% sugar. Could look at other fillings as well, but if it’s going to be warm then have them more viscous as they will melt!

Breakfast, cold soak porridge (Bircher muesli/overnight oats) supplemented with whatever dry fruit I've found the day before. Can also add in nuts and dark chocolate for an extra hit. If more on the “fast” vs “touring” end these can be packaged up before leaving so you have ready to go breakfast for however many days your going.

Edit: greeno got there first...

great minds..

Most satisfying meal I could make in one pot was burritos. Cook rice normally and an egg in a zip lock bag (scramble by shaking the bag). Once cooked and when the rice is almost done, add the back beans the warm them up. Cook down until the water has been absorbed. All the while using a tortilla as a lid to warm it up. Avo, tomato and coriander to serve. All this done on a one person primus jet boil thing.

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This is basically a camping food thread, which is no bad thing.

If you google one-pot pasta, there's loads of recipes (not specifically for camping) where you cook pasta in water with the sauce ingredients chucked in and the sauce reduces down as the pasta cooks. Those are good options, and generally include lightweight and-or tinned/preserved things.

In scouts, I was a sucker for the wayfarer vac packed meals as a treat. Fuckin... kendal mint cake

Instant custard made up from dry mix (the more modern instant stuff, not the birds stuff that requires milk and sugar)

as others have said, porridge made using water with dried fruit and sugar in. Carrying a small amount of evap or condensed milk if you need the creamy hit in whatever you're making.

I like this thread, and I hope it will help me get beyond the sausage risotto and jaffa cakes menu I always seem to end up doing.

This is a great combo and one I have relied on - pretty decent energy vs weight ratio!

I am doing some relatively remote riding in Sweden soon and so been looking at these: https://www.firepotfood.com/collections/firepot-dehydrated-meals

Never gone the dehydrated route before, partly because being vegan options are crap - but the Firepot's seem interesting and semi-eco packaging is a good thing.

Normally just include a myriad of options along the route. Possible spots for a sit down meal or shops to stock up and cook/eat later.
Last time in Scotland we were far more remote so took dehydrated rations which were perfectly good. That along with ground coffee for pour over and I was golden. Oh, and a big bag of sweets.

That is seriously impressive, looks good by non-campfire standards!

Bought all of the mini taster packs and they where pretty horrible tasting..
The half portion size was pretty neat thou..

Been trough a bunch of the dehydrated food brands and the best tasting one in my opinion is ”real turmat”..

They have some vegan stuff..

https://realoutdoorfood.com/products/?_sft_pa_properties=vegan&_sfm_pa_energi_kcal=0+1440&orderby=popularity

On a recent trip I had a family bag of salted nuts with me that lasted for a week in my pannier as they seemed kind of boring to eat. The day when I couldn't find a shop open or close by they really came in handy, filled the hole in my growling stomach. If they were chocolate they would have been eaten within the hour of buying them.

@ACRe19 this sounds interesting, are you saying light a fire on top of the open tin? I didn't quite follow.

Hah, sorry, it's a very simple process, I'm just able to mangle instructions for anything.

Essentially you get a piece of kitchen roll, fold, tear or cut it into roughly the size of the tin, press it down so that it soaks up the oil and is sitting on top of the fish, and then light the corners.

It burns a bit like a candle - they can go for absolutely ages. I suggest blowing it out after 10 minutes or so

Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDaBZqVb18

Also saw this

https://heated.medium.com/how-to-improve-a-can-of-tuna-set-it-on-fire-46854e68bbe0

That's bonkers but sounds great.

Super helpful @Kdregg

With flour, salt and baking powder you can make dough for flat bread cakes in a plastic bag. If you're really into it you can dehydrate almost anything in the oven or with a food dehydrator.
Also fuet! If you boil it it makes a really good sauce filler.

Also cookbooks for boating can provide some inspiration

So you burn some toxic coating for 30min into your food? I can see this working for soldiers
but would't really fancy that myself.

Sorry. Where was the toxic coating?