Sublimates for tourists - answers to questions

Sublimated foods are instant meals. I opened the bag, poured a glass of boiling water, stirred, waited 5 minutes and you were ready to eat. Mostly soups, porridges and pasta are produced in this format, but there are also more exotic dishes like cottage cheese, omelettes and all sorts of desserts.. 

True sublimates are obtained during the process of freeze-drying of ready-made dishes. They take ready-to-eat, freshly cooked soup, quickly freeze it and then evaporate the ice under reduced pressure (in a vacuum). In this case, moisture immediately passes from the crystalline form into the gaseous form, bypassing the liquid phase.  Thanks to this, the resulting dry residue supposedly retains all vitamins and nutrients. And if you then add boiling water, not only the original volume and consistency will be restored, but also the taste, color and smell of the original dish. 

However, this is a rather expensive process and the resulting dishes are not always affordable for our tourists. That is why most of the domestically produced “sublimates” (Kharchi, Idlo, Izhachok, Happy Elk) are made according to a more budget-friendly scheme (see below).

These are instant dishes in the production of which conventional, rather than freeze-drying, was used. In addition, individual components of the future dish are most often subjected to drying, and not the finished product. Typical ingredients of such dishes: dried vegetables, dried meat, cereal flakes (oatmeal, rice, buckwheat), instant mashed potatoes, dried cheese, milk powder, dried fruits. They are mixed in certain proportions in dry form, spices are added and packaged. And the real birth of the dish occurs during the process of steaming the ingredients with boiling water.

First of all, I am attracted by the speed and ease of preparation. After all, hikes are different. If I go to the forest for a couple of days and plan to just relax there, then I will be happy to take stewed meat, normal cereals, a bunch of spices and a cast-iron pot to cook over a fire. But when the hike is difficult, you often don’t have a single extra minute, not a single extra gram of fuel. Upon arrival at the camp, you want to go to bed as soon as possible, and not spend an hour witchcraft with food. 

However, more and more often we take sublimates on not the most extreme trips. It's just convenient.

There is no clear answer to this question. If we are talking about short (2-3 days) summer trips, then, in our opinion, parents can safely take children from 7 years old there. According to my observations, children adapt to camping conditions much easier than adults, the main thing is that they have a worthy example to follow.  In addition, much depends not on age, but on behavior, health, etc. Therefore, it is best to try, first, a weekend hike near your city. And then, if he likes it, take the child on long hikes.

How harmful/healthy is oatmeal? Freeze-dried foods differ little from regular food. Is that the percentage of fat in them is usually low (fats cannot be dried out), but this can be easily solved with the help of mayonnaise (vegetable oil, ghee or a piece of lard)

Do not confuse normal tourist sublimates with instant soups from the supermarket. There are no chemicals or preservatives in normal sublimates. 

Yes, of course. Typically, one serving of porridge or other second dish weighs about 100 grams dry and, accordingly, from 400 to 500 grams after adding boiling water. This is a decent man's portion of food. At least I have enough.

Soups are often “lighter”. They are packaged in 60 grams, which yields 350 grams of the finished product. In order to reliably satisfy your hunger, it is better to eat this soup with bread, crackers or crispbread.

Everything will be fine. I had long expeditions when I ate sublimates for more than a month. I didn't notice any side effects after this. True, in addition to sublimates, I took multivitamins, protein bars and dried fruits on these trips.

Most sublimate manufacturers claim a shelf life of 12 months. At the same time, you can store them virtually anywhere (without a refrigerator, etc.). Packages with sublimates are hermetically sealed and sealed; they are not afraid of atmospheric moisture and temperature changes.

It depends on how you travel. On hikes, I take a burner (Jetboil type), which boils water in a matter of minutes. On “civilized” trips you can take a small boiler. There are titans with boiling water on the trains. In addition, boiling water can be obtained in any cafe.