Recently, sectionhiker.com posted a great article about olive oil being a great food item to bring backpacking. At first, you may think it is crazy to bring olive oil backpacking, but actually this is a common thing among ultralight backpackers. Olive oil has 240 calories per ounce, making it very calorically dense. It is easy to pack and has a great calorie-to-ounce ratio. As sectionhiker mentions, olive oil is a great option seeing how many other backpacking foods once carry 100 calories per ounce or less.
Olive oil would go great with Foccacia bread, or even Logan Bread. Another idea is to bring along with the bread is Parmesan cheese, as it keeps very well while backpacking, it’s very dry and dense with a low water content. Sectionhiker also offers the idea to add red pepper to the oil to “give it a little kick.”
Some fast food restaurants offer free olive oil packets, but beware, some may contain a small percent of real olive oil. You can repackage the oil into small plastic bottles for example, which you can buy at many stores including REI.
Share any ideas you have on your thoughts of using olive oil backpacking, what you can eat with it, or how you can repackage it!
From Sectionhiker
Posted by happyhiker! on October 12, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I’ve used olive oil while backpacking for a long time. If you have some on bread or with pasta or just plain, it warms you up – great for right before bedtime!
Posted by obamaforpresident on October 19, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Didn’t even think to take olive oil but it makes sense! I’m amazed how many calories it has for such little weight. Hope I can try it out soon – winter is almost at my doorstep! I’ll just have to go on some treks to Mexico.
Posted by CheapOair on October 27, 2008 at 2:56 pm
The CheapOair blog is talking about backpacking and travel today. We’d love your input. Did we get it right? What would you do differently? Check it out at CheapOair.wordpress.com
Thanks!
Posted by Kim on November 13, 2008 at 7:12 am
Packit Gourmet carries little packets of 100% organic olive oil. I’ve been using these quite a bit recently for cooking and dipping sauces. Great flavor and convenient packaging.
They also carry little packets of a canola/olive oil blend. Not as healthy but canola oil is good to have around sometimes and I haven’t been able to find these packets anywhere else.
http://www.packitgourmet.com/
Posted by SierraHiker on April 4, 2009 at 9:39 am
I also have used olive oil backpacking for a long time. I use it over pasta, add to mashed potatoes, add to soups, hummus and pita bread, in skillet when cooking dehydrated eggs, etc.
It is one of the healthiest fats one can consume and a great way to slow the absorption of the large amount of carbohydrates consumed while backpacking or any other time for that matter.
I buy extra virgin olive oil by the liter at Trader Joe’s and transfer into 125ml or 250ml Nalgene screw top bottles for backpacking. Just try to keep it cool and out of the sun.