Mountain House Classic Spaghetti with Meat Sauce | Freeze Dried Backpacking & Camping Food

Bottom line up front: This type of food is a great choice for an emergency food supply, especially for sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle. The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life, so you can buy them and not worry about rotating your stock for a couple of decades. The biggest downside is that once opened, they need to be used up right away. SHELF LIFE - The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life (unopened). The biggest downside to #10 cans versus individual pouches is that the 25-year shelf life turns into a 1-week shelf life once they've been opened. Since each can has enough for 10 servings, you'll be eating the same thing for several meals unless you're cooking for a group. TASTE - In my experience, Mountain House food is really tasty. Let me caveat this review by saying that although I've eaten other Mountain House freeze-dried food, I haven't had occasion to open the ones in the #10 cans (see my review of the "Mountain House 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit"). That having been said, the Mountain House food I have tried has been very, very good tasting -- not just good compared to other survival foods, but good period. I have no reason to expect that these would be any different. WEIGHT/CONVENIENCE - As steel cans, they're reasonably durable and reasonably lightweight (not backpacking light, but you don't have to be a weightlifter to move a large box of them). They do take up a bit of volume, but since the overwhelming majority of long-term emergency scenarios involve sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle, I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker (personnally, I have a stock of individual pouches just in case I have to leave on foot, but most of my food is in these cans). CALORIES - The problem with most freeze-dried emergency food is that a so-called "serving" has too few calories to meet an adult's energy requirements (2500 a day for men; 2000 a day for women -- more with heavy exertion), so you end up consuming more than you planned. These are no different. So even though a typical can ostensibly contains 10 1-cup servings, you really need to eat two servings per meal to get enough calories to survive -- perhaps more. Plan your purchase accordingly.

Seriously, our kids love camping, but the MH spaghetti (and Mac&Cheese) is one of the main things they are looking forward in any camping trip! It is freeze-dried food, so it will not look like, or taste exactly like an Italian restaurant or home-made version, but it is quite palatable. Kids love this, adults like this. Easy to make, less clean up, used pouch can be used as a trash collector. The hardest part is the wait - with most freeze-dried meals, I increase the "cooking" time, and definitely stir once through the process, while hungry children are circling me and the pouch like sharks closing in... They do this to the MH Mac&Cheese, too (toss some chopped and cooked hot dogs into that, before serving!). I learned to bring double what I think they will eat, or nothing will be left for me. Tip: use reusable plates, something other than paper, and spoons are easier - as the sauce may be a little runny, and the pasta is in small bits for better cooking, not a twist-onto-fork kind of length.

I purchased this for our 72 hour prep kit. The can is sturdy and should keep rodents out. Mountain house says their products in can are good for at least 15 years, which means I don't have to rotate often! Everything I've eaten from them tastes good. It can be reconstituted with cold water if necessary. I taped a mini-can opener to the top of the can under the INCLUDED plastic lid, so I'll be able to open this anywhere. I love that the lid was included. I also like that we can portion out however much we want depending on how many people are with us and store the rest for the next meal. The can is reusable as well for carrying water or waste products or whatever. All-in-all this seemed like a great purchase for preppers. I hope I never have to use it that way and that I end up eating it around a camp fire. But, I feel confident that this will do the trick if needed.

This product is perfect for camping. And it tastes great...while camping. But let's get real, it's not good spaghetti. In fact, it's not really spaghetti at all. It's more like spaghetti inspired soup. That said, it's pretty good spaghetti soup. After a day of hiking, it tastes damn near gourmet after eating nothing but Cliff bars and water all day. I would never eat one at home, but on the trail a hot meal really hits the spot. They're idiot proof (unless you forget to remove the dessicant), light, and durable. They provide loads of calories and carbohydrates. They help me feel warm at night and keep me energized through my cold breakfast and lunch. If I had to rank this flavor, I'd place it 4th (after #1 chicken and rice, #2 beef stew, and #3 beef stroganoff)

This makes a respectable spaghetti. In order to cook quickly, the pieces are cut up small, so it looks a little odd - no twirling your spaghetti around your fork - but the taste is there. It’s our favorite car camping freeze dried meal, I was happy to have just ordered a box when the Covid lockdown occurred. Now we have a box of backup spaghetti if I run out of dinner supplies and I don’t want to go to the store yet. It’s a generous size serving, too. My husband is a big eater, and this with a nice green salad takes care of him. I am not a big eater, so we split things like this up ⅓ for me and 2/3 for him and that works out perfectly. We’re both stuffed after.

We wanted to test a few out before we purchased a larger amount for camping and emergencies. Directions were super simple. Open, pull out little “keep fresh” packet, add boiling water, close, and wait. Once we opened it my daughter remarked “wow that looks just like real spaghetti!” It tasted just like it too! My husband was coming home from work late that night so after I portioned ours I sealed the bag and left it on the counter for my husband. Over an hour later it was still very warm! Highly recommend, we will be purchasing more!

This is not just OK. It actually tastes really good. Lots of carbs for those long hikes. Good amount of protein too. I had put off buying spaghetti in the past thinking it would be bland, but man, I was really impressed with this product. I ate it three times for lunch on a five day hike and kept catching myself thinking, "Man, this is some really good spaghetti!" I'll definitely buy it for future trips. Regarding portion size, I'm 6'1" 230 lbs and the full pouch was just about right for me while hiking. Needed all that fuel. Actually, I could've eaten a little more than the full pouch, but I didn't feel shorted. Gave me the energy to keep going.

So good after hiking! There's nothing like putting a hot meal in your belly after setting up your camp at night. I fed 4 big men and 4 ladies this and had leftovers. You could add canned meat to it, but it's not necessary. The big cans are not convenient for backpacking, of course, but we were planning on staying stationary for 3 days until we got flooded out of our riverside campsite! I suggest taking one can and bagging the rest of your meals into gallon bags with the instructions written on the outside. Reuse the can for each meal.