Backcountry cookbooks tend to stick to a single cooking approach, ranging from “just add boiling water” to cooking from scratch. You may need to sample a few cookbooks until you find one that matches your style.
Here are some of my favorites, covering several different styles.
Need that extra zing for your backpacking meal? Shelf-stable bacon bits! It is a three ounce package, so you’ll need to use it fairly quickly after you open it. But that might not be a problem. And it is at Safeway, so you can get it for this weekend. I might do that, since I’m teaching BSA Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills this weekend.
See Sarah Kirkconnell’s blog for the details.
For the Henry Coe campout with our troop this past weekend, I brought some bread mix so the Old Goat Patrol (the adults) could bake bread on sticks over the campfire. Specifically, this was the “Italian Stick Bread” recipe from The Back-Country Kitchen, essentially, from-scratch biscuit mix with Italian seasonings added.
I last made this when I was Grubmaster for the Raccoon Patrol in the early 1970’s. Back then I used biscuit dough that came in a can, the kind you whack on something to split open. That was more fun but this version tasted better.
The Commander’s Kitchen cookbook has a section on “krewe meals”, the food they cook for the staff twice a day. I may never make Quail with Crawfish Stuffing, but the krewe meals are home cooking.
I made their Chicken Étouffée this week. Straightforward, though browning the roux after you make the cajun mirepoix required some bold high heat cooking. Instead of “hot sauce to taste” (love that), I used a cayenne pepper that I’d frozen from last year’s organic veggie box. I might back off on the sage next time — two teaspoons dried sage is a lot for one chicken. Still, pretty danged good and the family was happy with it.
They do a clever thing with rice. In addition to some salt and butter (one tablespoon for one cup of rice!), they add two bay leaves. It adds a really nice aroma, more delicate than I expected.
One of the fundamental techniques in Cajun food is the “roux.” It isn’t that hard.
This is my own method for a fast roux.
First, realize what you are doing. You are toasting flour in oil. You could probably scrape toast into oil and get mostly the same flavor.
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is my new favorite cookbook. It was a Christmas present last year, so I’ve had a few months to break it in. It reminds me a lot of the book I learned from while cooking in college, The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, 11th Edition (1965). This was the last edition before Marion Cunningham’s rewrite. The modern Fanny Farmer is fine, but Bittman reminds me of some things I especially liked the 11th edition.
My big birthday present was an electric knife sharpener, a Chef’s Choice 130. I’ve been using an arkansas stone for years, but it takes forever and the kitchen knives were getting to be a problem.
The first sharpening takes a while, since you need to grind the edge at the correct angle. Subsequent sharpenings are much, much faster and don’t leave metal dust on the counter. Read the instructions carefully, because there is some skill involved in getting it right. Just because this thing has a motor doesn’t mean it is automatic.
To celebrate the newly sharp kitchen knives, I bought some vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozarella, and some nice olive oil. I don’t think I’ve ever sliced a tomato that easily. They were tasty, too.
OMG. Bacon rolled with Marshmallow Fluff. I’m not sure what kind of genius it takes to think that up.
It sounds disgusting, but sweet and salty with bacon, well, I don’t dare try it. If I liked it, I’d be too embarrassed for words.
Hmm, with maple sugar candy instead of Marshmallow Fluff … no, don’t even think about it.
No, that isn’t where you suck food into your lungs. That would be Heimlich eating.
Paul Kedrosky has a post linking P.F. Chang’s locations to subprime lending. He calls P.F. Chang’s an “aspirational restaurant, sort of the eating equivalent of ‘prosumer’ electronics.” It is a short post, but rich with wonderful phrases that evoke living beyond your means, like “intermittently monied”, “prosumer”, “middle class stretch”, and “subprime-hit”. Great finger-on-the-pulse stuff.
Off-topic note: I’ve been writing HTML since 1995 and this is the first time I’ve wanted nested hrefs. I felt I should link “P.F. Chang’s” inside the reference to Kedrosky’s blog. If dumb ol’ HTML links were good enough for twelve years of my use, they are probably good enough for everyone. Sorry about that, XLink and Ted Nelson.
While in Bed, Bath, & Beyond getting a new coffee maker, I grabbed a couple of inexpensive items for backpacking.
A flexible cutting board. These cost $4 for a pack of two 12″x15″ sheets of tough plastic. I might cut one to a smaller size for easier packing. I think we’ll keep the other one for car camping. How do you cut a cutting board? I’m betting on my compound metal shears.
A roll of grabby rubber drawer lining, the kind that is soft with a sort of honeycomb of holes. Wrap a length of this around your sleeping pad, and it will stay put in your tent. Your sleeping bag will also stay on your pad. I chose the dark brown color so it won’t show as much dirt. This was $10 for a 20′ roll. Six or seven feet should be enough for one wrap around the pad with a bit of overlap, so this will supply three people.
Both of these ideas are from a backpacking colleague (and fellow Scoutmaster). They are lightweight and cheap, and address serious backcountry issues: food cleanliness and good sleep. Your mind and attitude are critical safety equipment, so you must keep them in good shape. If your trek leader is sleep-deprived and throwing up, they probably aren’t making the best decisions.
Hmm, sounds like another Scoutmaster Minute, if I can find a hook to something that matters to the boys.
Most Casual Observer 