Cooking at high altitudes
A long walk
Picture taken: May 2005, about 10,000ft in Garhwal Himalayas. Here is the travelogue of my trip.
One of the interesting things about high altitude camping is the unique taste of the food. Above the tree line, water becomes more-or-less tasteless. Since Indian cooking involves generous use of water (from stewing vegetables to preparing dough), food cooked here does tastes funny. जेवणात चव उतरत नाही (the taste doesn’t sink into the food). Even before you hit the tree-line, cooking yummy food becomes increasingly difficult.
There are other operational issues:
- Due to low atmospheric pressure, boiling point of water reduces. So, water boils at a much lower temperature, for example, at the place where this picture was taken the BP would be approximately 90° (Rambodoc would say: “Its cool to boil water”)
- The only source of ignition is firewood. The three basic factors required for a fire are – (1) source of ignition, (2) Oxygen and (3) heat. The last two being less available, it takes long time to light a fire.
- More water needs to be used to compensate faster losses (moisture in the air is very low).
- Finally, food needs to be cooked for a longer time.
Why??
Consider boiling an egg. In the plains, water boils at 100° and it takes 5 minutes for an egg to boil (assume). At 10,000 ft however, water boils at 90°, and in order to equalize the heat (calories) gained by the egg, it has to absorb heat for a longer time. The cooks that I spoke to told me that it takes 25 minutes to boil one egg (boy! thats a hard-shelled egg).
Turning up heat will not make a difference. Figure out why 
Baking food needs even more care, such as leavening gases in breads and cakes expand more, or an extra egg may be required to enhance bonding and strength. I have no knowledge about cooking meat though.
Can I cook the same taste food somewhere else? I tried using Distilled water once, but thats just one factor. Perhaps in a laboratory simulation, cooking few grams of high-altitude tasting food would be possible!
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even food packets of haldiram and lays puff up into mini footballs at high altitudes
↵worse is that the lighters also stop working.
i dont know abt u but i kinda had a loss of appetite and ate lesser
maybe it was the cold or the horny donkeys at tsokar!
Try cooking in wine or alcohol?
↵Just curious, because cooking meat in these reduces cooking time significantly.
Inspite of being a woman and someone who cooks on a daily basis, this was one problem I never applied my grey cells to! Gosh, I don’t think I want to! Cooking to me means drudgery, but I guess to guys its fun eh.
↵Prax:
I ate lesser too, but I remember I drank lots of fluids. Maybe because I read that water loss from our body is very rapid (as the air is dry) and we don’t realize it because its cold and pleasant
Rambodoc:
)
Mebbe! Never tried (or read
Nita:
, but I want all modern equipment handy 
You know, microwave, burner/heater, array of knives, boards, plenty of water… blah blah
↵Yes I do love cooking
Never cooked at that height. Always got readymade/handy food or went down to base.
↵Drinking more water creates another problem for us ladies.
Very interesting! It never occurred to me that cooking is affected this much by high altitude. Thanks!
↵Cuckoo:
Another problem.. hmmm… maybe I don’t know other than the obvious one
Arunk:
↵YW
Well, I am glad you didn’t mention ‘wife’ to clear up! When my husband cooks, I prefer he didn’t coz he uses all the available utensils (!) and every inch of space in the kitchen and well, its like somethings hit the kitchen! And then poor old me has to clear up and actually compliment him on the chicken he made. Coz thats all he makes. Chicken. Oh yes, tea too. And thats what I don’t mind at all!!
↵Now imagine how will you handle food and nutrition requirements when you’re out for hundreds of days at a stretch in space…
↵I admire your patience to actually wait and then cooking at such heights …we are so used to instant food that such hard hitting facts actually hit us only when we go there . great post, loved your pics, but the narrative was more interesting
↵Nita:
HAHAHA, thats the typical husband
Mahendra:
Space travel is indeed interesting. Esp reading Asimov, I got hooked on to it, and if I become a multi-millionaire, I’ll do that!
backpakker:
I simply love the taste of food, water and the burnt firewood!
Thanks
Boy! I miss it already!
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