Reviews > Food > Packaged Meals > Back Country Cuisine > Owner Review by Ralph Ditton

OWNER REVIEW: BACK COUNTRY CUISINE
                                   Freeze Dri Packaged Meals


Review Date: 8th September, 2005

Personal Information:

Backpacking Background:

 I have been walking the Bibbulmun Track in sections over four years. My goal is to complete the 964 km (603 mi) and become an end to end walker. So far I have completed approximately two-thirds of the Track from North to South, and a quarter in the opposite direction. I have evolved from carrying a heavyweight load—approximately 28 kg, (62 lb) including food and water—to being a midweight backpacker, averaging 18 kg (38 lb) at the start of a trip. My trips are usually between three to five days duration.

Product Information:

Manufacturer: Back Country Foods Limited. ;
Made in: Invercargill, New Zealand.
Year of Manufacturer: Not Applicable.
Year of Purchase: 2004
Shelf Life: 3 years.
Website: http://www.backcountrycuisine.co.nz 
Serving Size of Packets: 2 serves.
Net Weight: 175 g (6.17 oz)
MSRP: not listed.

My Measurements:

Measured Dimensions of Packet: 247 mm x 185 mm x 18 mm (9.7 in x 7.3 in x 0.7 in).
Gross Weight: 180 g (6.35 oz).

Product Description:

The freeze-dry food is packaged in a robust, vacuum sealed foil packet with a gusseted seam at the bottom to enable the packet to stand up when rehydrating with boiling water.
By a complex drying process, the end result is a dry, porous food product which has a long shelf life. 
The instructions say to pour boiling water into the packet, stir and stand for ten minutes. I fold the top over to keep the heat in ( I use clothes line pegs to keep the top sealed) and let the packet stand for between ten to twenty minutes. I have on the odd occasion put the ingredients into a pot with hot water, added extra biltong and kept the heat going so as to soften the slow-to-rehydrate components. This leaves the packet relatively clean to take back out for disposal.
I tend to let the meal rehydrate for about the twenty minute mark as I have found shorter times can leave the food a bit crunchy where it has not completely softened. In addition, I also like to give the packet a gentle shake to help the water mix with the food after giving it a stir with a spoon. The pegs  hold the packet closed whilst giving it a shake, otherwise if the top of the packet is only folded over without being held in place, hot food will spill out of the opening. This hurts both physically on the hands and tummy wise because of the loss of some food, (there is less to eat) that is why I always peg the top closed. 

There are three serving sizes, a one serve, a two serve and a five serve, but I only buy the two serve packets as the one serve is grossly inadequate for one adult person (me). To overcome this problem there is the option of adding about 100 - 130 g (3.5 oz - 4.6 oz) of rice or pasta.

The five serve packets are difficult to locate and there is far too much food for one person, but they are good when it is to be shared between two adults which I have done once.

The manufacturer states that all ingredients are natural, free from MSG and artificial preservatives.

Back Country Cuisine menu consists of three breakfasts, fourteen mains, four desserts and two meal complements. 
I have tried only two of the breakfasts, all of the mains and two of the desserts. The meal compliments I have not tried.
A  full menu list is given on the manufacturers website.

I will be commenting on a selection of the products, some excellent and some not so good.However, I will not be listing the nutritional value of each meal as it would make the report extremely lengthy and the information is all available on the manufacturers website for each dish. I refer the reader to this source. The five serve packet mentioned above, is very filling for two adults after a hard day of walking.

All the meals have the nutritional information listed on the back of the packets.

Cooked Breakfast:

Cooked Breakfast - Ingredients - Beef Bacon, scrambled eggs, beans, tomato sauce and onion. A separate pack containing fried hash brown potato is included.

I was disappointed with the hash brown as it appeared and tasted just like powdered instant potato of the Deb variety. I do not know where the "fried" bit was.
The beans also came in a separate packet with a coating of tomato sauce, however, the beans were only husk as the centres were hollow. The beans appeared on the surface to be of the baked bean variety.

I have tried this meal twice to see if I was being harsh on the experience of the first packet that I tried, as I might have had a bad production batch.
The second packet was tried many months later and it was purchased at a different store, but the contents and aftermath were the same. The meal was filling as it was bulked up by the instant potato, but the worst aspect was that the meal sat like a brick in my stomach for about four hours afterwards and it was most uncomfortable when bushwalking with a heavy backpack on.
The second packet did not redeem itself either, so I will not be purchasing this particular meal again.

Taste Test- Average.
Aftermath - Poor.

Porridge Classic:

Ingredients - Rolled Oats, fruit and nuts.

This breakfast was very enjoyable and it came with two little packets of sugar that you sprinkle over the meal. I only used one of the packets as I do not use a lot of sugar. I saved the other packet for my cup of tea which followed.

The meal itself was quite creamy, possibly due to the presence of milk powder in the ingredients and the fruit was reasonably soft after the soaking, but still runny. I probably put too much water in the packet.

I have only tried this meal on my last bushwalk and it was given to me by a camping store free of charge, to try out and report back to him. There was no ill effects after eating this very filling meal and I was able to bushwalk that day with a content stomach.

Taste Test - Good.

Evening Meal:

Ingredients - Oven baked lamb, mint gravy, peas, corn, pumpkin, chives, lecithin, canola oil, milk powder, salt and potato.

The lamb appears to have been cooked as a roll and then sliced through to form oval shapes. The potato came in a separate packet with its own cardboard stand to keep the packet upright when being rehydrated.

I reconstitute the main meal first for approximately twenty minutes, then I pour some water into the potato powder as it only takes a half minute to get the potato ready. I made the mistake on my first attempt at reconstituting this meal by pouring  boiling water into both packets around the same time and when the main meal was ready, the potato was cold, so I leave the potato till the last minute so it is hot to eat.

There are plenty of lamb pieces in the packet and this, in my opinion, is the only meat dish that this manufacturer produces that has adequate meat present.

This meal would have to be my favorite one as I have purchased it many times.

Taste Test - Excellent.

Ingredients - Rice, chicken 20%, carrots, onion, broccoli, courgettes and red peppers.

This was one meal that I looked forward to eating and judging by the number of packets for sale in the camping shop, it appeared to be a popular dish. 
So one evening sitting on top of a small mountain overlooking the Blackwood Valley I prepared the meal with much anticipation. I snipped off the top, poured in the boiling water, sealed with the pegs and give the packet a good shake, not too vigorous, and let it reconstitute for fifteen minutes.
I  was curious as to how the chicken would reconstitute as I have read that reconstituted chicken does not do it very well. It remains bullet hard. After the appropriate time had passed to reconstitute the meal I proceeded to consume the dish. 

Well, the meal was a complete letdown. The chicken pieces were cubed like one gets in a chicken sandwich and spongy. The chicken pieces reminded me of cubes of bean curd.  In fact, I struggled to consume the whole meal.

I have not brought it since.

The moral of the story is that I will not judge the popularity of a meal by the number of packets on sale.

Taste Test- Poor.

Ingredients - Coconut milk (powdered), curry, chicken 20%, green beans, roasted peanuts, red peppers, onion and rice.

As I was bitten by the Honey Soy Chicken dish, I was dubious of this meal because of the chicken content, but I decided to give it a go and see if I would get caught a second time. I got caught. The chicken pieces were cubed and spongy without much flavour.
Despite the disappointment with the chicken pieces, the meal was enjoyable, especially crunching into roasted peanuts. 

Taste Test - Good

This dish was the first of the chicken dishes that I tried, in fact the very first dehydrated meal, and it was a number of years back. I cannot remember what passed for chicken in the dish but it was very memorable for all the wrong reasons.

My walking partner and I went by the labelling and believed that a two serve would be adequate for two people, first mistake.
We had walked from Swampy Oak campsite on our way to Murray Campsite some 19 km (11.8 mi) in 33 C (91 F) and came to grief at the 7.6 km (4.7 mi) mark when trying to tackle a climb of approximately 150 m (492 ft) at a gradient of approximately 70 º , with packs weighing around 20 kg (44 lb).

When we got to the top we were quite exhausted and as it was late and would not reach the campsite before dark, we decided to camp on the side of the track and  we had consumed a lot of water. We only had enough left for the evening meal and breakfast, approximately 2 L (68 fl oz).

The meal took us both by surprise at how hot and spicy it was  and due to the water shortage we only had little sips to quell the heat in our mouths.
The quantity of food was very tiny and in normal circumstances would have been totally inadequate to satisfy our hunger. However, in another way it was a blessing in that, because the meal was spicy hot we did not  use up our water to quell a bigger problem had we had a packet each.

I have not tried the meal since.

Taste Test - Good.

Fish Pie:

Ingredients - Fillets of deep-sea Dory, diced boiled egg, mashed potato, curry, onion, peas with a separate pack of cheese granules.

I did not know to expect when I read fillets of fish, but in reality, the fish fillets were little pieces of fish broken off a fillet and they were very tough still after the usual fifteen minutes of soaking in boiling water and there were not a lot of fish flesh present in the packet. The cheese topping was pleasant, but in my opinion the meal relied on its bulk with the sauce in lieu of the fish.

I also shared this meal with my walking partner who experienced the Mexican  Chicken with me. Same problem with volume. A two person serve is not a two person serve. Both of us had to supplement the meal with other food products that we had.
After this experience, my walking partner does not eat any dehydrated food. He uses supermarket products like pastas and sauces, tuna in a pouch etc.

Taste Test - Fair.

Ingredients - Beef mince, fruit chutney, raisins, eggs, rice, onions and a mild curry.

This dish would have to be my second most favourite one as I have purchased it over five times. The flavours and aroma are delicious and reasonably filling for one person. I am not a big fan of raisins, but I do not let them bother me as the raisins are not numerous.

Apparently this dish is a favourite of the Afrikaans people of South Africa.

Taste Test - Excellent.

Ingredients - Beef, rice, onion, green beans and red peppers.

I found this dish not overly generous with meat pieces, but the meal did reconstitute well with an appealing spicy flavour and was filling for me. I did not share this two serve with anyone else.

 I have had this particular dish on three occasions and on each occasion the meat  was still tough and stringy, so it makes me wonder what type of beef is being used.
The rice was a tad crunchy each time also and I had soaked the meal each time for around twenty minutes.

Taste Test - Good.

Ingredients - Pasta, beans, tomatoes, olives, herbs and spices, kidney beans, lima beans, butter beans, garbanzo beans, canola oil, onion and green peppers in a tasty Italian sauce.

This dish was the surprise packet of all the meals that I have eaten. I have eaten it twice and both times I was unable to completely eat the whole lot because the two person serve really fills me up and I am struggling to finish. All the pasta and beans swell up a reasonable amount to give body and bulk to the meal. On one occasion at the Ball Creek campsite, a family of Magpies (birds) helped me eat the meal. They enjoyed the olives and beans, but did not like the pasta so much.The black olives are sliced into rings.

The sauce is not overpowering and on both occasions I did treat myself to two mugs of red wine to compliment the meal. Somehow, pasta, olives and red wine seem to be the ideal match. No, the  Magpies did not partake of the wine.

Taste Test - Excellent.

Ingredients - Beef mince, noodles, vegetables, herbs and spices, onion, red pepper, capsicum, tomato and a tomato savoury sauce.

I have tried this particular flavour twice to give it a chance to redeem itself and was disappointed both times because the manufacturer uses noodles in lieu of the proper spaghetti, unlike a competitor who uses the correct product.
Once again, not a lot of meat mince was present. The meal appears to rely on the dehydrated vegetables, gravy sauce, corn starch, emulsifier and hydrolysed vegetable protein to pad the meal out.

I always associate Parmesan Cheese with this dish, but there was no separate packet of this cheese provided and I could not detect any in the mix of powders.

Taste Test - Fair.

Ingredients - Spring lamb, peas, carrots, pineapple and rice.

This is one of my favourites as I have eaten it numerous times.

The sweet and sour flavour is reminiscent of the popular Chinese dishes that use a  sweet and sour sauce which I enjoy in moderation. The pineapple pieces are a nice surprise when discovered in a mouthful. However, they are not plentiful, just a small ration.

The only disappointing aspect that I came across with this dish is that the peas are just husk, nothing inside them, just hollow.

By the end of the meal when I am scraping the bottom of the packet I find the sauce a mite cloying but nothing to be put off by.

Taste Test - Very Good.

Sweets:

Fruit Salad Trifle:

Ingredients - Madeira cake, pears, peaches, grapes, pineapple, cherries and vanilla custard.

This sweet can be eaten hot or cold. I prefer the hot version as I am not keen on cold custard.
The cake is in small pieces and there are a lot of grapes and glacè cherries floating around in the custard. I did not find too much in the way of pears and peaches. They were there, but in very small portions, but there was a good amount of pineapple pieces.

I shared this two person serve with my walking partner. I could not eat a whole packet by myself after eating a substantial main course, and what I had was adequate.

Taste Test - Good.

Ingredients - Apricot in a hot sauce and malt crumbs.

This sweet was very enjoyable as far as the taste went, however, my mix was very runny and I only put in the recommended amount of boiling water. I have only tried this sweet once, but should I purchase it again, I would use much less water than the recommended amount.

Packaging of this sweet comes only in a two person serve, and I shared this with my walking partner.

Taste Test - Very Good.

Points to Consider:

After a few runny/soup meals, I now add less water than the recommended amount printed on the packet. The extra water does not hurt the meal, it is that I like the meal to be firm.

The best utensil to eat the meals is a spoon because that way if too much water is added  the meal can still be eaten, whereas I was caught short once when trying to use a fork.

Prior to eating the meal out of the pouch, I cut away approximately 80 mm (3.15 in) from the top section and that enables me to reach  the bottom of the packet with the spoon. I found that if I did not trim the packet down, then to reach the food lower down in the packet, I had to put my hand inside the packet with the spoon and my hand got food on it from the sides of the packet. It made for a very messy meal.

I found through experience that the advertised labeling of what constitutes a one or two serve to be totally erroneous when a lengthy bushwalk with a pack has been undertaken. The measurements may satisfy some medical criteria but it clearly inadequate to active people. The two person serve should be a one person serve.

The advantage of using freeze dry foods is the convenience at the end of the day when preparing a meal, just boil up the water, open the packet and pour the water in.  Make sure that there is no separate packet of goodies inside first. Seal the top and wait.

The meat dishes, by and large, are not generous with meat.  I am now adding Biltong (dried marinated meat) to the meal to bulk up the meat content. The manufacturer should add more meat as  a competitor adds generous amounts of meat to their meals, but they are difficult to find.

The freeze dry process appears to leave some bean varieties and peas as hollow husk and there is no nutritional value in that.

Things I Like:

• Light to carry.
• East to prepare.
• Convenient.
• Wide selection of meals.
• No washing up required, just lick the spoon.
• Sturdy pouches.
• Food packets stand up by themselves.

Things I Dislike:

• Expensive.
• One person serve manifestly inadequate.
• Rely on powders to pad out meals
• Extremely small amounts of meat present.
• Chicken is spongy in texture.

Reviews > Food > Packaged Meals > Back Country Cuisine > Owner Review by Ralph Ditton