Ready-to-go meals

Back Country Cuisine specialises in freeze-dried meals whereas companies like Kaweka make "boil in the bag" meals. Both forms of food are popular among trampers because they're compact and preserved.

In the name of "research", Consumer staffers tasted a day's worth of ready-to-go meals. Here's what we thought:

Breakfast

Back Country Cuisine Porridge Supreme ($10.95: two serves); Uncle Tobys Oats Temptations ($7.10: twelve serves); Back Country Cuisine Cooked Breakfast ($7.90)

Back Country porridge was the pick of the breakfast bunch. It was tasty and filling - but expensive. Our tasters agreed that you could make your own porridge "creation" for less. Uncle Tobys Oats Temptations (porridge by any other name) was much cheaper but too sweet for our liking.

Not many of us would ask for seconds of the cooked breakfast. The hash-browns, sausage, and egg were all bundled together in a yellow mash: "a very odd taste" as one staffer put it. The baked beans came in a separate packet and were more palatable than the rest of the meal.

Lunch

Back Country Cuisine Lamb Fettuccine ($7.90); San Remo La Pasta Carbonara ($2.10)

Back Country's lamb fettuccine had plenty of vegetables and diced lamb which made for a tasty meal. But at $8 most staffers still wouldn't buy it for a tramp.

We enjoyed San Remo's packet carbonara even though it required more preparation than Back Country's fettuccine. The carbonara was cheesy and cheap. You'd need to add vegetables or salami to make it a proper meal, though.

Dinner

Back Country Cuisine Moroccan Lamb ($7.90); Kaweka Moroccan Lamb ($7.90); Vimal Aloo Mutter ($3.60)

Dinner was the best meal of the day. Both Moroccan lamb dishes were tasty, although Back Country's dish was more filling because it came with couscous. Of all the Back Country meals we tried, the Moroccan lamb would be the dish we'd pack for a special treat.

Vimal's Aloo Mutter was about half the price of the two other dishes. Like the Kaweka meal, you cooked it by placing the pouch in a billy filled with boiling water. The Aloo Mutter was without rice or couscous - but very tasty. We'd recommend it.