Of course, you will carry all the products, gas cylinders, burners, so you should think about weight loss in advance. Somehow, lying in a tent on a glacier, resting after soup with potatoes, onions, carrots, stew and other ingredients that had previously been carefully dragged along the Bezengi glacier and lifted to the Tsanner pass - we thought about how to reduce the weight of products that have to bear.
Meat. Nutritious, delicious, essential. You can start with stew - in tins, in addition to meat, there is also fat and jelly, which also have weight. Meat can be dried. Saving weight and volume - they say every 5 times. In addition, you can see at home what you will eat at the most crucial moments of ascents.
Potatoes. if you really want to, you can be patient and get by with sublimated purees a couple of times. But dragging tubers... if you have so much health, you better unload your comrades' backpacks
Lemons - tasty of course and vitamins, but! Often a circle of lemon or a peel from it is thrown away (and the garbage also needs to be carried). The way out - the lemon is ground in a meat grinder with sugar and dragged in a plastic container (bottle) - an excellent dressing for tea, waste-free.
Nuts and dried fruits for climbing. If they are purchased for a group: gentlemen, do not skimp on nuts! Peanuts, of course, are 4 times cheaper, but firstly, this is not a nut, but a legume (there is a scientific classification on the right), and secondly, it is not for everybody. Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews go well. Of the dried fruits, raisins are indispensable, dried apricots, dates and dried apples are good, in addition, this food must be divided into bags for each participant and distributed before going to the mountain or in the base camp (not later). You can buy pocket food individually, but most likely, everyone will eat anyway
Canned food. If we are to drag canned fish. And preferably in a tomato.
Powdered milk sounds amazing. But almost everything is demolished. It is better to take a jar of condensed milk - it will bring disproportionately more joy.
Soups. If you decide to cook soup, dry greens, carrots at home, and perhaps you can dry onions. In short, everything that does not rot during drying - dry! Do not forget the meat, which is instead of stew. In general, dry soups are the way out - such in small bags that can be steamed in a cup.
Pasta - there is nothing to be done here, the main thing is not to take those that turn into a homogeneous opaque mass, similar to a paste, when wet. Animals living around will undoubtedly be happy, and you will have to wash your hunger down with tea.
Tea! As a rule: 70% black tea, the rest at the discretion of the group members. If you know for sure that the ratio of green tea drinkers and various exotics is different compared to black tea drinkers in your group, change the proportion. But if you don’t know, take at least 70% black tea. And with a margin - tea is not as hard as stew, and its value and importance in mountaineering culture cannot be underestimated. It will warm you in the evening, on long days of forced rest, invigorate your comrades who have come from the mountain, you can wash the eyes of friends who saved on glasses with black tea ... and tea will do a lot of other useful things.
Sugar and salt. Difficult, but necessary. Moreover, they are eaten 2 times more actively than during a quiet city life.
Cereals and cereals. Cereals are tastier (although sometimes you can’t really distinguish the taste from fatigue), cereals save gas in cylinders. Carry comfortably in plastic bottles.
Salo is a very valuable product. You can take a special mixture of lard with garlic, you can just lard - it does not spoil for a long time, it is very nutritious, you can eat it with bread, you can fry it on it, you can add it to porridge, and in some cases, lard can serve as a currency (you can exchange it for other food).
Sausage. Sometimes, some fastidious non-alpinists do not eat lard. They can take their own sausage. The most desiccated. You can try to dry it at home.
Canned vegetables - they have a lot of water. It is irrational and inhumane to drag up in tin cans.
Garlic is a must.
Cheese is nutritious and delicious.
Chocolate is essential.
Bread, crackers - everything crumbles, but small crackers are better - they are lighter. Crumbs can be in the soup.
Cookies - better tasty, for tea :)
Honey is hard and all, but it's very tasty and healthy. Sometimes you can take.
Always Consider
No matter how sweet love is, you can’t cook compote from it
Most recently, I received a new status - the head of food for a marching group. The management of food in a summer campaign is a whole science, full of special rules, mysterious names, requiring patience, scrupulousness, imagination and terrible responsibility. This is what always scared me. The position of chief food officer on a campaign has always been for me, if not on an equal footing with the leader, then certainly on the second step for sure.
Any hike, and even more so for a long time, is associated with unusual loads for our body and with an unprecedented loss of energy. On average, a person in the city spends from 2000 to 3000 calories per day. On a hike, these numbers increase and, depending on the time of year and the complexity of the hike, can vary from 3,500 to 5,000 calories.
Our whole trip was planned for 28 days. The more hiking days, the more food we carry with us on a hike and the heavier our backpacks. Therefore, we had a desire, but more a need to improve the marching layout.
To organize meals on a hike, I listened a lot to the experience of friends and used the previous layouts of our group. The best assistant for me was the article on caloric content and BJU of products on the website of the Nizhny Novgorod Mountain Club. And the blog SurvivalPanda became the inspiration.
I would like to say right away that my attitude to food is very simple and at the same time very picky, I do not eat low-quality products and try to nullify, as far as possible, the consumption of all kinds of additives from E100 to E1521. I also avoid palm oil in my products.
During the hike we ate 3 times a day + a snack. We had breakfast early. This is justified by the fact that we pass the main part of what was planned for the day in the morning. After lunch in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, it is either very hot, so it becomes even dangerous to go in a sense, or precipitation falls, which is also not the most favorable weather for a tourist. Therefore, at the hottest time of the day, it is appropriate to make lunch and even put up a tent for shade and afternoon rest (this is all if there are places for lunch and time, anything can happen). We tried to cook dinner at 19:00, so that everything would be digested a little by bedtime, and usually by this time we were very hungry. We handed out a snack at the beginning of the day and everyone could eat it on their own. Although most often we ate a snack together between breakfast and lunch.
And now everything is in order.
Eat your own breakfast...
Unanimously and irrevocably, our group loves porridge, and therefore, for all 28 breakfasts, we ate all kinds of cereals with powdered milk. The porridges were so varied that we tried many of them for the first time during the hike. Breakfast was a package with cereals, where milk powder, granulated sugar and dried fruits had already been added. We do this in order to carry less packaging with us, all dried fruits are already pitted and cut, so that you can pour out of the bag and cook. Here is a list of cereals and additives to them that we took with us on a breakfast trip.Cereals: rice, millet, wheat, corn grits, a variety of muesli, hercules, rice flakes. wheat flakes, oatmeal flakes, buckwheat flakes.
Additives in cereals: dried strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, dried bananas, dried apricots, prunes, dates, raisins, cherries and jam.
I took cereals that take a long time to cook at the beginning of the trip and at the end, where the heights are small and there are no problems with water, time and oxygen). At high altitudes (above 3000) for breakfast there were cereals that are simply brewed from a kettle in cups or in a saucepan. It's very fast. And yet, everyone knows that buckwheat can be soaked and it will be ready in a couple of hours. We tried to pour millet and rice for breakfast in the evening. They did not reach readiness, but became less rigid, so that time and gas were required for their subsequent preparation. To the question of the amount of porridge. From the last trip, we left a note that the porridge can be reduced, since it often remained. Therefore, I reduced the amount of porridge from 60 to 50 grams per person. Porridge turned out to be a whole bowl like this and not a single grain of porridge was thrown away or left on a plate.
In addition to porridge, breakfast also consisted of tea or cocoa with sugar, cookies or sweets and bread.
Dining with a friend...
Lunch is probably the most interesting for me and the most favorite part of the camp layout. A little later, I will share recipes for camping soups that I prepared according to Panda's recipe, but for now I will tell you briefly.Our lunch is: soup, tea with sugar, chocolate and crackers.
Soups: borscht, pea, kharcho, chicken, mushroom puree soup. Dried stspy: borscht, pea, tomato and mushroom.
Dry vegetables for soup: onions, carrots, cabbage, pickles, beets, bell peppers, tomatoes.
Meat: beef or pork.
And here is such a beauty - our soups in dry form!
We bought some soups. Soup sets Super Soup were taken as a basis - the soups of this manufacturer contain the least artificial additives (E-nis). Soups were packed in zip bags. In such a package, we filled up the purchased base, meat and vegetables. In the campaign, we poured soup with cold water, brought it to a boil and let it brew, after 10-15 minutes the soup was ready. In addition to purchased soups, we made freeze-dried, or, to put it simply, dried soups. The basis for which they prepared themselves, and then dried it in an electric dryer for a day. Just a meal! More on this in the next posts. In the meantime, a couple of photos of pea soup, which we prepared and dried ourselves !!!
A little about chocolate for the trip. We love to take chocolate bars to the mountains. We transport them in boxes and treat them very carefully. At one time, we eat 1 tile per tent (25 grams per person). It is better to take chocolate without additives, since additives in chocolate (fillings, jams) are usually not natural, but hide useful weight. Chocolate with nuts is also better not to take, there are a lot of nuts in snacks. At the beginning of the campaign, we replaced lunch chocolate with hematogen. Hematogen in a mountain hike is useful for acclimatization, it increases the content of hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin contributes to the saturation of the blood with oxygen. Therefore, in the first days of the campaign, every other day we ate hematogens. In our opinion, Ferogematogen (yellow with a hedgehog) turned out to be the best one in our opinion. It contains not only albumin (the same bovine blood), but also folic acid (which contributes to the development and maintenance of new cells) and ascorbic acid.
Well, it's all about dinner.
Give dinner to the enemy...
Dinner on a hike is a very important part. Dinner is usually high in protein and complex carbohydrates. After this meal, there is time for calm digestion and recuperation.| Garnish | Protein component | dry vegetables | For a sandwich |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice | Dried pork | Green pea | Cheese |
| Buckwheat | Dried beef | Corn | Cheese "Jill" |
| Pasta | Dried beef tongue | Onion | melted cheese |
| Potatoes | Dried beef liver | Carrot | Pate |
| Israeli couscous (ptitim) | Dried chicken | bell pepper | Raw smoked sausage |
| couscous | Jerky (chicken jerky) | jerky | jerky |
| Lentils | Picolini | Dried fish | |
| Canned fish | |||
| Pemmican classic | |||
| Pemmican "Barabu" |
We also prepared dinner very quickly. If it is buckwheat or lentils, we soaked them during the day in special metal bottles along with meat, so that in the evening it only remained to warm them up. Photo of the bottle with our Norwegian logo below.
I tried to choose pasta that boils quickly (cobweb, children's in the form of different figures). By the way, we took grated dried cheese to them, which we made ourselves and it is very tasty! The discovery for us was couscous, prepared quickly, unusual and delicious! It is also very rich in copper. Very useful and often used for cooking oriental dishes.
As for meat products, here we tried a lot of new things. Firstly, for the first time we dried not only meat (beef, pork), but also beef tongue and liver. All this is also to increase hemoglobin in the blood. Later I will tell you how I dried it all and what the result is.
We finished dinner with tea or compote and sweets.
A snack is a small energy ball. 50 gr. per person per day. We combined snacks from nuts (hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, peanuts) and dried fruits (dried apricots, prunes, cherries, dates, mangoes, strawberries).
Sometimes they replaced these snacks with muesli bars, such as Corny and EGO. Dried fruits and nuts are high-calorie foods. That is why they have become indispensable companions of all travelers. They allow you to replenish the supply of vitamins and trace elements that the body needs in conditions of increased stress.
And some more important "little things" of camp food, without which our group will not take a step on the route:
- Vegetable oil (olive, olive with rosemary and unrefined sunflower). added to each dose.
- Salt 500 gr for everyone (not enough)
- Spices. We carried them in a bag, many different ones.
- We took: black, black with bergamot, black pu-erh in tablets, green with ginger, green with pineapple.
- Tea additives: mint, lemon balm, rosehip, dried lemon, cinnamon, dried blackcurrant.
- We chose sweets very carefully. There were more sweets than cookies on the trip, as the cookies are very bulky and crumble. Mostly sweets we wore in boxes.
- Biscuits and bread rolls also went in a box. For breakfast and dinner, we ate: Crisp crispbread, Molodtsy crispbread, and Lyubyatovo buckwheat cookies. Rusks were transported in bags.
- Lump sugar. The one about which it is written
Tips and Instructions
A good supply manager does not run out of food.
A good caretaker does not have food left.
The key to the success of a hike or climb is not only the purchase of bright equipment and shiny hardware, but also a properly planned diet.
Layout is planning the quantity and quality of food on a hike or mountain climb. The layout is very important, because on a hike, the amount of food is limited only by what you bring on your shoulders. A hungry person can cause an emergency, because. he becomes irritable and distracted.
To begin with, we need to understand in terminology:
digestibility- the maximum possible for the body's ability to digest and get energy from a particular food. For example, sugar has 99%, which means that we will not absorb only 1%. On average, animal food is digested by 95%, vegetable - by 80%. Digestibility drops with a lack of oxygen, in stressful situations, etc.
Calorie content or energy value of food- the amount of energy that the body receives from the complete assimilation of food.
BJU - Proteins-Fats-Carbohydrates are the main ingredients that make up food. They have different calorie content and digestibility.
The concept of a balanced diet.
Based on it, the ratio of BJU per day should be - 1: 1: 4, i.e. we should consume 4 times more carbohydrates. Fluctuations within 1:1:2.5-4 are possible.
What's going on inside?
When the climate changes, the altitude above sea level or the load increases, our body tries to acclimatize and get involved in the hiking mode. And it just so happened that the least energy is left for digestion, which means that the appetite can deteriorate. There is nothing wrong with the fact that the first days you will eat less, but eating through force is harmful - this can lead to indigestion.
1. In the first days of the trip, you can eat much less than is required to replenish energy costs.
2. On busy days, you need to increase the content of easily digestible carbohydrates in the diet to maintain performance throughout the day. On such days, high-calorie, harder-to-digest fatty foods can be included in the diet, but even here the measure must be observed.
An important point is the preparedness of a person for certain conditions. The amount of "burned energy" directly depends on the heart rate. In a trained person, when moving along the route, the pulse will be lower, and, accordingly, there will be less energy to overcome the daily transition. 
Train, gentlemen!
Caloric content of food
1-3 days - 2300-2500 kcal per day. This is obviously a "hungry" ration. The norm of products can be calculated by multiplying the standard by a factor of 0.8.
3-6 days - 2900-3200 kcal. Adaptation is completed, the diet must be gradually increased.
6 - ... days - 3300-4000 kcal. This calorie content is much less than the actual energy consumption, but the body can absorb a limited amount of food per day. Many people recommend increasing the calorie content on key days to 4000-6000, but in practice, to achieve such a calorie content, you have to increase the weight of the layout and artificially expand the menu. Even the most voracious participants will simply “break” from 6000 calories, so it’s better not to exceed 4000 kcal.
The main indicator of the layout is the average weight of food per participant per day. Layouts are divided into:
- extremely light - less than 500 g / day per person;
- light - from 500 to 600g;
- lightweight - from 600 to 700g;
- normal - from 700 to 850g;
- heavy - more than 850g.
It is worth focusing on light and clothed layouts.
What is the layout algorithm? What should be taken into account?
1. Group members: age and gender affect the amount of food intake (young people eat more due to their faster metabolism, although there are very striking exceptions).
2. Difficulty and itinerary- this is necessary for the distribution of the diet depending on the load, as well as for the choice of food in the middle of the day: lunch or "snack".
3. What will the food be cooked on?(burner or fire).
4. Participant Preferences: allergies or just dislike for some products.
With these key points in mind, you can start menu planning.
At this stage, you make a rough list of dishes and their ingredients that will be consumed at one meal. Food is better to diversify. Usually a menu is made up of different dishes for 3-4 days, and then the variety depends on the complexity of the route.
Sample diet for a typical day:
Morning- milk porridge + sweets + tea
Dinner- soup with meat or fish + sweets + tea
Dinner- porridge / pasta / puree + sweets + tea.
Snack- sweet + tea + sandwich.
Why exactly?
In the morning, we eat easily digestible foods, because. after breakfast, a high load falls on the body, and in the evening they are slowly digested, so that they can calmly assimilate overnight. 
On difficult hikes and climbs, when there is not enough time for lunch, a good snack is made, and for dinner you can plan the first and second courses in lighter versions. For a snack, a lot of sweets, dried fruits and nuts (fast carbohydrates) are usually taken.
Calculations - next step in layout.
For one meal, there is a required norm for each product. These norms are given in special tables. They also reflect the caloric content and content of BJU in products. It is also necessary to write out the mass of each product. After that, it will be easy to calculate the weight per day per person and the weight of food per group per day.
After that, there comes a check whether the compiled menu corresponds to the desired weight of the layout and whether the layout has the required calorie content.
Then comes the painstaking work, in which you need to find a balance between the desire to eat tasty and healthy food and the desire to carry little.
Below is a sample of one day of layout from the average menu for a simple mountain hike.
The calculation is made for a group of 8 people. This layout is lightweight (weight per person per day - 660.5 g).
It is convenient to compile a general list of products for purchase with total values.
The header might look something like this:
Such a detailed table can immediately reveal an error if one was made when transferring data from the menu.
The item "meals" is very useful, from it you can easily figure out what size of food packages it is better to buy. For example, packs of pasta come in different weights, and if you do not take into account the packaging factor, it will not be convenient to pack the layout.
Recommendation: recalculate the weight of the layout again after the purchase, if you somewhere rounded portions to packages.
ENJOY YOUR MEAL!!!
The data given in the article is not a dogma, because for each hike and for each group, their own diet is compiled.
Articles about nutrition on a hike
Meals on mountain hikes
Meals on mountain trips are planned and managed by the supply manager. Take care girls! Don't give them this job! The position of supply manager requires the participant to have increased endurance, intelligence and composure. It happens that after tiring work, when the whole group is resting, the supply manager, despite his fatigue, is forced to dismantle the transfer or carry out a recount of food.
At the stage pre-trip training supply manager
- Plans meals on a hike, in other words, makes a layout;
- instructs participants to purchase products;
- organizes joint packaging and packaging of purchased products;
- draws up a plan for placing products on backpacks.
On a hike supply manager
- gives orders to the duty officer about the menu;
- informs the duty officer from which of the participants to take food;
- controls the uniform consumption of products among the participants;
- controls the uniform consumption of products on the route;
- to fulfill points 3-4, it carries out a periodic inventory of products.
The main indicator of the layout is the average weight of food consumed by one participant in one day.
According to this indicator, layouts are divided into
- extremely light - less than 580g;
- lungs - from 580 to 660g;
- lightweight - from 660 to 740g;
- normal - from 740 to 820;
- heavy - over 820g
The weight of the layout is set by the leader. Extremely light layouts are possible on short warm trips. Personally, I have not tried walking. On a light layout, we once completed an 18-day 200-kilometer hike of the 3rd c.s. in the Central Pamir. The hike mainly passed through the hot valleys, and despite this, I still have the warmest memories of how we ate 2 times in the villages. On a lightweight layout, we passed our champion five in the Pamirs of 1997. Very long hikes should be divided into 2-3 stages, and for each stage, an autonomous layout should be compiled, increasing its weight in the last stages.
I will explain how to quickly compose easy, lightweight and normal layouts. Let's agree that a group of 8 people goes on a 16-day trip. First, we compile a list of daily and evenly consumed products, indicating their average consumption per participant per day.
Daily consumption products:
By sweets for dinner, I mean high-calorie foods such as halva, a creamy log or sherbet. Soup is best planned for every day. During long technical work on the passes, you have to refuse lunch at the usual time for it. On such days, the group stops for the night at 15-17 hours and during the rest of the day has time to have lunch and dinner. If dinner still doesn’t work out, then the saved soup becomes a convenient reserve by the end of the trip.
The total consumption of the listed products is 338g. If stew is used, then its consumption is 100 g. In this case, the consumption of ghee should also be increased to 15 g. The total expense on the list will be 383g.
| 2 times | 70g | |
| rice | 2 times | 70g |
| Hercules "Extra" | 3 times | 60g |
| semolina | 2 times | 50g |
| horns | 2 times | 70g |
| millet | 2 times | 70g |
| mashed potatoes | 3 times | 60g |
It is necessary to interview participants regarding semolina and hercules, as there are fierce opponents of these products. We will add raisins 15g to semolina and rice. per participant. We will cook horns with cheese, on other days porridge and potatoes are boiled in milk. Milk is a must, as it contains the necessary calcium for your bones. If there are 8 people in the group, then, spending half a pack of powdered milk at a time, we get 31g. per participant. Therefore, we write
We will accompany half of the breakfasts with additional sausage, and the other half with cheese, so we will write down
You should not lament about some inequivalence of breakfasts in terms of weight and calorie content. This inequivalence is convenient for compensating for uneven energy costs along the route. It is convenient to assign the type of breakfast (its menu) in working order as you go along the route.
We control the consumption of products. (70*8+60*6+50*2+40*2+31*14+15*4+45*16)/16=2314/16=145g.
Now let's plan dinners. They should be more satisfying than breakfast. I note that breakfasts and dinners with mashed potatoes are good for quick cooking in difficult conditions when it is difficult to bring water to a boil.
| Five times | 90g | |
| rice | 4 times | 90g |
| horns | 4 times | 90g |
| mashed potatoes | 3 times | 65g |
Let's control the consumption of cereals for dinner (90 * 13 + 65 * 3) / 16 = 1365/16 = 85g.
Are planning snacks, which are added to lunch or held between breakfast and lunch.
You should not save on iron and refuse canned fish. Fish contain essential nutrients. It is better to take fish in oil, such canned food is better preserved in the heat.
Average snack weight (45*10 + 63*6)/16 = 828/16 = 52g.
In total, the minimum list of products for breakfast, lunch and dinner provides an expense of 338 + 145 + 85 + 52 = 620 g.
Let's say you want to go to 700 gram lightweight spread. You have a reserve of 80*16*8 = 10240g. This reserve is spent on supplements. We will indicate the weight of additives for the entire group and for the entire trip.
| 3000g | |
| lemons in sugar | 2800g |
| garlic | 500g |
| onion | 500g |
| spices (adjika, chili sauce, pepper, bay leaf) | 240g |
| ketchup | 1000g |
| walnuts | 1000 |
| chocolate | 1200g |
Note that dried apricots are very important for heart function, as they provide the body with potassium. Lemons in sugar are very helpful at high altitude, as they contain vitamin C and citric acid, which is necessary to restore the acid-base balance disturbed at altitude. Onions, garlic and spicy spices are indispensable in camp nutrition. Chocolate is often calculated by the number of passes (prize for climbing the pass).
If desired, sweets, waffles and other rubbish with not pronounced functional features are included in the additives.
If you wish to have more solid layout, then increase the consumption of cereals by 10g, sweets for dinner by 5g, bring all portions of lard sausage and cheese to 50g. This will increase the weight of the layout by about 35g. In addition, include 1000g. honey, 2000 dried bananas or dates and 2000. roaches. This will additionally increase the weight of the layout by another 40g. The result is a normal layout weighing 775g.
Let's say you want to get lightweight 650-gram layout. The previously obtained minimum composition of 620 grams is flawed without spices, onions, garlic and dried apricots. It is necessary to increase the reserve for additives. To do this, the morning portions of sausage and cheese can be reduced to 40g, similarly, snacks from bacon, cheese or sausage are reduced by 5g. As a result, we get a list of products for 610g. Reserve in 40*16*8 = 5120g. use for additives as follows
25.04.1998
How do I cook meat?
Ulary boiled for a long time in a tincture of fragrant herbs.
When the meat was cooked, Kuchak separated the bones from the meat.
and threw them away. He kneaded the boiled
meat and put there a large piece of melted fat.
The fat melted, giving off a pleasant smell. Taking the purified
kiik's stomach, Kuchak poured the brew into it,
stick. It turned out a dense, fatty sausage.
G.T.
Ah, April! What warm sunny days! In two weeks I am going with my family and newcomers to Krasnaya Polyana. Well, today we need to cook field meat. Foot and mouth disease is getting closer and closer to the borders of Russia. You look, and they will ban the sale of meat, or rather, prices will jump on it. He grabbed a thousand rubles and went to the Koptevsky market. I'm sitting in a tram, looking out the window, spring, erotica!
In the meat pavilion, sellers set the standard for tenderloin - 130 rubles per kilo. I found a more accommodating saleswoman and repaid it for 660 rubles for six kilograms of meat (this is at a rate of 28 rubles 50 kopecks per dollar). She plopped down on the scales a hefty bite. “No, no,” I say, “take it off, there have been so many lived in the middle, it will take a long time to process.” I asked her to hang two thick rings, from the base of the leg, probably, and cut off from one more piece. It turned out 6300 grams, order. I immediately bought raw lard from her. The fat is not too good, the layer is a bit thin, two centimeters, no more. So there is a lot of skin left. Yes, and meat streaks come across, and in our business they go to cracklings, which means they go to the trash can. Attracted by the price - 40 rubles. per kilo. My wife set me up for 60. I took 3150 grams of this fat and went home.
At home, he separated the fat from the skin, scraped it cleanly from the skin and sent it to the meat grinder! Then he spread the greasy porridge in two pans and put it on the fire. Fat is cooked. I drain the transparent yellowish melt into the third pan through a strainer. Soon only yellow cracklings remained. I scraped them all into one saucepan, fry them and squeeze them with the back of the strainer, squeeze out the fat. Then he drained it again and fried it again. So I dug around with them for about twenty minutes, until there was a smell of ammonia. Well, I think that's enough. I washed the pots and the stove. I weighed the skin and cracklings and threw them away. I threw away three hundred grams of leather and three hundred grams of cracklings. Such was the waste.
I’m sitting, clicking on the computer, the sun is shining through the window, the TV is murmuring, my mood is good, the meat in the freezer is freezing, otherwise it will be difficult to cut it in a flimsy state. So I sit and click, I call my friends on the phone, I look, the meat has frozen, it's time to cut it.
Cutting meat is the most tedious part of the job. I cut it first in layers, then I cut the layers into sticks, and finally, the sticks into pieces the size of the phalanx of the index finger. Then he poured the pieces into a basin and began to salt, mixing thoroughly and laying out in three pans. In total, he exhausted five tablespoons of salt with small humps. The pots were filled with lard and put on the stove. The fire was not that small, but also small. The main task now is to melt the fat frozen on cold meat. I started at 9 pm, and after half an hour the fat was melted, the solution was already boiling, and the pieces of meat darkened.
The next operation is to distribute the fat between the pans with a ladle. The main thing is that the meat does not protrude. Then the light turned up. The pan is bigger and the light is bigger. It’s worth gurgling my meat, in each pan there are eight or nine steam outlets. Droplets sometimes fly upwards from the bubbles of the central outlet. So the boiling is not that intense, but not small either. The solution is still cloudy. It's a lot of water mixed with lard. Well, let it boil for myself, I’ll go and click on all this on the computer.
At 11 pm I go up to the pans and see: here and there pieces of meat are sticking out over the lard. A mess, I think, and let's drown them with a spoon. The right smallest saucepan enters the new mode. The solution becomes more and more transparent, and the "bulks" become small, there are many of them, and they are evenly distributed over the entire surface of the solution. This means that there is not enough water in the solution, and water begins to boil not in solution, but directly in the meat. "This saucepan is ahead," I thought, and the light under it completely reduced. But in a large saucepan there are few "bulbs" and the solution is the most cloudy. Give, I think, I will add a spark.
At half past eleven, I stirred the meat and found clods of sticky pieces of meat in a large and medium saucepan. This is a mess! From such clods, moisture will evaporate badly. This is what my efforts to drown the pieces led to. I broke the clods, and the meat ceased to be covered with a solution. What to do? I took a ladle and distributed the meat from a small "favorite" in two lagging pans. This became possible, since the solution in them noticeably sank, as a lot of water boiled away. Now it's good! The total surface has decreased, all the meat is covered, and the solution in both pots has become almost transparent.
At 0 hours 10 minutes, both pans switched to the second mode. The solution became completely transparent and yellow - pure fat. On its surface, a lot of small "gurgles" were evenly distributed, 1.5 - 2 centimeters apart from each other. Everything is going according to plan, I thought, and turned on the Internet. On the extreme portal, there were photos posted by Sergey Zaiko about their amazing hike "Altai - three peaks" with climbs to the highest points of the North Chuisky and South Chuisky ridges and the brilliant traverse of Belukha.
At 1 hour and 40 minutes, I set a very small fire under the pans. The meat had shriveled up into dense, but crumbling brown pieces in the mouth. Small "bulks" were distributed over the surface of the fat at a distance of less than a centimeter and formed a "foam" of transparent bubbles. It remains only to wait.
At 3 o'clock I took out carefully washed and dried liter milk cartons. These were narrow packages with a square section. I took a small ladle and poured four packets of meat directly from the boiling pots. I did not use the burnt and crumbling pieces of meat at the bottom of the pans. Then he added lard to each bag and drowned the pieces of meat so that they did not stick out. Let it cool, you can wash the dishes for now.
The next day I climbed into the refrigerator to admire the product. I saw that there was not enough fat, all the upper pieces of meat were exposed. I missed the proportion. I had to go to the store, buy another 300 grams of fat, melt and pour into each of four bags.
When everything was frozen, I took an empty milk bag, cut off its upper part obliquely with scissors, wrapped the lower part with tape (otherwise the cardboard would tear) and slammed it as a lid on the first meat bag. Then he made another such lid from an empty bag and put it tightly on the bottom of the meat bag. This is to strengthen the bottom: the road is long, and it is not difficult to damage the package on a hike. Then I wrapped the bag with tape. The first package is ready. In total, I got 4 such packages weighing 1100 grams each. That's eight dinners for a team of nine.
Competent catering on the route can be crucial for successful climbing or high-mountain trekking. The choice of foods for a balanced daily diet is as important as any other part of training, along with the development of endurance, technical skills and special equipment. To compile a healthy mountain menu, you need to figure out exactly how climbing and daily physical activity affect digestion and human nutrition.
Stay in the highlands and decrease in oxygen in the air and blood lead to a number of negative factors for the digestive system: the absorption of nutrients, fats and liquids decreases, salivation decreases, the activity of the glands slows down and worsens. All of the above changes result in violation of the digestive processes, interfere with the proper absorption of food and lead to indigestion. These signs are especially typical for the first acclimatization days of climbing or trekking, when a person finds himself in conditions that are unusual for his body.
Calorie consumption, digestibility and energy value of food
During the period of daily loads and long transitions, significantly calorie consumption changes. The calorie consumption of an average man with a moderately active lifestyle is about 2500-3000 Kcal per day. A woman in urban conditions spends about 2000 Kcal. It is believed that in complete rest to maintain the general vital activity, the body of an adult consumes 1 kcal per hour per 1 kg of body weight. Any movement requires additional energy, which increases the consumption of calories. Thus, a person with a backpack of about 20 kg during active climbing uphill spends about 8 kcal per hour per 1 kg of body weight, which is about 500-600 kcal per hour, and on some parts of the route, on assault days, calorie consumption indicators can reach 6000-8000 kcal per day. Energy consumption also depends on the physical fitness of a person: the higher the endurance and muscle training, the less energy is consumed during active movement.
Given the increase in calorie expenditure, it is logical to assume that it is necessary to increase the frequency of meals and the calorie content of foods, but this is not the case. The thing is that during heavy climbs or storming the summit, the body works at the limit and spends so much energy that there is little energy left to digest food. The same situation is possible in the first days of acclimatization, when, under conditions of lack of oxygen, the body copes worse with filtering poisons and spends a lot of energy on normalizing the work of internal organs in new conditions. In such cases, it is much easier for the body to take energy from the general reserves (fat deposits) than to digest a heavy meal. During active assault days, it is recommended to increase the amount of easily digestible carbohydrates. The digestibility of food products is determined by the energy received from the digested food. Thus, the digestibility of sugar is about 99%, pure meat is 95%, and stew is only about 30%. Here it is necessary to understand the nutritional components on which the definition is based. energy value certain products.
Proteins, Fats and Carbohydrates in the mountains
BJU (proteins, fats and carbohydrates)- the main components of food that the body needs for normal life. Each of the three elements has a different digestibility and has its own functions, but it is extremely important to eat in a balanced way, combining all the components together. The most common optimal ratio of BJU is 1: 1: 4 (5).
Squirrels- the main building material of the human body. They are part of all cells, tissues and organs. Proteins are divided into animal and vegetable. Animal proteins are more valuable for the body, they are complete and contain the necessary amino acids. In mountainous conditions, protein is necessary for the normalization of metabolism, but only in moderation, since its excess can lead to an increase in acidity and difficulty in the process of oxygen saturation of the blood. The product with the highest protein content is meat. Unfortunately, meat is a perishable product, quite heavy in weight and requires a long cooking time. Therefore, dried and dried meat (sujuk, basturma), raw smoked sausages and stewed meat serve as an alternative in field conditions. Also resistant to transportation and relatively long storage are processed or regular cheeses and milk powder. Lentils, beans, and nuts are excellent sources of plant-based protein.
Fats- these are the strategic reserves of the human body and one of the important components of a living cell, with the help of which it is easiest to restore strength after intense physical exertion. During the oxidation of 1 gram of fat, 9 kcal is released, while during the oxidation of 1 gram of proteins or carbohydrates, only 4 kcal is released. Also, fat deposits are the main mechanism for protecting the body from heat loss and are the main source of energy when the body is weakened during illness or loss of appetite. Fatty acids themselves are divided into saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats are obtained by the body from food of animal origin, unsaturated - vegetable. Animal fats are considered more nutritious and high-calorie, but in mountainous conditions and during high physical exertion, saturated fats are practically not absorbed, since a sufficient amount of oxygen is needed for their breakdown. That is why in the mountains it is best to give preference to vegetable fats, such as nuts and seeds.
Carbohydrates- the main source of energy in the mountains. Compared to proteins and fats, carbohydrates are the most digestible organic substances, consuming the least amount of oxygen in this process. During intense physical activity, muscles get energy from the oxidation of sugar (carbohydrate) found in the blood. When the sugar level drops to a certain level, a person's performance decreases markedly and a feeling of fatigue appears. For a quick recovery in the mountains during difficult transitions, sweet tea with lemon is the best solution, since glucose is absorbed into the blood in the shortest possible time. According to their properties, carbohydrates are divided into simple (fast) and complex (slow). Fast carbohydrates used in the mountains include sugar, honey, jam, dried fruits, chocolate, and cookies. As slow carbohydrates, which gradually release energy during digestion, providing a prolonged feeling of fullness, it is best to use oatmeal, rice, potatoes, pasta, biscuits, nuts.
Maintenance of water-salt balance
In everyday life, the human body releases about 3 liters of water, including evaporation through the skin and lungs. In the mountains, in conditions of strong solar radiation, temperature changes, high humidity and intense physical exertion, this figure can increase to 10 liters per day, which can ultimately cause dehydration. That is why it is extremely it is important to maintain water balance in the body. During the passage of difficult sections of the route in the high mountain zone, the amount of liquid consumed should be about 4 liters. The loss of 5% of water from the total body weight of a person can reduce his performance by 50%. Among other things, sufficient water intake contributes to the removal of under-oxidized metabolic products, which are formed as a result of a lack of oxygen.
Another important aspect is the quality of water and the presence of necessary salts in it, since with sweat a person loses not only liquid, but also useful minerals. Mountain water and melt water, obtained by melting snow, is not much different from distilled water, has practically no organic or inorganic impurities in its composition, and in itself contributes to the leaching of salts and calcium from the body. Such water is well suited for tea and cooking. In the case of mountain water relevant the use of isotonics- sports drinks or instant powders containing some salts, carbohydrates, minerals (potassium, magnesium) and vitamins. Also, isotonics increase water absorption, thus, without the use of isotonics, the human stomach is able to absorb only about 200 grams of pure water, regardless of the amount of its consumption, isotonics can increase absorption up to 400 grams. In addition to isotonics, it will not be superfluous taking a vitamin complex before and during the exit to the mountains.
Catering for our events
Our events include three types of catering for participants:
- field meals throughout the program
Joint cooking by participants and guides. Meals are included in the base price. Relevant for the following events:
- meals in cafes, lodges and mountain huts along the route
Not included in the cost of the event and paid by the participants themselves. Relevant for the following events:
- combined option
Meals on days of active lifting. Meals in a cafe or in the kitchen of the base camp during the days of your stay in the lowlands / in the city. Meals are included or paid separately depending on the event.Relevant for the following events:
The basic principle of eating in the mountains is that food should be not only nutritious, but also desirable, so that after a tiring transition, food brings pleasure and satisfies the feeling of hunger. This principle implies a variety of diet and some variability of the mountain menu.
Standard camp food involves cooking hot meals on fires or gas burners, depending on the type of camp. As a rule, the option of eating on a fire is possible only in the base camps in the lowlands in dry weather and with firewood. In other cases, in mountainous areas, a modern tourist is forced to resort to a gas burner. Beforehand, our guides calculate the necessary set of products for a group of participants and the number of gas cylinders for making tea and food. Food, gas and boilers are equal to public equipment and are shared among the group members, which is why it is very important to correctly plan the food layout, minimizing weight. You also need to understand that in most cases breakfast and dinner are prepared at the camp, while lunch is forced to be replaced by a nutritious snack due to organization during a short rest at the transition between camps.
As an example, a classic set of products and an approximate menu at our event "" is given:
- breakfast: oatmeal / instant oatmeal / muesli, milk powder, condensed milk, cookies, sweets / gozinaki / halva, jam, raisins, tea, lemon, sugar.
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- dinner: buckwheat flakes / pasta / instant puree, sauces, seasonings, stew / sausage, vegetable dressing, bread, cookies, jam, tea, lemon, sugar.
Sublimated food are food products that have undergone vacuum freeze drying. This process includes rapid freezing of food and subsequent vacuum drying, which is able to convert the water frozen inside the food immediately into steam. Thus, moisture is almost completely removed from the products, making them almost 10 times lighter compared to the original state. At the same time, sublimated products retain their color and useful properties, since their drying eliminated the heat treatment process. The advantages of sublimates are obvious: light weight, quick and easy preparation, a variety of dishes, no need to use and wash dishes. Each package includes a full meal and can contain more than 500 kcal, depending on the dish chosen. For our participants on high-altitude ascents and difficult sports routes, we provide freeze-dried main dishes for breakfast and dinner. As an example, an approximate height menu is given on the ascent " ":
- breakfast: banana / millet porridge with cranberries / oatmeal, biscuits, jam, raisins, tea, lemon, sugar.
- snack: bread, dry-cured sausage, cheese, chocolate bars / gozinaki / sherbet, biscuits, jam, tea, lemon, sugar.
- dinner: sublime buckwheat with beef / risotto with mushrooms / pea soup with pork / navy pasta, bread, cookies, jam, tea, lemon, sugar.
For participants climbing in the Alps There are several food options available. Given the availability of comfortable mountain shelters on all alpine routes, the most convenient way is to order breakfast and dinner in the kitchen of the shelter. The cost of breakfast in the cafe of the shelter is about 15 euros, dinner - 30 euros. Some of the shelters include food in the price of accommodation, such as the Hörnli shelter at the foot of the Matterhorn. A more budgetary hiking option is also possible. Each shelter has a special room for self-cooking, so that everyone can cook their favorite porridge in warmth and comfort. In the case of self-catering, it is necessary to warn the instructor in advance, who will provide gas, a burner and a pan. Many of our members opt for a camping dinner option and cooked breakfast from local chefs to save time in the morning before climbing.
During climbing Kilimanjaro on any of the four routes presented, our team offers a combined meal option. During their stay in Moshi, the meals of the participants take place in the city cafes of local and European cuisine at their own expense. Already on the second day of the climbing program, the group leaves the city and enters the Kilimanjaro National Park, starting their journey to the top. Further, throughout the entire stay in the park, participants are provided with full-fledged hot three meals a day, which is included in the price of the ascent. Good catering is provided by a qualified local chef, who is part of the service staff of each group. For our members, we offer a classic diet that includes cereals, meat, fish, eggs, bread, vegetables and fresh fruit. Also, in addition to hot drinks and juices, all participants of our African ascents will always have clean drinking water available, which is extremely important for well-being and a successful ascent. We respect all our participants, trying to take into account long-term taste habits and forced restrictions. Therefore, upon prior request from the group coordinator, we offer vegetarian and dietary menus.
