Freeze-dried food for tent camping? 3 picks by meal200g for one night, 320ml of water

My picks are Onisi's Gomoku Rice for dinner and Onisi's plain white rice for breakfast. With these two, food for one night is 200g. The water to rehydrate is 320ml, which weighs 1.6 times the food.

For tent-camping meals, the water to rehydrate weighs more than the food

Matching dinner and breakfast with alpha rice and freeze-dried food, food for one night comes to just 200g. But the water to rehydrate is 320ml. That weighs 320g, 1.6 times the food.

I split tent-camping meals into three situations, the dinner staple, the side to put over rice and breakfast, compared them by official-page numbers, and picked one for each.

How I chose

The first thing I looked at was calories per gram. But all five land at 3.7–4.5kcal, so there was no difference there. So I split my picks by the amount of water to rehydrate, the waiting time and the price. This pick is made from what you can buy on Rakuten. mont-bell, sold only through its official shop, and Amano Foods' miso soup, which Rakuten sells only as an assortment, appear as out of ranking with their numbers.

• Dinner is a time you can wait, so even if it takes 15 minutes with boiling water, alpha rice, which is low in price and also rehydrates in water
• For breakfast, plain white rice, which lets you change the flavor from dinner and costs ¥108 less
• For the side, add a 22.5g serving of freeze-dried food

Quick table of freeze-dried food and alpha rice (weight, calories, water)

Per gram, the gap between the highest, the miso soup, and the lowest, the white rice, is 0.83kcal. Carrying 100g is only an 83kcal difference, so I stopped ranking by this.

My dinner staple pick, Onisi's Gomoku Rice | 377kcal in 100g

I'll say this with some heat. A 100g pouch becomes 260g of rice with 160ml of water. The official price is ¥518, the second lowest of the 3 staples this time after the white rice. A spoon is included, and the pouch itself becomes the bowl.

What to watch is the waiting time: 15 minutes even with boiling water. Onisi advises against heating the pouch in a hot water bath, because it's dangerous. It suits people who eat after they've finished pitching the tent in the evening.

My side-dish pick for over rice, Amano Foods Oyakodon topping | 22.5g, 100ml of water

This is the combination of swapping the staple for Onisi's white rice and pouring this 22.5g over it. It adds 22.5g of weight and 100ml of water, and puts 92kcal and 8.7g of protein on top.

Here's the weak spot. At the official online shop, a box of 4 servings is ¥1,339, about ¥335 per serving (1,339 ÷ 4), and together with the white rice it costs ¥227 more than the Gomoku Rice. It suits people who want to change the flavor for dinner on a second night.

My breakfast pick, Onisi's plain white rice | 100g, 160ml of water

For breakfast I choose white rice. The official price is ¥410, ¥108 less than the Gomoku Rice. Of the staples I compared, only 1 is labeled as not using the 29 allergens: this one.

Here's the weak spot. The wait is the same 15 minutes with boiling water as at dinner, long for a morning. It also has no flavor. It suits people who pour in water as soon as they wake and use the wait to pack up.

Out of ranking: mont-bell Ume-Shiso Rizotta and Amano Foods miso soup (can't be bought one serving at a time on Rakuten)

For morning speed alone, the numbers favor the Rizotta. Dry weight is 85g, 15g lighter than the white rice, and the wait is about 3 minutes with boiling water, so you start eating 12 minutes earlier than with Onisi's 15. It costs ¥540, ¥130 more, and takes 175ml of water, 15ml more. No spoon is included. mont-bell is bought at its official online shop.

Amano Foods' Magokoro Ippai Classic Eggplant is 9.8g per serving, the lightest miso soup of the five. It takes 160ml of water and has 1.7g of salt per serving. Add it to both dinner and breakfast and the water doubles to 640ml.

Price, best-before date and allergen labels for freeze-dried food and alpha rice

The allergen labels on each official page go as far as other ingredients handled on the same production line or in the same packing room. It's something to check on the pouch before you buy.

Water and food weight needed for one night of tent camping

320ml of water is 320g, 1.6 times the 200g of food (320 ÷ 200). At a campsite with no water point, before choosing the meal pouches, you'd be deciding whether to carry this water up from below.

I lined up the weights of a stove and cookset to boil water for two meals in a separate article. Read the hiking stove and cookset rankings

Why alpha rice rehydrates in water, and why freeze-dried food is light

According to Onisi Foods, the starch in raw rice is "beta," and the state that's been cooked and made digestible is "alpha." Cooked rice reverts to beta as it cools, but if you dry it quickly it stays alpha. That's why, without reheating, pouring in water (15°C) and waiting 60 minutes brings it back to rice.

Freeze-dried food is dried differently. According to mont-bell, it's frozen at minus 30–40°C and put in a vacuum, and the ice is drawn off as a gas without becoming liquid. The gaps where the water left remain, so it takes up hot water quickly, and it can keep a lower moisture content and be lighter than alpha rice.

Who is it for?

This suits people who boil water at camp and want to finish a meal light and fast.

If you order meals at huts, or enjoy cooking rice in a pot, there are other ways to choose. On a trip with no water point where you can't carry extra water, food that needs no water suits better.

I wrote about the new stove in the WindMaster SOD-311 review.

FAQ

How much water does alpha rice need?

Onisi Foods' 100g pouch takes 160ml for the white (non-glutinous) rice products and 110ml for the sticky rice products. You pour to the fill line inside the pouch, and if it's hard, Onisi advises opening the bottom of the pouch before pouring to the fill line.

Can alpha rice and freeze-dried food be rehydrated with cold water?

Yes. Onisi's alpha rice takes 60 minutes in water (15°C), and mont-bell's Rizotta about 5 minutes in water.

Which is lighter, freeze-dried food or alpha rice?

By these numbers, freeze-dried rice is lighter. Both end up at the same 260g, but Onisi's alpha rice was 100g and mont-bell's Rizotta 85g.

Gear in this article

Ad · Images: Rakuten Ichiba

Onisi Foods Alpha Rice Gomoku Rice 100g (1 serving)Amano Foods Torotto Tamago Oyakodon topping (4 servings)Onisi Foods Alpha Rice White Rice 100g (1 serving)

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