Tramping food: Food for a four day tramp

Tramping food for four days

I'm preparing for a trip this weekend and thought I would show you the kind of food I take with me when I go out tramping. This is for a four day trip, so 4 lunches, 3 dinners and 3 breakfasts. I also take some emergency food, quick cook pasta/noodles/cous-cous and a couple of packages of instant porridge (oatmeal to you Americans).

Four days worth of tramping food laid out for inspection

It is not uncommon for New Zealand trampers to get stuck on the wrong side of a river for a day or two after a touch of rain so you need a small emergency food backup just in case. It is no fun having an enforced hut or tent day with no food.

Why you need spare food: Flooding river (note storm in background)

Breakdown of my tramping meal periods: breakfast, lunch, dinner

What I'm looking for is a good mix of carbs/fats/sugars/protein to keep me going all day long. You also want a mix of tastes and a sweet/savoury mix so your food doesnt become boring.

 Generally, breakfast will be porridge, toaster pastries, freeze dried meals (savoury or desserts) or muesli with milk (powdered), cheese or salami and a cup of tea. I sometimes eat freeze dried eggs cooked and in a tortilla if I have the time. I also love the freeze dried rice pudding which you can buy from Absolute Wilderness.

Breakfast: eating a freeze dried Applepie at Bark Bay Hut

Lunches are crackers or tortillas with peanut butter/tuna/salami/cheese or pate. I will take 2-3 snacks per day as well as drinks like iced tea, coffee, tea and electrolyte mixes. Two minute noodles are also  good for lunch as they are lightweight and quick to prepare.

Lunch on the Lewis Pass Tops: raisins, crackers, tuna, and a lemon lime drink

 My dinner staples tend to be dried foods: pasta/rice/noodles/instant mashed potato with various additions and flavourings.  I usually start with an instant soup followed by my main meal and any left over snacks for desert.

 

Cooking dinner at Lake Christabel Hut..freze dried meal and iced tea

I occasionally take freeze dried meals, they are simple to prepare (just add hot water) and lightweight but expensive to buy. Very occasionally I take thermo-stabilised pouch meals from companies like Kaweka or MTR but weight is an issue with these.

Freeze dried Venison and Rice Noodle stirfry

Freeze dried Venison and Rice Noodle stirfry

I  finish the day with coffee, tea or a cold drink mix. Or hot Raro, yum!

Me drinking tea in East Hawdon Biv, Arthurs Pass N.P

I'm always on the lookout for good dinner meal ideas; ease of preparation, weight and taste are my criteria, not necessarily in that order.

The four day tramping menu...

Below is a representative four day menu showing  different types of main meal options and how they interact with each other. You want a bit of variety in your meals for interest sake..I once meet a person walking the Te Araroa Trail who ate porridge for all three meals.

That may be fine for you but I would hate that with a passion...

Tramping food:Day One

I'm eating a MTR retort curry on day one....with rice as a accompaniment, I would eat these bagged meals all the time but the weight would be prohibitive.

Breakfast:  At home (I often buy MacDonalds etc. on the way out of town)
Lunch: Sandwiches + fruit from home + electrolyte drink
Snacks: Olives + raisin's + scroggin pack
Dinner: MTR Paneer Butter Masala
MTR Jeeri Rice
Nestle Iced Tea + tea ( 1 T sugar) (580gms total)


Tramping food: Day 2

Mashed spuds with vegetables, meat, cheese and sometimes added gravy powder make for an excellent tramping meal...I really like it and it is one of my 'go to' tramping menu choices. 

Im also partial to a good instant Mac n' Cheese but Im not taking any with me on this trip. 

Breakfast:Instant Porridge with Raisins/milk powder/sugar + cheese wedge + tea ( 1 T sugar)
Lunch: Peanut butter (x2) + crackers + electrolyte drink
Snacks: Strawberry toaster pastries + raisins + steak bar
Dinner: Instant Cheese Mash + beef jerky + cheese wedge + dried onion
Nestle Iced Tea + tea ( 1 T sugar) (460gms total)



Tramping food: Day 3

The longer the trip the more freeze dried meals I would be eating. I have usually eaten all the fresh food before day 3-4 so after that it is freeze dried meals for dinner each day.

They may not be the tastiest but its hard to argue with that weight to nutrition ratio..and the taste & quality is geting better all of the time.

Breakfast: Cream of Wheat + raisins + milk powder + sugar + tea ( 1 T sugar)
Lunch:Farmhouse Pate + crackers + electrolyte drink
Snacks: Raisins+ beef jerky + fruit and nut chocolate bar
Dinner: Back Country Cuisine: Roast lamb with vegetables & mash (2 serve)
Nestle Iced Tea + tea (1 T sugar) (475 gms total)



Tramping food: Day 4


I'm eating a single serve freeze dried meal for breakfast on the last day as I am walking for a long distance. I usually eat the bland varieties: Scrambled Eggs, Tomato Pasta Alfredo, Nasi Goreng, All Day Breakfast etc. as I don't want to be tramping with a curry on board.

Me eating a Tomato Pasta Alfredo in Mid Robinson Hut in 2016

Also toaster pastries...they are jammed packed with sugar but also carbohydrates, fats and some protein. Your going to burn it all off over the day so the sugar doesn't mater and they taste good after a couple of days in the bush.

Breakfast: Back Country Cuisine: Nasi Goreng (1 serve) + toaster pastries + tea ( 1 T sugar)
Lunch: Farmhouse Pate + crackers + electrolyte drink
Snacks: Steak bar + raisins + scroggin mix pack
Dinner: At home (or on the way home) (370gms total)

Total weight of food: 2.2kg including the box of crackers

Tramping bread

 I've tried a lot of different things to use as my "daily bread" (bread/crackers/tortilla's/wraps/crisp-bread) but always come back to these beauties. Arnotts Sesame Wheat crackers go great with everything and I really appreciate the salt on them.


Arnotts Sesame Wheat: My daily bread on tramping excursions

My second most popular choice would be Farrah Wraps which come in a variety of different flavours. These will last for 3-4 days if handled with care, I fold them and place them in small zip lock bags.

Farrah Wrap's, spinach is my favourite flavour

MTR thermo stabilised meals for tramping

Here is a new item I'm trying out as tramping food; MTR ready to eat meals. MTR is an Indian brand, imported for sale in New Zealand; they are thermo stabilised pouch meals. You chuck them in a pot of water and boil for 3-5 minutes. The other heating method is by using one of the Back Country flame-less ration heaters, these boil water through chemical action to heat your food.

A Backcountry flameles ration heater

There are 3-4 types of rice and a dozen mains available, I've tried a couple and they are very tasty. I have since discovered that these are in Indian Army, Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) ration packs.

MTR Indian Meal - Jeera Rice

This trip I have Jeera Rice and Paneer Butter Masala, the beauty of these meals is that they can be eaten hot or cold (just like a MRE). They have a subtle mix of spices in them, vegetables and this one has cubes of cottage cheese.

MTR Indian meal - Paneer Butter Masala

The realy make a change to your bog standard Backcountry Freeze dried meals.

Or try a Kaweka meal...

A similar idea are the Kaweka Meals, they are also in thermo stabilised pouches that just need to be heated in hot water. They are delicious and consist of a main and a side dish: either rice, mashed potato or cous-cous.

These are used in both Australian and NZ Army issued ration packs.

Some of the Kaweka meal range

Their main meals include:

Butter Chicken and Rice
Thai Green Curry and Rice
Beef and Red Wine Casserole with mash
Beans, Bangers and Bacon
Apricot Chicken with cous cous
Lamb Casserole with mash

These meals are available in all of the larger supermarkets throughout New Zealand.

Kaweka went out of business in 2017 but similar meals are now in Go Native 24 hour ration packs available from most outdoor stores. 

Go Native 24 hour ration packs....taste good but expensive!

The contents of a Go Native 24 hour ration pack

Always keep your eyes open for tasty items you can add to your tramping menus.

Snackage: I love them raisins !

As you can see I like raisins, they are my favourite snack as well as an additive for porridge and cream of wheat. I always carry some with me on every tramping trip. Raisins are heavier than some other snacks but I enjoy the more natural sugar high you get off a pack...much better than that from chocolate. 

Mmmmm...Raisins!

Other snacks I carry include; fresh and dried fruit, muesli bars, chocolate, nuts, toaster pastries, jerky, olives, steak bars, biscuits and cheese slices/wedges/rounds (Baby Bels rock people and last for 2-3 days). I try to take a variety of snacks so I dont get sick of any one item.

Jack Link's Steak Bars..solid jerky bars....yum!!!

Babybel cheese...tasty and will last for 2-3 days

There are many more but what I like is a sweet/savoury mix with a lean to the salty - savoury end of the scale. I am not big on the scroggin/GORP/trail mix however as I find it is heavy and you quickly grow tired of it regardless of the contents.

Classic scroggin/trail mix...I am not a fan.

Anyway, that is just a quick overview of some of my tramping meal ideas.

Tramping Food: Eating like an ANZAC

A tramping meal idea: ANZAC Trench Stew

When I first joined the Army back in the late 1980's we were still supplied with food very similar to that used by ANZAC soldiers in the First World War. Among other items we had cans of "wet" food such as meat and vegetable stew, spaghetti and meat balls, corned beef, and beans and franks.

Palm Corned Beef...closest thing to Kiwi rations in the 1980's

I came across a recipe recently that was an exact copy of one of the meals we commonly used to make for ourselves while out in the "field". This recipe dates from 1915, and was in a book I am reading about the Great War.

Troops about to tuck into Rations, Field, Chicken x 1....

 It had obviously been passed down through generations of soldiers from the Great War up to the 1980's. Sadly gone now, Kiwi troopers now eat from Meals Rarely Eaten (MRE) style retort pouches....

Anyway, here it is:

The Trench stew as cooked...yummy!

Finest Trench stew

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Number of servings: 3 - 4
Serving suggestions: For authenticity, allow to cool and serve with a cup of ice cold stewed tea while 5.9" 'Wizz Bangs' explode around you.....(mud, stench and fly swarms optional)

Modern version of canned Corned Beef

WW1 period Beef and Vegetable stew can

Ingredients:

• 1 turnip (or parsnip/potato, whatever you can find on a local farm)
• 2 carrots
• Small tin corned beef (Palm brand is the best)
• ¼ stock cube (beef/chicken/vegetable)
• one or two biscuits (optional: WW1 Army biscuits were so hard you had to break them up with a stone or the butt of your rifle. They were a cross between a digestive biscuit and a cracker)
• 1 pint of water (that's about 300 mls)
• Dried onions, Tobasco sauce, tomato sauce and salt and pepper to taste (all modern additives)

Typical Great War field rations, those white things are hard tack biscuits...

Cooking Method

1. Put the water on to boil
2. Slice up the turnip and carrot
3. Add to the boiling water
4. Add the stock and stir then leave for 10 minutes
5. Mash up corned beef and add to the mixture
6. Add the biscuits and stir (optional)

Give it a try, it is actually very tasty!

Tramping Food: Great tramping beverages

You are what you drink, or a tale of many beverages!

Does your beverage of choice say anything about you? Trampers have a diverse range of preferences, some people like tea, others coffee, or some other variety of hot or cold drink. I have seen people drinking soup for breakfast, liquid jelly for dessert and you often see tramping parties having a quiet tipple as well. Tea seems to be the leader with coffee, fresh or instant, a close second.  

Cheers...Jon enjoying a hot brew in East Hawdon Bivvy

Hot drinks for tramping...

My preference runs towards Early Grey tea, black with sugar and in large quantities. I don't care if it is bagged or loose just so long as it is hot and sweet. My brand of choice is Dilmah but even the roughest gumboot tea will suffice in an emergency. I also like Cha Nui tea which is a New Zealand brand.

My choice of tea, Dilmah Earl Grey

I sometimes take packets of instant hot chocolate or cappuccino mixes with me as they make a nice change from tea at every meal. If I can find them, I like the Nestle Hot Chocolate with marshmallows the best.

Nestle brand hot chocolate

I usually carry either Nescafe or Jarrah coffee and cappuccino sachets, both are freely available here in New Zealand. The individual sachets weigh 5 gm's and make a perfectly acceptable version of a coffee.

Nescafe Cappucino sachets- 20 per pack

What about a nice hot mug of soup, when I am out tramping I start every evening meal with soup. I use both quick cook packets and the classic Continental Cup-O-Soup.

One of the Continental Cup-O-Soup range

If you are going to have a soup look for ones that just requires hot water or ones that need only a short period of simmering. Personally I like the creamy or noodle filled flavours for added taste and nutrition.

Massive mug of Dutch Curry and Rice Soup, Totaranui Campground 2018

I'm also partial to a mug of hot Raro or Vitafresh fruit powder drink with dinner. I know this sounds strange but its really good. Lemonade is the flavour of choice if you want to drink it hot...it is beautiful!

Classic Raro Sweet Navel Orange

Water, iced tea and a hot coffee, Lake Isabel Hut, Victoria Forest Park2014

Sweeteners and condensed milk...

I used to carry sugar for my hot drinks but now I use Splenda sugar substitute. One tablet is equal to 1 teaspoon of sugar, the packet below holds 100 tablets or enough for 50 cups of tea/coffee. The packet is the size of a matchbox and weighs only 22gms, by comparison 100 teaspoons of sugar weighs 640gms.

Splenda sugar substitute

If I have an instant coffee it would be sweetened with Nestle condensed milk. This is a drink I picked up in the Army, it dates back to before WW1, the only way to drink coffee in the outdoors IMHO. It is also excellent added to a brew of tea as well.

Update: Since I posted this in 2012 I have struck several people who also carry condensed milk for their coffee. It really is delicious- no need for sugar or milk with this product. In fact I have seen Ray Mears the survival expert using it on his TV programs.

Forget stupid syrups, classic old timer coffee additive...condensed milk!!!

Condensed milk is still a part of both New Zealand and Australian Army field rations to this day.

 

Having a coffee at the Davies Bay campground, QCT in 2016

Cold tramping drinks...

.....(actually cool as you have no refrigeration to chill your drinks)

 

There is nothing better than water for quenching your thirst, but sometimes you want something different.
 
Powdered fruit drink packets are very popular, there are a wide range of flavours and several brands. My preferred type is Vitafresh especially their Peach Iced Tea, Orange Mango, Blackcurrant and old fashioned Lemonade.

Orange Mango Vitafresh

Raro is the other well known range available here in New Zealand. 

A Raro drink powder three pack

I also use isotonic drink powders, these are basically fruit flavoured mineral replacement drinks. Vitasport is one of the more common brands available here. 

Vitasport isotonic drink powder

I will generally carry one packet of Vitasport/Raro/Vitafresh (12 gms) per day and have it with my evening meal.

Red Vitasport with my meal, Carrington Hut, Arthurs Pass National Park

Beer,  spirits, wine anyone?

A quick snort of something is as old as tramping itself, and is a Kiwi tradition. I would imagine even the sainted John Muir carried a flask of something to make the evenings more convivial.

The outdoor 'Saint'- John Muir, father of the US National Park movement!

Personally I am of two minds about alcohol and outdoor activities, I like a drink as much as the next person but in the right place and at the right time. A glass of a nice red with your freeze dried meal is good, a litre of Vodka with lunch not so much....

I'm partial to a river cooled can of beer and have taken several with me in the past. Nothing like finishing the day with an ice cold brew in your hand! Oh yeaahhhh!

Using nature's beer chiller....some tasty beverages cooling in a river.

I also enjoy a snort of whiskey or rum, normally in a coffee. Leave the hip flask at home and carry it in a tightly sealed plastic bottle- hey, its not going to compromise the quality any worse than humping it around in a pack for a couple of days.

The Bundaberg Rum range...great in your evening coffee...

Just a final word; carry out your empties! Nothing worse than arriving at a hut to see a pile of empty bear cans or wine bottles cluttering up the bench. If you carry it in, carry it out.

Cheers!