How Freezer Bag Cooking Became A Hit With Hikers

Twenty years ago, you might have stumbled upon a “bag cooking” recipe buried deep within the pages an old trail cookbook.

If you were lucky.

But today, Freezer Bag Cooking (FBC) — as it’s now known — has become an increasingly popular way to prepare food in the backcountry.

It works like this: you fill a freezer bag with dehydrated or quick-cooking foods (stuff like beans or couscous, for example). Then when it's time to eat, add some boiling water to the bag, seal it up and wait 15 minutes or so. When your food is rehydrated and "cooked," you can eat it right out of the freezer bag. 

The benefit is that you can create low-cost DIY meals with fewer dishes to clean up.

Plus, FBC allows you to fine-tune your meals to regulate weight and caloric density. And that’s a big plus for ultralight backpackers.

Publications like Backpacker, the Huffington Post and dozens of well-read ultralight backpacking blogs have raved about the perks of cooking and eating food straight out of a freezer bag.

This burst of popularity is thanks to Washington’s Sarah Kirkconnell. Her 2005 release of Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple moved ‘FBC’ from the dusty pages of 1950s cookbooks and onto the virtual shelves of Amazon.

But not everyone embraces FBC in its raw form.

The idea of “cooking” (although it’s really warming and rehydrating) food in a plastic bag doesn’t appeal to everyone, which is why Sarah also provides pot-cooking instructions with many of her recipes as well.

And ultimately, Freezer Bag Cooking isn’t just about freezer bags — it’s about embracing nutritious DIY meals instead of buying mass-produced freeze-dried grub.

Sarah stumbled onto “bag cooking” out of frustration.

She was fed up with the cost and bland taste of commercial freeze-dried food. Yet also found traditional backcountry cooking to be a pain.

“I hated having to carry multiple pans and then cleaning those pans, using so much fuel up to cook on windy nights,” said Sarah.

“Spending an hour in the evening cooking and cleaning when I was tired was not fun. I also had become tied down to campsites that had an adequate water supply – so I could do dishes”

Then one day she saw a mention of “bag cooking” in an old cookbook. She gave it a shot on her next backpacking trip and was immediately hooked.

The only problem was, most of the recipes available were for bland staple foods.

“There were less than 40 recipes I could find, well hidden in old trail cookbooks. They were not very exciting to be honest,” said Sarah in an email interview.

So she set out to change that. In 2004 she started developing new — more flavorful — "bag cooking" meals.  

Word spread about these recipes among other backpackers. And soon afterwards, this unique style of meal preparation had taken on new momentum -- in addition to gaining a new name.

“Freezer Bag Cooking (FBC) was coined on the Backpacker’s forum around the 2004 period by a reader of ours. We had called it “freezer bag cooking” once I started creating recipes. It was on a lark that we kept using the term, and it stuck.”

But FBC didn’t really take off until her first recipe book was published in 2005: Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple.

“It went from a few people using FBC to people around the world adopting it as a method,” said Sarah.

It’s not just ultralight “gram weenies” who are into FBC. In fact, the benefits go beyond weight-savings.

“It’s cheaper, it gives you more control and it allows you to tailor your cooking choices to exactly what you want,” said Casey Fiedler, a professional backpacking guide and co-founder of the ultralight training school Hike With Less.

“Freezer Bag Cooking provides a lot of benefits for all types of hikers.”

Here are a few FBC advantages that backpackers rave about most:

Yet for all the benefits of FBC, not everyone embraces the practice in its "pure" form.

Freezer Bag Cooking does have a few (minor) downsides:

But perhaps the biggest issue some hikers have with FBC is that they dislike the experience of eating from a plastic freezer bag. It often requires a longer spoon or fork. Plus it just ‘feels’ different from holding a nice, firm bowl or plate.

But as Sarah Kirkconnell points out, eating -- and cooking -- out of the bag is optional.

“FBC is a great method – for nearly everyone. Even if you don’t cook in the bag,” she said.

“Essentially, the user is making a portable dried meal, that will have a great shelf life with a quick and easy cook time. Should they wish to add it to boiling water in a pot, it’s up to them.”

And then there’s the question of safety. Some hikers worry that there may be a risk of chemicals ‘leaching’ from the plastic into the food.

Ziploc says its freezer bags are free of dioxins and BPAs — and can safely be used when reheating your grub. 

And a key point to remember is that the water isn’t actually boiling when it hits the bag.

“The user pours in hot water, into the bag, which has the dry ingredients in it. The water is below boiling and drops in temperature once added,” said Sarah, who added that she only uses U.S.-made bags by Ziploc.

“My feeling is it is up to the person. Some people are comfortable, others are not. And that is why we offer two sets of instructions (in her FBC cookbook recipes).”

Sarah doesn’t think freezer bag cooking will slip back into obscurity any time soon.

She says that 13 years into its run, her book Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple is still selling quite well.

“As people get more into their food and enjoy the creating part, I feel our recipes will stay valuable.”

Plus, a second audience has emerged for her books. Preppers, who actively prepare for wide-scale emergencies, are now becoming interesting in FBC. They like the idea of making more diverse, flavorful meals that can be stored long-term.

Sarah plans to release more FBC books in the future — she’s currently working on two new manuscripts.

And once they’re released, you can bet they’ll take this once-overlooked cooking style even farther into the mainstream.