THE 15 MIN CHALLENGE.
When you set off for a bikepacking trip, how do you plan / organise your meals?
Are you a dehydrated / freeze dried meals kind of bikepacker or are you more into cooking from scratch..even if it’s going to be a simple pasta with tomato sauce, tuna, sweet corn and Parmigiano? Or..are you a restaurant, pizzerias, food stores, cafes, supermarkets, gas stations kind of guy / girl?
During lockdown I had plenty of time to search the internet for those ready dehydrated / freeze dried meals. In sports such as alpinism, mountaineering, expeditions and backpacking these meals are quite the normality.
A quick google search is enough to stumble upon a vast availability of products in the market and at first, it can be overwhelming to choose the right meals for you from. I found a lot of similar “dishes” like the famous chilli con carne (or sin carne for the vegetarians); Mac & cheese; Indian Dahl; and the unmissable pasta dishes like pasta primavera; pasta arrabiata and so on..
I bought several meals from several manufacturers based all over Europe and a few from the USA. Some brands are more famous and well known than others and part of multinational groups and some are small, artisanal companies who focus on the quality and sustainability of their raw ingredients and compostable packaging.
Both of them have one thing in common: the cooking time.
Let me explain:
Dehydrated* and / Freeze-Dried** meals are basically dried food (where all the moisture content has been removed by either a source of “gentle” heat of freeze-drying) that can be regenerated by adding boiling water. You just have to follow the instructions on the packing and in 12/15 mins your very own scrumptious meal is ready to be eaten.
These meals are convenient, very light to carry, easy to regenerate/prepare (all you need is billing water…) and their shelf life is extremely long. I have friends who buy them in bulk and keep them as “emergency” foods (they even store a few of them in their car together with a cooking kit - speaking of doom’s day preppier hey?!).
*Food dehydration is one of the oldest unit operations used by the food processing industry. Food dehydration is a process of reducing moisture of food to low levels for improved shelf life by adding one or more forms of energy to the food. However, it does not include the removal of moisture from food by mechanical pressing or concentration of liquid foods. Most commonly, heat is added to the food by hot air, which also carries the moisture away from the food.
**Freeze-drying is a special form of drying that removes all moisture and tends to have less of an effect on a food's taste than normal dehydration does.
In freeze-drying, food is frozen and placed in a strong vacuum. The water in the food then sublimates -- that is, it turns straight from ice into vapour. Freeze-drying is most commonly used to make instant coffee but also works extremely well on fruits such as apples, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches.
In a quest to better understand the basics of the two drying techniques, let’s have a closer look at what these two methods actually are.
DEHYDRATION
Preserving your own food means being able to control almost everything about the food you eat, including its quality. There are a number of ways to preserve food through dehydration. Among the more accessible means are sun-drying and oven-dryin..or..the use of a dehydrator (a good quality machine isn’t that expensive).
Sun-drying
If you would like to try sun-drying, fruits would be your best choice since they’re rich in both sugars and acids. This means that they won’t spoil easily during the process, unlike vegetables. Sun-drying meat, on the other hand, may lead to bacterial growth since it is filled with protein.How long does it take to sun-dry fruits? Tomatoes, for example, will need about 10 to 14 days. Depending on your recipe, you may add salt, red wine, or ascorbic acid to your fruits before sun-drying them.
Oven-drying
You’ll need to consider the type of oven you have. If it runs on electricity, you should keep in mind that it’ll have to be left on for hours. So, it might not be cost-effective depending on where you live. Also, you need to keep the oven door slightly open to get rid of moisture.
Using a food dehydrator
Once you’ve become accustomed to dehydrating food, you might want to invest in a dehydrator. Unlike the oven, a dehydrator won’t destroy food enzymes. There’s the advantage of being more energy-efficient as well, which should translate to greater savings. And by the way, you won’t have to check on a dehydrator as frequently since it’s much safer to use.
Benefits of making your own Dehydrated Food
1. buy in bulk
You can visit a farmer’s market and buy loads of fruits and vegetables at a bargain, dehydrate them, and then store them for later use. If you’re business-minded, you can even sell your dried food since they’re quite pricey in the stores.
2. save time, energy, and money
Most people carry a grocery list but still end up getting additional items such as chips, candy bars, and drinks. It’s called impulse buying and it is why chocolates are placed at the checkout counters. Once you’ve built the habit of preserving your own food, you’ll need less time at the stores and eventually save money.
3. prepare special meals at a lower cost
By dehydrating food, you’ll no longer need to wait for the right season to enjoy nutrient-packed fruits and vegetables at an affordable price. With dried foods, you can enjoy seasonal foods like pineapples and cherries regardless of the season! You can dehydrate any food that you want but here’s a list to give you an idea:
Meat
Beef / Chicken / Fish / Lamb
Vegetables
Asparagus / Beets / Broccoli / Carrots / Corn / Cucumbers / Onion / Potato / Pumpkin / Tomato
Fruits
Apple / Banana / Coconut / KiwI / Mango / Papaya / Watermelon
4. free up space
Since drying shrinks food, you won’t need a big space to store them unlike when you can or freeze your food. You can store dried food in different sizes of jars or Ziploc bags. If you’re thinking of long-term storage, you may opt for vacuum-sealed bags or plastic containers. Recycling containers are also a great option. Use silica gel to prevent moisture from filtering through your containers.
5. full control over the food you eat
If you’re worried about genetically modified food or if you’re not confident about how foods are prepared in restaurants or fast-food chains, then drying food, especially if you’re able to grow your own produce, would be a great option for you. It is highly recommended to dry food immediately after harvesting them to lock in the nutrients.
While dehydrated food can be bought from the stores, unfortunately, some of them have sugars and additives. Thus, by dehydrating food on your own, you’ll be sure that you’re eating healthier food.
You can add dehydrated fruits to trail mixes or use them as a replacement to chips and fries. You may also choose to grind dehydrated food such as onion and garlic. Likewise, you could crush your dehydrated vegetables into powder form, store them, and cook them as soup later on.
6. You’ll manage to eat less and still be energized
When you dehydrate fruits, for example, you concentrate fruit sugars. This means that you can consume just a few dried fruits and still have the same energy as when you eat them fresh. This is why dried foods are popular among campers and backpackers. They’re lightweight but packed with nutrients.
7. supply of antioxidants and fibre
Dried foods, especially fruits, have a greater concentration of fibre and antioxidants than fresh fruits. Also, since they’re all-natural, they’re healthier for you. Also, nutrients such as Vitamin C, Beta Carotene, and Iron are kept intact.
8. better-tasting food
Dehydrated foods are flavorful since they’re not watered down. Still, there are preservation enthusiasts who recommend letting dried food absorb some distilled water before consumption. There are even people who prefer to steam their dried food. It’s up to you to discover your own preferred way of enjoying the dehydrated food.
9. You won’t produce as much waste
Do you have fruits or vegetables that are about to spoil? Slice them up and dehydrate them. Mother Nature will thank you. Food dehydration will enable you to enjoy foods that are closest to their natural state, which are considered healthier. If there’s a reason why the process has been around since the prehistoric times, it’s because it works.
Firepot meals / Eat well in the wild.
“Firepot has been five years in the making. As adventurists trekking through Greenland, we wanted our hikes to be punctuated by slow-cooked, natural food that tasted delicious. We wanted a healthy, hearty meal that didn’t weigh us down or keep us waiting. And we couldn’t find it anywhere.
So we made our own in a Dorset barn — delicious, nutritious, dehydrated slow-cooked meals inspired by our travels. We’ve kept it lightweight and easy to use so it can be enjoyed from the heights of the Himalayas to the fjords of Chile. All you have to do is add water.
Our recipes have been developed over months of tweaking, experimenting with flavour combinations and trying out different ingredients to maximise nutrition, not just taste. We’ve taken each of our ingredients and worked out how to ensure it arrives in your bowl just as it would in your own kitchen — delicious, perfectly cooked, with its nutritional integrity.”
FREEZE - DRYING
Retains nutritional value better than other drying methods, further supporting consumers’ desire for nutrition from whole foods. The process also preserves the actual colour and shape of the original raw material, reassuring consumers they are actually getting real fruits and vegetables in their diets. The intense flavour and aroma of freeze-dried ingredients also closely resembles the profile of the raw material.
Freeze-drying, also called lyophilization, is a process where food is quickly frozen, and then the ice is turned into water vapour and removed by placing the frozen food in a vacuum, resulting in a dehydrated product. Freeze-drying food requires special and expensive equipment.
Use
Freeze-dried foods are used by astronauts, campers, backpackers, food manufacturers and the military. You can also purchase freeze-dried foods for home use. Examples include the fruit pieces found in some cereals and astronaut ice cream found in gift shops. You can find entire meals in freeze-dried form, as almost all foods can be freeze-dried.
Advantages
Once the water is removed from foods, they become very light. This makes for easier portability of large amounts of food and cheaper transportation of the food. Freeze-dried foods tend to retain most of their nutritional quality, taste, shape and size. They do not require refrigeration and can last for months or years. Freeze-dried foods can also be rehydrated very quickly, unlike dehydrated foods.
Benefits of freeze-drying
Freeze-drying is a method that can be applied to any food item (even to ice creams !). These products are used by people practising outdoor activities (Bikekpacking, Mountain biking, Sailing, Kayaking, self-sufficient Running, Trail Running, Backpacking, Expeditions, Alpinism) or by those who just want to be prepared and have a food source for use in survival situations.
1 Taste and appearance: freeze-dried products taste and look like fresh products. Freeze drying does not shrink or harden the food, it rather preserves its aroma, shape, flavour… Once rehydrated, food products are like their fresh counterparts.
2 Shelf life: freeze-dried products have a very long shelf life. When the product is properly stored, food can last between 15 and 25 years. Even beyond this period, products will remain safe to eat, their flavour and nutrition values will be just as good as the day they were freeze-dried. In comparison, dehydrated food and frozen products only can last for 2 years.
3 Nutrition values: freeze-drying causes only little damage to food. Freeze-dried products maintain around 95% of their nutrients throughout the freeze-drying process. Other methods, like dehydration, keep only 60% of the nutritional value because the heat used during the process breaks down some of the food’s vitamins and minerals.
4 Weight and space: once the water is removed from the foods, they become very light. For example, the water content of vegetables, fruits, or dairies, exceeds 80%, cooked pasta contains around 70% of water, fish and meat contain between 65 and 70% of water, some products such as butter contain a little amount of water. Additionally, freeze-drying is highly space-efficient; it allows you to stockpile more food in your storage space or to carry several units in your backpack.
5 Preparation : freeze-dried meals prepare easy and quickly, all you need to do is add hot or cold water depending on the menu, wait a few minutes and ‘voila’… your food is ready for eating! Today, manufacturers are able to offer a large range of freeze-dried meals. From breakfast to dessert, every meal can be freeze-dried. From patsa to paella, through scrambled eggs and apple sauce, today thanks to the freeze-drying process, you can enjoy eating healthy and varied meals even in the open sea or on top of a mountain peak.
LyoFood.
“The ideas and the outdoor experience of LYOFOOD combined with the know-how and the technology of Lyovit are the perfect fundament for creating exceptional products.
LYOFOOD’s history is strongly combined with its cooperation partner Lyovit - one of the major producers of freeze-dried herbs, fruits and vegetables with more than 20 years of experience on the market.
To satisfy the needs of climbers, sailors, backpackers and other extreme sportsmen, Lyovit used its revolutionary technology and know-how to create the first freeze-dried meals in 1998. The product was named “Lyofood” and was warmly welcomed by outdoor athletes.
Due to the increasing demand for healthy and tasty freeze-dried meals, a new international expansion strategy was developed. The brand Lyofood was separated from its mother company and re-established as LYOFOOD.
With a new design and the proven quality LYOFOOD launched its new product line called LYO EXPEDITION.”
Super quick recipe - Farfalle “al sugo” with zucchini and hard-boiled egg.
Ingredients:
150gr farfalle (small ones, cook first)
½ organic courgette cut into small pieces
4-5 tablespoons of organic tomato sauce
1 organic egg
Salt, parmesan and oil to taste
Method:
First, the egg must be cooked. Put it in the saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Set the timer to 10 min. Meanwhile, cut the courgette in half and then into slices (the thinner, the better; they cook much faster).
When there are about 5 minutes left to cook the egg, add the zucchini and the pasta to the boiling water.
When the timer expires, drain. Remove the egg and with “asbestos” hands, shell it (or wait for it to cool for a few minutes).
Add the tomato sauce to the pasta with oil and Parmesan. Break the egg with your hands and garnish the pasta.
Enjoy your meal :-)
(while your travel companion is probably and most likely still waiting for the dehydrated meal to be ready 😂).
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