Now more than ever, there are a ton of great freeze dried and dehydrated food companies out there. They’re pushing the limits of what lightweight backpacking food can be, and I love trying out fresh new flavors. But even with all this variety, I’m still partial to the classic king of backpacking food: Mountain House.
Their flavors aren’t as flashy, but they’re well established and trail-tested. And for me personally, there’s something about those home-y flavors that I always crave when I’m deep in the mountains.
So without further ado, here are my favorite (and least favorite) Mountain House Flavors. For more information on how to set up a comprehensive meal plan (including these mountain house meals), check out my 7-day backpacking meal plan.
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1. Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken and Dumplings is, and probably will always be, the pinnacle of backpacking meals for me. It’s simple, but it’s flavorful and homestyle, and the dumplings always make me feel like I’m actually eating something home-cooked (or as close as you can get with freeze-dried food). The flavor balance is perfect and it’s super satisfying at the end of a long day.
2. Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Just like Mom used to make. Well, not really, but the spaghetti and meat sauce from mountain house are pretty damn good. Just the right balance of meatball, noodles, and flavorful sauce, I come back to this flavor over and over again. Bring some pizza-shop powdered parmesan (or real Parmesan) to make it extra gourmet.
3. Beef Stroganoff With Noodles
This is another meal I grew up eating and loving, so the nostalgia has to play into this being my third favorite. But having eaten the home-cooked version hundreds of times I can say that the Mountain House Beef Stroganoff is exceptionally flavorful, and plenty hearty to leave you feeling satisfied.
4. Lasagna With Meat Sauce
The Mountain House Lasagna is similar to their spaghetti, but just different enough to maintain a sense of variety. It’s cheesy and delicious, and you’ll definitely want more. I’ve alternated lasagna and spaghetti for several nights without getting tired of either (though success of this probably depends on how many miles you’re hiking each day).
5. Biscuits and Gravy
Of all the flavors Mountain House makes, Biscuits and Gravy was the one I was the most skeptical of. But it passes the flavor test with flying colors, and it has some of the most accurate texture of any freeze-dried food I've tried. Like, nearly indistinguishable from the real stuff. If you like real biscuits and gravy, you'll love this after a long day of hiking.
Honorable Mention: Chili Mac W/ Beef
In my (likely unpopular) opinion, Mountain House Chili Mac is… decent, but not exactly the king of mountain house flavors (as is it’s reputation). I’m not sure if it’s just that it sounds more satisfying than it is, or maybe just that most people don’t have faith that you can make other flavors taste that good (see freeze-dried spaghetti or chicken and dumplings). Either way, It’s my honorable mention.
The 2 Worst mountain House Flavors
Now for my least favorite flavors. I want to be clear that I think nearly all the Mountain House flavors are worth eating, especially after long days in the backcountry. But there are a couple that I wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t recommend, and I thought you should know about them.
1. Breakfast Skillet (or any meal with scrambled eggs)
Eggs and veggies are my (and Alyssa’s) favorite breakfast. Maybe that means we’ve become too picky about our eggs, but after trying a bunch of times, we just can’t make these work. Getting just the right amount of water is way trickier with the eggs than any other meal, and they’re nearly flavorless. Hot sauce helps a little, but not enough to really ever make them worth bringing. For an easy breakfast, we much prefer Mountain House Granola with Milk and Blueberries.
2. Mac and Cheese
I want to like this one so bad, but I just can’t. It’s another meal that really suffers from being tough to get the consistency right with. I’ve had it a handful of times, and it always turns out either too watery, or there isn’t quite enough water to get the noodles cooked through. The flavor also just isn’t quite there, and I need hot sauce every time. If you can manage to cook it perfectly, I’d love to hear your technique for it.
Those are the only two that I strongly recommend against. If you have to try them, have a backup plan in case you’re not satisfied. But with my top 5, don’t even worry about it. As long as you like the real versions of those things, you’ll like these ones as well. And if you're looking for awesome vegan meals, check out my review of Nomad Nutrition!
I’d eat the MH Beef Stroganoff every day if I could. I love that stuff.
And it gets 100 times better after a long day.
New to this. Probably asking a question that has been asked before but I can’t find this answer. All packages say add boiling water. Is boiling water necessary or is that a precaution about contaminated water. If you have bottled water can you use it?
Yeah you can totally use bottled water if you want to. Boiling water is recommended on packaging because it will rehydrate it the fastest (and most completely), but if you have drinkable water already you can use that at any temperature (and the difference between “boiling” and “very hot” will be pretty much negligible). A lot of hikers who go stoveless will even “cold soak” and add water to a meal at midday so it’s ready at dinner.