monofood?

[Tipi Walter]

Back in the 60s there was a LD hiker trail food that consisted of bacon fat mixed with peanut butter and cut into squares like fudge. I tried it and found it quite tasty. I've been looking for someone who remembers this stuff to no avail. Thinking about this makes my mouth water as I write this. Which also reminds me, back during a very wet spell of hiking through the Pemigewasset Wilderness area of the White Mountains in the early eighties I used bacon fat to grease my Limmers during a break at Zealand Hut. I never knew of course, but I probably was trailed by hungry bears for days afterward. The boots did smell terrific for a long while.

hi matty

The Donner party ate their boots and saddle gear, they started out with around 82 people and after about 4-6 months in the high Sierra winter, ended up with aprox 40 survivors, the rest eaten/froze/discarded. Your bacon coated boots reminded of their travail.

[mystic]

One thing I learned from sailing is that food isn't just for providing calories. Meals have a great psychological value.

If you serve 'monofood' aka gruel over and over your morale will be terrible. If you serve diverse tasty food your morale will be good.

It means the difference of hiking all day thinking:
"Yuch, gruel for lunch, gruel for dinner"
or
"Woohoo! Only 5 more miles and I get a slice of fresh onion sauteed in olive oil with spaghetti and meatballs."

High morale will keep you on the trail when you might be ready to throw in the towel.

Good food just makes the whole trip more fun. And that's why you are out there, right?

[Tipi Walter]

For most backpackers, there are really just two choices when cooking: Pot meals like mac and cheese, oatmeal, stews and soups, etc. And frypan meals like eggs, toasted breads and muffins, stir-fried veggies, bacon/meat patties, fried fish, etc. Having a frypan that is deep enough to cook oatmeal and mac and cheese but also teflon-coated for frying, makes a big difference. In this way, one pot does both.

For some reason, fried foods in oil using a pan really helps when backpacking, I always look forward to toasting up muffins or eggs instead of relying on the old tired pot meals of thick glop.

[Bearpaw]

About 20 years ago I went on a long backpacking trip and took one of the Hobbit books, maybe Lord of the Rings, and in it they carried Simla(sp?), a survival food wrapped in silver(cream cheese?), and so I always thought about finding something like simla that could sustain me.

The elven bread was lembas. When I started eating Probars last year, I thought I had found the modern version of lembas. Small, tasted better than Bear Valley bars, packed incredible calories into a tiny package. I bought enough for breakfast on my long hikes over last Summer. However, by late June, I began vomiting them up almost as soon as I ate them.

I have two theories.

1) Since they contain no preservatives, some of them "went bad" after sitting in a hot post office and made me sick.

2) I am so much a carnivore that my body simply rejected the raw vegan Probar.

In either case, I will go back to eating Bear Valley Mealpak and Pemmican Bars for long distances.

As for thru-hiking the entire trail on these? I think you'd have MAJOR health issues without a good bit of supplementary foods for fiber and vitamins.

And most important, it may nourish the body, but won't nourish the soul.

As Mouse told Neo in The Matrix over his breakfast of protein paste, "It doesn't have everything the body needs. "

[Bearpaw]

One thing I learned from sailing is that food isn't just for providing calories. Meals have a great psychological value.

If you serve 'monofood' aka gruel over and over your morale will be terrible. If you serve diverse tasty food your morale will be good.

It means the difference of hiking all day thinking:
"Yuch, gruel for lunch, gruel for dinner"
or
"Woohoo! Only 5 more miles and I get a slice of fresh onion sauteed in olive oil with spaghetti and meatballs."

High morale will keep you on the trail when you might be ready to throw in the towel.

Good food just makes the whole trip more fun. And that's why you are out there, right?

Rarely have truer words been spoken!

[AT-HITMAN2005]

i think this scab topic may require its own thread." do you eat human fleash?" morbid? i could have more coffie.

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!

[YeOldeBackpacker]

IMO these have to be the some of the better tasting food bars out there, a little bigger than some others, and cost a little more but the are really good.

ive thaught about pemician alot tipi. its hard to make real stuff like the indians did. and the store bought ones would be depressing to eat and probubly kill you in the end. hears a bar im into lately. it has 9 gs of protien,17 fat 4 sat fat 30 sodium 150 potassium 46 carbs 6 fiber 30 sugar

[rafe]

I tried a few short section hikes without my stove, eating just "monofoods" as matthewski so aptly refers to them. It didn't work for me. The pleasure of a hot dinner -- even if it's just Liptons plus chunks of mystery meat -- is one that I'm not ready to give up. I can live with one hot meal per day on the trail, but I can't take it down to zero.

[Appalachian Tater]

A "mono food" diet consists of one food, not one blend of different foods.

[Feral Bill]

I think prisons have something like this for unruly comvicts to subsist on.

[kayak karl]

A "mono food" diet consists of one food, not one blend of different foods.

i know what he meant. can we keep going, or do we start a new thread.

[tazie]

long ago my father used to hit the trail with just an apple and water..he would be gone for days. jan's halvah recipe sounds good though. It nourishes your body and soul.
I have met some thru-hikers on the trail in Maryland that frightened me. They have a lean and hungry look, a hurried stride and impatient, not one for chit-chat. I offered one an apple once, but he was not tempted. He needed meat.

[RenoRoamer]

You can easily live on the trail with a mono-diet, but you should probably supplement in town with other things. Granola/muesli for example is my standard trail food and I never grow tired of it. In fact, anything which is mostly carbs/sugars and a small amount of protein will work, provided it doesn't cause your body to produce too much insulin. Nothing but candy bars is not such a good idea since these are usually higher in fat than carbs and lack any protein. Supplement the mono-diet with fats, more protein, fresh fruit and veggies in town. It would probably be a good idea to take a vitamin pill (especially vitamin C) with any monodiet.

[mweinstone]

thank you tater for correcting my imagination witch imagined the made up definition of my made up term wrong.

[Bearpaw]

thank you tater for correcting my imagination witch imagined the made up definition of my made up term wrong.

I like the term "monofood" Matt, mostly because over the course of six months it would get so painfully "mono"-tonous.

[Appalachian Tater]

thank you tater for correcting my imagination witch imagined the made up definition of my made up term wrong.

Well, I actually think you're onto something with the scabs/Soylent Green.

[mweinstone]

actually monofooding it would be a spiritual walk. many times as a kid i went days with only spirulina and supplements. its like speeding on coffie.your stomach growels but your mind stays sharp. and you loose weight. something we all need to do. as far as adding a vitimine pill. no. i find real food beats pills hands down in all catagories.pills are a bill of goods and good for nothin.

[Appalachian Tater]

Soylent Green is little square crackers.

[mweinstone]

allright now settle down. we all ate our moms to get here.nobodys a vegen.

[dessertrat]

I'll bet you can get a long ways on bagels and Goober.