[at-l] Prehydrating food packets

[Tim.Hewitt@fairchildsemi.com (Tim Hewitt)]

Hal Wright <knowhal@netreach.net> wrote:
>
> I have read some posts on hydrating food before dinner time, to
> speed up the
> cooking process. I would like to have step by step instructions for this.
> Say you have a Lipton's that takes 2 cups of water to cook. Do you put in
> all two cups and heat the mixture, or put in only a fraction of the water
> and boil the rest at the campsite before adding the mixture? How
> long before
> dinner do you need to mix things?
[clip]

I did not pre-hydrate anything other than my dried food. I don't know that
there is any reason to pre-soak a Lipton's dinner...

The way I cook Lipton's without adding any dried meat or veggies is to
simply dump all the ingredients into the pot, cover with water, bring to a
boil, take off heat, cover with cozy, let sit 10 minutes, etc.

The additional step with the dried food is to cover it with water some time
earlier in the day. At least an hour before you plan to cook - longer is
better.

Only use water to cover in both cases.  Don't measure - the recipes are
designed for simmering on a stove with lots of boil-off.

Try this at home first, and draw your own conclusions. It's always better to
fail with a full fridge behind you than on the trail !

-p