Questions tagged [food]
Specific concerns to transporting, preparing, and consuming foods during excursions into the great outdoors.
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Can I use a glass mason jar or an empty tin can as a DIY cooking pot?
I'm talking about a small gas or alcohol stove, for example like this:
Images from: https://www.rei.com/blog/camp/diy-how-to-make-an-alcohol-stove-from-soda-cans
Since the stove is DIY, I was ...
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How to trick my body/stomach into thinking I'm full?
So, I got invited by a couple of friends to go hiking and doing some "survivalist stuff". I was never the most resilient person so was kinda unsure, then I decided to try and "test"...
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Can I eat mice? If so, how to cook them?
We live on a farm in the countryside. Our cat often brings us his catch.
I was wondering whether I can eat those rodents (just out of curiosity and to hone survival skills). How shall I cook them? And ...
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Pros for fermenting fish vs. smoking or drying
Surströmming is a hero of many short videos showing people going delirious over its smell. Leaving behind those reactions are purposely exaggerated to get clicks, the smell is certainly not delicious.
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Whats the most efficient food one could forage in the Taiga in a survival situation?
I have been watching the German YouTube series "7 vs Wild" (YouTube here, German Wiki link here). The premise is that 7 participants have to survive for 7 days after being marooned in the ...
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Which place in the car is coolest on hot sunny days?
When going hiking, I often leave some food in my car, so that I could eat it in the evening (or after a few days), when I return from the hike. I would like to minimize the heating of the food.
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Cookware: Why not Copper instead of Titanium, Aluminium or Stainless Steel?
Currently there are three major materials for hiking/lightweight cookware ruling the market:
Aluminium
Titanium
Stainless Steel
Each of those materials has several advantages and disadvantages:
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Are black bears attracted to trace amounts of food?
For the purpose of this question I am interested in black bears in an area with relatively low human pressure, plenty of natural habitat and presumably natural food sources.
The scenario I'm ...
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How do people who don't have a driver's license yet live remotely solve their food/survival needs? [closed]
I never leave the apartment anymore, because the outdoors have become a frightening dystopia. My childhood quarters have been utterly ruined with tasteless buildings and soulless (and dangerous) ...
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Cooked meat/chicken when hiking
I have a 5 day hike in a national park in Chile. I was wondering if it's safe for me to cook/grill chicken breast or a steak before entering the park, put it in a Ziploc bag and consume it the day ...
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Is there any evidence that bears use (or used) cub labor to get food from backpackers?
Bears are back in the Question Queue, which reminds me of the claim going around Lawrence Berkeley Lab several decades ago.
The claim was that some mother bears in the Sierra would send their cubs up ...
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Is a bear canister needed for day hikes?
Is a bear canister or other anti-animal food protection method needed for (long) day hikes in bear country?
For example, is it unsafe to go on a 20-mile hike/trail run in Yosemite with a sandwich in ...
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Giving honey to a bear?
Recently some brown bears appeared in my region.
Should we encounter one, is it a good idea if we opened a jar of honey for the bear so we would have time to leave?
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How long can one starve before refeeding syndrome becomes an issue?
Refeeding syndrome is a potentially fatal condition caused by eating too much or too fast after a period of starvation.
My question is, how long of a period are we talking about?
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Can a watermelon be left outside overnight?
If i were to leave a watermelon in my backyard for say, 9 hours overnight in western Canada during autumn, would it attract rats or lead to other negative effects? I'm just thinking because it has the ...
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Why is freeze-dried food not much more popular?
Freeze-drying seems to be the perfect method for food preservation to take on trips to the outdoors: is the most lightweight food can be, can be shipped around the world easily, the majority of ...
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Eating huntsman spider
Am wondering about this episode, from Timothy Bax, Three Sips of Gin:
The three of us had just moved from the bar to an outside courtyard to
take advantage of a cool breeze when between us walked ...
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Questions about trimming fat for jerky
I watched a couple survival shows and started reading a bit about how jerky is made. A big point they get across no matter how they make it is to trim the fat. Fat doesn't dehydrate well enough to ...
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Food for desert hiking
A recent
question discussed how to maximize water retention on a desert hike.
One answer suggested that 100g of protein lead to 800ml loss through urination, so protein intake has to be minimized.
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If I kill a deer how long can the body last before preserving?
This isn't a question for a real life situation I am in, but more for a simulation that I want to be as accurate as possible.
My setting is pre-refrigeration and someone has just successfully hunted ...
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How can I store milk for long periods of time?
I'm in the process of setting up my overland vehicle so that it has "essentials" in it at all times. I've got a kettle and ways to boil the kettle etc.
I am interested in having the basics in my ...
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How can I pack my food so it doesn't smell?
TL;DR: How can I pack my food so that it isn't an odor nuisance in my backpack, in a lightweight manner if animals are no issue.
In a month I will be going on a 14-day trekking trip, completely self-...
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Transition to "Starvation Mode" in Survival Situations
The textbook "Fundamentals of Search and Rescue" in Chapter 6 describes the priorities of needs in survival situations. The priorities listed are
Air
Shelter
Rest
Signals/Communication
Water
Food
...
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What are effective trekking-groceries in terms of energy/mass ratio while maintaining a healthy balance of carbs, fats, proteins and vitamins?
Sure it is nice to carry around huge packs of fresh vegetables and some beef in order to prepare a proper dish. However, it takes up space and moreover lots of mass in your backpack.
Also, a pound of ...
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What's is the Leave No Trace way to dispose of loose tea leaves?
It's possible to buy tea that is loose leaf instead on in the tea bags and use it while in the outdoors such as cold brewing in a Nalgene. Coffee grounds need to be packed out but what about tea ...
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What is the Leave No Trace way to dispose of coffee grounds?
If one makes coffee in the backcountry, there will be used grounds. Coffee grounds are biodegradable, but should one instead pack them out completely?
What is the Leave No Trace way to deal with used ...
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Is it possible to 'live off the sea'
I've recently become aware of the american 'survivalist' or 'prepper' phenomenon.
The general idea seems to be that 'something bad' (exactly what seems to vary) is going to happen, civilization will ...
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Does an ice chest packed full of frozen food need ice?
If the cooler is packed full of frozen food, does it need ice to stay frozen for 3 weeks or does ice somehow stay colder longer than frozen steak, sausage, hamburger etc.? I'm going on a 18 day Grand ...
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How much land would one family need for sustainable food production?
Help me settle an argument.
How big a patch of temperate wilderness terrain would you need to produce enough food to feed a family of four (two adults, two teens) indefinitely in an off the grid or ...
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How can I identify wild edible plants of southern and eastern China?
What wild edible plants can be found in southern and eastern China?
I have combed through various search queries but keep finding information on North American flora.
Are there any good resources ...
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How to find natural salt licks?
There are a number of places where salt can easily be found at or near the surface. Notably Salt Lake Utah, but there are also other Salt lick places of note.
How would I recognize a natural salt ...
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Salt Vs Smoke as a preservative
A recent question about travelling with dried food where the recipe did not include salt caused the OP some concern. As far as I know salt just dries out food. So if you get the food completely dry ...
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how shelf stable is pocket (portable) soup?
This video for Portable Soup (aka Pocket Soup) from James Townsend popped up in my feed. If you don't know (like I hadn't until I saw the video) Pocket Soup is basically a shelf-stable ultra-reduced ...
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What is the feed/day limit for various pack animals?
Wikipedia lists these common pack animals
Camel
Yak
Reindeer
Goats
Water buffaloes
Llama
Equines including horses, donkeys, and mules
Dogs (packing and sledding should have different values)
Each ...
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Is there a universal patch that signifies Food/Rations?
I have a medical bag together, which has a red cross velcro patch on the front of it. Anyone who looks at it will immediately know that the bag contains medical supplies. However, I'm making an ...
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What methods can be used to keep a cooler cold longer?
Keeping the cooler out of the sun and the lid closed as much as possible are some obvious ways to keep a cooler cold longer. There seems to be some truth that adding salt to your cooler can help it ...
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Which emergency food for backpacking (meat-like Granola bar?)
I will be travelling for a couple of days to remote regions of Laos.
I would like to take some kind of "emergency" food if nothing is around (or nothing trustworthy).
People with a sweet tooth have ...
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How much food is needed for three months of food when rowing across an ocean?
Related to this question, if one were to go on a three-month rowing trip across an ocean, is there an estimate of how much the food would be needed?
It's certainly possible to give an estimate when ...
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What are some good foods for recovering from calorie debt?
Calorie debt is when you are using more calories than you are eating and making up the difference from stored reserves of body fat.
Sometimes people will do this to save on the amount of weight ...
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In a survival situation is it actually efficient to eat edible plants?
In a survival situation is it actually efficient to eat edible plants? Assume late spring to early fall in a temperate climate.
We have plenty of questions about where to find edible plants and how ...
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Are these yellow orange hawthorns edible?
I have lots of these hawthorns in my neighborhood (Mount Lebanon) but I am afraid to eat from them. Are they safe ?
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If you are stranded at sea with a basic set of fishing equipment, how reliable of a food supply are fish?
We have a question about desalinating water while stranded at sea, and another that asks if you can get desalinated water from eating fish.
However, even if you could get desalinated water from fish ...
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Can I eat Rabbit Poop?
I know that rabbits eat their droppings (cecotropes) and I have heard of feeding rabbit droppings to pigs. Rabbits are vegetarians. There droppings do not have the same consistency or negative ...
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Is there a backpacker's guide to edible plants that is very light?
Several decades ago, we were three days from the trailhead with no food. Let's not get into why that happened, please. It is too embarrassing.
We had to slog through snow for two days, but on the ...
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What are the pros and cons of cotton vs mesh filters for making cold brew coffee in a Nalgene water bottle?
From my research so far into making cold brew coffee in a Nalgene while backpacking, I have found there to be two types of filters, cotton ones called "coffee socks" and mesh ones that screw onto the ...
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Is there any evidence that black bears (or other large predators) are indifferent to, or acutally repulsed by, the scent of humans?
I am hoping for more than anecdotal evidence about the negative effects on black bears of the human scent -- ranging from meh to Yecch.
This question is prompted by two anecdotes I have to offer: (...
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Are there any biodegrable freeze dried packages?
More and more I see discarded freeze dried packages abandoned in the woods. The ones I have seen are made out of plastic and are foil lined and so don't decompose the way that oatmeal packets would ...
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Food to bring on long hike [duplicate]
I am planning on doing a around 2 week hike and bring all food with me. I would walk around 25-30 km a day. To major constraints here are the weight and cost of the food. I have made the following ...
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Is it actually useful to ration food?
Is it actually useful to ration food?
What is the difference between eating a little bit of food at an interval and eating enough to be full at once?
I'm getting the same amount of calories/...
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What types of wild foods are protected from foraging in the Swedish Lapland forests, and how is the status decided?
There's a question on the site seeking information about foraging food in Sweden. One of the answers says any wild food in the forests of Swedish Lapland can be foraged and removed except "protected" ...
