Customer Reviews

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Food Pouches

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

[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...!".

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.

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.)

We recently sampled this particular meal with my camping club. This was dreadful on all counts. It looks like puppy puke and tastes awful. I hated it, and so did every other person who gathered up the nerve to taste it. (Some looked at it and refused to try it.) It would probably fuel you in an emergency, and no one would be tempted to use it outside of an emergency, so I guess it would sit there...waiting. Even between six people, we threw away 7/8 of the meal--it was barely touched. (We sampled 6 meals, this was the only utter failure.)

It was sweet, pasty, and salty. Maybe its chicken flavored but I never saw anything that looked like "chicken" in the glop. I actually tasted it a second time simply because I couldn't believe how bad the first one was and thought another stir might "improve" the flavor.

Most Mountain House meals are great, this one isn't. It's excessively sugary, salty, and totally fails in flavor. The texture isn't going to make up for anything, and the appearance made it even worse.

I had bought a few pouches of Mountain House Food pouches from Wal-mart camping section (cheaper than Amazon even). After a few years of passing them up them for what I thought was better food I finally decided to try one out while camping with hubby. We had the lasagna w/meat and it was REALLY good, we both thought so. We were totally surprised that something so tasty only need boiling water and 15-20 minutes to make (give it extra time, it's better that way). It's better than hamburger helper version. This last weekend we also tried out the Sweet n Sour chicken w/rice package and again it was damn good stuff! This is the way to camp! Virtually no prepping, no shopping, no refrigeration, no chopping, no frying, no cooking, no cleanup - eat it right out of the bag. Can't wait to go backpacking and try out the whole collection including DESSERTS!! I'm stocking up when I find them cheap.

This review encompasses all of Mountain House's main course offerings. They have a wide range, and at any given time some old favorites won't be available and some new things will be on the menu. I've eaten a lot of MH food in the last few months and I can testify to the high quality of the product, even when I don't particularly like some of the offerings - after all, it's very much a question of personal taste.

For anyone who's interested in knowing how it works, freeze-drying is the process whereby real food is laid out on trays and then dry cold air is gently blown over it for days. Slowly all the water sublimates out of the food, leaving everything else intact. Because the temperature throughout the process is close to zero celsius, the food doesn't spoil as it dries. Then it's packed into a vacuum sachet and it's ready to go. To reconstitute the food later (sometimes years later) all you do is pour in hot (preferably boiling) water and wait a few minutes. I've reconstituted MH food using hot-but-not-boiling water heated on my hexiblock stove when I've been in a hurry or when the wind simply meant that I could never get enough heat on the water long enough for it to boil, and the food still reconstituted well enough to eat.

I've found MH products to be invaluable when out on overnight hikes. Carrying a tent, pad, sleeping bag, water, clothing, and various items of kit results in significant weight. Carrying raw food adds even more. But carrying freeze-dried food is a great compromise because water can be taken from streams, lakes, etc. rather than being carried on one's back. This cuts the weight substantially, especially if you're carrying four or five days worth of food. Best thing is to try out a few items before going off into the wilderness - overnight camping is ideal for this - as everyone will have their own preferences. But whatever you choose, you'll be getting a very high quality product. I like the pro-packs especially because they take up the least space, but some items are only available in the larger packs and they don't pack down so well.

One last comment - I've never eaten any MH desserts so I can't vouch for these items. Frankly I can't imagine eating dessert out in the wilderness but if you're interested, try them out and post a comment here!

I bought this product at Wal Mart for $7.48, just to see if it was any good. Not bad. Not like homemade, but good 'nuff. Pleasantly surprised.
My complaint is the vast pricing disparity. Today's price on the Mountain House site is $7.50. On Amazon, $10.25. Same exact thing, so far as I can tell. To be fair, the price at Mtn House and Amazon were very similar for the larger #10 can (slight edge going to Amazon on this one).
Unless money is no object, checking prices at several sources is a winner. And past experience with other purchases are that the shipping charges can vary hugely.