Review: Wayfayrer Food

- product provided for the purpose of review by outdoorkit.co.uk -

Wet food, already cooked and packaged - all it needs is 7-8 minutes in boiling water and you've got a proper meal while out and about. Sounds too good to be true, I know, there are some negatives to this method of keeping fed while on the hill though, keep reading to see what I thought of the Wayfayrer range of "boil-in-the-bag" food.

Manufacturer's Description: 

• Wayfayrer meals come in a range of breakfast, main meals and desserts to tempt and satisfy the heartiest of appetites. All the meals are ready cooked and so they can be eaten cold but only take 7-8 minutes to heat fully in hot water.

Technical Features:

• Foil wrapped 
• 7-8 minutes cooking time
• Long life expectancy
• 200g (desserts) 300g (mains and breakfast)

Feature Breakdown:

The bag you buy is the foil bag which holds the food, there's no longer any outer packaging. A 7-8 minute cooking time is pretty standard, most people will settle for a lukewarm meal rather than leaving the stove going for 8 minutes. The long life expectancy is due to the protective atmosphere these meals are packed in. These bags are wet food, there's no need to add water so the weight's a little higher.

Field Testing:

I've tried quite a few of the Wayfayrer bags now, from sticky toffee pudding to chili con carne, a full English to a bolognese. The range of food available is brilliant, plenty of options for every palate. I'll give some details about my favourite breakfast, main and dessert.

Breakfast:

For breakfast, my go to is the full English - sausage, bacon, omelette, beans and tomato sauce all mixed together - a bit different from a greasy spoon! The food is good, it's edible for sure and when you get a good mix of everything it's actually quite tasty. The ease of cooking is a big positive for Wayfayrer, sit the pouch in boiling water for 8 minutes and breakfast is steaming and ready to get your energy levels up.

Main:

Dinner, after a big day out is by far one of the most important parts of the day for a hiker - I don't know about you but after a day of walking I could take down a steak with ease, my metabolism gets fired up! My favourite meal from the range of evening meals was the pasta & meatballs. Plenty of meatball keeps the dish interesting and there's even some trace of Italian flavour in there too. The meal wasn't big enough for my liking so if you're like me I'd suggest grabbing a dessert to go with it.

Dessert:

With only two options - chocolate brownie or sticky toffee pudding - it was hard to pick a favourite, I've decided to go with both! I recommend leaving these in the boiling water for as long as possible to soften the brownie or pudding and get that sauce steaming. They're super sweet and great after a massive walk. 

Unfortunately after using one of the bags the bottom of my pot has had part of the food packaging burnt into it causing a blackening and staining effect. This is a real shame, I remember using the older version of Wayfayrer foods which had a plastic outer and foil bag inside, I never had this problem using those foil bags. While I know there's a need to move into more sustainable packaging, it doesn't help when the new version ruins pans.

The food tastes good and overall the system works but watch out for burning where the bag meets the bottom of a pan, it'll leave a mark which won't come out. 

Staining on the bottom of my pan.

-------------------------------

Product provided for the purpose of review by outdoorkit.co.uk, many thanks to them. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to comment, tweet me (@PaulWRickard) or like my facebook page and message that (/PaulWRickardOutdoors).