Mountain House Beef Stew, Pouch

Customer Reviews

Good - really good with a few easy adjustmentsI'm currently testing different foods for my first backcountry camping trip in April. My plan is to buy canisters of the meals that I like so I can make my own smaller personal pouches. This will allow me to customize them a bit too. I love that these meals can be cooked in pouch by just adding boiling water to them so I purchased smaller foil zip loc bags to create the small personal pouches. The beef stew was pretty good on it's own - I would probably add 1/4 cup less water next time. It calls for 2 cups for the 2.5 serving pouch. Since I added 2 cups this time, I found the flavor a bit watery. I decided to add some powdered beef gravy mix. I will be adding some to my individual pouches when I make them. It really enhances the flavor. I also will be adding some pepper to the individual pouches. I added 2 tablespoons of gravy mix powder to the 4.3 ounce bag and it was perfect. I will definitely be buying a canister of the beef stew and creating my own pouches with it! 4Better than MREs, great for emergency preparednessWhile shopping for camping supplies at local Walmart, I decided to try a Pro-Pack package of Mountain house Beef Stew for less than 5 bucks. Upon trying the stew, I immediately placed a bulk order of the pouch set through Amazon. The pro-pack I got of the stew allows for one serving (1.73 oz) while a pouch pack serves 2.5 servings (4.3 oz) making it a much better deal. I felt unsatisfied with a pro-pack portion so I decided to eat one of our expiring military MRE beef stew for an immediate comparison, and the Mountain House tasted better albeit a bit saltier than I prefer. My husband buys boxes of MREs for emergency supply but they're expensive and have to be rotated after about 5 yrs. This doesn't taste as good as less expensive canned beef stews from grocery stores and the beef chunks definitely have the texture and taste of freeze dried meat. However, the product is incredibly lightweight ideal for backpacking, and the fact they can last over 30 years make them great novelty addition for emergency supplies if not used up during camping trips. 5My favorite soupIt doesn't last that long at my house..... every winter, if I get sick, it's what I want! When I was a kid, my mom gave me Campbell's vegetable beef soup. They changed the recipe, so it doesn't have the same comfort quality, but Mountain House Beef Stew is close. I add chicken bullion.... and make it thinner.... sometimes with extra onions..... Gosh, was I supposed to save it for an emergency? Well, good to use emergency food a bit and rotate it, cuz we know kids won't eat unfamiliar food, right? Also, when you use it and rotate it, you know what you like best and can stock up on that. 5The BEST freeze-dried food after a long day of hikingFirst off, let me just say that I have pretty low expectations for freeze-dried or shelf-stable foods. Yes, I know they'll never be as good as what I make from scratch, but when it comes to flavor, it seems like most products are just completely flat.That being said, I was VERY pleasantly surprised when we decided to try this beef stew. Open the pack, remove the packet, and add two cups of boiling water. Give it a quick stir, seal the bag, and you'll have dinner ready eight minutes later. Easy prep is important, because let's face it: that's the whole reason I'm buying this instead of making it myself. So far, so good!Most freeze-dried dinners have absolutely no flavor despite being loaded with salt. That's not the case here. Again, it's no comparison for what I can do with a dutch oven, some scratch ingredients, and unlimited free time, but this is light years better than your average freeze-dried dinner. In fact I can honestly say that this is the best-tasting freeze-dried dinner I've ever had. I could actually taste the individual flavors but nothing was overwhelming. The texture was a little odd (the beef itself was a little bit tough), but I'm not sure there's much that can be done about that with freeze-dried food.One other beef I have with most backpacker-friendly / freeze-dried foods is that the portion sizes are ridiculous. When they say "servings per container: 8", that usually means my wife and I will have just a little bit left over. That's not the case here. For only a 5-ounce package, we got two generous servings of hearty stew. Throw in a slice or two of buttered bread and you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better quick-prep dinner.Put simply, this is exactly the kind of meal I want to have on standby for when I come back from a long day of hiking and don't want to deal with prep, cooking, or cleanup. Just add boiling water, stare at the stars for a few minutes, and dinner for two is ready. Done. Quick, hassle-free, and tasty. 5Excellent product, but watch the calorie countBottom line up front: This type of food is a great choice for an emergency food supply, especially for sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle. The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life, so you can buy them and not worry about rotating your stock for a couple of decades. The biggest downside is that once opened, they need to be used up right away.SHELF LIFE - The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life (unopened). The biggest downside to #10 cans versus individual pouches is that the 25-year shelf life turns into a 1-week shelf life once they've been opened. Since each can has enough for 10 servings, you'll be eating the same thing for several meals unless you're cooking for a group.TASTE - In my experience, Mountain House food is really tasty. Let me caveat this review by saying that although I've eaten other Mountain House freeze-dried food, I haven't had occasion to open the ones in the #10 cans (see my review of the "Mountain House 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit"). That having been said, the Mountain House food I have tried has been very, very good tasting -- not just good compared to other survival foods, but good period. I have no reason to expect that these would be any different.WEIGHT/CONVENIENCE - As steel cans, they're reasonably durable and reasonably lightweight (not backpacking light, but you don't have to be a weightlifter to move a large box of them). They do take up a bit of volume, but since the overwhelming majority of long-term emergency scenarios involve sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle, I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker (personnally, I have a stock of individual pouches just in case I have to leave on foot, but most of my food is in these cans).CALORIES - The problem with most freeze-dried emergency food is that a so-called "serving" has too few calories to meet an adult's energy requirements (2500 a day for men; 2000 a day for women -- more with heavy exertion), so you end up consuming more than you planned. These are no different. So even though a typical can ostensibly contains 10 1-cup servings, you really need to eat two servings per meal to get enough calories to survive -- perhaps more. Plan your purchase accordingly. 5Much better than I expected!I'm Italian so I'm pretty finicky about my food. I wanted to try some of the froze-dried food options at home before committing and stock up for my motorcycle adventure travels. Basically I'm testing a bunch of different brands and recipes and I will post my reviews as I get to try them all. For this Beef Stew I followed the instructions on the back but I've found that it comes out better if you actually boil it in the pot instead of just pouring boiling water in the packet and wait the 10 minutes they suggest. I understand that is done so you don't need to clean up your stuff after you're done cooking, and I'll keep it as an option when water is scarce or limited. After cooking it until it reached the right consistence (soft and fully re-hydrated) I have to say that it is tasty, not too salty and half a pack was enough for a quick, one person meal (one pack should make for 2.5 servings). Also, as you can tell by the image I posted, it looks right, i.e. looks like real food and not a mushy, indistinct mess. 5very tasty with a high sodium caveatAs a first time buyer of this type of packaged food, the product is very tasty, however if the salt content had been available in the advertisement information, I would not haved place the order because as a Senior with elevated blood pressure the salt content is in the upper range, (850 mg per serving) which for me poses a health risk factor. For anyone who does not have a high sodium problem, I believe these products will have an enjoyable eating pleasure 3Hi, my name is Kevin and I'm a Mountain House addict....I waited several months to post this review, just to see if my opinion changed from the first packet to my 4th or 5th. Nope, I still think it's awesome! Seriously, how can Mountain House do such justice to a meal that is made with a couple cups of hot water and ten minutes of my life? My only complaint is that our "emergency" supplies keep getting eaten on a routine basis. Nothing is better when coming home to a house with a couple of kids who reply "muh? I wahwa woh" when you interrupt their cellular phone induced coma and ask them if they know what may be for dinner. "Muh? Mom work...". No problem! Before anybody notices, I can boil two cups of water in the microwave and enjoy Mountain House goodness in less than ten minutes. I've learned that the hotter the water is, the better the results, and to cut down the amount of water a bit unless the meal contains rice or biscuits / dumplings. I eat these meals several times a month and I haven't had one yet that has been disappointing. I just have to hide them, lest anybody discovers my secret addiction. "Hey Dad, what are we having for dinner?" "Muh, ask Mom...." 5Whirled Peas don't make a stewAfter a very cold day hiking and doing many miles in a short period of time, I sat down for my lunch and cracked open the pouch for my meal. Wow. There were peas in there. Hmmm. So I added the water and let it go for 10 minutes (while tending my tootsies) and then opened it for lunch.While it's not anything I can slow-cook at home with fresh ingredients, it's not bad. But saying it's 2 servings is, well, if you're 130lbs and eat only 1600Kcal a day, sure, it's 2 servings. When I opened it up, my first thought was, "It's beef pot pie insides." (It was the whirled peas in it.) But it was hot and edible and fuel for hiking more miles in a short period of time. By my metrics, I'd already burned everything calorically and more in the pouch before I sat down to eat - and then went and burned even more.I'll probably pick it up again - and pick out the peas before I rehydrate it.But if for some reason it had green beans in it, that'd work. But it didn't. So my preference for now is the Chicken fajita bowl and (surprisingly) the turkey casserole. That was pretty darn good in the cold. 4One of the Best Backcountry Meals Out ThereThis stuff tastes amazing. I've seriously grabbed a pouch out of my gear stash to eat at home when I'm too lazy to make other food. It's perfectly spiced, with tons of meat and chunky veggies. It's super filling, with a good amount of protein. It's almost impossible to finish a pouch without a second person to help you with it. My search and rescue team (International Disaster Response) took a case of these on a recent mission to Peru and it was easily one of the top meals. Everyone loved them, including our search dog! (No, she didn't eat beef stew -- she just got the gravy to lick out of the pouch! 5

See All Reviews

WOW0821240209BLCLJLLLML

Mountain House

Mountain House Beef Stew, Pouch

Mountain House Beef Stew, Pouch

Quantity:

4 Great Reasons To Buy From Us:

Customer Reviews

Recently Viewed