I can remember a boy scout camping trip (I was a tenderfoot at the time) where my patrol leader ate a milk bone on a dare

Hi Hacksaw,



I've found it pretty weird how 'Food for the Trail' has turned into the discussion about the nutritional upsides and downsides of cat and dog food. What would be useful would be some good wholesome homemade recipes that we can all try out the next time we find ourselves in the wilderness. Doggy food and treats won't be finding there way into my pack anytime soon either.

I once packed a bottle of Chateau-Laffite '48 and a fresh cooked three course meal including cornbread, stew and cobbler. Of course, I had 3 Dutch Ovens, a coffeepot and a string of mules to help. A friend got into the ultralight hiking cult. He brought a six pack of Bud light. I packed a six pack of glass bottled Warsteiner- and knapped a survival tool kit out of the empties. With the aluminum Bud Light cans he just wasted his chocolate polishing the bases for a signal mirror and fabricated a mini stove.I ate my chocolate, swiss not german and I think on my pannier scales the Bud light wieghed pretty much the same as my german beer once decanted.Unless you indeed dehydrate the stuff, food simply isn't going to be 'light.' This is the same argument as lighter sleeping bags. You need x amount of loft for warmth and x amount of calories. My personal favourite, and very traditonal survival food is Fruitcake. I've even taken to fabricating custom cooking pans out of aluminum to fit the funny pockets on my ( again) german flektharn parka shell.You'd think one at least would be dedicated for my ESBIT stove, but nooooo. So at day's end I've settled for; fruitcake, chocolate, jerky, hard cheese and a lesser wine and finished with coffee or tea. I open it with my ( again) swiss army knife corkscrew all these outdoor Pundits( Pundit being a specially trained british spy trained to calculate long distances via measured and counted steps in India.)decry as useless while promoting guthooks and sawbacks.

Hi Johno,



The Stovies recipe was the 'Survival Version' for the Burt Gummer types who maybe reading and have lots of tins of corned beef and instant mash available in the cellar. The secret ingredient was the Paxo stuffing which makes the whole gooey mess reasonably edible. Perhaps it should have been called 'Barely Stovies'

Now depending on the location and time of year in Scotland 'Neeps and Tatties' can be had for free (of course sneeking up to a cow and milking it requires the deepest of survival skills. Best just having your butter to hand from the local supermarket!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/neepsandtatties_9033.shtml

Mmmm, Hot Chocolate Pudding in Chocolate Sauce, now whats wrong with that. Now you might find it strange but I also like the friut biscuits. The Soups and Hot chocolate are as good as anything in the Supermarket. The Corned beef Hash is not to good though even compared to the 'Barely Stovies' recipe. The instant tea just gets binned and replaced with some Scottish Blend or PG tips. But I guess if you have been eating them for weeks on end I can understand your point of view.