I am heading out next weekend in the Cheviots to do some wild camping for two nights as part of some Scout hill walking training. The question is what food do people use these days. 15 years ago when I was last doing significant amounts of camping I was using MOD rat packs.

Are these still the things to get or is there better stuff out there. Biscuits brown and non-dairy whitener, ahh happy days. . . .

Sandwiches

…peanut butter sandwiches in particular have got me through a few cold nights.

Heinz Beanz and sausages

Do the scouts not train in what food? Ask them.

noodles

Porridge oats with honey and maybe some rice

Cook off something like spag bol, chili, curry, stew, lumpy soup. Anything really that you can reheat in a bag in boiling water. Home made boil in a bag basically, decent meal and no mess to clean up as you can eat it out of the bag, doesn’t mess up your pan and packs easily.

Good idea!

For less weight we used to use Batchelors Pasta n Sauce on Polaris events.
2 for tea & 1 for breakfast!

I like to go light weight so usually take noodles, and a Sawyer squeeze water filter so you don’t need to carry loads of water up there with you.

Will you actually have time to cook for yourself? Or will you be too busy making sure the kids don’t set their tents on fire? Sandwiches might actually be a good idea!

I looked and looked but I still can’t see ‘Haribo’ suggested yet.

Cous cous, john west tuna lunch thingy, oat so simple, trail mix, peperami, babybel, jelly baby, Starbucks via, cupasoup.

flicker – Member
Cook off something like spag bol, chili, curry, stew, lumpy soup. Anything really that you can reheat in a bag in boiling water. Home made boil in a bag basically, decent meal and no mess to clean up as you can eat it out of the bag, doesn’t mess up your pan and packs easily.

Forgot to mention, use your boiled water for a brew too, winner winner.

Muesli with milk powder mixed in a bag with whatever extras you like thrown in. Add water hot or cold.

cpsilver – Member
Heinz Beanz and sausages

The only answer, the rest is BS. OK, so a can weighs more than dry stuff but this is the food of kings.

Thanks for all those suggestions. I saw mention of some precooked for that can be picked up mail order and is on sale in Sainsburys I think also. “Good for you” or something similar . . . .

What flicker said. You can buy boil in the bag for home prep’d stuff now, that said some of the mod Rat packs now are very good, always get the curry one. Hmm nom nom nom. Oh and porridge is back…

can’t imagine how miserable i would be if i went camping and the only food was cous-cous and muesli, some of you are very strange.

most of the supermarkets do a wide range of precooked pasta/rice/risotto and things like chilli/bolog/curry in handy plastic pouches. would rather carry bit of extra weight and have something tasty.

I used to take museli & porridge oats mixed with powdered milk. Add water, heat and tasty hot breakfast each morning.

Lunch = oatcakes & a tube of primula cheese or similar, plus chocolate / trail mix / nuts and snacky stuff

Dinner was a dehydrated soa mince spag bol or a pasta/sauce combination as mentioned above. Pud would be dried apple rings rehydrated in boiling water in the stove with some custard powder thrown in at the last minute Top hot pud.

That was my food of choice for weekends in the Cheviots doing DofE. You want hot food because anything can happen weather-wise up there.

http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/

These guys are in most big supermarkets. Or get the Uncle Ben vegetably rice, and pack lots of soy sauce!

Also, I may have misread, but you’ve been in the Scouts for 15 years? 😯

^ Look what we found chilli is lovely as was their haddock dish ( can’t remember the name now). The mutton was minging though.

Scotch!

Barbequed mutton or cow surely?

Sausages and beans is the only viable suggestion so far..

Chorizo onion and a can of heinz mixed beans decanted into a sandwich bag. Fry off the onions a chorizo wap in the beans.

I

Yorlin, i was in scouts when I was 12, did loads of camping on Dartmoor during my teenage years (Ten tors) and did some more at uni. Scouts as an assistant leader has only been a recent thing(last 3 years.

Salami and chorizo are good on the calorie-per-gram-and-taste-nice count. I like a tin of sardines for lunch. Those John West tuna pouches are easy to carry too. If it’s not too hot, carry some frozen bacon so it defrosts during the day- wildcamping breakfast of kings 😀

Cheers,
Jamie, AESL

I drew this up for our Unit, not that they take any notice of what we teach them about expedition food- we had a Bronze DofE group in the summer carry whole raw potatoes, seeing them try to mash half cooked potatoes with a couple of forks wasn’t pretty!

Cheers,
Jamie

Cous cous is light and really easy to cook – just pour boiling water over it, and you can add all sorts of stuff to it (tuna/chorizo/olives/beans/anything you fancy). Mix in some stock powder or harissa chilli paste before you go to give it some flavour.
Polenta is another good base for a meal. Again, just add water and it cooks in seconds.

Wild camping….. Catch your own lunch.

Anything rice based won’t fill you up without lots of meat to go with it. Try to include some bread to really fill you up and to provide much needed calories, if you are walking/riding all day then you need to stay well fueled to be prepared for the next day. Cheap pasta meals in a bag are good, pitta bread is good for making sandwiches and more compact than normal bread. Porridge is good but you need a lot of water to clean your pots afterwards due to how sticky it is.

Clearly others on here are more fussy about what they eat, but my menu for stuff like Polaris and KIMM/OMM was normally a dried pasta in a pot (use the pot to eat the rest out of, no need to carry a separate bowl), packet of super noodles, packet of cous-cous, soup with pasta bits in, hot chocolate, dried apricots and sultanas with instant custard. Not a selection from, all of that – I found that filled me up nicely, with plenty of carbs and not much weight. Also nothing which requires cooking, just add boiling water. I’d be tempted to add some chorizo if doing it again now – but personally I actually enjoy eating all that stuff anyway, especially when hungry at the end of a hard day, also plenty of courses to keep you occupied for hours in camp (may not be a good thing when leading a group of scouts!)

Personally I’ll cope without gourmet meals in camp in order to carry less weight and so make the rest of the day more enjoyable – though I’ll also choose to carry bubble wrap to sleep on and I won’t be carting around a set of Trangia pans, titanium mug or titanium spork either (take-away foil containers work fine for boiling water and a plastic spoon is good to stir and eat with).

Why has no one said fruit yet? Also raw carrot, cucumber, etc can be eaten with zero prep

There is nothing worse than hiking all day in the rain, setting up camp in the rain, finally getting into a warm, dry sleeping bag, then having to eat sh*t food.

We usually take fresh pasta (stuffed tortellini is good) with a half-decent packet sauce.

Cup-a-soup for starter, custard & fruit for desert. Then some Green & Blacks honeycomb chocolate. Yum.

For breakfast, I pre-mix a bag of porridge oats with sugar & dried milk. Just add water and boil.

Ration packs? Freeze-dried meals? Yuck.
Fine if you’re racing or out for weeks at a time. For a couple of nights, decent food is worth the marginal extra weight.

raw carrot, cucumber, etc can be eaten with zero prep

The OP is heading up into the Cheviots in autumn. He really needs calorie-dense foods. Carrying around carrots and cucumber won’t give a great return of energy. Also V depressing to have cucumber to look forward to after a rainy day of hiking.

There is nothing worse than hiking all day in the rain, setting up camp in the rain, finally getting into a warm, dry sleeping bag, then having to eat sh*t food.

As I said, I quite like eating my menu suggestions – it’s mostly stuff I’d choose to eat at home anyway. Clearly I’m not that fussy and YMMV. I have to admit I’ve eaten stuff like Vesta dried meals and they wouldn’t be my food of choice, hence my suggestions of snack type food.

If you want stuffed pasta then you can get dried tortellini which is about half the weight – not quite as good as the fresh stuff, but the difference isn’t huge.

+1 for the Look What we Found range for a bit of yummy luxury, especially like the chilli or the meat balls.

For a quick, easy and light meal/snack a cheap packet of supermarket own brand dried noodles with a decent quality cup-a-soup to add depth of flavor. As much as I can’t stand the bloke the Ainsley Harriott cup-a-soups are good.

I always take a couple of loaves of Soreen and some raw jelly to munch on to keep the energy levels up throughout the day, I’m yet to work out the perfect dinner though – I’m usually lazy and just take tins of stuff to heat up, it’s hardly much extra weight or space unless you’re taking enough for three teenagers for three days worth (definitely not made that mistake before..) 😯

when lightweight touring on the bike we would take spaghetti. Break the pack in two and it’s in short enough lengths for a billy tin. It takes up the least space of any pasta. You can still get Dolmio stir in sauce too.