Nitro-Pak: Mountain House Review

Note from PJ:  All products in this review were provided from Nitro-Pak.com, visit their website for more information on food storage solutions.  I’d also like to thank frequent reader / contributor J for agreeing to review the products with his family.

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I have been given the opportunity to review several Mountain House freeze dried meals and wanted to share my thoughts on them.  I was fortunate enough to get the input of my wife and daughter on them in the hopes of a more balanced and objective review.  In this, I have tried to eliminate any personal bias toward a particular meal, as we all have personal likes and dislikes toward certain foods.  We have rated each meal on a scale of 1 to 10 on looks and taste, 1 meaning we would not want to eat it at all and 10 meaning a first choice before anything else.  The meals we had to review were chili mac with beef, beef stroganoff with noodles, chicken teriyaki with rice, spaghetti with meat sauce, rice and chicken and pasta primavera.

Most of them were decent, overall.  They are all relatively easy to fix in the bag, only requiring ¾ cup of boiling water added and about 10 minutes to sit after stirring for them to be ready to eat.  There is a desiccant packet in each of them that has to be removed (see photo) prior to adding water; other than that, it is pretty straightforward.  None of us had any confusion on the preparation instructions.

My main concern with the meals is calorie content.  All of the meals only contained between 200 and 260 calories per serving which seems to be a bit light to me.  I am not sure how well this would keep a person refueled in a bugout or any other labor intensive scenario.  Please refer to photo for a sample of nutritional info per serving.  All of the meals we reviewed were similar in their content.

For the individual review, I took photos of each meal, using a bowl to give a sense of serving size.

Individual meal review

Each of the meals were prepared following the directions as closely as possible, we used a timer to ensure that all meals were allowed to sit the exact amount of time listed.

Chili Mac with Beef

Straight out of the package and into the bowl, my first impression was, “yep, that’s chili mac.”  The sauce looked a bit thin but that might have happened if I accidentally added too much water.  We all agreed that it looked pretty tasty.  I gave it a 7, wife rated it 8 and our daughter gave it a 7.  Regarding taste, we all gave it a 6.  It was decent but the noodles were still slightly chewy and undercooked.   Overall, we agreed on a rating of 6.

Beef Stroganoff with Noodles

We all agreed this meal was one of the best.  All parts reconstituted correctly and tasted pretty good, if slightly bland.  Adding some spice for personal preferences, I could have had seconds.

I was not too impressed by looks, personally, only giving it a 4, my wife gave it a 7 and daughter a 5.  Regarding taste, I rated it a 7, wife 7, and daughter an 8.  Overall, we agreed on a 7 for this one.

Chicken Teriyaki with Rice

Not all freeze dried meals are created equal, unfortunately.  This one was one of the least desirable to us.  It tasted pretty heavily of soy sauce and the peas and rice were still hard in places.  Regarding appearance, I rated a 5, wife 6 and daughter 6.  Taste was a 3 for me, a 4 for wife and 3 for daughter.  Overall, we agreed on a 4.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

I was pretty happy with this meal.  We all agreed it was reminiscent of Spaghettio’s.  It reconstituted well, no hard spots in the pasta and the meat tasted like meat.  I rated appearance a 7, wife and daughter an 8 each.  On taste I rated a 7, daughter a 7 and wife only a 4; she is not a fan of Spaghettio’s.  We agreed on a collective 6 for this.

Rice and Chicken

This meal was pretty decent for me, personally, if a bit plain.  It reconstituted well, all of the components were soft.  It tasted a bit plain but after adding spice for personal taste was pretty much a good meal.  Concerning appearance, I rated it a 7, wife a 7 and daughter a 6. Taste was a 6 for me a 7 for wife and a 5 for daughter.  Overall we rated it a 6.  Adding extra spices to personal taste, we agreed on a 7, though.

Pasta Primevera

This meal came in last for us, collectively.  The noodles were ok, but the vegetables did not reconstitute properly.  The peppers were overdone and mushy and the peas underdone, still having hard spots.  It looked ok, me giving it a 5, wife and daughter and 8 each.  Taste I gave it a 4, daughter a 2, her promptly spitting out the 1 bite she took of it, and the wife rating taste a 4.  Between the 3 of us, we rated it a 4 overall.

Overall, we agreed that these were decent enough.  They are easy to prepare and taste ok, given a few exceptions.  My main concern, as I pointed out earlier, is their relatively low calorie content per serving.  If you are in a heavy labor situation or are hiking with a full pack, I think you will have to carry more than you would initially think was necessary given the package size. In further research, I went to the store last night and looked at some of the other Mountain House meals in the Sporting Goods section.  While they were twice the size, they stated that 2 people could eat off of them.  In reality, I think it would take several of them to get the necessary calories to keep going.  I think they would make a good meal supplement, personally, but would not count on them as a sole source of long term nutrition.

Respectfully submitted,

J