Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food Pouches

by Mountain House

Product Features

• Boil water, add to pouch, wait 8-9 minutes and enjoy
• Convenient stand up zipper pouch
• 0g Trans fat per serving

Product Description

Outdoor enthusiasts have made Mountain House freeze-dried food their first choice for 40 years because of its great taste. Other backpacking food brands consist of only a few freeze-dried ingredients, mixed with dried seasonings and ingredients, which are then blended, not cooked. Mountain House meals are cooked to give you the delicious homemade flavor you deserve.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001UXPE6G
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,367 in Sports & Outdoors (See Top 100 in Sports & Outdoors)
  • #71 in Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Camping & Hiking > Camp Kitchen > Freeze-Dried Food

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unbeLIEVably good!, October 2, 2009

By 

Chris S. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food Pouches (Misc.)

[UPDATE: This review refers to the Beef Patties with Cheesy Mashed Potatoes entree, which is what this product listing was reserved for when the review was originally posted. See comments for how to find that entree now. -Chris S.]

Do you want to store food at home that, along with a means of boiling water, could get you easily through an emergency (such as a hurricane, a power outage, or a week isolated at home with the flu)? Do you have family members of the old meat-and-potatoes type who can't imagine being satisfied with canned or freeze-dried entrees? Then this dish is for you. My husband, trying to be supportive, agreed grimly to try a Mountain House meal or two from our local sporting goods store in support of my plan to identify emergency foods to store at home. But he wasn't happy, even though he agreed with surprise that the Mountain House beef stew wasn't too bad after all. Then we stumbled on this as our second experiment. Wow. He asked me 3 times, all while wolfing it down, how this had been cooked, incredulous that it came out of a freeze dried packet cooked with nothing but boiling water poured into it. Really, this is absolutely delicious. Expensive, yes -- you won't want to eat this particular entree all the time, though my husband would be happy to! But as a treat planned for once every few days or so, it's a wonderful item to include in your emergency food kit along with a JetBoil or other means of boiling water if the power's out.

For those who can't guess how it works but need to know before they ante up the money, here's the deal: You remove the hamburger patties, leave the mashed potatoes in the pouch, add part of the boiling water, seal the pouch up like a Ziploc, and leave it for the specified time, after which you open the pouch and scrape the potatoes out onto to a plate or bowl. Then you return the hamburger patties to the still slightly gook-y pouch and add the remaining boiling water to cook them in the same fashion. The label on the pouch tells you how much water and how much time in the sealed bag for each part of the cooking process. It doesn't seem as though it will work -- I almost threw it out before cooking when I saw what the uncooked food looked like. And I was still dubious when I removed the reconstituted hamburgers, placed them next to the previously cooked potatoes, and served up the lot for my husband and me. But WOW. The meat is fork-tender and flavorful, with no sign of its reconstituted state, and the mashed potatoes are cheesy, fluffy, and perfect in texture -- just like your favorite mashed potatoes from a restaurant near home. Neither one is gummy or squishy -- each is like good regular food, both in taste and in mouth feel.

Try it. You won't believe how good it is. I'm betting you'll end up raiding your emergency supply fairly often during the just-got-home-late-can't-bear-to-cook-dinner-but-can't-stand-leftovers-or-pizza-delivery-need-a-real-"home-cooked"-type-meal-HELP! type of emergency that confronts all of us more often than we'd like. Trust me. You'll be glad you laid in a supply of this.

P.S. Based on my husband's reaction, I should tell you that, even though one pouch technically serves two people, there are individuals out there who will want their own pouch all to themselves... (!). He really has become quite a fan. We're cutting back on our expenditures right now. He doesn't want me to spend anything for anything. But when I told him I was ordering 10 of these from Amazon to keep in the house, he nodded enthusiastically and said "OH yeah...!".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight and delicious, October 3, 2010

By 

David Linzer (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food Pouches (Misc.)

I go ultralight backpacking, so deciding what food to pack is a serious concern. I prefer Mountain House freeze dried meals for a number of reasons:
1. They weigh practically nothing. A two-serving meal weighs only 5 oz and equals 20 oz of food after adding water.
2. They taste like homemade meals. It's what I look forward to eating after a long day of hiking.
3. They're satisfying. They don't just fill you up, they stick to your ribs and keep you from getting hungry again for hours.
4. They couldn't be easier to use. The top of the bag tears off correctly every time, no tools needed. Remove the oxygen absorbing packet (which is nontoxic). Add the specified amount of boiling water and zip the bag closed for 8-9 minutes. The pouch stands up by itself and the meal can be eaten with just a fork or spoon, no dishes to clean! The empty pouches can disappear right into a campfire or are light enough to pack out.

I have tried the Chicken Teriyaki with Rice, Spaghetti with Meat sauce, Lasagna with Meat sauce, Scrambled eggs with Bacon, and the freeze dried ice cream (ready to eat from the pouch and surprisingly good). I tried some of their other meals years ago, can't remember which ones, but I know they were not disappointing. Couple this with a Jetboil and water filter and you can really save on weight when hiking or camping.

I highly recommend these meals to anyone needing extended shelf-life food that is high quality, easy to pack or store, and easy to prepare.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good food, bad packaging., November 17, 2010

By 

M. C. Loughmiller (Southern CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Pretty much everything under this brand name suffers from over-packaging: There's a ton of wasted material outside the heat-sealing, and way too much empty space inside, even after adding the indicated amount of water. Also, the claim of "Serves two" is fanciful at best - I (an athletic 70kg female) could easily polish one of these off by myself after a day of even moderate activity.

What's inside this package is pretty much the best you're going to get out of readily-available dehydrated food, though - good texture, decent (if overly sugary) flavor, 100% edible either cooked or dry, nothing to complain about aside from the complete lack of veggies (Not that I'm implying these should be balanced for long term consumption. Just saying it'd be nice to see some green in there.)

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