Here is a synopsis of answers received for an earlier question about cave food. It was not directly related to long cave trips. My personal experience is that for longer trips I just bring more food. I love to eat and never go more than 2-3 hours without munching on something.
What Cave Food do you like?
copied from the NSS discussion board website
http://www.caves.org/phpBB2/1. cheese-it
2. trail mix of peanuts, M&Ms raisins
3. Individually wrapped string chesses with beef jerky in tortillas. mini Nalgene bottle with mix of 6 different dried fruits, honey nut cheerios and grapenuts
4. Ham or turkey and cheese on a plain bagel sandwich – no mayo- just dry, pack in a ziplock bag inside a plastic sandwich box. Hold it in the ziplock while eating to minimize the risk of dropping crumbs. for short trips pack granola bars inside a ziplock and in the sandwich box to prevent crushing and crumbling
5. Squashed PBJ, little fruit cans, individual size chicken or tuna, peanut or almond M&Ms, jawbreakers (normal ones to the little ones in boxes if I can find them.) Don’t drink anything but water.
6. Tasty Bite Kashmir Spinach in a retort package
http://www.tastybite.com/indian_kashmir.htm7. Balance Bars. Much tastier than granola bars and proportioned 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat, with 23 vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants. Follow with plenty of water.
8. Hershey bars, energy bars, protein bars, more Hershey bars (I seem to have a problem staying away from bars.)
9. Esbit stove and packets of chicken broth for emergency warmth. Used to carry a large, flat can of salisbury steak for long trips. I just heated it up in the can and ate from it.
10. MRE (meals ready to eat) beef stew
11. For real long trips I take these things called "pemmican bars". No pemmican in them -- nuts, soy, oats, stuff like that. They have 17 grams of protein in each bar, 420 calories, 60 g carbs. Pretty small for that amount of fuel. You can get them at health food stores. Can't say I'd choose to eat them just for enjoyment.
For short trips, I take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, nuts, raisins, cheese, and stuff like that. I'm practical to the new Balance Bars, they actually taste pretty good and have a good ratio of carbs/protein/fat. A friend of mine used to take an Esbit stove and we'd make hot chocolate and soup. Mmmmm..... Didn't heat stuff up as well as real camping stoves.
12. On those long cave survey trips I use the Esbit pocket stove. It has three fold out legs and fits in the palm of your hand. It heats up a cup of Lipton soup, nice warm intake for the long wet trip. I also carry "gorp" mixed with M&M's, yogurt covered raisins, and pecans. I put that in a Nalgene bottle. I also carry Granola bars. I do like the beef jerky in the tortilla as well. A nice treat is the peanut butter in the squeeze tube.
13. Slim Jims. Pre packaged, and cave mud does little to diminish the flavor.
14. I'm field testing some of those self-heating lattes this weekend as we hit Groaning Cave here in Colorado (39 degrees). They were four to a pack and $8.99. At first glance, I see a couple of problems: weight (seem to be pretty hefty) and you can't crush them after use, so you are stuck with that size in your pack (they are pretty large). Still, it will be nice to get something warm and tasty into my stomach, and a pep-me-up to boot, on the way out of the cave.
Well, bad news on the self-heating lattes. They suck in cold caves. I tried them out in Groaning (cave temp: 39 degrees) here in Colorado and the drinks were slightly warm. Apparently they work best starting at room temperature. They are also bulky and non-flattenable (is that a word?). On the plus side, I discovered Bumblebee crackers and "salads" that were the tastiest thing I've ever eaten in a cave. They have chicken salad and tuna salad and seafood salad. The "kits" come with a small can of the meat, some crackers and a little plastic spoon to heap the meat on the crackers. Groaning is at 10,000 feet and winter is slow to loosen its grip.
15. As a Carolina boy I eat: bagel sandwich (meat/cheese/mustard or peanut butter and honey), Little Debbie snack bars, dried fruit, Gator aid or water. But the best part is York peppermint patties for dessert!
16. A nice cold Egg McMuffin, packed when warm in a plastic bag. It is compact, travels well being tossed and dragged around in a pack, and if I have two, I can even sit on them to keep my buns warm.
17. I prefer a small can of Dinty Moore beef stew, or a small can of spaghetti, and I keep the plastic spoon in a Nalgene with my batteries. I don’t have to warm up the food, since it tastes great cold. I also carry a small bag of fun size snickers. My friend carries a tortilla with turkey, cheese, and mustard, just like a sandwich, and it doesn’t get all squashed like a regular sandwich. I had part of it on the last trip, and it tastes pretty good.
18. I carry a Mars bar in a breast pocket for long trips underground
19. I usually take a bagel or two with some cheese or hard salami, in addition to the usual chocolate nuggets, Starbursts, and dried apricots. A Powerbar serves as emergency food. I try not to eat it unless I have to! Bagels and cheese make me feel like I've eaten a real meal instead of only snacks, for some reason, and so I think they are worth the extra space they take up. Also, you can sit on a bagel and it will survive the treatment.
20. Three Musketeers, Beef and Cheese snack sticks, breadstick handysnacks, mini pecan pies. Longer trips get the potted meat, canned chicken, and cheese it twists. Marshmallows always keep things interesting on survey trips...
21. Boy things have sure changed since the 70s. I remember reading "The Longest Cave" and the part about the caver who always took a can of Eagle Brand condensed milk on Kentucky cave trips and so I just HAD to try that. It was horribly sweet and I had an upset stomach for the rest of the cave trip.
22. Honey, in those plastic bottles. Great stuff. I bring it when winter backpacking too. Sausage sticks, sometimes cheese (smoked cheddar, yummmm) and squeezable peanut butter. Also the usual chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, energy bars. I've tried the soft-pack tuna fish and liked it. A small stainless steel cup, small stove and dehydrated soup/food works for long trips or for an emergency kit in case of accident/flooding in particular caves.
23. I do often take dried fruits so I can have something sweet tasting on the trip.
24. For years, I have told 'new to me' cavers (someone had never caved with before) that I had cupcakes in my pack and to please be careful with it while passing it down a climb or thru a pinch, so the frosting doesn't get smudged. Some took me seriously. Some thought it was hilarious. Some smudged on purpose. Either way, it's a great way to lighten the mood. Tonight, my little joke was rendered obsolete.
Behold—The Cup-A-Cake
http://www.cupacake.com/shop.asp $15 for 4 What could be better than a fully intact cupcake deep in the bowels of the underground? Now, if I can just figure out a way to keep my watermelon from squishing my marshmallows.
25. I use those plastic powdered drink containers to carry stuff that I don't want squished. The ones with the big white lids that are almost the size of the container? I think they are Countrytime, but I'm not sure. Anyway, we use those to carry cheetos & fried chicken or, better yet, chicken fingers (no bones).
26. Summer sausage, cheese, raisins, not much candy anymore as I have hypoglycemia attacks, sometimes peanut butter and always I have instant soup, hot chocolate and coffee singles. One never knows when a 4 hr trip might become a 12-24 because of the unmentionable. I keep the soup, HC and coffee in a stainless steel cup with folding handle along with a can of sterno, (it all fits in the cup) not high tech I know and a little slow but it ALWAYS works, no matter how wet and muddy stuff might get.
27. Banana bunker
http://bananabunker.com $5 +ship for one, $25.70 for 5
-Not all who wander are lost.