Freeze dried meals and elevation

[Franklin Carter]

I just ordered a handful of Peak Refuel and Mountain House meals. Kind of building up my bug out kit. I thought I read somewhere that these sort of meals of effected by elevation. Is it just the cooking times are longer?

 

[smritte]

Sort of.
The higher the elevation the lower the temp water boils at. Water boils at 212 at seat level and about 190 at 10k.
Because the water is cooler, cooking time in increased. The general rule is about twice the cooking time for every 5k over seal level.
At high elevation I put my food in the pot and let it simmer instead of using the bag.
Remember. with dehydrated food your only putting the moisture back in and warming it. It still takes a bit longer but your not actually cooking it.

For actual cooking I use to have a small pressure cooker. This brings up the boiling point.

 

[Franklin Carter]

Oh interesting. But if water boils at cooler temp at higher elevation, why would food take longer to cook?

 

[smritte]

Oh interesting. But if water boils at cooler temp at higher elevation, why would food take longer to cook?

You know....never thought of it that way and never learned why, only that it does.

Took a while but ended up on a physics site. No other site said "why", only that it did. Not being a professional cook, I guess I never understood how food actually cooks.

In order to cook food you need to change the protein molecules. This is done by heating. Lower temp means an increase in time it takes to happen. Too high of temp and you get carbon (burned food). That I knew, not the other.

All this time I thought I was cooking. Damn chemistry stuff.