The shopping expedition in Patagonia wasn’t going well. Every time I reached for a packet of food, Susan looked at the price, recoiled in horror and then chose a cheaper version of the same thing. This went on for a good hour or so, at the end of which we had amassed enough food for eight people for a fortnight, and saved about £15.Two days later, we broke open the rations on our first day in Torres del Paine National Park. Dinner was to be dried pasta, canned tuna and a large bottle of pesto sauce. It was quick and easy to make, and we were soon diving into eight bowls of steaming fare, scooping up large mouthfuls of Italy’s finest.The grimaces on the faces of my fellow team members said it all. The pasta seemed to be coagulating in our mouths, making it almost impossible to swallow. After several failed attempts to eat more than a fraction of the meal, we threw our dinners away. Convinced that something must have gone wrong at the cooking end, we boiled up a fresh batch of pasta. Exactly the same thing happened. Given that more than half of our food was pasta based, we clearly had a problem on our hands. I volunteered to make the three-day round trip to acquire a replacement staple.Arriving back in the town, I made enquiries about the ill-fated carbohydrate. “That cheap pasta tastes so bad we don’t even feed it to the dogs,” cackled an elderly Patagonian.From that day forth, I’ve always tried to buy high-quality foodstuffs because, as we all know, an expedition (like an army) marches on its stomach. Indeed, sometimes the only thing to look forward to at the end of a particularly gruelling day in the field is a tasty meal.

Fresh is best

Expedition rations can be split into two broad categories: food that is eaten during the approach to the expedition area and at base camp, and food eaten during the expedition phase.Most of the time, the weight and bulk of the former isn’t critical, as it’s likely to be carried in by pack animal, porter or vehicle. This allows fresh food such as vegetables and fruit to be taken. Meat – in the form of animals such as goats – can walk itself to the dinner table. Try to extend the period of time that fresh food can be consumed by team members, as fresh tastes better and is more nutritionally beneficial than dried, canned or packaged foods. If the option exists to bring in a quantity of fresh food midway through a project, try to do so. It will provide an immense psychological as well as physiological boost.Another advantage of acquiring fresh food is that it will, by its very nature, have to be bought locally, which cuts down on the amount of expedition freight. Buying food in-country also puts cash in the hands of local communities, although one must be careful to ensure that a large team doesn’t buy up all the staple food in a remote village –: people can’t eat dollar bills.When purchasing food locally,try to use reusable cotton sacks to carry your provisions in, rather than plastic bags.At some point, it will probably become necessary to start eating lightweight, packaged foods.The number of choices in this department is quite bewildering, from dedicated expedition rations sold in outdoor stores to dried food found in your local supermarket.My personal preference is to eat food that has the minimum amount of preservatives, and is tasty and quick to cook. The environment in which you’re operating will, to a large extent, dictate what you take. For example, at high altitude, boiling water is a time-consuming business, so real food in a foil pack that merely needs to be warmed through is a better bet than a dried meal that requires soaking in hot water. (I find that it’s almost impossible to completely rehydrate dried food – another reason to avoid it at high altitude, where it’s almost impossible to remain completely hydrated even in the best-case scenario.) On a sailing expedition, weight is often less of an issue, allowing canned rather than dried food to be used.I always cook the meals that I intend to eat on an expedition at home or on a training weekend before buying vast quantities of a particular foodstuff. And that means firing up my stove on the front porch rather than using the appliances in my kitchen.

Wet versus dry

There’s a lot of interest in specialist meals sold in outdoor stores. I’ve never been a huge fan, mainly because of the relatively high prices. Two such meals a day for a three-person team on a month-long expedition could easily cost upwards of £500. Nevertheless, some do taste pretty good and they are certainly quick and convenient to cook. Specialist products fall into two broad categories: real ‘wet’ food in a foil pouch and traditional dried food. As I mentioned earlier, wet food helps to avoid dehydration issues. Dried food is obviously much lighter, but requires a decent soaking in boiling water to make it palatable. The quality of all of these meals varies enormously, as does the calorific content. I’ve found that some meals, while tasty, contain about as many calories as a bag of tea leaves. Dried meals are available in dehydrated or freeze-dried forms. As a general rule of thumb, freeze-dried foods are more expensive but also more palatable than the dehydrated versions.The alternative to specialist products is to invest a couple of hours reading labels in a large supermarket. Quick-cook rice and pasta are available, and couscous and instant mashed potato can also be considered. Items such as dried meats and salami add flavour and variety to meals.Whether you go for specialist or do-it-yourself foods, consider supplementing them with sachets of sauces and mustards, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic powder or dried herbs. The addition of your favourite condiment can work wonders to revive an otherwise insipid dinner.Breakfast is overlooked by many expeditioners, which is a shame, as a bowl of pre-soaked muesli and powdered milk, or hot porridge, is an ideal way to start the day. This type of breakfast provides energy for several hours. In the past, expeditioners have experimented with a range of substances in order to increase the calorific content of their meals. In ultra-cold conditions, olive oil can be drunk neat: in his excellent book Extreme Alpinism, Mark Twight describes how the human body may be willing to release fat stores when it knows that more fat is on the way. Twight tells the story of how a cold Yvon Chouinard (the founder of outdoor-clothing company Patagonia) drank a shot of neat olive oil in Antarctica at a point when consuming more carbohydrate was making no difference to his body’s temperature. He began to feel warmer within 20 minutes.Once you have your rations worked out, it’s time to bag them up. Stripping your food of excess packaging will reduce weight and help minimise your environmental impact. Whether you divide the food into one person per day, or multi-person/multi-day packs will be dictated by the nature of the trip. In any event, take care to ensure that the food is always kept away from other strong odours during the transport phase. I once made the mistake of allowing the same mule to carry both our food and the stove fuel – many of our meals tasted of paraffin.At the end of the day, food is fuel on an expedition. We eat to live rather than live to eat. That said, spending a little time experimenting before departure in order to make your meals as tasty and attractive as possible will go a long way to ensuring that all of those essential calories go down your gullet.

Make your own dried food
An alternative to buying specialist dried food is to make your own. Several companies produce drying machines. These are capable of turning sliced bananas into scrumptious dried snacks, thinly sliced and marinated beef and venison into sensational jerky, and even yoghurt into chewy roll-ups that knock sugary sweets into a cocked hat. In my experience, home-made dried food will (depending on humidity and storage conditions) last several weeks before deteriorating.

Get creative in the expedition kitchen
Just because you’re cooking on a tiny single burner doesn’t mean that elegant and extravagant meals are off the menu. Breads and cakes have been cooked successfully in the field, and there are plenty of books dedicated to field cuisine. Check out www.alpineascents.com/gear-food.asp for some top culinary tips.

A wee problem with the expedition food