Keeping with our promise to bring you our review of an outdoor food brand many are calling exceptional, this week is FIREPOT week at Base Camp Magazine. We’re tasting 5 flavors from FIREPOT by Outdoorfood and will determine what they taste like hot, cold, cooked via the pan method and cooked via the pouch method.

First, we’d like to thank FIREPOT by Outdoorfood and John Fisher for trusting Base Camp Magazine with their products and allowing us the opportunity to taste them and present them to our readers. We received 5 samples from John Fisher, the founder of FIREPOT, based in Dorset, UK.

FIREPOT Flavors We Are Presenting

Chilli Con Carne and Rice

The Chili Con Carne and Rice meal is FIREPOT’s second highest kcal pack with 600 kcals; it consists of slow-cooked British beef with smoky chilies and kidney beans served with rice. The recipe is made using all natural ingredients. This option is gluten-free.

The Chilli Con Carne meal contains 27% beef mince, 22% tomatoes, 20% rice, 12% onion and equal 7% parts of red kidney beans and red pepper. We anticipate this meal to be a nice spicy option for the outdoors for when you need a kick of flavor. This meal is ready in 15 minutes.

Porcini Mushroom and Risotto

The Porcini Mushroom and Risotto meal contains 560 kcals per pack and it is also ready in 15 minutes, like the chili con carne meal. This meal is a classic Italian risotto cooked with flavorsome porcini and chestnut mushrooms. Keeping with the tradition of using natural ingredients, this meal contains 38% risotto rice and 20% chestnut mushrooms. This meal is also a FIREPOT award winner, taking home the silver medal in 2017 from the Taste of the West competition. This meal is vegan and gluten-free.

This is one the editor is especially excited to try.

I’m fascinated by this particular meal, I doubt if you look toward outdoor dehydrated meals you’re going to find a meal similar to this one, I mean porcini mushroom risotto, that is something that is gourmet. It’s also an award winner and one of FIREPOT’s most celebrated meals. So this one will be first on my list. -Cass Légér.

Orzo Pasta Bolognese

We anticipate that the Orzo Pasta Bolognese meal will be one that is a medium ground for anyone who may be on the fence with trying FIREPOT by Outdoorfood. It is a traditional tomato-based sauce meal, consisting of slow-cook British beef and a rich tomato and oregano sauce. It is served with rice-shaped pasta or “orzo” made with durum wheat semolina.

This meal is FIREPOT by Outdoorfood’s highest kcal pack, with 635 kcals per serving. It’s ready in 15 minutes and contains 30% beef, 30% orzo pasta and 24% tomatoes.

Posh Pork and Beans

The Posh Pork and Beans contains 510 kcals per pack and it is one of the quicker cooking meals, ready in just 10 minutes. This meal is a hearty British breakfast of potato and pork baked with three types of beans in a tomato sauce. Ingredients include 27% minced British pork, 20% beans and 20% potatoes. This meal is gluten-free.

Dal and Rice with Spinach

Lats but not least, the Dal and Rice with Spinach meal contains 500 kcals per pack and it is also ready in just 10 minutes. This meal is made using five kinds of lentils that are slow cooked in spices and spinach; it is served with basmati rice, making for a nice exotic option when out in the field.

Its natural ingredients include 28% rice, 22% onions, 12% tomatoes, 7% spinach and 20% combined dal and lentils. This meal is vegan and gluten-free.

Check back this week as we taste and review this brand of outdoor food.

About FIREPOT by Outdoorfood

FIREPOT meals are a delicious, nutritious preservative-free alternative to the freeze dried meals that dominate the expedition food sector. The foods are also relevant to the camping, hiking, sailing, kayaking and climbing markets, while being tasty enough to eat at home when you’re too tired to cook. These meals are handmade in Dorset, created out of a genuine need for the company founder, John Fisher, to have a good-tasting meal option when on an expedition.

What sets FIREPOT aside is that instead of separately freeze drying portions of the meal, Fisher and his team cook a complete one-pot meal like you would at home and then dehydrates the entire meal. This means FIREPOT meals have deeper, more authentic flavors. Dehydration also allows for a shelf life of two years without relying on any artificial preservatives, chemicals or high salt levels.

FIREPOT meals are made using natural ingredients, they are hand-cooked and the ingredients are all sourced locally; the British beef comes from their local butcher, the vegetables from their local greengrocer. The meals range from 500 to 635 cal. per single 135 g. portion, but the larger 200 g. portions contain between 750 and 960 kcals per portion.

About John Fisher

John Fisher is the founder of FIREPOT by Outdoorfood. He has lived in Dorset for 15 years and prior to creating his award-winning brand, he was the founder of a London-based digital agency, which he sold in 2014. In his free time, John completed private expeditions in Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, Patagonia, the Himalayas and Indonesia. During some of those travels, he was accompanied by his sons, ages 9 and 12, and his wife Sophy Roberts, a freelance journalist who frequently works in remote territories for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal among others.

Shop FIREPOT:

FIREPOT is available in the standard portion size of 135 g., but you can also find it available in their extra-large serving size of 200 g. You can purchase it directly from the FIREPOT by Outdoorfood website, at www.outdoorfood.com, or you can purchase it at Base Camp Foods, a supplier of outdoor food options which is also the supplier of Second Lieutenant Scott Sears’ food rations for his Antarctic Solo Crossing to the South Pole, which we will be bringing you Dispatches for in November.