MRE's good,bad and awful

[Troika]

Been trying to sort out some backpacking/MRE supplies to stash in the Dormies for forthcoming trips. As usual I didn't do a lot of research beyond the internet, but took the plunge and ordered up a couple of different items online and unsurprisingly discovered some really awful products.............awful to the point the Lab (stomach on legs) sniffed and walked away.

One of my american colleagues was kind enough to take over a selection of popular US brand's for back packers, however these were so salt/sat fat saturated they should have come with a health warning.

Has anyone found a product/supplier brand which is consistantly edible, where the contents actually have a passing resemblance to the image on the label or the ingredients listed?

[RMS]

There are one or two folk on here who are in to minimalistic camping (where are you WhiteKnight?), so hopefully someone will be able to point you in the direction of some reasonable ones.

Personally, I just keep a few tins of beans, veg soup, rice pudding and fish (mackerel etc), plus some stir fry rice, pasta and pasta sauces as emergency supplies. They tend to stay in the food cupboard all year. I also sometimes have long life pita bread and, of course UHT milk plus the usual coffee, tea and instant hot chocolate.

I'm sure I could survive for a few days on what is in there right now, left from last year

However, most of our trips are to weekend shows, so we generally just put what we think we'll need for the weekend in just before we go, including sausages, bacon, eggs, bread, and of course, the usual show Kefta, but of course, that assumes you have a fridge

I think if you're really struggling for space, MREs might be useful, but we find we have plenty of food storage space in the Carawagons.

Oh, and plenty of pear cider, cans of coke and a bottle of Baileys might find their way into the Carawagon before every trip

Cheers,
Robin.

[Jabbawocky]

Hi

I spent ages before going to Morocco looking at things to take to produce good quality food in minutes for the three of us. As William was only 4 years old, it had to be child friendly, not that he is a fussy eater.

The product we now carry as emergency food are tinned fish, chorizo/german dry sausage, tinned Chinese veg, peas, carrots and baked bean, microwavable rice and noodles (both can be just stirred into whatever you are cooking), packets of instant couscous, flavoured rice, flavoured pasta, Chinese sauces, packet soup to stir into the water you have just cooked dry pasta in. (Waste not, want not.) Dry Pasta. Dry milk and olive oil.

All of the above are kept in the cupboard or in a box behind the driver seat.

We also have a fridge and that had the cheese, bacon, olives, milk, butter, beer, fruit, etc.

Spice rack has tea bags, instant coffee, instant cappuccino packets, ground coffee, salt, pepper, loads of herbs and north African spices, Ketchup, Brown and Soy sauce, medicines.

We shop at Aldi and all of the above are normal stock. Tried lots of specialist foods and tinned meats. All seamed to have way too much salt for our tastes.

Hope this helps?

Cheers Mick

[lowebox]

Robin , you forgot the 15 bags of fire wood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to cook it all on
All the best Gordon

[Ian]

Robin, what is Kefta?

Cheers,
Ian

[overlander]

Robin must be busy so I can tell you that 'kefta' is an easy to make North African dish which lends itself well to camp cooking. It consists of minced beef, browned in a frying pan with cumin, s and p, sliced onions, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree. Traditionally it is cooked in a tagine pot (you can google it!) and just before serving a few eggs are cracked into it and a sprinkle of fresh coriander added. Job done. Robin makes a mean kefta which is served on most of our camping weekends, Steve usually adds rice or couscous with added fruit and raisins. Ummmnh, tasty. - especially washed down with a couple of bottles of Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer.

cheers

John H

[Ian]

Thanks John, now that does sound good. I'll add that to my recipe book.

Cheers,
Ian