What's your favorite meat to take when backpacking?

Normally salami and summer sausage as it keeps well.

Uncle Mike's beef sticks from walnutcreekfoods.com or sopresatta salami. Both keep well and don't stink too much.

I almost always take a couple Slim Jim Beef n Cheese's. I like the single serve packages.

I sometimes carry fresh meat for shorter trips. Sausage cooked over a campfire is amazing.

But yeah, dry salami is a great backpacking food. Beef jerkey is pretty low in calories.

Omaha Steaks - Beef Sticks
it's somewhere between a Slim Jim and a summer sausage.
It's not oily like a Slim Jim, and citrus juicier than a dry salami sausage.

http://www.omahasteaks.com/servlet/browse/sku/45594



There is a store by my home, so I don't mail-order. and since they are expensive, every few months they have 50% off sale, I stock up. ends up being $1 per protein oz.

But I also take Trader Joe's beef and buffalo jerky.
http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=921


It's about $1.50 per dry jerky wt oz. It's good quality and variety of flavors. The organic is more expensive. Trader Joe's keeps the price per bag about the same, but they put 3 oz of organic meat per bag, versus 5 oz of non-organic beef per bag.

I used to make my own jerky, but the good smell drives my dog crazy, and I don't want to set him up for failure if he got in trouble.

Edited by RogerDodger on 02/27/2013 11:35:10 MST.

I'm starting to put together my menu and prepare my meals for the JMT this summer. I'm new to all this, and I have a few books that seem to be good references. I was wondering if anyone uses these freeze-dried meats from Costco (or similar) when putting these meals together.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

(I have to put these all together to be included in my resupply packages and the initial load before I leave home the middle of May, even though I won't begin the JMT till July 3. I'll be hiking in southern Utah and Washington state for the 6 weeks leading up to the JMT, so it has to be done early.)

Thanks everyone. I've decided on salami, I think.

I used to always pack a whole vacuum sealed salami sausage as the high caloric, non-perishable emergency food. Then one day I decided to try it in a simulated food emergency situation. Here's my experience:

At home, I have a cutting board, a long knife on a wide kitchen counter. On the trail, it was a pain just to get that heavy duty vacuum seal plastic wrap. My lightweight serrated-edge bull-nose spyderco knife did not make the task easy or safe. Eventually got thru the vacuum sealed plastic.

The salami sausage has the "hotdog" paper-thin casing, which is not eatable. Slicing thin rounds snacks of that salami sausage was not successful. My fingers were greasy from removing the plastic, and working the small knife was getting dangerous, with slippage. Rounds were quarter to half inch wide/thick.

Gnawing on wide thick-cut salami chunks was gross. it was 55F, cold by So Cal standards, and the salami chunk fats required extra chewing, and they got stuck between my teeth.

That whole process to get consumption rolling took about 30 mins for the first bite.

Now I have greasy fingers, a greasy knife handle, greasy serrated edge hard to clean, salami gristle between my teeth, and cold fats were not as tasty as at home.

Since then, I took the "emergency salami sausage" out of the emergency food gear list. I could take pre-sliced deli salami, that is ready to eat, but because it's sliced the air pockets make it perishable within a couple of days.

Had this been a real emergency, with a mild injury, the salami sausage would make things more of a nuisance, tending to a wound, mending gear, handling shelter and sleep system, with greasy hands.

Edited by RogerDodger on 02/27/2013 13:58:44 MST.

Hormel bacon pieces. It is all pre-cooked and the pieces are smaller than my fingernail, so it goes good cooked with rice and other things. There is a similar generic product in my supermarket, also sealed in a plastic bag, for $2.50, and most of the packages hold 2.4 to 2.6 ounces.

Sometimes people see me eating it out of the bag and think that it must be chewing tobacco.

--B.G.--

I go for the good stuff, and since I live in Portland, anything from Olympic Provisions



paired with Dubliner cheese and crackers...

Edited by Tomlike on 02/28/2013 12:43:45 MST.

Homemade venison jerky

Damn, this stuff does look good. I often take a French dried sausage that holds up very well on the trail.

That sopressata looks outstanding. If I'm going to go with some sort of cured meats I tend to agree it is worth getting good stuff.

Homemade emu jerky !!!!

Salami with white mold casing is the best. Must have a decent knife. Individual wrapped cheese and a stack if whole grain tortillas never gets old. Throw some deltaco hot sauce on it if you dare!

Rodger- Wow bud those are some difficulties your having with your salami. I think the source of your issue is not your salami but your choice of knife. Any decent knife should very easily open a vacume sealed package. Slicing a the salami can be done on a log(cutting board)and again with a decent sharp knife should be really easy. If your hands get greasy just wash them or use hand sanitiser, if your backpacking you should have soap or sanitizer.

I love the stuff! that and just about anything honey stinger makes. The chews are amazing and so are the waffles.


Oh meat hmm. Bacon and tender loin. Only some times in the summer but every time in the winter.

Edited by needsAbath on 04/01/2013 09:50:23 MDT.