Evanston: an experiment and a chime
Evanston: an experiment and a chime
Always willing to try something new, I went to their website and then checked various suppliers where I found significance differences in pricing and availability. I ended up buying a pack of 6 of their Beef Stroganoff through Amazon. Buying singles does not appear to be an option. We tested them for dinner Wednesday night.
First, it works.
Inside the box, which is slightly larger than that of a Lean Cuisine, is a the meal pack, a tray with a piece of magnesium on the bottom, a small packet of salt water, even a plastic knife, fork, salt, pepper and a paper napkin.
The instructions are simple: pour the water over the magnesium, put the meal pack in the tray upside down, slide the tray back in the box, close the end of the box, wait 5 minutes. The salt water reacts with the magnesium to create heat and steam.
Instructions warn about the steam. After about a minute, it started coming out of the boxes. Not a lot, but momentarily enough to cause me to wonder if our smoke alarm might go off.
I had questioned whether the water would slosh out at sea; but there is so little and it evaporates so quickly that would not be a problem.
I believe the military has long used this process or something similar for MREs, Meals Ready to Eat.
Wanting to see how hot the meal would get, I waited eight minutes rather than five. It was just as well, because after eight the meal was warm but not piping hot.
Nutritionally, the beef stroganoff has roughly the same number of calories as a Lean Cuisine: 260. 7 total grams of fat and a rather high 4 grams of saturated fat, and an even higher 620 mg of salt or 26% of Daily Value.
In the end it comes down to taste, which is of course a matter of taste. The beef stroganoff was creamier than a freeze dry meal, but I liked it less. Definitely edible, but neither good, nor bad. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being high, I’d give it a 5.
Will I be buying more to take on GANNET? Probably not. The taste was not good enough to compensate for the greater bulk and weight.
I’ve made passages with dead stoves, both on EGREGIOUS and CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, and know from experience that freeze dry meals can be eaten soaked without being heated. They don’t taste good, but they can be eaten. I also know from experience when adrift after CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE capsized that freeze dry food cannot be eaten without water.
When it’s too rough to light the JetBoil, I’ll dine on a protein bar or open a can of tuna.
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Desiring exercise I walked down to the lake yesterday in wind and snow flurries.
I like the tolling at our version of land’s end.
Friday, March 1, 2013