Freeze-dried food with cold or hot water

Chicken & Rice wants 400 ml either way: 8 minutes with water from the kettle, about 20 minutes with water from the bottle. That’s the pattern for nearly all our mains and every breakfast and dessert: the same water, and more minutes.

Chicken and rice with hot water

8minutes

The same pouch with cold water, about

20minutes

The risotto with cold water

hot water only

Water and minutes, hot and cold, for six kinds of pouch

Pouch	Water	Hot water	Cold water
Chicken & RiceLarge	400 ml	8 min	about 20 min
Lentil & Vegetable StewLarge	400 ml	8 min	about 20 min
Porridge & Fruit	250 ml	5 min	about 20 min
Porcini Mushroom RisottoLarge	400 ml	8 min	Hot water only
Puchero Broth	250 ml per cup	1 min	Hot water only
Guacamole	120 ml	Cold water only	5 min

Water and minutes, hot and cold, for six kinds of pouch

• Chicken & RiceLarge

  Water

  400 ml

  Hot water

  8 min

  Cold water

  about 20 min

• Lentil & Vegetable StewLarge

  Water

  400 ml

  Hot water

  8 min

  Cold water

  about 20 min

• Porridge & Fruit

  Water

  250 ml

  Hot water

  5 min

  Cold water

  about 20 min

• Porcini Mushroom RisottoLarge

  Water

  400 ml

  Hot water

  8 min

  Cold water

  Hot water only

• Puchero Broth

  Water

  250 ml per cup

  Hot water

  1 min

  Cold water

  Hot water only

• Guacamole

  Water

  120 ml

  Hot water

  Cold water only

  Cold water

  5 min

The cold minutes are approximate.

Same water, more minutes

The method is the one on the pouch, with the kettle left out. The only skill is stirring.

Step by step

1. Open it and take out the sachet

   Open the zip and lift out the small oxygen absorber. It goes in the bin, not in the dinner.

2. Pour in the water

   Drinking water, cold, to the amount printed on the pouch: 400 ml for the Lentil & Vegetable Stew. Not less because it’s cold.

3. Stir to the corners

   Stir well, right into the bottom corners where the dry food hides, then close the zip.

4. Wait, stir again halfway

   Stand it upright somewhere it won’t tip and give it a second stir halfway. For the stew, that’s about 20 minutes in all.

5. Eat it when it’s soft

   When the last firm bits have given in, it’s ready. Eat it then, from the pouch.

Stand the pouch on a rock, not on your knee.

What changes when the water is cold

The temperature, obviously: a cold-soaked stew is eaten at the temperature of the water you poured, which on a July afternoon is no hardship. The texture takes longer to come round, and that’s what the extra minutes are for. The one measurement there is, on small pieces of freeze-dried tofu, found that water at 70 °C soaked in about 2.3 times faster than water at 20 °C, and that boiling water brought no further gain. The authors put it down mainly to warm water being thinner.¹

Beyond that, the official world is silent. No food authority, outdoor federation or army manual we could find says how to prepare a freeze-dried meal with cold water; the US Army’s own freeze-dried ration is written for potable water and a heat source.² So the minutes in the table are ours, for our pouches, and nobody else’s rule.

When it has to be the kettle

Some pouches don’t work cold, and the pouch says so. The Porcini Mushroom Risotto is hot water only, and so is the Mashed Potato. So are the broths: Puchero Broth, Vegetable Stock and Beef Bone Broth are made by the cup, with water from the kettle, in 1 minute.

One goes the other way. The Guacamole is cold water only: 120 ml, about 5 minutes, and no kettle anywhere near it. The Thai Beef & Prawn Noodle Salad is the other oddity: it prefers cold water, and if you do warm it, the pouch asks for warm, not boiling.

The water has to be fit to drink

Hot water from the kettle doesn’t make doubtful water safe in a pouch, and cold water certainly won’t. Use water you’d drink.

At home that’s simple. Spain’s health ministry puts it in one line: drinking water, always, for drinking and for cooking, and the town hall tells you when the supply isn’t fit.³ Britain’s Chief Medical Officers, in their advice for a national power cut, count cold tap water as safe while it still flows normally.⁴ Under a boil-water notice, bring it to a rolling boil and let it cool;⁵ Valencia’s health department asks for at least a minute at the boil.⁶

Outdoors, the advice divides. The US Centers for Disease Control say drinking straight from a clear mountain stream generally isn’t safe, and that boiling for a minute is the best treatment;⁷ Mountaineering Scotland calls high Scottish streams generally drinkable, away from livestock.⁸ Carry the water for the pouch, or treat what you find before it goes in.

Once the water is in, eat it

A pouch with water in it is prepared food, whatever the water’s temperature. Freeze-drying doesn’t kill bacteria; it only stops them, and the water wakes them up.⁹

That’s why cold water is the answer in the places where a flame isn’t. On the trail in fire season, when a stove is out of the question, see food for the Sierra de las Nieves; at anchor with the gas off, provisioning a sailing weekend; and when the power goes, food for a power cut.

From our range

72-Hour Food Reserve

9 pouches for 3 days, and every one of them works with cold water.

€89.00See the box