Australian Hiker

Rating

Real Meals Venison Casserole Review

The Real Meals Venison Casserole is the second meal that we tried from the Real Meals range and this time it’s one of their ‘premium’ range and with that comes a number of pros and cons.

First up let’s deal with the negatives. The main one is the price as this is a single serve meal that retails for AUD$ 27.99 RRP which, price wise, puts this at the top of the single serve freeze dried meal range, on the Australian market at the time of this review. If you only look at price alone then you could be forgiven in ruling out this meal as an option as part of your hiking menu. The only other negative for me is that while this meal is tasty it’s still on the lower end of the spice range which in all honesty will suit the majority of hikers.

Now for the ‘pros’ and there is one in particular that really surprised me. First up this is a meat based meal, rather than soy substitute like a number of preexisting meals on the Australian market using real venison(deer), and while deer is a pest in New Zealand, the home of Real Meals, and becoming more so in Australia, there are requirements surrounding the use using wild caught deer in commercial meals that puts the pricing up.  Venison tends to have a’gamey’ sort of taste which some people may find to be to strong but in taste testing this meal I found this ‘gaminess’ obvious to start with but this soon mellowed the more I ate.

By far the biggest ‘pro’ of this meal is the high level of protein with this single serve meal containing 57.8grams. Typically high protein meal offerings from other companies, including the rest of the Real Meal Range sits at 30-35 grams of protein so this meal packs a protein punch which is really important on the big days on trail when you need this protein to help rebuild muscle.

The taste as mentioned for me a is a typical meat casserole, all be it with the unique venison taste and calorie wise contains 593 calories/serve which by no means is the highest on the market but still decent. Water wise we added the recommend amount of water which is 300ml and this worked out to be a good consistency. The sodium level in this meal is 460mh which just hits the mark to be considered high’. While there was a saltiness to this meal it wasn’t over overpowering and thats coming from someone who doesn’t add salt to their meals.

Water wise this meal was also perfectly edible at the recommended 10 minute rehydration mark but we always stand to allow a minute or two extra anyway.

So what’s the verdict. Yes this meal isn’t cheap, in fact you can only call this expensive, but this is where the massive protein hit comes in. I have had big days on trail where I have burnt over 8,000 calories and in addition to needing to replace this calorie expenditure you also need to help rebuild muscle and this is where a protein rich meal comes in.  As such I will add this to my meal rotation on my long distance hikes purely to help with my protein intake and purely on that basis. So as expensive as it is this meal is it’s well worth taking on a hike even if you only eat it every so often.

We Like

• Very lightweight meal option
• Loads of calories to satisfy hungry hikers
• Loads of protein for those big days
• A good sized meal for a bigger eater as a single meal
• Easy to prepare

We Don't Like

• I prefer a bit more ‘spiceness’ in my meals
• Price is high

Best Uses

• An easy to prepare meal with loads of protein

Buy One

You can purchase the Real Meals Venison Casserole from Snowys or from Wild Earth

Disclosure: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Please note that our affiliations do not influence, in any way, the independence of our reviews. If we don’t like a product, you’ll hear about it from us!

Investment

AUD $27.99 RRP

Real Meals Venison Casserole as purchased

Real Meals Venison Casserole Nutrition and Ingredient panel

Real Meals Venison Casserole before rehydrating

Real Meals Venison Casserole rehydrated and ready to eat

Disclaimer

This review was done with product provided for testing by the Australian distributor of Real Meals

Last updated

23 November 2025

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