[cdt-l] Soaking Food Instead of Cooking

[Marcia]

I agree that there are many soak-and-eat meals: cous cous, dehydrated black beans, soups. But pasta that is soaked and eaten cold, to me, has a raw flour taste (cous cous and many other grains have been pre cooked). On our northbound CDT in NM we didn't cook and the soaked raw pasta was so awful that I skipped eating dinner rather than eat it. Also, hot chocolate made with cold water does not mix well. The powder becomes lumpy and floats on the water...unless someone has found a brand that reconstitutes well in cold water?

YMMV
Marcia
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Francis Tapon 
To: cdt-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 1:17 PM
Subject: [cdt-l] Soaking Food Instead of Cooking


Heidrun: Thanks for the reply! 

 

How long would you need to soak food?

 

On the PCT, I accidentally bought pasta that needed 15 minutes of cooking. Before going to bed, I put it in the pot, filled with cold water, and let it soak overnight. The next morning I could just eat it without any cooking. It was just like eating leftover pasta out of the fridge without heating it. I usually used an Esbit to warm it up and added mixes to spice it up. However, that got me thinking that if you don't mind that the pasta is not warm, you could eat it cold. 

 

That got me thinking about a multitude of overnight soaking options. If I can make pasta that takes 15 minutes to cook edible with just overnight soaking, it seems that there is a world of possibilities (provided you don't mind cold food). Also, the overnight soaking depends on temps above freezing! J

 

Have you found any website that discusses soaking ideas? 

 

Happy trails,

 

Francis Tapon

Check out this 2 minute video: http://tinyurl.com/yyzdbo 

Learn about my book, Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America, at: http://www.FrancisTapon.com/book


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Heidrun Kessler [mailto:Xkanuck at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 11:42 PM
To: cdt-l at backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [cdt-l] Esbits

 

Francis Tapon asked if anyone had soaked food cold and left cooking stuff behind?  Yup, on the PCT at Crater Lake I sent my cooking stuff home and from there to Manning, I ate cold couscous day in and day out~ got a little boring but it sure saved weight, time and eliminated the "what to eat" decision. Ziplocks worked great as for soaking & serving. And no pots to wash! Probably would do it again if the pepsi can died..

Heidrun 

 

 

 



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
cdt-l mailing list
cdt-l at backcountry.net
http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/cdt-l
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/cdt-l/attachments/20070104/4f5fa693/attachment.html