Why every freeze dried meal out there doesn’t already have a fill line on the packaging is a bit of mystery, but luckily we can memorize our own. For example, most Mountain House meals call for either 1 ⅓, 1 ½, or 1 ¾ cups of boiling water. Instead of having to precisely (or imprecisely) measure out that exact amount of water to boil, or worse yet attempt the dreaded cups to milliliters conversion without the help of the internet in the backcountry, we can remember and make our own specific fill lines on the packaging. On 2020 Mountain House packaging for example, 1 ⅓ cups of water is approximately up to the (2) mark on the instructions. 1 ½ cups is approximately to the (1) instruction mark, and 1 ¾ cups to the “Preparation Instructions” line (note that Mountain House updates their packaging frequently, so you may have to recalibrate).

By using your freeze dried meal packaging to your advantage, you can (so long as you give exact precision a little leeway) avoid having to measure out water for each meal.

Using Freeze Dried Meal Fill Lines

This way and as I typically approach dinner time in the backcountry, one can simply boil up a pot of water both for dinner and a hot drink without having to precisely measure everything out, and this is also a particularly useful method in a group setting where you’re boiling water up for more than one meal at a time. Using this method takes out the guess work and helps when your cookpot only has marks for milliliters but you need a cups measurement, or vice-versa (if it has marks at all). While this method will not equate to the exact milliliter, it’s usually close enough.

However, for the discerning backcountry palate and if an exact measurement is desired, pre-measuring your water to boil using a venerable Nalgene bottle (I prefer the HDPE Nalgene version to save a little weight) that features marks both in ounces and in metric is always an option. One can use this method to start with as well and determine the fill lines for whatever your favorite just-add-water-meal might be, with the necessary application on the packaging and with a little memorization, of course. Once memorized however, you won’t have to pre-measure your water and you’ll still end up with a perfectly rehydrated meal every time.

Editor's Note: This trail tip originally appeared in Issue 47 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.