Have a favorite trail recipe or technique you'd like to share? Please do! We also like reviews of various trail food products out there. The Backcountry Food Topix forum is the place to discuss all things related to food and nourishment while in the Sierra wilderness (as well as favorite trail head eateries).
What spice or sauce do you always take on a trip to liven up you meals? Hot dried peppers, hot sauce, or maybe some spice mix or hersb?
I like Louisiana Red Dot Hot Sauce and sometimes use some of Jimr's home-dried chili pepper flakes.
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.
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I really like Tapatio sauce on just about anything savory. And you can get them in convenient little packets (like fancy ketchup) on Amazon and other places.
Last year I got hooked to hot "gruel" meals where everything is fairly wet; doesn't matter if it is beans, macaroni, mash, whatever. They just are more satisfying to me, and I don't drink enough water anyway. My go-to fixers for every meal are a splash of olive oil and chunks of gruyere. For taste variation I add things like carrot flakes, fake baco-bits or dried chili flakes.
Spices- Tajin, maple-brandy rub on fish, basil. Coriander and garam masala are the two spices I am currently experimenting with. I mix my own cereal, with a dash of cinnamon and allspice. A tablespoon of Nido in each cereal bag really makes it rich and creamy. Fresh garlic cloves. Olive oil and margarine, 1/2 oz each per day (more oil if I plan to fry a lot of fish). Nuts (cashews my favorite) and sunflower seeds on everything. Dried or FD sundried tomatoes, dried mushrooms. Lately I have been trying out fried dried onion rings or potato chips on top of pasta dishes. Jerky added to chili. Parmesan cheese.
I always carry small plastic bottles of Tajin and basil. Other than those, I pre-mix meals and add salt and spices directly to the bag of food, every meal slightly different for variety. I cook from scratch but take 1-2 "side" packets in case I need a no-fuss meal. Never use FD meals.
During my normal grocery shopping I always keep an eye out for new and different stuff to enhance my backpack meals.
Dave_Ayers wrote:But I do use Chaka's MMM Sauce for marinating the jerky meat (I make my own).
I make my own jerky too, where do you get Chaka's locally? I saw on internet by the case, but just need a bottle. I usually use a marinade of Yoshida's Teriyaki and crushed red peppers. I sent them an email to see if it's available here in north San Diego county.