Two Recipes for High-Calorie Expedition Dinners

Expedition dinners need to balance taste and calories with minimal prep time. There’s a lot to do in the evening — small repairs, keeping a journal, studying maps, melting water for the following day on cold-weather trips. There’s really no time for elaborate Michelin-star meals. It’s all one-pot.

Freeze-dried meals

Many people’s initial go-to is freeze-dried dinners. Apart from a sameness in taste, and the fact that living on freeze-dried dinners for weeks can cause mild stomach upsets, most packages are not particularly caloric — although Expedition Foods in the UK makes ideal 1,000-calorie meals. You can also preface the main meal with soup and further bolster the calories by adding sausage, butter, or powdered shortening. On my expeditions, one in every three dinners is freeze-dried. Each meal should weigh, dried, between 6.5 and 8 oz/person.

Needless to say, “serves two” in freeze-dried lingo means “may serve one.” Perhaps to stay within a certain price point, the “two-person” entrees of many companies
are less than 6.5 ounces. These may be fine on weekend trips, but not when someone is seriously hungry and relying on a filling, one-pot dinner.

Homemade dinners

Some years ago, I skied around Mount Logan with two mountaineers from my hometown here in the Canadian Rockies. One of them brought the best outdoor meals I’ve ever tasted. He dried the many ingredients at home with a dehydrator. But his elaborate meals took a long time to make, and while his preparations worked after short travel days in mild May weather, they would have been problematic at 30 or 40 below, or on busy expeditions when you only have a couple of hours before you need to get to sleep to recharge for the following long day.

There are simpler homemade meals. Here are two; we’d welcome any alternative recipes in the Comments section.

Potato gruel. Photo: Jerry Kobalenko

Potato Gruel

Potato gruel is a classic expedition meal. It’s too heavy for a weekend trip. The gruel is really just a carrier for the fatty cheese. It tastes okay, but the meal becomes more popular over time, as the body recognizes just how filling it is. Everyone sleeps contentedly after a gruel dinner. Once every three days is ideal.

Serves 18, or one person 18 times

INGREDIENTS:
11 cups whole milk powder
10 cups potato flakes
45 tblsp whole wheat flour (2.5 cups +5 tblsp)
23 tblsp onion flakes (1.25C +3 tblsp)
23 tblsp garlic powder (1.25C +3 tblsp)
23 tblsp wheat germ (optional) (1.25C +3 tblsp)
23 tsp parsley flakes (1.25C +3 tblsp)
23 tsp dill weed (1.25C +3 tblsp)
23 tsp oregano (1.25C +3 tblsp)
11 tsp salt
dash of pepper & nutmeg; powdered shortening or
margarine for extra calories (optional)
6+ lbs cheese

Note: 16 tblsp = 1 cup approx

PREPARATION:
I carry the gruel in medium Ziplocs. 1.4 lbs of gruel mix = 4 servings. My preferred cheese, for its calorie/weight ratio, is a Swiss raclette with 48% fat, available at a local deli. (Supermarket cheeses are typically only around 25% fat.)

For cold-weather expeditions, I ask the deli to remove the rind, cut the cheese in 1” cubes, then vacuum pack it for freshness in 2-lb bricks. The cubing is important, because otherwise you’ll be whaling away with an ice ax at cheese frozen hard as cement. That takes forever, and you lose a lot of cheese splinters that way. The cubes will freeze together but you can snap them apart. Keep the cheese inside your parka for a few minutes, if necessary, to allow this. You need 1/3 lb per person-dinner of cheese.

Cheese cubes. Photo: Jerry Kobalenko

As a treat, budget a little more cheese after a particularly long day, somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 lb per person. This is a monster bowl, for trenchermen only.
Note that the rind does not count in cheese weights and should be removed at home, not in the field.

COOKING:
Add 1/3 lb gruel mix per person to enough cold water to make a thickish soup. (Whole milk powder doesn’t mix well with hot water.) Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. The gruel starts out kind of watery, but as it nears boiling, it will thicken. The final gruel consistency should resemble a medium porridge. Hitting this ideal balance is just trial and error.

Add the chunks of cheese when the gruel is almost boiling, and stir constantly over low heat, if your camp stove allows such a refined setting, until some of the cheese has melted in, but you still have enough chunks for several good cheese hits. Add some powdered shortening, margarine, or sausage, if desired, to increase calories.

One disadvantage of this recipe: No matter how diligent the stirrer, some gruel inevitably scorches onto the bottom of the pot. Scrape it off with the flat screwdriver on a multi-tool.

Photo: Jerry Kobalenko

Black Bean Chili

Like the gruel, its core caloric ingredient is cheese, but the chili base is more flavorful than the gruel’s potato/milk powder/spice mix. And the two taste very different. If you’re eating them once every three days for 50 days, this is an important consideration.