[joshvm]

The few times I've baked there, it's been a pretty good experience. There's a full height proving cabinet, yeast works really well at altitude, the ovens have steam injectors, there are good mixers, a commercial fryer. In many ways much easier than baking at home, but probably not a patch on a good bakery.

We almost ran out of sugar in 2021 and Rothera sent us a bag of Tate and Lyle in break-glass-in-emerhency box on one of the early transit flights the following summer. That's still hanging in the galley. Cream also goes pretty quickly, and forget about eggs. But you only need "egg product" anyway.

The foods that tend to be avoided are pasta and beans, or really anything which has to be boiled. There's a massive pressure cooker but it's a pain to use and clean. It's also hard to brew coffee if you tend to use off-the-boil. The best you'll get is about 93 C. Espresso is fine as its pressurised anyway.

[porker]

> It's also hard to brew coffee if you tend to use off-the-boil. The best you'll get is about 93 C.

That sounds ideal for off-the-boil coffee brewing? At sea level I (and all the speciality coffee shops round here) aim for 91C, and I'll drop that to 88-89C for medium roast and lower if it looks on the dark side. Brew methods: Aeropress and cafetiere.

[joshvm]

This is true, and even with black tea where you'd normally want hotter, I don't think anyone really pays attention

Thinking about it, we also had some "fancy" packet ramen from Momofuku. Good example there - those noodles take forever to cook compared to the deep fried ones. You'd have to soak, nuke in the microwave and still wait ages.

Most of the coffee we took down were light roast and how well the beans survived shipping/storage, how well they were roasted mattered much more.

There are a bunch of cafetieres as well, but I don't like the silt even with some of the techniques designed to minimize it.

[0xbadcafebee]

Do they not do soaked beans? Leave them in water for 2 days and they shouldn't need a full boil I wouldn't think? Bonus: chickpea water as an egg substitute in recipes (powdered egg is nasty!). Re: coffee, mixing concentrated cold brew with hot water makes a pretty smooth cup

[joshvm]

> Do they not do soaked beans? Leave them in water for 2 days and they shouldn't need a full boil I wouldn't think?

We'd definitely have kidney beans in chili and some other dishes, but I got the impression it was a hassle otherwise.

> Re: coffee, mixing concentrated cold brew with hot water makes a pretty smooth cup

Friend and I ran a weekly pop-up espresso bar and did a lot of experimenting over the winter. The USAP "house" beans are quite dark, but at least they're roasted within a year or two because coffee is always available and we go through a lot of beans every season. Except the decaf. That stuff is decades old.

People often bring down a big bag from one of the roasters in Christchurch. We personally shipped down a lot of specialty coffee, mostly made V60 and aeropress. The outbuilding where our telescopes live also has a Chemex and an automatic.

[cozzyd]

At McMurdo this season the espresso machine at the coffee house broke. Fortunately we had two espresso machines out at LDB, and plenty of C1 and C4 beans

[ufo]

Even if soaked, beans still take hours to cook without a pressure cooker.

[aziaziazi]

I depends the beans and their freshness. If soaked and not 2yo+, it’s less than 1 hour for most of them. 30 min is enough for azuki and chickpeas if soaked 48h.

There’s other tricks: various beans can be found in the form of instant powder or flaskes (1 min watering - no cooking) semolina (5 min watering - no cooking) and pre steamed (no watering - 10/20 min cooking). I bring those to hike on the mountain and use gaz only to make them hot. Mixed with cereals semolina, spices, herbs and oil/nuts its the perfect submit meal.

[is_true]

What's your recipe that uses semolina? I do a lot of outdoor activities and I'm always trying to find new foods to try

[aziaziazi]

I cook more with feeling than recipe and I as I hike for multi days I try to vary the meals to avoid getting bored. My typical bag includes multiples zip bag with ingredients and I pick a few to make a meal:

- semolina of wheat, whole wheat, rye, lentils and chickpeas

- flakes-instant smashed potatoes / adzuki beans. Instant quinoa packed with prots but miss carbs.

- sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

- dried seasoning algae, yeast, zaatar or thyme. Curry powder or other spice mix.

One of my favorite mix is 1/3 lentil semolina, 2/3 wheat semolina, sesame seeds and yeast. Mix together, add water and cover for a few minutes.

Edit: last year I used a food dehydrator to pack some sauces and cooked vegetables. Works great for the ones in think slices.

[adrian_b]

Even without a pressure cooker, you can cook beans faster in a microwave oven.

However, you still need more than a half of hour if you want the beans to be soft, e.g. 45 minutes (after having soaked the beans for a half of day).

I cook all my food in a microwave oven. Except for beans, I have never encountered any vegetable that would need more than 15 minutes. For lentils or chickpeas, around 12 minutes is normally sufficient.