Freeze dried meals and cold water

[WIsam]

Just curious in the event of a camp stove failure (above the treeline so no fires) if you've ever tried to rehydrate freeze dried meals with cold water. Is it even possible if you let it sit for several hours? I'll have to try it myself to know for sure, but I thought I'd check and see if anyone else had to do this.

[GrizzlyH]

Just curious in the event of a camp stove failure (above the treeline so no fires) if you've ever tried to rehydrate freeze dried meals with cold water. Is it even possible if you let it sit for several hours? I'll have to try it myself to know for sure, but I thought I'd check and see if anyone else had to do this.

Crunch it up in your mouth with a swig of water between each bite. Should rehydrate it in your stomach and still give you the protien and things your body needs to survive I would think. Cold water will work to hydrate it too, but will take awhile. Pack alot of quart size freezer bags in your gear and add the dry food and water to the bag. Put it in your arm pit for an hour or so and at least it will be 98.6 degrees........lol

[ninefoot]

Just curious in the event of a camp stove failure (above the treeline so no fires) if you've ever tried to rehydrate freeze dried meals with cold water. Is it even possible if you let it sit for several hours? I'll have to try it myself to know for sure, but I thought I'd check and see if anyone else had to do this.

sure man, i've ate plenty of cold mountain house...it rehydrates, tastes like cold ****, and gives you everything the meal would with warm water, cept for warmth of course

[Bushwhack Jack]

Sure it would work, but the thing I'm thinking is why? First of all, with today's technology, there should be no need for a camp stove failure. MSR stoves are amazing. If you haven't tried one, you need to invest in one. They are virtually bombproof. I have two models. The XGK and the whisperlite. Both have their plus and minuses, but the bottom line is, you can pretty much disassemble and reassemble them in the field with ease. They come with spare parts and you can purchase replacement parts. Another added bonus is you can burn multiple fuel types through them. White gas, unleaded, avgas etc. Occasionally they require a little maintenance, but they are easy to repair. The other thing you could do in a pinch, is carry some trioxane fuel. It is sold at Army Navy surplus stores. It comes in a little stick, lights with a simple spark (even when it is soaking wet out), and burns for about ten minutes. It is not a fire, but if you have a small pot that would fit a couple cups of water, you could probably bring the water to a boil. At the very least you could warm it up. But yeah, in a pinch you could eat it cold, eat it dry, or whatever. Like ninefoot said, it is gonna taste like crap, but at least it will give you some nourishment.

[Milo]

Like there's never been a drunk college kid that ate dry ramen noodles in the dorm after bar closing. The mac and chesse is better

[sharksinthesalsa]

yes you can make mountain house with cold water....after 45 minutes it was still a little crunchy....mix well.......
@Bushwack......there isn't a whole of technology out there that can help when you, like a huge DA, drop your only can of fuel in the creek and after an exciting and soggy but fruitless attempt to catch it have to watch it float downstream......

however lesson learned...i will never buy the big bottle of fuel...i will buy two smaller ones and hide one in my pack for emergency......and on a lighter note, i did find my fuel bottle about 2 miles back down stream the next day while walking out....a little dented, but usable..

[Ibex]

When rehydrated with hot water, I actually like some of the freeze dried meals. When eaten with cold water, they taste terrible. Although the calorie content remains the same, it is hard to choke down freeze dried foods prepared with only cold water.

[sthrcave]

I know you said no fires, but I saw an interesting technique for cooking things like rice or mountain house the other day. I was in Thailand participating in a joint training excercise with the Thai military and had the opportunity to attend a jungle survival course taught by Thai special forces. They built a tripod over a fire and filled plastic bags with rice and water and tied them off. Then they hung the bags a few inches over the coals with wet 550 cord. After about an hour they had cooked rice. I imagine you could do mountain house the same way.

[sthrcave]

Forgot to mention that they poked a very small hole near the top of the bag to act as a vent.

[Ed M]

I flew into KTN but my gun didn't make it, was scheduled to fly out alone on an air taxi the next morning. Morning came and Alaska Air said the gun should be on the next flight that morning. I loaded up on the air taxi and he took me to the sea dock at KTN. I got my hard rifle case which had a bunch of other stuff and repacked on the dock because I wouldn't be taking the hard case. I recall seeing my stove in a red bag sitting on the dock. I got dropped off on POW and when I went to make the first meal I couldn' find the stove. Never saw that stove again.

I tried the re-hydration for a couple hours in cold filtered water. The outer part of the food re-hydrated but was still hard inside. I basically would consider it inedible as it tasted downright lousy, of course you could survive on it. Didn't want to hassle with building fires.

For 5 days luckily I had powdered mik and slim fast powder for milkshakes, cold oatmeal, and plenty of trail mix and a bunch of power bars to keep me just fine. I tried to eat the freeze dried twice with no success and I actually really like freeze dried food. Since that experience I always carry a backup esbit stove with heating tabs.

[strangerinastrangeland]

I just build a small fire, even from tundra twigs and heat water in my cup......when in need, I have, and sometimes still do, folded a birchbark "mega cup" (it was big) and heated small smooth rocks, washed and then heated in the fire, I plopped 'em in and enjoy the soup that was too hot to eat right away.....works with paper, cardboard, and MRE's that come without a heater...

[WIsam]

Thanks for the advice. By the way Ed, what particular meal were you trying to rehydrate using cold water. Just wondering if it was something with bigger or smaller chunks of food.

[FurFishGame]

Like there's never been a drunk college kid that ate dry ramen noodles in the dorm after bar closing. The mac and chesse is better

whats wrong with dry ramen? get a can of tuna, drink the liquids out, and put the tuna on the ramen, it makes a OK lunch for super cheap...its one of those meals you need quite the amount of mountain dew though LOL

[Rock_skipper]

Heres a thought, try to find some discaraded MRE heaters, light and very effective with one on each side of the mountain house. Rubber bands , or something of the sort helps.

[Ed M]

Thanks for the advice. By the way Ed, what particular meal were you trying to rehydrate using cold water. Just wondering if it was something with bigger or smaller chunks of food.

I just don't remember, it was in 2003. Trying to remember I know I commonly had beef stroganoff and lasagna, the others I just don't remember.