Kopka River, Ontario. Cliff prepares steam fried pizza - 10 min. prep/2 min. cook
Quick! Name the most important thing on a camping trip.
If you said “food,” you’re partly correct. If you said GOOD food, you are dead right! I’ve been on many canoe trips where the rapids were intimidating, the portages bad, and the weather was awful. But my crews never complained. Why? Because we were always warm and dry, and we had really good food. I learned early that if everything on a trip goes sour, at least they’ll remember the food.
So how do you make “great” meals fast when it’s cold, windy and raining, and all you have is a one burner trail stove, a few pots and minimal utensils? What trail foods taste best and are most nutritious? Where do you find recipes that work in the wild?
My publisher once told me that when their money runs low, they bring out a new knot book. Yes, “knots.” People love them! Admittedly, I’ve authored a couple of knot books myself, BUT, up front, I’ve said that there are just three, possibly as many as five, knots you really need. The rest are largely just for fun. Still, people love knot books.
Cooking books are next. And there is a slew of them out there. They have lots of recipes. Just pick what you like and off you go. But here’s the skinny: the recipes in backpacking/field cookbooks are identical to ones in home cookbooks. The field books just substitute dried products for fresh. Examples: powdered milk, dehydrated eggs, freeze-dried chicken or beef, dehydrated tomato powder, dried beans etc. That’s it!
I submit that if you want recipes, ask mom. She has lots of them!
Kopka River, Ontario. Breakfast for 10 is easy: no-fridge sausage and apple-cinnamon, brown sugar burritos. Fresh coffee, of course. 5 min. prep, 10 min. cook.
Consider this: if I went into Martha Stewart’s kitchen and prepared one of my trail meals, it would be excellent. Okay, Martha would do better. But you would like what I made. Now, reverse the situation.
Martha is on one of my canoe trips. She has my one burner stove, pots and just a few utensils. It’s cold, windy and raining. We’re huddled beneath a big tarp, bundled up to keep warm. The cook sits on an insulated pad on the ground or on a small camping chair, just out of reach of the rain. Water is in a jug. It was collected from the nearby river: its temperature is 42 degrees F. That’s very cold: your stove will consume a lot of fuel - and time - to bring it to a boil. Okay, Martha, go to it!
Question? How do you think she’ll do?
Answer: not well!
As you can see, the real variables here are not the recipes. Any recipe will work if you have the dehydrated or freeze-dried components to support it. AND, if you know some tricks that encourage fast preparation. How do you cook oatmeal for four on a one burner trail stove without burning it? How do you keep it hot long enough for seconds? How can you speed boiling and conserve stove fuel when your water is cold, or you don’t have a perfect windscreen for your stove?
You won’t find this information in ordinary trail cooking books. But you will find it in my book: BASIC ILLUSTRATED COOKING IN THE OUTDOORS.
BI: COOKING IN THE OUTDOORS has been out-of-print for several years. It’s a thin book of just 88 pages, so I’m guessing people avoided it thinking it didn’t have enough recipes. No, it doesn’t have a lot of recipes. What it does have are the procedures you need to prepare great meals fast - even for very large groups - no matter how severe the weather.
BI: COOKING IN THE OUTDOORS has been offered as an e-book download on my website for some time. Now, it’s available as an audio book on the sites listed below. The reader is my daughter, Clarissa Jacobson, who is a professional voice-over artist.
Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble/Nook, Apple, Audiobooks.com, Google Play, Spotify, Scribd/Everand, 24 Symbols, Hoopla, Nextory, Libro.fm, Storytel and more!
A good cook is a hero to his/her friends. Remember: if everything on your trip goes south, at least they’ll remember the good food you prepared.
Good eating, and best to you all.
Cliff
XXX
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