Stowaway Gourmet Wild Boar Bacon Bean Stew

Another hit from a newer company.

Continuing to work my way through the Stowaway Gourmet catalog (as it becomes available), we come to their Wild Boar Bacon and Bean Stew.

What is Wild Boar Bacon?  Apparently, it is "feral pig" meat, cured as a bacon. Easy. Thick cuts of belly meat, just like standard upscale supermarket bacon, as evidenced by strong marbling and a great whack of salt. (I suspect that most of the sodium in this meal comes from the bacon.) But savor that thick, chewy cut of meat for just a little while and the salt dissipates, leaving the boar-bacon flavor to shine.

And shine it does: gamey and pleasantly fatty.  Also big slices of mushroom and onion. The beans have already been cooked to perfection prior to freeze-drying and so rehydrate into a smooth mash without any lumps or chunks. And once again, the portion size was just right for a day hike—and therefore maybe just a little light for a day's-end backpacking meal.

My only gripes really are the saltiness of the bacon, and that there might be just a wee bit too much spiciness to the overall meal. A little less spice would let the flavors of the other ingredients come through stronger, but that's a pretty minor nitpick, really.

Oh, and perhaps the biggest win? No gas. Dunno how they did it, but this is the first freeze-dried meal involving beans that I've ever had that did not have...consequences. Wow.

Experience

I have eaten decades of freeze-dried meals from a wide range of companies. This one was prepared at 600 feet in the middle of a rainy day hike.