I am going to approach this guide as if there will be no Michelin star chefs nor Chicago Tribune food critics reading it. I am also going to assume that no chefs nor food critics would dare venture into the realm of dehdyrated backpacking meals even if they were to go backpacking for extended periods.

At home in Denver, I factored in proximity to groceries and farmers’ markets when finding where to live, and I’m out picking up fresh food every other day or so. My cooking will win no awards, but there’s no denying that using fresh, local ingredients while preparing your own dinner each night is one of the best ways to blend quality with taste for your meals…while in the comforts of your own home.

Dehydrated backpacking meals deviate from that premise as a fundamental. They are specifically designed to be available to you far, far into the future, with some – depending upon their packaging – listing expiration dates some 30 years from the date of manufacturing. They almost always appear looking like powder. The majority of them end up being served like soup. If you close your eyes while eating many, you’ll have a hard time getting enough flavor to prompt your brain to remember what ‘recipe’ you’re actually eating.

Dehydrated backpacking meals, though, are light. They’re durable amid the other essentials smashed within your backpack. They pack small, save weight, and are the single biggest staple on which we lean for trips long enough to forcibly eschew bringing perishable goods on which to depend. If you’re going for a trip longer than a single overnight, or going on a trip that features weather extremes, you’re going to need to lean on these vacuum-packed bags of powder to keep you nourished on your way.

And heck, a couple of them actually taste like food!

When I’m on the hunt for which meals I’ll be bringing on a particular trip, I do my best to work backwards from the end of the trip to the front. Focusing on a few key details that make certain meals better picks than others can make your entire trip just a little bit easier, with what they taste like further down the list than you may otherwise assume.

Topography & Location

Got a flat, casual day of river walking ahead? Or, do you have a few thousand feet of craggy up and down?

How much I know I’m going to exert myself plays a big role in picking a meal for that particular night. And while that may sound obvious, here’s where I point out that not all dehydrated backpacking meals are created equally. This is a quantity bullet point, as some – like Farm To Summit’s Three Bean Chili & Cornbread – pack a full 800 calories into their pouch. Meanwhile, there are other tasty enough (but much smaller) options like Mary Jane’s Farm’s Veggie Power Bowl, which clocks in at just 340 calories.

You won’t be in a position to just put your leftovers in the fridge while on the trail, and unless you’re planning to pack in tupperware to hold on to what you don’t finish overnight, you may end up with uneaten food and a conundrum.

Can you have a fire at your campsite that night? Could you scoop any uneaten portions of your dinner in there, or will you have to lug them sloshing around the bottom of your trash bag for the rest of the trip? Are you in bear territory, where carrying around stinky food for days is a bad idea? What was that rustling around in the bushes behind you, by the way?

Topography and location factor into your meal choices in other ways, too. If you know you’re going to be headed towards a dry camp – a campsite not located very close to a water source – you’re going to have to carry enough water for you to drink and cook with. In a backpacking world where every ounce counts, knowing which meals need just 8 oz of boiling water vs. 16 oz saves you half a pound right there.

Campfires

If you’re in a designated wilderness area or National Forest, or even on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, odds are you’ll be able to have a campfire most anywhere you set up – barring fire restrictions. If you’re in a National Park that has designated backcountry campsites with varying regulations, however, you may end up having a few camps where fires are not allowed.

This can have a huge impact on your meal choices.

For one, sites that allow fires in the backcountry mean that – if your pot is durable enough – you can boil your water using the fire. That means one fewer meal’s worth of butane powering your camp stove, and if you know in advance you’ll have multiple nights at sites allowing campfires, you might be able to pack a smaller fuel canister for the trip altogether.

The ability to have a fire at camp can also help you manage your trash over the course of a longer trip. Freeing up space in your pack, reducing weight, and reducing waste can all be part of your overall plan so long as you know your route accommodates such planning. The EcoPouch used by Mary Jane’s Farm for their individual outpost meals ‘can be burned in a hot fire in areas that allow burning,’ and the same can be said for the omnidegradable packaging used by Farm To Summit. Boil water, fill your pouch, wait a bit, eat the food, toss your empty pouch right in the campfire!

Imagine starting a six-day, five-night trip with all of the meals below and walking out on day six with not a single bit of it left in your pack:

32 oz Nalgene bottle added for scale, but also to rep my Kentucky roots and encourage you to help Keep Tahoe Blue.

About that Trash…

I have yet to mention any Mountain House meals yet, so I feel a little bit apologetic that I will first bring them up in the trash section. I’ve eaten dozens of their dehydrated meals over the years, and while some will never again get carried by me, there are a few staples – like their Chicken & Dumplings – that I’d bend over backwards to eat.

The pouches used by Mountain House contain aluminum lining, which is decidedly not biodegradable nor burnable. That said, these are the meals that come with expiration dates 30-35 years down the road, while those of Mary Jane’s Farm are often just 1-2 years. I’m not one to plan my 2049 backpacking trips right now, but if you’re of the ilk that wants emergency food that’ll be around for the better part of whenever, well, Mountain House meals can double as that, too.

Speaking of them doubling – they end up being great trash bags for the rest of your trip. Since they are resealable, they can effectively double as heavy-duty ziploc bags, therefore acting as a leak-proof way to wag around the rest of your refuse all trip. On top of that, if you aren’t in a location where you can burn your other, burnable pouches, Mountain House pouches don’t end up as soggy refuse in your pack for days the way unburned Mary Jane’s Farm pouches would – in other words, if you’re going to have to carry them as trash post-eat, they may be a less gross option.

Flavortown

You may like mushrooms in your food. I do not like mushrooms in my food.

You may not like spicy food. I adore spicy food.

Our flavor palates are not going to be the same, and that’s why most every dehydrated meal out there tries to split the middle in their production. They’re going to make it taste the most benign way they can to not turn anyone off too much, meaning you’re going to have to find ways to augment them if you’re really seeking a true flavor burst while admiring that sunset over the mountain lake you hiked your butt off to see.

REI sells 2oz Nalgene bottles that are perfect for a little bit of olive oil, red pepper flakes, or hot sauce. You can also take some of the extra 27 packages of Hot & Fire sauce that Taco Bell gave you for that one Cheesy Gordita Crunch and bring those along, too. Heck, you could even dice up a sweet onion and pack one full, as that would likely last you a couple days on the trail before going bad.

Point being, you can always add a little life to these dehydrated meals with just the tiniest bit of advanced planning.

Backpacker’s Pantry

Whatever you do, don’t get dehydrated meals from Backpacker’s Pantry. For whatever reason, their water recommendations never seem right, their meals never hydrate in a timeframe at all relevant to what’s suggested, and every one I’ve ever had has tasted like crunchy grains of white rice spread across a piece of toast and dipped in hot water.

Will they keep you alive if that’s all you’ve got? Presumably.

Can you do better by eating literally anything else? Most likely.

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