Customer Reviews

Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I too was given this book as a gift and it's great!

I've tried a number of the recipes (and a few of my own now) and have never had any problems with pouring hot water in a freezer bag. (I called the manufacturer and they said it would be fine.)

The author outlines the simple prep/packaging/cooking process clearly and what I got were great, tasty meals that cut the weight of my pack by 25%. Also, for once I was able to improve my packweight (and menu) without having to buy a bunch of expensive gear. My kitchen now consists of a tin pot, plastic spoon and a super-cheap pepsi can stove. (So I blew the money on a new tent...but that's another story...)

As the child of a professional chef, I never could stomach the freeze-dried stuff and MRE's (which don't taste much better)weigh a ton. Now I've got a book full of great tasting, easy to prepare recipes and I can leave the 20lbs of canned/fresh food (along with most of my old cook gear) at home.

Hope to see a Book 2 soon!

Thanks,

Perry P. Perkins
Author
"Just Past Oysterville"

Taking dehydrated food in bags is as old as Lewis and Clark taking jerky and dried berries in leather pouches on their big explore. But that doesn't stop the author from trying to take credit for starting a movement.

Aside from the sparse writing and large spaces between lines (it's more of a pamphlet than a book, judging on content, entire pages will have only a short paragraph and the author rambles to fill even that space), the recipes are horrible.

The main ingredient for most of the recipes is Ramen noodles and couscous. The whole chapter on Dessert is 11 ways to make pudding with crushed up cookies or candy; written out separately for each flavor.

The author acknowledges this isn't very healthy and tells us all to buy her next book for the healthier recipes. You also have to go to the website (which is mentioned so often it is laughable) to get the low sodium versions. This appears to be planned to get us all to the website which is no better--the same basic recipes and, of course, lots of stuff available for purchase (including plastic bags.)

If that isn't bad enough, the author encourages you to get extra packets of condiments from all the fast food restaurants you visit to use in the recipes. Not only is this tacky, these do cost the business money which brings prices up for everybody else (she claims to have started a movement, so that's a lot of packets.) You might say this isn't "eco-friendly" for the Economy. ; ) But now we all know where the recipes come from--Ramen with soy sauce. Ramen with Ketchup. Couscous with Ketchup...

If you want a real book on real food, get "Trail Food" by Alan Kesselheim. There is plenty of content including instructions on how to dry all your own stuff (you could of course just buy it, even Walmart is carrying #10 cans of dehydrated fruits and veggies.) And while the author of Trail Food prefers to put his all together in a little pot, it doesn't take any stretch of the imagination to consider just pouring the water into the bags. Kesselheim even explains all about drying pasta and rice to make it cook faster, etc.

In response to reviewer Kate24: I am not the author, I do not know the author, I purchased an earlier version of this book, directly from the author's website, before it was available on Amazon, based on the free information she had posted on the Web. In addition, I own a number of other camping/backpacking recipe books, and I do camp and backpack.

This is a useful little book, with lots of ideas that can serve as a starting point for making up your own recipes. I have actually used very few of the recipes in this book, but I still HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, because it gets my mind thinking about recipes of my own.

Although Sarah did not originate the idea of using freezer bags, dehydrated foods and boiling H2O, she has helped to spread the word on a great way to pack meals for a backpacking trip that cut weight, eliminate cleanup that wastes time and valuable potable water, and taste good while providing more than adequate nutrition.

Buy this book and a dehydrater and get busy before your next backpacking trip!

This is a superb resource for those tired of paying for the tasteless and expensive, pre-packaged freeze-dried dinners. The recipes use easily acquired ingredients and sources are listed for those harder to attain. I began eating out of zip-lock bags around 2001 but I was only using them to divide the pre-packaged dinners. Sarah Svien has taken it much farther and made eating on the trail much healthier, tastier, cheaper and easier...not to mention LIGHTER as you do not carry pots and pans...and you do not have anything to wash! I've always loved the later aspect in regards to using freezer bags. Week-end backpackers and thru hikers alike rejoice! On behalf of your stomach, I thank you for purchasing this book.

I LOVE this book! I bought it a week ago, but have been using the author's website for almost a year. I was amazed to read that someone had tanked it. My husband and I are active in a large outdoors organization in the area and have recommended the book to quite a few people. Hubby loves eating so well when on a long backcountry trip compared to those poor schmucks eating expensive freeze-dried stuff or power bars!

I bought this from her website with the cozy and a long spoon (the starter kit). This is a great start for learning to make good meals for your hike. I think you get a lot more out of using the book and the website together. (I also made her little baker which is shown on her site out of cheap aluminum cookie sheets and it works very well.) Her links on her website also get you resources to buy all the little packets she includes in her recipes, if you don't want to drive around town collecting them from fast food/restaurants. I am a particular fan of her pasta recipes - the trick of dehydrating cooked pasta to rehydrate on the trail wouldn't have occurred to me, and it saves so much time and fuel to just pop the ingredients into a cozy while you're drinking that nice hot cup of tea, instead of hauling a big pot and boiling pasta for ten-twelve minutes.

You're not going to be making haute cuisine with this, but let's face it - you really just need fuel for the trail and the lighter and simpler you make it, the less calories you'll be burning to carry it. It also minimizes clean up after each meal. And freezer bags are reusable - use them as trash carriers, take them home and wash/dry them, use them next trip. My current kitchen is a metal pot, a square of foil for a lid, stove and canister, lighter, a cozy and a spoon. How simple and uncomplicated.

I used the book to help our patrol at woodbadge adult leadership training. This was an inspiring book that led us to go to the grocery and create our own freezer bag meal. Our big find was that powdered milk made the meals so much better. Thank you for helping us have fun and learn new skills at the same time.

So, you've escaped to the wilderness for a few days. Far into the woods, you've left behind all the troubles of everyday life. Except you still have to eat. That means you still have to cook. With cooking come all the requisite chores: preperation, timing, serving, CLEANING.

Nope.

Boil water. Open bag. Pour in water. Wait. Eat. Fold and pack out the bag.

It really is that easy. You do your prep at home. All you need is a way to boil water in camp and you're eating tasty, balanced meals in that much time.

There are a lot of companies selling freeze-dried or dehydrated meals for travelers that claim the same convenience. This book tells you how to package your own healthy, tasty meals and enjoy the same convenience for a lot less money.

All the necessaries are there: what equipment, what ingredients, and how to make it all work. Based on the techniques in this book, I can travel in the backwoods with less food weight than the norm and be very well fed.

Very Good Book.

This book was short and sweet. I expected something longer, but there just isn't that much to freezer bag cooking--not that that's a bad thing. So far I've tried the carrot slaw and salmon chowder recipes and they were both quite good. The book is really about getting you started with this cooking technique, and the author has a website for the book which seems quite active and useful.

Wow! I have bought about 5 other backpacking food books that sounded great but when I read them I was left lacking information. This book is the best I have found. The information provided is current and focused. It seems like a great deal of thought and effort went into writing this. I have noticed that the author is active in online hiking / backpacking forums and I think that's very cool. I would recommend this book to those looking to try something different from the old Ramen Noodles and Tang.