Whats a good sub for butter or other things that would help keep food from sticking. I read a recipe for quesadilas somewhere on a backpacking site, but it called for butter which is hard to keep in the desert. Any other options???

Thanks as always,
--Nick--
:sun

Olive oil

Make ghee......it's butter that doesn't need refrigeration.

You get unsalted butter and remove all of the water from it in a saucepan and then let it solidify again.

It's also good for cuts/nose bleeds by dabbing a small amount on the wound. It clots blood........like it does in your arteries when you eat it! :)

http://rwood.com/Recipes/Homemade_Ghee.htm

I've also seen it solidified in sticks and wrapped up in wax paper.

You can also purchase at Asian/Indian groceries.

Butter kept away from air wont spoil very fast at all, thats how french butter dishes keep it fresh without refrigeration. You can put butter in a small container and fill the container the rest of the way with water. This will allow you to take butter backpacking if you want to. Just dump the water, scoop out the amount of butter you want and then fill it with water again.

I usually just bring a tiny bottle of olive oil cuz its easier to deal with.

Whats a good sub for butter or other things that would help keep food from sticking. I read a recipe for quesadilas somewhere on a backpacking site, but it called for butter which is hard to keep in the desert. Any other options???

Thanks as always,
--Nick--
:sun
They've converted me to olive oil, too. If you're just warming flour- tortillas, I do that without greasing my non- stick skillet: warm one side, flip by hand, sprinkle cheese and stuff, fold or roll with a spoon when the cheese melts.

anything that needs anything can be made without it.its one tiny part of what it is to be hiker trash. simply put, a sandwitch is still a sandwitch without bread. and more complexly, a single mallow cup found sitting and sweating on a pole in the rain, outside its wrapper,...is still a four course meal. metephisicaly speaking, all is food. rub your pot with nose oil if your one of those pimpely oily types. use a bit of sardene oil if you dare. mmmmm,..ya know whats good? oily chapstix made with all oils and just a hint of wax for that shine your taco so sorely needs.

oil in a jar dummy. butter, margerine.learn how a jungel fridge works to cool thru eveaporation and exsperoment with in pack solutions. alcohol fuel is cool. make a butter cozy around a seigg.

cooler temps you can carry butter, the salted kind (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinary_qa/article/0,1971,FOOD_9796_1702128,00.html), be sure its in its own baggie in case it gets smooshed

If U R looking just for flavoring try powdered Molly McButter or ButterBuds found in some large grocery stores. U just mix a little water with it and U got butter or sprinkle onto hot food and it melts just like butter. For cooking try small individul packets of olive oil sold at many gear stores or fill a small container with some olive oil. U can find small containers at a lot of gear shops like REI, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and pharmacies.

Pam in the spray can, not to heavy and will last a long time.

Haven't carried them in a while ...but this is what I carried on my thru in 2003 ...

http://www.butterbuds.com/

'Slogger

back in the day everybody carried Squeeze Parkay

i use butter buds.. its pretty good

back in the day everybody carried Squeeze Parkay

YES!! but haven't seen it in the stores for ages!!

YES!! but haven't seen it in the stores for ages!!

http://www.parkay.com/our-spreads.jsp

http://www.parkay.com/our-spreads.jsp

thanks, but i think the switch to olive oil added a few years to my life

Clarified butter doesn't require refrigeration. It'll be labeled as "ghee" in some Asian stores, particularly those with an Indian influence. You can also clarify your own by melting the butter and straining out the solids.

Personally I just use olive oil and call it good.

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????

i put small amounts into travel size shampoo bottles and then bag them bc they can leak. i'm opting for the single-serve packets from minimus.biz.

back in the day everybody carried Squeeze Parkay

i used this most of my hike in '05. when i could find it which was pretty often at the larger grocery stores.

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????Most grocery stores will have an 8 ounce bottle of olive oil. That's 16 tablespoons, not so much as it looks like in the thick glass bottle.

Funny......someone said people carried Squeeze Parkay "back in the day".

I STILL carry it, or something like it, like "I Can't Belive It's Not Butter".

And some folks laugh at me, or question that I'm carrying 8 ounces of it, but funnny thing: If it's on the picnic table, at least one person, and usually more, will want to "borrow" some, guaranteed. So the 8 ounces goes faster than you think!

Oh, and I carry Olive Oil, too, in a four ounce Nalgene.

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????

Most grocery stores will have an 8 ounce bottle of olive oil. That's 16 tablespoons, not so much as it looks like in the thick glass bottle.
I've also had luck in finding the small 8 oz platic bottles in Dollar stores.

In place of butter I carry... Butter!

http://www.internet-grocer.net/butter.htm

I have a vacuum sealer and I made a series of tubular seals in a quart bag. Orient it so the one open side doesn't get sealed yet. Then I poured different things in them, one ingredient per bag, like olive oil, dr brommers soap. Regardless of how many tubes you make in a bag, I would only pour soap in a tubes in the same bag.Then I put the bags upright in the freezer. The next day the oil and soap was hard enough for me to vacuum seal them. Then I cut the individual bags free and dropped them in a resupply box. That's how I resupplied my small squeeze bottles. Works pretty well.

mayo packets from the deli. It's just beaten oil and melts down. It's probably full of icky preservatives, too.

I think enertia trail foods sells dehydrated "butter powder" in bulk. It sounded good. i'm considering buying some of their stuff for my thru. They also have 26% dried whole milk which sounds interesting.

http://trailfoods.com/index.html

Those were very good suggestions Beeman. Did any of the side seals fail?

I've also had luck in finding the small 8 oz platic bottles in Dollar stores.Watch out, sometimes that stuff is a blend of olive oil with other vegetable oils. I've even seen "honey" that was a blend with corn syrup. You have to read the labels.

back in the day everybody carried Squeeze Parkay

They started reading labels and saw the word "hydrogenated". Olive oil has made Parkay obsolete for trail food. (It even comes in small plastic bottles that are compatible with it, if you look.) :)

I have a vacuum sealer and I made a series of tubular seals in a quart bag. Then I cut the individual bags free and dropped them in a resupply box. That's how I resupplied my small squeeze bottles. Works pretty well.

What sort of bag and sealer did you use? This sounds like a slick trick!

I wish I had thought to bring olive oil on my thru hike. Good source of calories that I could have used. Also, a few people out there carried sticks of butter, especially in March, April, May...it seemed to keep well enough.

Aaroniguana said it best! Use butter. There's no substitue. I carry it in a food tube. Make sure you have the end on properly. Maybe I'll try stuffing it into squeeze bottles like Beeman suggests. Sounds like a good idea. Make buckwheat ployes and eat them with real butter.

Salted butter holds up well. It's salted so it will last longer, and it tastes better. I take real salted butter in small Nalgene jars. Nothing beats butter!

I know I have posted it before but make Ghee at home with butter. It is butter after you do it - it is just shelf stable. It is very easy to make. All you do is heat and clarify your butter and ta-da, good for a year.

We always just used ice cube trays to freeze the olive oil. Once frozen, vacuum seal them, then cut them apart. Perfect serving size in each one. Course, we stuck them all in a bag as well, just in case they leaked.

Whats a good sub for butter or other things that would help keep food from sticking. I read a recipe for quesadilas somewhere on a backpacking site, but it called for butter which is hard to keep in the desert. Any other options???

Thanks as always,
--Nick--
:sun

squeeze Parkay

My jug of squeeze Parkay no longer has trans fat. I liked the old version taste-wise, but will struggle on!

Beeman- I would still enjoy knowing the brand of bag and sealer you used. Was the cutting apart difficult? (Kinda clutzy, is it a fussy job?)

regarding olive oil. I have a vecuum sealer. I took a sealer bag and sealed across it vertically to make a series of narrow tubes out of one bag. Then I poured olive oil in each tube and set the whole thing upright in the freezer. Next day the oil had solidified and I vacuum sealed it, then cut the individual tubes free. I dropped them in resupply boxes. Once they arwmed up they returned to liquid. Later I earned about mayonaise. It is emulsified oil. You can easily find fast food mayonaise packets. Open one or two of them in your pan and after a little heating they return to oil.

coconut oil is good for everything.

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????

I'm not a big fan of just finding small plastic bottles to pour olive oil into.
The reason is that those bottles may not be chemically compatible with OO, which being highly unsaturated (the reason you want it over, say, Parkay or butter) is a fair solvent. There is some nasty stuff in plastic (such as estrogen-analog phtalates, used to keep plastics flexible). Much better in my mind is to buy OO originally in 8-oz. plastic bottles, so you know they're chemically compatible. Stick one of those in each of your mail drops at 2 week or so intervals, and your OO needs are covered.

I've recently found walnut oil in small plastic bottles as well. It has similiar properties as olive oil WRT unsat/sat fat ratio, but likely won't keep as well once opened, due to lower antioxidant levels.

squeeze Parkay

That stuff is not food.

coconut oil is good for everything.

I agree, and it's food!

I'm not a big fan of just finding small plastic bottles to pour olive oil into.
The reason is that those bottles may not be chemically compatible with OO, which being highly unsaturated (the reason you want it over, say, Parkay or butter) is a fair solvent. There is some nasty stuff in plastic (such as estrogen-analog phtalates, used to keep plastics flexible). Much better in my mind is to buy OO originally in 8-oz. plastic bottles, so you know they're chemically compatible.

Well....only issue with that line of reasoning is just how do you know exactly what type of plastic the oil company is using? :rolleyes: My point? You don't.

I rarely see good EVOO in plastic bottles - it is almost always in glass jars. Makes it look prettier more than likely - helping justify the high cost. Plastic bottles makes it looks cheaper - not what the company is looking for.

Well....only issue with that line of reasoning is just how do you know exactly what type of plastic the oil company is using? :rolleyes: My point? You don't.

I rarely see good EVOO in plastic bottles - it is almost always in glass jars. Makes it look prettier more than likely - helping justify the high cost. Plastic bottles makes it looks cheaper - not what the company is looking for.

Manufacturers normally go to considerable lengths to ensure compatibility between container and contents. I figure the odds of olive oil not reacting with its original container are much more acceptable than if the OO is just poured into a random plastic bottle that either wasn't intended to hold highly unsaturated oils, or even hold food at all. Lots of plastics aren't even food-grade...

....a few people out there carried sticks of butter, especially in March, April, May...it seemed to keep well enough.
Sticks of butter will last through any thru hike that takes advantage of the multiple resupply opportunities available on the AT. Butter is good for a week or two -- probably longer, I've never thought to check -- without refrigeration.

Fresh things are always better -- even butter. But few will notice the difference between refrigerated butter, and pack butter on a typical long distance hike.

Weary

cooler temps you can carry butter, the salted kind (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinary_qa/article/0,1971,FOOD_9796_1702128,00.html), be sure its in its own baggie in case it gets smooshed


Butter in a bag???? Good luck. I just melt it down and put it into those camping tubes they sell. 8 0z plastic tube fits 2 sticks of melted down butter, should last WEEKS! Believe me, I work in restaurants and I have never seen butter go funk, I've seen a lot go funk too.

Just take butter and put it in a new glad container. When you get to camp shake the sh** out of it & keep it near your water bladder and not you back. Butter does not need to be cold - just cool. Yes oils have less problems!

YES WHAT HOMER SAID !

Just take butter and put it in a new glad container. When you get to camp shake the sh** out of it & keep it near your water bladder and not you back. Butter does not need to be cold - just cool. Yes oils have less problems!

YES WHAT HOMER SAID !

It's like christmas, Someone agrees with me, maybe with a little satire, but who doesn't love satire:D

Butter is one of the only foods that you can cook it, freeze it, melt it, warm it, chill it, warm it up again, freeze it, melt it and then put into a container and take hiking. Do the same with chicken and your gonna have a bad day.

How would you melt chicken? Alcohol stove or triangia?:-?

I usually go with packets of olive oil for cooking and butter powder for flavor. I’ve found a couple of places to get these things:

Enertia Trail Foods has butter powder (http://trailfoods.com/bulin.html)

Minimus has olive oil packets (http://www.minimus.biz/detail.aspx?ID=7815)

Packit Gourmet has both butter powder (http://www.packitgourmet.com/Butter-Powder-p304.html) and olive oil (http://www.packitgourmet.com/Atlantic-Organic-Organic-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Oil-p11.html)

The Packit Gourmet butter has a really simple ingredient list which I like. Enertia doesn’t list their ingredient list so I’m not sure about that.

Packit Gourmet also has olive oil, canola oil and organic olive oil if you're interested in another type of oil.

I heard that you can trust plastic containers to be safe if they have the label "MADE IN CHINA" on them.

The Packit Gourmet butter has a really simple ingredient list which I like. Enertia doesn’t list their ingredient list so I’m not sure about that.

One thing I really appreciate about PackitGourmet is that they will answer you if you ask what is in an item. The butter powder they carry is awesome added to instant potatoes. I used it so much the past 2 weeks developing new recipes that I ran out. Ah well!

Butter is actually pretty indestructable stuff.Ghee and clarified butter are the same stuff
Butter is in emulsion that is made of about 25% pure fat 8 % milk solids and 17 5 water and no the numbers aren't exact But you can anticipate a 25% product loss when you change unsalted to clarified.
When butter burns it's the milk solids that burn and clarifying it raises it's smoking point by about 50 degrees
There are a lot of ways to make it >I just boil the butter over med heat in a pot that 3 x the volume of the butter
The boiling butter will look like being inside a cumulous cloud
When the water is gone the boiling stops and the effect is like breakkng out of the cloud layer and seeing the clear world below you
At that point turn off the heat and using a huge ladle work quickly and scoop out the clarified butter w/o disturbing the milk solids that are now toasting on the bottom of the pot
While a certain light and toasty flavor can be a desirable characteristic ,accidently making beurre noissete the first time out is not.

That has to be the best description/explanation on how to not make brown butter that I hope in the future I can use to explain it to someone else. After a couple times making ghee some people like to let it adopt a nutty flavor. This is simply letting the now clear butter cook slightly longer. The concern for hikers is keeping moisture out of the finished product. Ghee's usable unrefrigerated capabilities are severly hindered by water. Keep your clarified butter dry. And if you accidently make beurre noisete, so much the better. Serve it over fish.;)

Olive oil

What He said...

coconut oil is good for everything.

I agree, and it's food!

For most, infrequent consumption of small amounts won't make much of a difference. But for those that have issues with cholesteral or otherwise care about saturated fats...coconut oil is over 70% saturated fat, butter is over 50% saturated fat and olive oil is around 14%.

But there is recent and growing agreement that coconut oil has health benefits that exceed some other oils including improvement in serum cholesterol levels. The key and very important consideration is that the coconut oil must not be processed, i.e., it must be non-hydrogenated.

FB

Squeeze butter as several have already stated. It's hiker friendly right off the shelf. Don't worry too much about health issues if your on a LDH. Don't use it at home because we all know- there is no substitute for real butter.