Wait: hot water THEN nuke it? That's an awful lot of heat. I would definitely NOT "try this out" on the trip. Perfect the process at home first. If the hot-water-and-wait does not work, I would reverse the process: let it soak cold for a while, then heat it. A lot of my home-made stuff is best if I soak it for a couple hours (just takes a few ounces in the wide-mouth or ziploc)) then heat it -warm it, actually - to edible temp. Saves a LOT of stove fuel, too. Only requires heating from ambient temp to edible, rather than from cold to boiling. I generally mix it up at breakfast, and by dinner its ready to heat.
Keep in mind that most prepared dried foods, even pasta, are not being cooked in the prescribed process, they are just being soaked. The heat is only used to speed up the process of rehydrating. That's why boiling is a waste of time and fuel. If you have the time, why waste any fuel: soak for a few hours and use hardly any fuel to heat.
Of course,if you are a purist about not heating anything but water in your jet-boil or whatever, its not gonna work.
Not a purist when it comes to the JB. Whatever gets the job done quickest and easiest. I suppose I'll try the hot water soak method today and see how long it takes. Last thing I need is to haul (2) of these bad boys up the trail and not even get to eat them!
