Mountain House - (6 Pack) Chili Mac With Beef

BUY THIS. A comfort food staple, near-and-dear to me (my mom packed it in a thermos for my school lunches) that Mountain House nails. Whether or not you miss home on the trail, you do miss home-cooked meals, and if you tasted this one blindfolded, you'd swear you were at the family dining table.

A simple combination of ground beef, red chili beans, and elbow macaroni is married well with a chili sauce that has a spicy kick. Widely reviewed as one of the best meals MH has to offer, I'd place myself in agreement with the majority and say this one knocks it out of the park.

Pros

• "Stick to your ribs" filling
• Nice spicy kick in sauce
• Feels like home-made comfort food
• Simple preparation

Cons

• Could afford more time to rehydrate than suggested (+10 min.)
• Spicy (only a negative to those who avoid spicy foods)
• Serving size an overestimation

PACKAGING

Par for the Mountain House course: practically bulletproof, very lightweight for a two-portion meal (4.80 ounces), and the top flap folds down easily to minimize the volume this will take up in a pack.

I've read reviews ranking this among the top three Mountain House meals, and I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype, and try it for myself.

Here's a shot of the 2-serving bag:

INGREDIENTS AND NUTRITION FACTS

PREP AND COOKING

All I need to cook this is a stove and small pot: boil 2 cups (or 16 ounces) of water, pour it inside the re-sealable pouch, and let it sit for 8-9 minutes.

Contents prior to re-hydration:

TIP: let this one rest inside the bag a little longer than the 8-9 minutes MH suggests. The macaroni and beans reconstitute just fine, but the freeze-dried beef requires a little longer than usual if you'd like to avoid it being chewy. It still tastes fine, but if you prefer a softer texture, let this one chill in the bag a couple more minutes than your typical MH meal.

Wait 8-9 minutes, open the bag, and here's what it looks like:

EATING

All I need to eat this is a spork: you can eat straight from the bag, and better yet, once you've finished eating, you can pack your trash into the bag and seal it up to keep the scents inside.

FLAVOR/CLAIMS

Chili? Yep!

Mac? You betcha!

Alright! Done and done with that part of the review!

But seriously, apart from delivering on the obligatory components of the dish, Mountain House really does knock it out of the park with this meal.

The texture is dead-on, and it doesn't feel like a freeze-dried meal at all. That said, it does taste noticeably better than what you'd find in a can of Chef Boyardee, and has a little more "al dente" firmness than would most canned pastas.

My favorite part was the unexpected, spicy kick the sauce had to it. You could assume a meal in a bag (for lack of a better way to put it) would taste about as exciting as it sounds. Not the case, here. This one has a little bite than jumps out at your taste buds, and - if you've been eating bland food for most your trip - this will wake them back up.

Spicy? Yes. Hot? No. If you want a legitimate kick, toss a packet of hot sauce in to raise it up to your masochistic and desired level of heat intensity.

Here're the contents of the meal, shown plated, to give a better view of the serving size and ingredients:

SATIETY AND ENERGY

Great. A really generous helping of food. This was a full meal for me, and although it did make for a filling meal for one, I can't say this would be enough food for two people.

Being carb-heavy (heck, "mac[aroni] is half of the dish's name!!!) I would be mindful of when you eat this one if you don't want to feel compelled to nap after eating it. I'm the kind of guy who prefers a larger meal toward the end of my day, so this isn't something I'd make for lunch. This has "dinner" written all over it.

This meal promises "chili and mac," and delivers both in a sizable amount

SEASONING AND TIPS

By itself, to be 100% honest, this dish is fine. It's already a five-stars-on-Trailspace meal. Being a Midwestern boy who spent his college years with a couple guys from Cincinnati, I can't help but top my chili (and chili mac) with a healthy sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese. On the trail, either grate a little bit off the chunk you're carrying around, or carve off a few pieces and let 'em melt in with everything else. It makes it gooey in a good way, and once you've got cheese atop it, you'd swear you were having a home-cooked meal. Yeah. It's that good.

Me being me, I - naturally - "made it rain" black pepper on this dish. It's my go-to seasoning. You can pick up packets for free at any fast food restaurant, and it's great for hikers with hypertension (high blood pressure) like myself. When you're eating high-sodium backpacking meals, you try and cut back on your sodium consumption where ever else you're able.

BEST FOR

Much like the capacity rating on tents is usually over-estimated, the same holds true to serving sizes with these meals. I would consider this a filling meal for one average-sized male adult, but no more than that. If you wanted a lighter lunch, I would suggest splitting it, but as a satisfying dinner, this isn't feeding any more than one person.

Definitely a late fall or cooler weather dish, too. Not like you can't eat it another time, but I think it'd be especially satisfying in the late fall on a crisp night outside.

5 stars, and quite possibly the first things I've ever reviewed for Trailspace I have absolutely nothing negative to say about. I like spicy. Some may not. I enjoyed this as a one-person meal. Some splitting it may not consider it filling.

Would I eat it every day on the trail? Considering there aren't any discernable vegetables, well, no, I probably would not. Would I make this a "special occasion" treat to celebrate a milestone or my first/last night on a trip? Oh, most definitely.

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Source: https://www.trailspace.com/gear/mountain-house/chili-mac-with-beef/

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