Does anyone have experience cooking 'pantry-style'?
Some background: Nearly a century ago, my father paddled in the early wave of recreational canoeing. He and several fellow students took the month of May, from ice-off to serious bugs everywhere time, to paddle through the Algonquin area. In the time-honoured tradition of the northwoods, they carried canvas gunny-sacks of ingredients, i.e., one of oatmeal, one of flour, one of beans, etc. To make a meal, they chose from a very limited menu, opened whatever gunny-sacks they needed, and assembled their meal. Everything was cooked over open fire. (BTW, they slept in Egyptian cotton Baker tents, with no floors, and only a bar of mosquito netting that draped across the open front (if they kept the front tarp open. Fish, mainly Lake Trout caught with big silver spoons and Monel line, was their main animal protein source. They also carried double-smoked bacon on-the-rind.)
I've been in discussion with an experienced backpacker who swears by a similar method she refers to as 'pantry-style'. She carries dehydrated rice in one container, dehydrated beans in another, and so on, including grated Parmesan, oil, dried Nido milk, TVP, etc. Ahead of time, she figures out a rough menu, determines how much of each ingredient she'll require, packs that amount, and goes. On the trail, she decides what she want for any particular meal, combines, adjusts spicing and calorie count, and cooks. She figures fewer wasted plastic bags, and much more adjustability. She carries plastic jars and bottles of various sizes, as well as Silnylon dry bags for the bulk dried ingredients.
For decades while paddling, we've always premeasured and packaged each meal separately, with each day again bagged together.
Does anyone have experience — or measured opinion — on her pantry-style approach to cooking?
Bruce Traillium