Minimalist cooking?

imported
#1

Merry Christmas All – Minimalist question: I find myself wondering about the least amount of stove & cooking that might still warm you in the morning and the evening? Would like your advice and description of experience. I don’t really know, but I’m thinking perhaps an Esbit stove upon which in the morning (if it’s not raining) you could brew up a liter of hot, strong tea and then in the chilly evening, just before digging down into the sleeping bag, another pot of (decaf) tea. Everything else is cold food – just fuel, calories. Could be another yummy bowl of the same glop you had for breakfast? Perhaps a large chunk of cheese or salami or other high-calorie foods? Two Power Bars and a Snickers and a chuck of beef jerky? But the hot water-plus-tea warms the insides, might be psychologically more attractive at beginning or end of day, and not a bad template for a wee dram of single malt. Perhaps two drams. Notice the advantage: you are not dependent on hot water for fuel; you could go for some time without the hot tea if weather was bad. FYI, I have tried no-cooking and rejected same. Next step up the food chain from simple hot water plus flavor, I suppose, is simply putting that same hot water into the breakfast bowl or into the Lipton whatever. Is that better? Anyone out there experimented with minimalist belly warming? Thanks. Cheers.

McIntyre

#2

I carried an esbit stove, stove and fuel weighed about 8oz. The only trouble I had was in cold weather, the esbit didn’t heat water well. It got warm, but not really hot. Summer it was great.

Grassy Ridge

#3

i found if i snacked lightly, my internal combustion system seemed just fine. Digestion of a small snack even at 2am helped with getting me thru the nights that were really cold.

I’m a coffee man myself, but used tea from time to time. If you used a larger amount of water you could have tea and oatmeal or some other form of hot food. There seems to be a longer cook time on some dehydrated foods, so experiementation is important, pretrail prefered, but you can get hard won experience on trail.

i used snacks often, snack crackers, hard candies, beef jerky, cheese, as I got more experience with what would hold in the temps i was hiking in, i used nuts, pizza, hot dogs, smoked sausage, anything in the tortillia market, different kinds o cheese, and anything i hadn’t eatten for the last month that looked good. I also used a lot of gatoraid…high sugar boost as well as whatever values it had. Gatoraid began to wear on me tho, like everything else.

i cooked trout i caught over open fire, pork roast, potatoes, onions all cooked in alluminum foil. Lotsa hard shell bread, and ordinary wheat when i couldn’t find hard loaves.

i rarely turned down offers of anything i hadn’t eatten within a week. at Rock gap some section hikers dropped off oatmeal packs. I hadn’t had any in a week so i devoured it and it was nice. Anything different became a delicacy.

i cook a lot. but most of what i listed did not involve any cooking. hope that helps. Oh, i got tired of every variety of candy. When ever I could and felt temps would hold, i packed in sliced ham and honey mustard…that really pist off some thru’s in 05…all they ate was ramen or sketti and i mounded up that ham and swiss like i would never run out…even ham and swiss on rye gets old after 3 meals, but you can, considering temps do about anything you like in the food area.

burn

#4

There are options :slight_smile: And yes, there is something about hot water-wether drinking as tea or coffee or putting it into food.
My website is devoted to just that: boiling water+food-cooking :wink:


I don’t like cooking on the trail. I am lazy! But I do like a hot dinner at night :slight_smile:

sarbar

#5

Snack/lunch foods are much heavier than pasta/cereals. So if you are carrying all non-cook foods, your pack weight will probably be heavier than if you bring pasta, etc.

My husband and I split the food load - I get breakfast and dinner, he gets to carry lunch/snacks. At the start of the section his bag is much much heavier.

Also, you may find yourself very tired of nuts, cheese and chocolate if that’s all you’re eating. But then, I got very tired of Liptons.

Ginny

#6

Not a fan of most dehydrated meals, I cooked but 5 times on my journey to Katahdin. I did have hot chocolate each night. Here’s what worked for me. Etowah stove with just 5 oz of denatured per stop. I found 1/2 an ounce was all I needed to have a warm, cozy drink with my cookies at night. The morning was always a liquid high protein drink (high carbs,cals and protein) put in a milkshaker…just add water. Its not hot, but boy does it help you build muscle and recover. To avoid the same ramen, lipton, etc. dinners, try sandwiches, chicken fingers, burgers and the like packed out for the first couple of days every town stop. Always order food to go every town stop for a couple of days…just carry lots of ziplocks. Vacuumpacked meats and cheeses for the days later. "Normalizing " my food for my journey was very important to maintaining my smile. I didn’t need to cook dinner to do that. Also, the deli counter and pre-cooked counters in the grocery stores will assist you in getting your trail foods. Worked like a charm. As a result, my tiny alcohol stove and minimal fuel weighed nothing. Please stay away from the Esbit, the fuel is horribly stinky and I plan on hiking again, i love to avoid that smell.

postcard

#7

Dear McIntyre,

If I understand your question correctly, you want to know the least amount of hot water for cooking we can live with, as a means of finding the proper amount for you, keeping in mind that you reject the notion of no cooking at all. Yes?

For me, the morning was the time I used my stove most often. Pretty much every day, I wanted oatmeal, raisins and honey; and I wanted several cups of coffee while I enjoyed the quiet morninging forest. Cooking a little extra hot water made cleaning quick and pleasant.

For the rest of the day, the stove was unlikely to be used again. For lunches and snacks, it was fruit, cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, milkshakes (powdered milk and sugar in Nalgene bottle, shaken vigorously), gorp, a can of tuna eaten plain, that sort of thing. And of course, always multivitamins with minerals.

For Supper, I used my stove perhaps half the time, which is to say, every other day or so. Sometimes, yes, for spaghetti or some other solid carbohydrate; sometimes for the rare treat of a dehydrated meal with shrimp or chicken or beef in a sauce I could not possibly manage on my own; but just as often it was another cheese sandwhich (or three) which called to me. That and lots of water before sleeping to avoid waking in the middle of the night with a dehydration headache.

There is one other use for a stove in the woods. To heat water for soaking your feet, washing your clothes (rinsing in hot water, really, is what it is), and attending to personal hygiene–for example, washing your hair, or having a warm sponge bath. These luxuries can make your stay in the forest more enjoyable; and being able to enjoy them in the forest can help to reduce, in frequency and duration, your visits to towns.

In my view, with stoves as light as they are, and fuel not much heavier, and I am referring to white gas and canister stoves and fuel, I wouldn’t worry about their minimal weight–you can cut more weight elsewhere–at far less cost to your safety, enjoyment, and well-being.

Sincerely–Conan.

Conan