This is because you will have to carry all your food. Foraging for food, in the modern woods or mountains, is only supplemental food. For this reason, a considerable backpacking industry has arisen.

Backpackers often make their primary meal at mid-day or, making camp earlier, at the end of the day doing all food preparation well away from the tentsite. The fire is set, hot water is ready, and the cook starts off with a mug up of a favorite hot drink.

I think anyone and everyone likes having a camp cook around. The camp kitchen is the center of the campout. Even if the other campers have brought their own food, the hot drink is a welcome first food, in camp. Then, sometimes people will look over their food, share some things, and make a communal meal. This may also be welcome, at the campsite.

If you would like to be the camp cook, I recommend the standard book The Well-Fed Backpacker, by June Fleming. Dorcas S. Miller now has More Back-Country Cooking: Moveable Feasts from the Experts, that uses so much of the information I have promoted, I have to recommend it.

Bring only what you can carry, unless you are car camping.

Nevertheless, people do manage to bring clever pots, the lid serves as a frying pan and the entire outfit can be made to serve for baking, or if small fires are allowed, do both simply with the FryBake.

I have carried the Backpacker's Pantry Ultralight Outback Oven. I made focaccia bread.

If I have only one pot, it is ultralightweight and if that pot has a tight-fitting lid, I make dumplings.

I have also made light and fluffy biscuits in a pan and even biscuits on a stick.

It should not be surprising we will crave bread products, in camp. Make more strongly flavored breads, however. More herbs, add cheese. My bannock is italian herb cheese biscuits or golden raisen and mace biscuits.

Here are links to recipes for scones I found online to help you become an expert.

I have more links to recipes, further down.

If you are too tired to cook, and that can happen at any time, have an instant meal or ready to eat food items for backup. However, if you arrive at the campsite, have a backpacker's stove you know how to operate, get that fire going, and have that hot warming drink, you may find the energy to prepare a meal.

If you are traveling in the mountains, at first you will experience loss of appetite. Drink water. Eat a little. Drink water. This is normal, and necessary. Next, your appetite will increase. There may be more food consumed than at any other time. Spicy food will be craved. This is normal, and expected. Food flavors will need to be stronger, otherwise, food will seem bland.

The effect of high altitude, or dry food, well, you may want a few prunes.

However, 1/4 cup red or black raspberries or 1/2 cup pears, dried, freeze-dried or fresh, in a digestive interval of 2.5 to 5.5 days are actual recommended "human dietary fiber".

Human dietary fiber is not roughage; they are not the same.

Backpacking fact dispels many myths, including many food myths.

It is possible to prepare ahead trail foods for the lightweight or ultralight backpack, however the food products listed below are shelf stable, requiring no refrigeration, and so, can "live" inside the food bag for quite awhile ready-to-go in your backpack. If not inclined to plan ahead, this is an alternate way to plan ahead. Also, some prepared foods can "liven up" having the usual convenience foods.

In my opinion, the food products I list below are good tasting shelf stable dried or pre-cooked food products.

Most are designed for backpacking, in no-cook, or add water, burnable pouches. There are good tasting shelf stable dried and freeze-dried food products, in no cook, add water, lots of plastic and foil pouches to pack out. For some, rehydration can require as much as 25-30 minutes. There are also instant meals, requiring only 3-5 minutes. There are entrees in boilable foil pouches for purchase or make ahead at home. There are also food products and pre-cooked food products that will "cook" in hot water poured into a quart-size bag: Freezer Bag Cooking has insulated pouches and recipes.

Ziplock Easy Zipper freezer bags now have a pleated bottom. This can be helpful.

I use either Whole Foods Market "365" Reclosable Freezer Bags, labeled free of PVC and phthalates or the K-Mart Sears Kenmore Seal-n-Save Pre-Cut Quart Bags for vacuum repackaging prepared dried and freeze-dried food, and then, preparing the food in the bag by pouring in the hot water.

Enertia Trail Foods has a stand-up meal pouch, specifically claiming FDA-approved to pour hot water into the bag.

However, almost any brand will do.

If you pour "hot" water into the bag, avoiding "boiling" water and do not boil-in-the-bag (submersion of the bag of food in "boiling" water, unless sold specifically as "boil-in-the-bag") and the FDA approves.

There are complete entrees in just-add-water heating pouches that may also be used with the Mountain Oven Flameless Heating Kit, if you like.

HeaterMeals have also been brought to the consumer market, having new meals designed for consumer tastes. Most are high-sodium.

There are some meal product selections more tasty, than others. There are a few that are actually better tasting and better nutrition than most home-cooked meals.

These do not have to be expensive, if compared to eating out.

Do not forget all the instant packaged noodles, instant cheesecake, instant gourmet hot chocolate, and instant pudding mixes.

Selective buying in the international section can produce more good-tasting instant meals, and mixes.

Many backpackers stop right there, adding dried and pre-cooked and freeze-dried ingredients sold at bulk prices, for flavor, for texture, for nutrition.

It will come as a surprise, for most, how important a role food texture has. Crunch is a texture often overlooked in planning for provisions, and is easily provisioned: specialty crackers and snacks pack well.

The unguinous or gelatinous texture will most often be missing: examples are certainly fatted meat or joints of meat, ribs, and perhaps, tapioca pudding or mung bean thread noodles.

There is great desire for baked goods, which may be related to texture.

There are many ingenious backpacker answers for baking: bannock, pan bread (scones), foccacia or biscuits.

Bannock is made from the historically most available ingredients, with animal fat or oil. Scones do not have to require cream of tartar. Try "Bromated Flour" for focaccia. Biscuits: Dry ingredients work, as well. Use dried buttermilk, if a "southern" biscuit recipe.

"Knead" inside a ziplock-type bag. Let "rise" near the ash-covered coals of a "cooking fire" or tucked inside insulation.

Many backpackers will carry store-bought baked goods like tortillas, pita, croissants or bagels. I like chapatis or nan.

There is speculation bread is a craving, especially yeast breads, or fat in bread.

The usual cravings for coffee, or tea, or sweets, should not be neglected. Budget time to quit coffee another time, not while backpacking.

At least one ultralight backpacker carries chocolate covered coffee beans as "food".

The ultralight backpackers will substitute granulated fructose for sugar, saving pounds in the pack (not carrying candy bars and sugar snacks) and build their own recipe collection based on the "calorie dense foods" at 150+ calories per ounce (529+ calories per 100 grams). This means cooking oils and fatty foods like cheese, nuts, nut butters, and seeds, seed spreads, as these additions to recipes have more cost-benefit as snacks and as additions or condiments to main dishes or side dishes made into entrees as "calorie dense foods".

Many lightweight and ultralight backpackers will carry cream of rice, instant grits, instant potatos, instant oatmeal, instant barley, instant rice, couscous, ramen noodles, angel hair spagetti or small macaroni, like ziti macaroni, or mung bean thread or rice noodle as the basis of quick meals or as additions to soups or one-pot entrees.

Do bring cooking oil to add to the cooked entree. This is essential nutrition, often missing from backpacking dry and freeze-dried food.

Here are selected food items.

This list will help give you a better idea about backpacking food.

As you gain experience, you may want to assemble your own ingredients. Do use calorie-dense add-ons to enhance these basic recipes.

Many add-ons are right here. Drop in cut up sausage, more vegetables, more cheese, add-in buttermilk, sour cream, butter.

Look at the lists and be creative about your food. You will feel better.

breakfast: hearty hiker's oatmeal, soups: curry lentil, minestrone, dinner: wild will's wild rice dinner, mom's pasta primavera, meals with wheels, green bean cuisine, potato-corn chowder, bountiful bean & lentil chili, pea-pickin' jambalaya.

Cache Lake:

pan bread: pizza fryin' pan bread, frying' pan bread scones, fryin' pan bread (dill, garlic, italian, onion) fryin' pan biscuits 'n gravy, fryin' pan biscuits, breakfast fryin' pan bread, sweet potato frying' pan bread, sweet potato corn bread, curried sweet potato latke, breakfast: blueberry wild rice pancakes, blueberry buttermilk pancakes buttermilk pancakes, cheese omelet, french toast mix, ham & cheese omelet, hash brown potatoes & bacon, egg scramble, hash browns, instant cream farina, desserts: banana cream pie, chocolate pie, lemon pie, pumpkin flavored pie, hot apple dessert, entrees: chicken ala king w/rice, chicken stew, cheesy potatoes & vegetables w/ham, really cheesy mac & cheese, sloppy joes with fryin' pan buns, vegetables: carrots, corn, green beans, peas & carrots, peas, wrap fillings: beans with salsa spice, cheese with beans, mild nacho cheese with beans, beans with cheese, beans with nacho cheese, soup, chowders, stews and salads: wild rice leek & potato soup, creamy wild rice asparagus soup, cheesy vegetable chowder, really tasty dumplings, cream of wild rice soup, Minnesota minestrone soup, cold prep: quick & tasty pudding, quick & tasty cheesy sweet potatoes.

Backpacker's Pantry:

organic olive oil, salmon entrees: southwestern smoked salmon, pesto salmon pasta, breakfast: biscuits & country gravy, huevos rancheros, salsa, bake: baked lasagna, jamaican BBQ chicken, pesto pizza, side dishes: green bean almondine, sicilian mixed vegetables, taos black beans, southwestern corn, vegetarian entrees: chana marsala, pad thai, asian curried stir fry, japanese noodle bowl, sicilian mixed vegetables, ginger teriyaki, katmandu curry, lasagna, pasta vegetable parmesan, chicken entrees: jamacian BBQ chicken, hawaiian rice with chicken, kung pao chicken, sante fe chicken, chicken with potatos & stuffing chicken and dumplings, chicken saigon noodles, fettucini alfredo with chicken, tomato chipotle pasta with chicken, cajun chicken with rice, paella with saffron rice & chicken beef entrees: beef stroganoff w/wild forest mushrooms, thai satay with beef, beef & broccoli stir-fry beef stroganoff, desserts: dark chocolate cheesecake, banana cream pie, charlotte's raspberry blast, cheesecake, hot apple cobbler, cinnamon coffee cake, fudge brownies, lemon cream pie.

Nitro-Pak:

deluxe scrambling & omelette egg mix, whole powdered eggs, vegetable powder shortening.

Just Tomatoes:

red raspberries, black raspberries, red bell peppers, corn, hot veggies, roasted garlic.

LDP Camping Foods:

Gourmet Reserves chicken gumbo, BBQ Beef & Turkey w/beans, chicken, diced, turkey, diced, Alpine Aire tomato powder.

Taste Adventure:

soups: Black Bean, Navy Bean, Minestrone, Golden Pea, Curry Lentil, Sweet Corn Chowder, refried beans: Green Chile & Lime, quick cuisine: Pasto Pesto, Bombay Curry, Jambalaya, Sante Fe Fiesta.

Wilderness Dining:

drinks: instant tea latte, instant thai tea, 26% butterfat whole milk, dinners: soups: Cabin Cuisine broccoli and wild rice, gumbo, clam chowder, cream of broccoli, Mary Janes Kitchen creamy potato, african pea soup, curried lentil bisque, peasant tomato soup, meatless entrees: Backpacker's Pantry asian curried stir-fry, Campfood lasagna, Backpacker's Pantry lasagna - 4 servings, pesto pizza, Mary Jane's Farms organic wild forest mushroom couscous, organic sweet red bell pepper pasta, organic santa fe pasta, organic ginger sesame pasta, organic falafel, organic tabouli, meat entrees: Campfood chicken & dumplings, Natural High tequila chicken, chicken enchilada, honey mustard chicken, honey lime chicken, chicken and broccoli, mandarin orange chicken, Enertia slickrock beans.

The Vegan Store:

Meat Alternatives: FF Falafel Mix, Original Hummus Mix, Natures Burger Mix, Vegan Sloppy Joe Mix, Vegan Taco Mix, Vegetarian Chili Mix; Harvest Direct Soy Chicken Breast Style, Soy Chicken Strip Style, Soy Burger Mix, Soy BBQ MIx, Soy Taco Mix, Soy Chili Mix, Soy Ball & Loaf Mix (bake), Field Roast Celebration Roast (bake), Field Roast Deli Slices, Field Roast Sausage; Viana Chickin Fillets, Chickin Nuggets, Cowgirl Veggie Steaks, Veggie Gyros, Veggie Cevapcici, Veggie Doner Kebaba; Seitenbacher Veggie Burger Mix: Gourmet or Green Spelt; Tasty Bite Bombay Potatos, Punjab Eggplant; Butler Soy Curls; Textured Vegetable Protein TVP; Mediterranean Lentil Soup Mix, Sicilian Macaroni Dinner, Tuscan Burger Mix; Leahy Individual Soup, LARGE Instant Soup Mix, No-Beef Stroganoff; Vegan Simmer Soup Mixes; Tofurky Jurky; Stonewalls Jerquee; Primal Strips Small, Primal Strips Large, Meatless Primal Strips; Smofu Tofu Jerky; Nufu Soy-free Peanut Tofu, Mori-Nu Organic Silken Tofu; Lightlife Smart Bacon Strips; Yves Veggie Pepperoni Slices; Sunergia More Than Tofu (keep frozen); Tuna (Not) Salad Mix, Chicken (Not) Salad Mix Dairy Alternatives: Sauces, Gravies and More: Baking Mixes and Supplies: Ener-G Egg Replacer, Better Than Milk Soy Powder, Better Than Milk Rice Powder, Orgran Chocolate Mousse Mix; Quick and Convenient; Labeled Gluten Free; Cookies and Baked Goods; Energy Bars and Healthy Snacks; Sweets.

Packit Gourmet:

Fruit: Apricot Dices, Blueberries, Mango Chunks, Orange Segments, Peach Dices, Pineapple Dices, Strawberry Slices Organic, Sweetened Cranberries. Vegetable dehydrated, freeze-dried and powder): Asparagus pieces, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery Pieces, Broccoli Florets, Beet powder, Carrot Powder Organic, Black Olive Slices, Okra, Super Sweet Corn, Mixed Leeks (green and white), Tomato chunks, Tomato dices, Tomato Powder, Vegetable Blend with Potatoes & Corn, Vegetable Blend with Tomatoes, White Onion Dices, White Onion Flakes, Zucchini Dices, Zucchini Slices. Beans & Grains: Bellino Instant Cous Cous, Garbanzo Beans, Great Northern Beans, Black Beans, Black Bean flakes, Kidney Beans, Lentils, Navy Beans, Pinto Bean flakes, Pinto Beans, Red Beans, Split Peas. Dairy and Eggs: Nido Instant Whole Milk Powder, Nature's First Full Cream Milk Powder, Coconut Cream Powder, Yoghurt Powder, Sour Cream Powder, Kraft Parmesan Cheese, Freeze-dried Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese, Mozarella, Cheddar Cheese, Parmesan Powder, Blue Cheese Powder, Cheese Sauce Powder, Butter Powder, Sonstegard Egg Mix, Ova Easy Egg Mix. Shelf Stable and Freeze-Dried Meat: Boar's Head Abruzzese Dry Sausage, Dry Sausage, Italian Dry Salame, Italian Dry Salame, Freeze-Dried Chicken, Ground Beef, Roast Beef Dices, Pork and Beef Sausage, Pork and Venison Sausage, Sparrer 6oz Ham, Quick Tofu Mix. Nut Butters: Justin's Natural Classic Almond Butter, Natural Honey Almond Butter, Organic Classic Peanut Butter, Organic Honey Peanut Butter. Instant Meals: Beet Borsch, White Borsch, Pumpkin Vegetable Soup, Hakka Pestle Cereal, Yam & Black Bean Cereal, Yam & Multi Grain Instant Cereal. Condiments: serving size Creamy Caramel Topping, Chocolate Fudge Topping, Kraft Original BBQ Sauce, Kraft Parmesan Cheese, Marconi Canola/Olive Oil Blend, Marconi Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Newman's Own All Natural Balsamic Vinaigrette, Italian Dressing, Golden Italian Dressing, Honey Mustard Dressing, Chelten House Organic Classic Ceasar, Goddess, Ranch, Sesame Ginger, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette, Maple Syrup granules, Honey Powder, Molasses Powder, Butter powder, Shortening Powder, Chicken Stock powder, Vegetable Broth, Turkey Broth, Chicken Broth, Beef Broth concentrates, Malt Vinegar, Vinegar Powder, Lemon Juice, Soy Sauce Powder, Minh Sweet & Sour Sauce, A-1 Sauce, Worchestershire Powder, Mrs. Dash Seasoning Blend, Guldens Spicy Brown Mustard, Flame Roasted Green Chili Salsa, Chipotle Honey Roasted Green Chili, Organic Green Chile Sausa, Organic Red Chili Salsa, Cholula Hot Sauce, Tabasco, Lousiana Hot Sauce. Beverages: Chai tea, Thai coffee, Cafe Mocha, Irish Cocoa, Malayasian Cappuccino, Malayasian Ginseng Coffee, Vietnamese G7 Coffee, Vietnamese Vinacafe Coffee, Jump-Start Fruit Smoothies, True Lemon Natural Crystalized Lemon, Crystallized Lime or Crystalized Orange, Ginger Descent, Happy Hour Pom-Cosmo.

Pilipino Mart:

sauces: tamarind seasoning, tamarind "sinagang" soup base, soup: miso soup base, cream of asparagus, juice: ginger w/calamansi, calamansi, kalamansi concentrate, drinks: malted ovaltine, nestle milo chocolate malt, nestle milo tonic food drink, nestle nido full cream milk powder, noodles: instant la paz batchoy, supreme bulalo, instant palabok, pancit canton w/calamansi, pancit canton - hot chili flavor, chili w/ kalamansi, snacks: sunflower crackers.

Tasty Bite:

Heat and Eat Indian Cuisine: Punjab Eggplant, Jaipur Vegetables, Kerala Vegetables, Agra Peas and Greens, Sprouts Curry & Basmanti Rice, Vegetable Supreme & Basmanti Rice. Heat and Eat Thai Cuisine: Malasian Lodeh, Massaman Vegetables, Rendang Vegetables, Satay Vegetables, Red Curry, Yellow Curry,

MTR:

Ready to Eat: Alu Mutter, Avial, Channa Masala, Dal Fry, Dal Makhani, Navratan Kurma, Paneer Butter Masala, Paneer Makhani, Bhindi Masala, Bisibele Bhath, Mixed Vegetable Curry, Peas and Mushroom, Navrathan Kurma, Veg Pulao, Sambar Rice, Tamarind Rice, Rajma Masala, RTE Alu Bhaji, RTE Andhra Vegetables, RTE Avial, RTE Bhindi Fry.

ADF Foods:

clasic ashoka Easi Pouch ready to eat curries: Pav Bhaji, Paneer Makhani, Punjabi Chole, Aloo Matar, Tadka Dal, Surti Undhiu, Patra Slices, Navratan Korma, Chapate Choley, Tamarind Rice.

In case you have missed something, there are more links for specialized food at Products: Food.