View topic - Magic Pantry

I gave up on these a few years ago but I used to get a very similar product through Amway (yeah of multi-level marketing fame. The only problem is that you could only buy them in boxes of six of the same type.

If you find some here is my tip. Buy some boil in the bag rice and put both in a pot with some water. When done pour the meal over the rice.

Good luck.

My old canoeing gang depended on Magic Pantries for our Petawawa trips. They were so easy to prepare - no fuss - just toss 'em in boiling water.

If I remember correctly, I preferred the cabbage roles but they were all edible.

They tasted great after a long day's paddle. But they didn't taste nearly as good at home. I guess that is why they didn't stay on the market. They had that canned taste to them, yet cans were cheaper (not sure what that was - MSG maybe?). For a short while there was even another brand around at the same time.

Even if they knew about the specialised market for them, they would have charged way more just because of that specialised market. Freeze dried foods would be way cheaper if they were as popular as cans.

Chris,

I wonder if KW Surplus would be able to get some MRE's. I'll ask them the next time I'm in there.

I know you can get them at an outfitters near Brantford, but he charges even more than E-Bay

I thank you all for the info. The magic pantry mystery has pretty much been solved. I wonder if they ever sold the rights to thier bag canning process or if it's for sale? They had a good outdoor food product but marketed it in all the wrong places.

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To canoe or not to canoe? What a stupid Question!

If you want to buy the rights to them, you might want to contact Peter Pocklington (excuse the spelling). If you're a hockey fan, you'll remember that he used to own the Edmonton Oilers but got into financial trouble and had to sell them. He also owned a company called "Gainers Meats" which made Magic Pantry. They went out of business at about the same time he sold the Oilers.

And by the way. If you buy the rights to Magic Pantry, make millions, I fully expect a lifetime supply!

That's interesting. I wonder if he owns the production process, the brand name, or both? If the process is something that could be done at home with the proper supplies like regular canning it would be worth looking into. Other than that it would take too much time and capital (I don't have either) to re-launch the old brand.

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To canoe or not to canoe? What a stupid Question!

Sorry so late on this thread. Did not need food ideas until today.

The Magic Pantry type meal was known as a "retort" so if you search for these type of boil in water bagged or foil pouch meals include this term.

-Jester

Who would have guessed... a "retort"? Thanx Jester this helps a bunch! Now I know what to look for.

Dan

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To canoe or not to canoe? What a stupid Question!

Don't eat the MRE's they are worse than magic pantery.
You don't want to live off of this stuff too long, it will bung you up. At least that was my experience in the military.

Who's gonna trust a guy with a name like "Jester"?!? And if MREs "bung you up" BRING 'EM ON!!! (A guy can only eat so much cheese in the bush!)

I just noticed some new Uncle Ben's Boil in the Bag stuff in our grocery store in Fergus. It's called "Bistro Express" and I saw 2 kinds of noodle type dinners and 4 different kinds of rice dinners. They look pretty good - you just boil them in a pot for 4 minutes and dump on a plate and eat 'em. (And you already have a pot of hot water for your dishes!) This is something I'll definitely try when I go solo without too many portages again.

Trust the Jester? Go back and read the Chrismar Temagami map posts where it was admitted by someone I take to be a member of the Canadian royal paddling family that the Jester jesteth not!



If you are interested in researching retorts and pouch meals just do a search using http://www.google.com advanced search option and enter food, retort, pouch in the various fields.

I happened to enter food in the "all words", retort in the "exact" and pouch in the "at least one" fields even though you can mix 'em up.

I am not vouching for the quality of such meals and they were heavy as the moisture content was high. But they were easy and in many cases better than the FD stuff available back in the mid-eighties.

They were available in the Chapleau grocery so they must have been everywhere back then.

-Jester

My girlfriend brought some Indian retort meals on our last trip to Massassauga P.P. They tasted fantastic and were really easy! We just poured them over couscous and I was stuffed.

The company makes Indian and Thai retort meals and you can buy them online. Check out www.tastybite.com.