Freezer Bag Cooking

[PNW Judy]

Anybody familiar with this concept? It's pretty cool and would be handy for a camping/backpacking trip or for some meals when car-camping. I think I'll give a few recipes a try here at home. I'll let you know how they taste. Anybody already try it?

[MrsPete]

I just know this one recipe -- that is, if it even qualifies as a recipe. We do this with our Girl Scout troop because it's so quick and easy. We LOVE this technique, but I didn't know there was a whole cookbook.

Ziplock omlets

Break 1-2 eggs into a ziplock bag. Add a splash of milk, cooked bacon or sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, cheese -- whatever you like in your omlet, or just whatever you have in your 'fridge. You can fix up your bags at home and cook them at camp (write your names on the bag with Sharpie --it won't come off in the water).

Drop the bag into water at a full rolling boil, and turn it over with long-handled tongs 'til it's done. The omlet'll be light and fluffy, and it will fall right out of the bag. Don't neglect this important fact: You didn't add any butter or other fat to this breakfast!

Hints for success:
Use Ziplock freezer bags; cheaper quality bags will probably burst.
Allow a moderate amount of air to stay in the bag -- it'll help you as you turn the bag. It goes without saying that you should double-check your bag's seal.
As you turn the bag over in the boiling water, your goal is to help each bit of egg touch the bag. If you fail to do this, you may end up with a raw spot in the middle.
When you do this for the first time, cook only ONE egg in your bag -- the technique takes a little practice, and you do want to cook your omlet thoroughly. Likewise, don't cook too many bags at once; too many cold eggs at once will lower the temperature, and you need to keep the water a a full rolling boil.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Omelet in a Bag -by Dennis Weaver is certainly from this concept!

Other RTA road trip food recipes are online here!

Mark

[W. Larrison]

Done the freezer bag deal. One of the standard camping trick with Scouts. You *can* do it with regular ziplock bags -- they won't melt since the temperature of the water never gets over 212 F.... But you can't do it with sandwich bags, they will (at least the cheap ones will).

And oh yeah... don't overcrowd the pot of boiling water. The pot will get a lot hotter than the water, and if the bag gets pushed against the sid eof the pot, it can melt. Then its a mess.

There's also the foil pack approach... package everything into a tightly sealed foil package (works better with meat and vegetables than eggs or liquidy stuff), and then you throw on the coals until it smells done.

Or the carboard box oven (coals, tin foil and a cardboard box)

[PNW Judy]

but I've done all those (I was a Girl Scout assistant leader for 7 years and helped with my son's Boy Scout troop, too.). Love the omelets in a bag and have done it at home when the kids have had friends over for slumber parties. And love, Love, LOVE foil-wrapped meals and even do this at home sometimes when we grill.

This style of freezer bag cooking is different than you're all thinking. You don't boil the bag in water to cook the food. You put the water in the bag and then you don't cook it, you "cozy" it.

It's really quite interesting and will save cooking fuel and time.
* You pack the freezer bag with all the ingredients before you even leave home (except, possibly things like canned meats). Most of the ingredients are those you have dehydrated at home. The more that you dehydrate the ingredients at home, the less space they will take in your pack and the longer they will stay fresh without refrigeration.
* Then you open the freezer bag and pour the hot water into the bag of food. The amount needed is based on the amount of water needed to rehydrate the meat/veggies/fruit in the pouch and create the right consistency of the finished product. Probably takes some experimenting or, at first anyway, just following her specific recipe examples.
* Everything for the meal should be in the bag already except, possibly, the meat. If you are using dehydrated meat, it's in there. If you're using meat in a can or pouch, you will need to add it now.
* Then you reseal the bag and then the bag goes into a "cozy" and sits for 8-15 minutes, depending on recipe. The food will be rehydrated and the right temperature to eat.

So, no refrigeration needed. Little, if any, prep except boiling a cup or two of water. Fuel and time-savings because you don't have to boil the water long enough to cook the food, just long enough to get to boiling. And less water since it's only what's going in the bag, not enough to immerse the bag into it.

I figure instead of buying a cozy, at until I've decided I like this method and the food you can make with it, I'll use my 6-pack size cooler and wrap the bag of food in a towel before zipping into the little cooler. That should work just as well.

I might try doing some dehydrating and then cooking this method in the next couple of weeks before leaving on my roadtrip in June. If it works out, I'm going to plan some of our meals using this method and pre-pack them up. It sounds like an easy way for a good, hot meal at the end of a long day when we're too tired to cook. And I really like the idea that we wouldn't need to worry about keeping things refrigerated. Of course, if we ever do backpacking again, it will be perfect for that!

If I try this out (and I have to squeeze out the time somehow), I'll share how things work out in case anybody wants to give it a shot. I just see it all as a big time and money-saver.

[MrsPete]

Hmmm . . . it sounds convenient, but not very appetizing. I think I'll see if I can find some recipes on the 'net -- maybe a real recipe would sound better.

[MrsPete]

Hmmm . . . found this:

http://veggiecookster.blogspot.com/2...g-cooking.html

It DOES look good, and it would be convenient.

[PNW Judy]

I thought they sounded yummy! I like the veggie recipe you found as well. Thanks for that. I'll have to explore that website a bit and see what else she has there. I can't do much in the way of grains so I'm not sure if they will work for me as a main dish but they might make some good side dish options for my husband.

I was so busy all weekend that I didn't have time to try some dehydrating, then rehydrating by cooking. I still hope to find time to do that and see if it works and tastes decent before leaving on my trip in June. I'll keep you posted.

[MrsPete]

Something else from that link that caught my eye: The author said that she dehydrates store-bought spaghetti sauce and re-hydrates it in a freezer bag (I think she said along wtih the noodles, but I really just skimmed it). I think I'll give this a try -- but not 'til school's out in a couple weeks! Then I'll have time to experiment.

We have a dehydrator, but mostly my husband uses it to make homemade beef jerky (which only he will eat).