Gear Review Mountain House - Biscuits and gravy

Discussion in 'Functional Gear & Equipment' started by DKR, Sep 10, 2014.


  1. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]
    Mountain House Biscuits and gravy

    I was pretty stoked when Mountain House announced they had added biscuits and gravy to their product line. So, I purchased a pouch.

    I prepared this entrée strictly to the label directions. I used 1.5 cups of boiling water in the pouch, stirred well, and then bundled the pouch into my cozy and waited 10 minutes. The label actually said 8-9 mins and called for 1 ¾ cups of water, but suggested 1.5 cups of water for a thicker gravy.

    Results: After the 10 minutes, the stuff looked just like… Biscuits and gravy. Made with broken up biscuits. The gravy had a really nice peppery taste. Something I enjoyed, as so often, FD food is really bland. The down side was the crunchy bits – not all the biscuit bits rehydrated well.

    Suggestions: Use the full 1 and ¾ cups of water and leave it sit in your cozy for no less than 10 and I would suggest 15 minutes, stirring at least once. This should mitigate any of the crunch.

    Bottom line Tasty. I see this as far more of a breakfast entrée than the usually runny eggs. YMMV.

    Bummer: 900 mg of sodium. If you eat the entire pouch, and it is listed as a single serving, be aware of the sodium.

    Try this at home, the peppery taste I enjoyed may not be to everyone's liking.
     
    Hanzo, kellory, Marck and 9 others like this.
  2. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I love Mountain House foods. Usually, I see the recommended water to be 2 cups, but I always add a little less. I also like to let these meals sit at least 10 minutes, even 20 if possible because they are super hot if using boiling water.

    Various meals, all of them are tasty. Among my favorites:
    MHbeef. MHlas.


    And with a 25 year shelf life, the #10 cans are worth their weight, for sure:
    MHspag_can.

    If a water source will not be a problem for you, a healthy stock of these freeze dried foods grant a huge advantage to a prepper.
     
  3. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    I like Mountain House products. First ate them 25 years ago camping and backpacking.

    Do not pay retail. They go on sale with regularity often in the 30% range with one or two items being 40-50% so the retailers can advertise "Mountain House gigantic sale, 25-50% off!!". Every couple months there will be ads for "lowest prices of the year!" or similar hype but this is indeed the time to buy. Also there can be slight price variations between the sellers. Price compare carefully.

    If you buy full cases (6 cans per case) they are dropped shipped from the factory in Oregon with free shipping. I have purchased from Ready Made Resources, Safe Castle, Emergency Essentials, and I think one more I don't recall. I have price compared with 4-5 additional sellers that I did not purchase from. My experience is Ready Made Resources on the whole was cheaper but the others might beat them on one or a few loss leader selections which I'd buy from those sources.

    Mountain House doesn't have some things like powdered milk and not a lot of solo vegetable selections. Auguston Farms (often Walmart.com was cheapest) has generally been my source for those. I haven't tried Wise foods but when I searched reviews a couple years ago, most comments were underwhelmed by Wise at best.

    AT
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2014
  4. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    I have about 10 cases or so of mountain house meals and it is a great product.... I must now hunt down some of this Biscuits and Gravy goodness!!
    Thanks for the review @DKR !!!
     
    Tully Mars and Brokor like this.
  5. vonslob

    vonslob Monkey++

    I owned a couple of buckets of wise food. Then i starting reading alot of negative reviews about it. Mt house did a study of wises claims that its pouches were good for 25 years and i guess it did not go well for wise. I never ate any of it but my buddy had a few of the entrees and said they seemed to be salter than Mt house. I have eaten, and store Mt house in the #10 cans. Ended up selling the wise buckets on craigs list. Hope the biscuits and gravy come in the #10 cans
     
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  6. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Excellent review @DKR, the family loves biscuits and gravy, I will look for these. As yu mentioned sodium content is an issue.

    One of our favorites but a little saltier then we prefer:
     

    Attached Files:

    Yard Dart likes this.
  7. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    Mom's a huge biscuits and gravy fan. Will have to find and try some of these.
     
  8. Jeff Brackett

    Jeff Brackett Monkey+++

    Just picked up a single serving pouch at the local Wally World. Will try it tomorrow. Thanks for the review, DKR.

    PS - Something I just noticed. The picture in your review appears to be a 2-serving size. the one I got says single serving, is 2.29 oz, and calls for 3/4 cup boiling water.
     
  9. Jeff Brackett

    Jeff Brackett Monkey+++

    Follow up to the above - I ate the single serving pouch for breakfast this morning. I have to say, I was very happy with the taste. Mine didn't have the peppery taste that @DKR reported, but that could be a subjective thing, too. Maybe the two of us have differing scales of "peppery-ness". LOL

    My pouch called for 3/4 cup of boiling water for 8-9 minutes with an optional stir at the 4 minute mark. I used the entire 3/4 cups, poured it into the pouch, sealed it closed and shook the hell out of it. Taking what DKR said to heart, I set my timer for 10 minutes, shaking and "massaging" the bag after 5 minutes.

    At ten minutes, I began shoveling the stuff into my hungry maw. ;)

    As I said, the taste was good. The texture wasn't bad, though the gravy was just a tad runny for my taste. Next time I think I'll cut back on the water. The biscuit bits were a bit "crunchier" than I had expected, but not at all off putting.

    For a ten year shelf life (even on the pouches), this is something that I will definitely be getting more of.
     
    Yard Dart likes this.
  10. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    I'm scratching my head here. How come you guys don't make your biskits n gravy from scratch?
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  11. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    I think this is only for use if you are in the bush and can't make them from scratch. @tacmotusn gave me an amazing recipe for sausage gravy and now I can't imagine eating biscuits and gravy from a packet.
     
    Yard Dart, kellory and tacmotusn like this.
  12. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    If you want scratch gravy, you can look various recipies on allrecipes.com, but my way of doing is.

    Take 1 cup of water, and pour 3/4 cup into a pan and start boiling it. If you've made bacon or sausage, all the better. Make it in that pan. You'll need at least 2 tablespoons of grease.
    While the water is boiling, take the remaining 1/4 cup water and put in 4 tablespoons of white flour. Stir and blend thoroughly. At this point I also throw in all the black pepper you want, or I like Kroger Creole Seasoning instead.
    When the water/grease boils, throw in the water/flour and then take the pan off the heat and stir like crazy. Stir too little and you get lumps. I use a whisk. When it's smooth, you can put it back on the heat, very low , to keep it warm until the biscuits are done.

    BTW: the reason I bring this up is that packaged dry gravy mixes are just that: flour, fat, and seasoning. In this case, you're better off bringing the raw ingredients along unless you are paying for the alleged 25 year shelf life, which I seriously doubt.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2016
    BlueDuck, kellory and Motomom34 like this.
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