High Trail Cookery: All-Natural, Home-Dried, Palate-Pleasing Meals for the Backpacker Review

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(More customer reviews)I was interested in this book because it advertised recipes for making your own dehydrated foods. But this book misses the point of wilderness tripping. The fact is most backcountry hikers want foods that can be mixed and matched as desired. All the recipes call for complex proteins such as eggs, milk, yogurt, meat that are prepared as a full meal (e.g., ham omelets) and then dehydrated. Because the egg and the ham are all mushed up with spices you can hardly choose to use the eggs in pancakes and the ham in chili stew. Instead, you must eat omelets. When I backpack I plan on dehydrating several basic goods: canned beans, green peppers, hamburger, etc. Then along with some common staples such as powdered eggs, flour, etc. I can vary my cooking as desired. This book has you cooking complex gourmet meals, dehydrating them and then eating exactly that on the trail.ALso, I don't know why the author would bother to dehydrate things such as eggs, yogurt, etc. One can easily buy powdered eggs and besides - have you ever tried dehyrating your own eggs? Your house will smell like a sewer! Finally, the book contains numerous recipes for muffins and breads. But all are prepared and baked at home. I have plenty of these recipes in my Joy of Cooking. What I would have been interested in is how to prepare such recipes infront of a campfire - but the author makes no mention of this.

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High Trail Cookery allows backpackers to cook hassle-free meals on the wilderness trail. Packing light-weight, delicious, home-dehydrated meals--featuring whole grains, beans, fresh vegetables, and fruits--is the nutritious and easy way to make camping fun. Many recipes are meatless or meat-optional.

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Fork in the Trail: Mouthwatering Meals and Tempting Treats for the Backcountry Review

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(More customer reviews)A Fork in the Trail: mouthwatering meals and tempting treats for the backcountry
By Laurie Ann March
I have really enjoyed A Fork in the Trail even though I am not a hiker and am rarely in the backcountry. I do, however, have a boat, and the recipes in this book fit my needs as a boater to a T. There is not much space on our boat to store consumables, and in the moist environment at the marina or on the river does not lend itself to longevity for prepared dishes, so the use of dehydrated items and those that are easy to carry and take up little space in storage is perfect for me. I am very grateful to Laurie Ann March for doing the thinking part of meal planning for those long boat trips.
Even though it is winter, and boating season is a few months off, I did try a few recipes from this book. It is my policy to cook from every book I review, and A Ford in the Trail was no exception. I even rehydrated dehydrated items to achieve authenticity. I first prepared March's Salmon Cakes, and found the addition of mozzarella cheese brilliant. We enjoyed them immensely on a Lenten evening with sides of buttered noodles, and green beans. (I had to resort to a fast food restaurant to get the packets of mayonnaise, but the recipe was worth the effort) Of course, people who hike and people who boat collect additional packets of sauces and seasonings whenever possible anyway. March's Breakfast Bread Pudding was an ingenious use of powdered egg mix, and quite good. Prepared in my kitchen it was quite easy. I cannot attest to the outback oven method, but it does seem quite doable.
I do recommend this cookbook to anyone preparing to hit the trails or water this summer. You may want to experiment, as I have, before the season starts so you will have an idea of how the dishes come out.


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Inspired by foods from all over the world and the guiding principle of "if you wouldn't eat it at home, why eat it in the backcountry," Laurie Ann March has created over 200 lightweight, taste-tested recipes to turn an ordinary backcountry outing into a gourmet adventure. In addition to the recipes, March covers menu planning, recipe creation, and meal planning for families and larger groups. Color photograph insert.

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Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail Review

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(More customer reviews)This was the first backcountry cookbook I bought. I was looking for recipes that could be mostly assembled at home, would be lightweight to transport, and were easy to cook over a backpacking stove.
On first glance, this book appeared to fit the bill. Most recipes are assembled at home, dehydrated, and then rehydrated as a one-pot meal. However, I tried several recipes this past summer while canoeing and camping in the BWCAW and found the texture and taste of most of the meals to be disappointing. Many of the same ingredients are used over and over in "different" recipes, so many meals taste the same. Also, since the recipes are twice-cooked, the texture is often mushy.
Shortly after purchasing this book, I also bought Lipsmackin' Backpackin'. I ended up using this book for almost all of our camping meals, supplemented by hummus and candied walnuts, and a few other random recipes from Backpack Gourmet. I don't think that the purchase of Backpack Gourmet was offset by the few recipes that we regularly use.
I would recommend buying a different backcountry cookbook if you are intersted in eating something with flavor and texture. If, however, you aren't interested in flavor, but are simply looking for a meal that can be made quickly at camp and has all the calories and nutrients you need, then this is probably the book for you.


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Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling Review

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(More customer reviews)I have several books on dehydrating your own trail meals and this is easily the best. It is concise and full of good ideas and recipes. The guidance is flexible enough for the lightweight backpacker or for the canoe or pack mule traveler. For example, some of the recipes call for a dutch oven (too bulky and heavy for the lightweight backpacker) and others are suitable for a one pot meal (ideal for the lightweight backpacker).
A nice feature is the chart of drying temperatures and times for different foods. Also, the chart of calorie and protein content of different foods is important to making sure you get enough calories to keep going in the field and enough protein to keep your body from consuming your muscle tissue for fuel. There are also plans for building your own dehydrator for the do-it-yourselfer. The suggested one week meal plan is a good guide to get you started on packing for a trip.
The emphasis of this book is on drying individual ingredients and then rehydrating and combining them at meal time. This allows you to be more flexible in your meals, but takes a little longer at meal time. However, it also tells you how to use your own recipes to prepare a conmplete meal and then dehydrate it. Precooked spaghetti, rice or beans rehydrate and cook faster in the field. The book recommends having both types of meals with you for variety and flexibility. You can also dehydrate canned foods like vegetables or canned chicken, tuna or salmon and use them in your recipes.
This book is concise and a fast read, but packs a lot of information. This means that you need to pay attention to pick up all the important points. Fully half of the book gives infomration on dehydrating and meal planning as well as other important instructions and the other half gives some excellent recipes.
One important point (based on experience) is to be sure to try the recipes at home on the same stove and cooking utensels that you will have in the field. You want to make sure that you have everything you need and know how to use it BEFORE you are in the field and cold and wet and tired and hungry. That's not a good time to find out that you need another pot or that your pot isn't large enough to properly prepare your recipes!
"Trail Food" is all you need to dehydrate your own meals, but a few other general books on dehydrating wouldn't hurt to help you gain a full understanding of all the nuances of dehydrating.
Excellent book!

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" . . . a book that will appeal to everyone who has ever choked down the pre-packaged, bargain-basement camp food (or gone bankrupt buying the good stuff)."--Canoe & Kayak
. . . if you're on the lookout for a way to bring real meals to the field, [this book] might have the answer."--Field & Stream
Life in the outdoors revolves around food--cooking it, eating it, packing it, carrying it. We even fantasize about it, especially after a week of eating store-bought provisions. This book is all about fulfulling those food fantasies and avoiding those expensive disappointments. Trail Food tells you how to remove water from food, to make it lighter and longer-lasting, without removing its taste. Learn to plan menus and prepare meals just like the ones you left behind, using fresh foods from your garden or market, prepared and seasoned the way you like them.
Why fantasize when you can have the real thing?

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