Mountain House Freeze Dried Eggs,
Scrambled, with Bacon: A Review

An option for breakfast on the road in your truck is freeze dried eggs. One sealed pouch -- which has a plastic "zipper" type seal inside -- is shown at right. We prepared two pouches of Mountain House's scrambled eggs with bacon on Friday morning, April 2, 2010. This is our photo review. First, note on the left side of the pouch the wording "Breakfast serves 1". In our opinion, this is subjective, because it really depends upon your appetite as to whether or not the contents will fill you up.

The dry weight is 2.25 ounces. The instructions on the back says that it makes about one 8 oz. serving. Note also that this product comes "precooked". You will not have to deal with raw eggs.

The image to the right is the back panel of the pouch. It has a short informational section about Mountain House at the top, a "Nutrition Facts" strip along the left side, a listing of the ingredients, and complete directions on how to fix the contents. As you can see from the ingredients listing, this product contains actual eggs and bacon. We noticed the smell of bacon as soon as we opened the pouches.

One of the things that we really like about this product is that it has 25 grams of protein. Just for the sake of comparison, if you check the information on NutritionData.com for one large whole, raw, fresh egg, you will see that it has 6 grams of protein, and if you check the information on NutritionData.com for one slice of pork, cured, bacon, cooked, baked, you will see that it has 3 grams of protein. So, in order to get about the same number of grams of protein, you would need to eat about 3 large eggs and 2 slices of bacon. Of course, you can buy the equivalent amount of fresh eggs and cured bacon for a whole lot less than the freeze dried eggs pouch (as we show below).

The stamp "Best Used by Dec 2015" means that it would have been good for another 5.5 years.

Our choice for breakfast: two pouches of Mountain House Freeze Dried Scrambled Eggs with Bacon and grits.

The two photos below show what the contents of the pouches look like. The one on the left has large yellow chunks on top and you can see some of the freeze-dried bacon below; the one on the right shows more of the bacon crumbles toward the top. Please note that the oxygen absorbing packet (which was removed from both packets prior to preparation) is shown near the top left of the contents in the left photo.

The pouches are designed to stand upright, as shown in this photo. The instructions state to add one cup of water to each pouch, which is why we have the two pouches standing in a large bowl. The pouches are ready to receive the water as soon as it boils. In our case, we heated enough water in our hot pot to add to the pouches of freeze dried eggs and prepare the grits.

Although the pouches are designed to be torn by hand, we always use heavy duty scissors to cut the tops off (being careful, of course, to leave the zipper intact). Remove and discard the oxygen absorber. Carefully add 1 cup (8 oz.) boiling water to pouch. Stir thoroughly and close zipper on top of pouch. Let stand 5-6 minutes. Carefully drain excess water from pouch. Serve. For your convenience, eat right out of the pouch.

After adding the cup of boiling water to the pouch, Mike stirred the contents in the pouch and zipped the pouch closed.

The amount of time it was going to take for the freeze dried eggs and bacon to rehydrate was sufficient time for us to cook our grits.

Since we were going to eat the grits from a bowl, we decided to eat the freeze dried eggs and bacon from a bowl, too.

When Mike looked down into the pouch after the rehydrating period was over, he saw that there was a pretty good bit of water in the pouch that the food did not absorb.

In the process of pouring off the excess water, he noticed how much of the freeze dried eggs and bacon solids were coming off with it. So, he decided that we would just deal with it.

How much water was in excess? In terms of volume, we couldn't say, but these photos might help you decide. The photo on the left is of the freeze dried eggs and bacon; the photo on the right is a close-up of the water next to the spoon.

The rehydrated freeze dried eggs and bacon in the left bowl and the grits in the right bowl were the two major parts of our breakfast. Please note that the contents in the left bowl represents the rehydrated freeze dried eggs with bacon from two pouches.

Even though the contents of two pouches was supposedly enough for two people, it was not enough for a full breakfast for the two of us by itself.

Pros:

• There is a good amount of protein in each pouch.
• When fresh eggs and bacon are not available but boiling water is, this meal could be substituted.
• Requires no refrigeration.
• Has a long shelf life.
• Needed no additional seasoning.
• Other than a hot pot for boiling the water, you need no cooking appliances to prepare this dish.

Cons:

• The flavor of the bacon seemed to overwhelm the dish. However, we note that eggs have a fairly mild flavor and can easily be overwhelmed.
• The directions called for too much water to be added to the contents. Although we have not tried backing off on the amount, we estimate that between 2/3 and 3/4 cup of boiling water would be sufficient to rehydrate each 2.25 oz. pouch of freeze dried eggs. As it was, the dish was "wet."
• The second pouch was more like crumbs compared to the first, which actually had "chunks" of eggs. This could have been due to our storage conditions but we don't think so. We wish the contents of the pouches had been more consistent.
• In our opinion, the amount in each pouch was not enough for one person; additional food is needed to fill out the meal.
• If you are expecting crispy bacon, this is not the dish for you.

Overall grade for this product on a scale of A+ to F- (with A+ being the best, F- being the worst): B-

• Hot pot;
• Inverter;
• Cutting board (which we use as a cooking surface);
• 1 cup measuring cup;
• Large spatulas; and
• Bowls and utensils.

Cost:

Contrast the cost of each pouch with 3 eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

Contrast $4.88 (the cost of the freeze dried product without the grits) with $0.54 (the cost of real eggs and turkey bacon). The freeze dried product is close to being 10 times as expensive as the fresh product. Due to the difference in cost, if you are interested in having freeze dried scrambled eggs with bacon, we recommend you use it only when absolutely needed.

Note: Your costs may be different.

Money saving tip: Although this product can be purchased from Amazon.com at the price shown to the right, we bought our pouches from a local Wal-Mart Supercenter (in the sporting goods section) for $4.88 each. This is certainly a better buy than from online. You may be able to find freeze dried meals for a better price if you buy them in bulk, such as in a #10 can. However, you need to bear in mind the limitations associated with the lifespan of the food after you open such a large can. Remember that properly preserved freeze dried food needs to have less than 2% oxygen. Once you open a can, you don't have that anymore. A meal made from fresh ingredients is much cheaper.

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