Mountain House meal problem- (did not rehydrate)

[unm1136]

I just did the math and at 8100 feet distilled water will boil at about 197.2 degrees farenhiet. If it was getting ready to rain in the next several hours the barometric pressure as falling and you had low humidity it could boil a little below that.

This is why so many baking recipes have high altitude adjusments. I understand baking in Leadville CO is a bit of a challenge.

Also, beans and rice have large amounts of starch. The starch chrystalizes as it cools (much moreso in the rice than the beans. Think cold chinese takeout rice here). I am sure drying increses chrystalization quite a bit, and if you don't give it enough time, heat, and moisture those starch chrystals will not fully convert. Leftover rice is almost never as tender as fresh rice.

Another example is bread. Refridgerated bread stales faster than room temp bread, and warming staled bread up only buys you a couple of dozen minutes before the bread is more stale than when you started.

pat

 

[actionshooter]

wow, I'm learning stuff! I always wondered why bread got hard after re-heating.... Thats good info really, leave the beans and rice at home on the really high hunts.

 

[keep]

My issues came with not stirring and you're right it tastes like crap when not completely hydrated. Since then I tend to probably over stir and will shake often during the "cooking" process and lastly I seem to be adding about 50% to the cooking time. All that said, I've never tried it at 9k ft

 

[unm1136]

wow, I'm learning stuff! I always wondered why bread got hard after re-heating.... Thats good info really, leave the beans and rice at home on the really high hunts.

A little off topic, but it is a little more complicated than that. As the starches chrystalize, mosture moves out of the crumb and into the crust. The inside gets dry and the crust, which otherwise acts as a moisture barrier gets leathery. The crust is supposed to be crisp and.chewy, and the crumb lighter and more tender. Now you have the reverse. Best use for stale.bread is to soak it, preferably in gravy. The poor in britian use stale bread, pour milk and sugar on it, and have it for breakfast.

Freezing retards the staling process. Refridgeration accellerates it. So my bread is either on the counter at room temp, or in the freezer, never in the fridge.

pat

 

[Chesapeake]

I just wrap my meals in my beanie while they rehydrate. It holds in some of the heat and lets them cook a bit longer and hotter.