Recently released is the new book, The Camping Cookbook: 95 Inspirational Recipes from Hearty Brunches to Campfire Suppers. While not aimed at backpackers it is an interesting read for those who love indulgent car camping/boating or plain living it up in the backyard. The book is lushly photographed, not in the typical camping cookbook, but in the style of food-porn home cookbooks. An enjoyable read. More so, I found the book to be perfect for creating gourmet picnics after a dayhike.

~Sarah

FTC Disclaimer: We received a review copy of this book for potential review.

Yukon Solo, published in 1984 about Karel Dohnal’s adventure of canoeing from the headwaters of the Yukon River to the Bering Sea in 1973. The book is written from his journal he kept for 66 days, along with many photos. It is an interesting read (I picked it up and read it one sitting, while the baby was sleeping!). He took his trip at the end of a way of life for the of people in Alaska, change had already come and during his trip the Alaska pipeline is confirmed that it will be built. Between his loneliness, his encounters with locals, with very old folk and even hippies trying to make a go at it you will keep reading.

On a side note it was interesting Googling the author and finding out that after many years in the US he returned to his native country upon the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia.

~Sarah

Do you remember “Trailside: Make Your Own Adventure”? – it was a TV show on in the early 90′s that originally partnered with Backpacker Magazine, which was hosted by John Viehman (the then Executive Editor of the magazine). It was a first of its kind, in the days before YouTube!

In 1993 Rodale Press brought out Trailside’s Trail Food, as a companion book to the TV show. Rodale at the time owned Backpacker Magazine (this would be the case until a couple years ago when they sold it to AIM.)

The book is a compilation edited by John, from many years of magazine articles. It pulled from Backpacker and Wilderness Camping as well. I have posted this link before but if you haven’t clicked on it, do check it out – Backpacker Magazine from the start to 2009 (minus a couple years) They are scanned into Google for your reading pleasure.

Back to the book though – many of the recipes had been featured over the years. Most are not fussy, just easy to do recipes in the style of the 1980′s (so some products are now not available). The book has around 50 pages of recipes out of 123 pages – it was a manual in ways, to help teach those new to the sport basics on camp kitchens, bear safety, building fires, gear choices, etc. It is a nice window to look into how hikers used to cook on the trail! If you come across the book it is worth picking it up, especially as a gift to a friend starting out.

A couple recipes from the book that give an idea of what to expect – simple but easy to make fare:

Grits and Eggs

6 Tbsp quick cooking grits

1/4 cup dry egg powder

1/3 tsp salt

1-2 Tbsp butter

1 3/4 cups boiling water

Mix grits and egg powder, and add to boiling, buttered, salted water while stirring. Reduce heat, simmer three to five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Curried Mushrooms

1 ounce sliced dried mushrooms

1 cup water

3 Tbsp curry powder

2 packages beef, chicken or pork ramen noodles

Soak mushrooms in the water for 20 minutes. Pour mushroom water in the pan, adding enough water to make 4 and a half cups. Bring to a boil. Add curry and noodles. Boil for three minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in seasoning mix from ramen. Serve immediately. Serves two.

~Sarah

The One-Burner Gourmet was her first outdoor cookbook, originally published in 1975 and then second edition in 1981. During that time she brought out Supermarket Backpacker in 1977. She then brought out Gourmet on Wheels: 250 Easy and Delicious Recipes for the Rv in 1985. Here is a an old microfiche story from back in 1985 about that book.

The One Burner was from a time when hikers still carried a lot of heavy and canned items. The convenience items of today mostly didn’t exist. A reader picking up the book might put it back down and think “this isn’t for hikers!”…but simply put, people did used to carry and eat like that! (Yes, and that includes carrying fresh hamburger with you). Though many of the recipes don’t call for fresh so they can be adapted and updated. The recipes were not just for hikers though – they were for campers, car campers, boaters, canoeists and anyone else (hence some of the heavier weight meals!). When she did Supermarket later, she made that book completely hiker friendly.

So is it worth getting? Yes and no. It has ideas that inspire and if you car camp, it is very much worth it. It is a nice peek into the history of outdoor food as well.

There are some fun recipes to play with:

Fruity Rice

1 cup instant rice

1 can fruit cocktail

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1-2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup raisins

Drain the liquid from the fruit cocktail and add water to make 1 cup.

Put the liquid in a saucepan and add all the ingredients. Heat quickly, stir, often, until bubbly.

Cover and remove from heat. Let sit 5 min.

Serves 2.

~Modernize that? Sure! You can get 4 packs of fruit cocktail in most grocery stores in plastic tubs. Take one or two of those. The salt could go down to 1/4 tsp.

Homemade Candy Bar

Combine salted peanuts, raisins and a package of chocolate or butterscotch chips. Melt in a double boiler over hot water, stirring often. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper to cool and harden.

~You can’t go wrong with this one! For those who have never seen a double boiler, you can rest a heat safe glass mixing bowl on top of a pot of simmering hot water. The goal is don’t let any steam get in your melting mix, so don’t use a lid as steam will drip down. The nuts and fruit would be up to your taste.

Kandy Bars

2 Tbsp margarine

2 cups miniature marshmallows

2 Tbsp peanut butter

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

4 cups cornflakes

In a saucepan, melt margarine and marshmallows, stirring often. Remove from the heat. Add peanut butter, butterscotch chips, corn flakes. Mix until coated well. Press into a 8″ by 8″ foil lined pan.

Chill in refrigerator. Lift from pan and cut into bars.

~I’d use butter. I would also recommend using buttered parchment paper. So much easier!

~Sarah

The book came out in 1987 originally and was written from the viewpoint of Stephen, an Englishman. The first chapter or so is a bit stiff but once he gets into America and starts his hike his writing style blooms, opens up and becomes an easy read. You get the feeling of him walking through Americana, of a time in America – very rural Western America – that doesn’t exist very much now.

As you get into the heart of the book my mind thought of another book, Dances With Marmots – A Pacific Crest Trail Adventure. George’s book has a similar flow. If you liked Dances, you will enjoy this book.

The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) is a wild trail even today. I cannot imagine his walking it even in the 80′s, picking a path of his own to beat the weather and to be able to get food drops. There wasn’t much of a trail back then.

~Sarah

I had been meaning to pick up a copy of NOLS Backcountry Cooking: Creative Menu Planning for Short Trips, by NOLS (Edited by Claudia Pearson and Joanne Kuntz). It came out last year.

So recently I acquired a copy to take a look over. One warning is this book is tiny – 4″x6″ and 102 pages. Not that is a bad thing, but I would say this is the smallest outdoor cookbook I have in my collection. Consider the book an abbreviated version of the big NOLS book, NOLS Cookery (National Outdoor Leadership School). As a starter book it has good points in the first 64 pages, covering how to select food/menus, how to judge weight per day based on your type of trip, gear, setting up a camp kitchen, dealing with planning for more than one day. Mike Clelland’s illustrations are always nice to look at and the book has quite a few of them. The recipes though don’t make the book – there is only 32 of them.More so, the recipes call for time and fuel intensive techniques in some – how many of us use raw rice? Instant rice is so much easier, especially if you have dehydrated your favorite rices at home and made up a stockpile of homemade instant rice!

I would suggest that if one was picking up this book they consider getting it with the big book as well for a wider range. As a gift for a newbie expressing interest in hiking this might be a good choice, it won’t overwhelm them with information. But if you are an experienced trail cook, not so much. The recipes will disappoint most readers. There just isn’t enough variety nor new exciting ideas.

~Sarah

The book was written and contributed to by many of the pioneers of the hiking, backpacking and mountaineering world. A number of the recipes show a time before all the convenience items that we have now (and no thanks on going back to those days!).

The moral of the book (if there is one) is that many of the recipes came out a time when the hikers had little spare money nor fancy cooking gear. Often the recipes are not real recipes – rather a list of items with loose directions on how to prepare it. The majority of the page is dedicated to the story behind the person who gave the recipe with often a tale of an adventure accompanying it.

If one wanted to, they could easily see a connection between this book and the Lipsmackin’ Backpackin’ books (submitted favorite recipes with a bio of the person behind it). Defintely Gorp, Glop & Glue Stew influenced a number of trail cookbooks down the road. (It was one of the first books I read on trail cooking and very much showed me that I could do more with the concept on our first book Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple).

One classic recipe from the book was submitted by Gene Fear:

Tasty Trail Energy Bars

2 1/4 cups (1 pound) peanut butter

6 1/2 cups (1 pound) dry milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 to 2 cups granola

Mix thoroughly and form into balls. Wrap each ball individually.

The recipes were rarely hard to follow and were based nearly always on what one could find in a grocery store or at a sporting goods store back then. So there are some oddities – foods rarely seen anymore – powdered dates would be a good example. Though be fun to find some. You do have to make some guesses on times for cooking and on water amounts. The recipes are sometimes open ended. As well, a number of the recipes really only work well if you have a fire to cook over – something many modern hikers have never used. (I don’t mind a small fire every once in awhile on a cold night, but cooking on one can be frustrating. Between getting smoked out and sitting there for 30 minutes with your backside freezing…..) But one can take those recipes and figure out how to change them into a modern recipe.

In 2005 or so, they redid the book, bringing it into modern times. Its new name was Beyond Gorp: Favorite Foods From Outdoor Experts.

The recipes were updated – better directions and amouts called for were done better. As well new recipes from younger writers were added in.

They did though keep a few of the “classics” such as Mouse Soup (I really would have to be at Death’s Door before I ate Mouse hamburger) and a squirrel recipe came over. After all, I am sure Squirrel In Foil sounds scrumptious Yum! (Of course anything wrapped in bacon, then cooked in foil will taste scrumptious. Why Hello!, Marmot Roast!)

And as I was sitting here with my old copy, I noticed something: my book is signed by the authoress, Yvonne Prater.

~Sarah

His book ‘Along The Road’ can be found here for sale. A very pretty book indeed! Take a look at the preview while you are checking it out as well.

~Sarah

It has been a number of years since I first read the first chapters of George’s book and I still think that Dances With Marmots – A Pacific Crest Trail Adventure is one of the best reads for wiling away long cold winters when one is dreaming of hiking.

If you haven’t seen or read his book and you have a hankering for the PCT, well head on over to George’s site, Dances With Marmots, for more information along with a free chapter to lure you in.

~Sarah

Her first book came out in 1974, Roughing it Easy.  It was revised in 1994, becoming Roughing It Easy : A Unique Ideabook for Camping and Cooking.

In 2001 Dian brought out Roughing It Easy : A Unique Ideabook for Camping and Cooking. That book expanded on her first book.

She also published in 1997 Backyard Roughing It Easy: Unique Recipes for Outdoor Cooking, Plus Great Ideas for Creative Family Fun-All Just Steps from Your Back Door. It is a great book to pick up if you little ones at home.

She has also authored a couple other books and videos over the years as well. Her original of course is neat to read, be it the 70′s or the 90′s version. She loves dutch ovens and as well building solar ovens – so if you are looking for inspiration take a look at her books! (Again, they are great ideas for getting kids involved, especially with car camping.) What kid wouldn’t want to try baking muffins in an orange?

Dian has a website as well, visit it here.

~Sarah