Self Heating Meals

[Seajet]

This stuff is a little pricey, but must be worth having a couple onboard in case of being stuck aground in a dinghy / offshore in a gale etc ?!

No experience myself of these modern ones ( the 1980's ones worked well and were tasty but small portions to allow for the heating chemicals, these seem to be different ) but there's quite a variety - no connection just seems a good idea, at least next to the First Aid kit..

 

[Sneaky Pete]

There are more and more outlets for these self heating meals. Obviously there is a market now I have tried some they are pretty tasty and you can survive on them.

 

[Seajet]

There are loads available but sorry folks I had it and lost the link, now cannot get it to work here !

Google ' Amazon UK self heating meals ' and there is quite a selection.

 

[pmagowan]

There are very few occasions where I couldn't make a meal hot by one method or another. I tend to like real food so I don't think I would bee all that keen on these each to their own...

 

[prv]

Definitely have their uses, but as pmagowan says, I'm not sure those uses include a well-found cruising yacht. I can clamp a pan to the stove and heat up a normal tin of something in more or less any conditions I'm likely to be sailing in - if I couldn't do that then I'm not convinced I could find, operate, and eat a self-heating can either, or want to.

For small boats using portable stoves and the like, I can see the use. I seem to remember Dave on the last Poole trip claiming that he couldn't do anything more than open a packet of crisps while underway - a can and spoon within reach would solve that.

(The comment may have been in response to Steph baking a batch of brownies on Ariam as we crossed Christchurch bay )

Pete

 

[Uricanejack]

I tend to think of any instant food as being rather like smash. The adverts were cleaver but it wasn't very good.

I bought a number of those "New" ones for hiking trips. They are light and easy to carry. I carry a small stove for heating rations and have never found I needed the self heat ones.
Now I just by those "Lipton" or Knor packages. they are much cheaper and basically the same as the special ones from the mountain equipment store.
I do still carry one meal each my boys refer to it as “barf in a bag“. as long as you can boil water you can have a hot meal.
Dried fruit and nuts are good to carry, a bit of chocolate,
When hiking or canoeing for several days keeping the weight down is important. Especially since I pack out everything I pack in. I’ve tried making bannock. Mine sucked. I stick with porridge and pancakes where all you need to do is add water.
Oranges are really good after a long hot hike.

perhaps one of the reasons I don't use the self heating meals apart from price. Part of the pleasure of the trip is setting up camp in the evening and preparing
hot food and a hot drink.
Though I meet up with people who bring gourmet type meals.

On the boat I tend to have a collection of cans. Rather than package meals. Again as long as I can boil water. Make coffee tea. I’m OK.
Not much of a chef but I can produce hot food. My boat is now big enough to have an actual galley. So I don't do so much of the camping type meals. My previous boat was small had no fitted galley and I relied on a camp stove and small propane barbecue.

I still hike and do canoe trips though.

I did find Dylan’s tip of not piercing a can worked great sailing off shore to wind ward for a couple of days.

 

[Seajet]

My boat has a well damped gymballed stove with pan clamps, but there have been occasions when crew didn't fancy going below even to put a kettle on; so on these times I used the self heating meals of the 1980's - it had to be severe enough to be worthwhile as these things weren't cheap !

They were actually quite good - for the circumstances - and got surprisingly hot.

In those days they consisted of a big tin encircling a smaller tin which had the food; inbetween were the chemicals - quicklime I'm told - which one pierced with the supplied nail to get going.

We used these in a heavy swell off the Casquets, when one of my crew found out the hard way that the tin lid was very sharp !...

 

[Uricanejack]

You could be right, certainly its worth while considering having something like this on board as a back up for some conditions.
Fortunately for me. I'm generally able to cope with lively conditions bellow and end up doing the cooking. Though once others start the smell can induce nausea. One condition which will turn me a lighter shade of green is a boat wallowing or becalmed in a swell.
One advantage of a pree packed meal is you can eat it straight from the bag. I think the expensive self heating ones from the mountain equipment store have the same advantage.
I do try and find pull top cans and avoid tin openers.
The old spam tins were especially nasty when you were opening them I’ve still got a couple of scars.

One of the things I sometimes have to watch for with crew is the early signs of hypothermia. Particularly if they get wet, sick, and won’t go bellow.

 

[ctva]

The Wayfarer brand self heating meals are not bad. We have a couple that we carry as emergency spares. Have tried them once and they work well. One other benefit is that their design, a big heating bag into which you pour water and place the sealed food bag, are in effect an instant large "handwarmer" which in cold wet conditions could make a big difference in survival by allowing dexterity to return to your fingers to work.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The Wayfarer brand self heating meals are not bad. We have a couple that we carry as emergency spares. Have tried them once and they work well. One other benefit is that their design, a big heating bag into which you pour water and place the sealed food bag, are in effect an instant large "handwarmer" which in cold wet conditions could make a big difference in survival by allowing dexterity to return to your fingers to work.

I used to carry self-heating can meals: inner and outer cans, ram a spike down between them to puncture a water reservoir and start the heating. The food was nice at 3am, but it was the comforting combination of warm food and warm hands which made them worthwhile.

 

[FishyInverness]

http://www.hotcan.com/

At the paintball site I used to work at, we stock these - About £4 a pop RRP I believe...the Beanz with Balls are epically tasty!

Exactly the same process as described above as well

 

[JumbleDuck]

http://www.hotcan.com/

At the paintball site I used to work at, we stock these - About £4 a pop RRP I believe...the Beanz with Balls are epically tasty!

Exactly the same process as described above as well

Ah-ha. That's the stuff i used to buy years ago, when the manufacturer had a bizarrely incongruous name - something automotive.

Unfortunately of the two online suppliers they list, Firebox doesn't seem to stock their stuff at all and Evaq8 only has three flavours. Dare I go into Harvey Nicks?

 

[Seajet]

Jumbleduck,

please do go and buy them at Harvey Nick's, in your best / worst antifouling waterproofs.

And film it.

 

[Tim Good]

I used to stash a HotCan in my kayak for emergencies. Somehow the 'emergencies' occurred every trip and found myself having to restock regularly. They do work and they're tasty. Certainly great for an emergency meal on a boat.

 

[cliff]

There are more and more outlets for these self heating meals. Obviously there is a market now I have tried some they are pretty tasty and you can survive on them.

MRE for civvies, cor, what next? Can't beat the real thing (military issue) though.

 

[Daydream believer]

I recommend B-Well as a supplier. Good delivery & range of foods etc
Always have a dozen meals on board as a reserve

 

[Colvic Watson]

I get a dozen or so a year as freebies - left over from a trip I help with and they're very good value

They're bought in bulk from evacu8 or something at about £3.50 each. Jolly tasty and I find them helpful on long passages just to leave heating in the wheelhouse as we're trundling along and all the crew do what they always do which is go off to their cabins to sleep, leaving me to look after myself - not something I'm very good at. The chemical reaction really stinks and sets the CO alarm screaming if it's anywhere near it, though I'm told it's not actually giving off CO. The cheese ravioli is a bit weird but the Irish stew types are excellent.

 

[FishyInverness]

Ah-ha. That's the stuff i used to buy years ago, when the manufacturer had a bizarrely incongruous name - something automotive.

Unfortunately of the two online suppliers they list, Firebox doesn't seem to stock their stuff at all and Evaq8 only has three flavours. Dare I go into Harvey Nicks?

Wildwoodz Paintball Park, Tore, Inverness, have the full range!

 

[PITCAIRN]

I was with a 5 man crew once crossing the Atlantic. We got caught in a storm for 5 solid days. Bye the end I can remember all of the crew eating biscuits and water. It was impossible to cook and impossible to brew up for tea, it was impossible to actually do any kind of meal preparation. I saw a fully grown man thrown across the saloon feet in the air. There was just too much turmoil down below, it was not possible to set a cup down or to pour from a kettle, or to stand at the galley and prep, both hands were needed to hang on.
So now these self heat meals are part of my standard stores on my boat.