Welcome to the AppalachianTrailCafe.net!
Take a moment and register and then join the conversation

Is cooking on the trail almost dead?

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Is cooking on the trail almost dead?

      I have read and practiced cooking, no cook, and FBC while backpacking and to be honest while passing campsites ... well I am curious, is this a forgotton skill? I saw this a moment ago and remember and own most of these books,,, that being said what caught my eye was the "years"

      A. For more cooking information refer to :
      • The NOLS Cookery available through NOLS mail-order
      • NOLS-TV on the web NOLS-TV The Cooking Show
      • Fry-Bake on YouTube
      • Cooking the One Burner Way (1994)
        by Melissa Gray and Buck Tilton published by ICS Books, Inc.
      • Wilderness Cuisine (1991)
        by Carole Latimer published by Wilderness Press (1991)
      • The Portable Baker (1997)
        by Jean and Sam Spangenberg published by Ragged Mountain Press
      • Backpacker Backcountry Cooking (1998)
        by Dorcas S. Miller published by The Mountaineers Books, available at Mountaineers Books
      • Backpacker More Backcountry Cooking (2002)
        by Dorcas S. Miller published by The Mountaineers Books, available at Mountaineers Books
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • I own several of the books & cook sometimes. It all depends. Some of the best stew & chili I've had have been simmered in a dutch oven on winter trips. If I have a parner to share weight I will cook on a long hike. Pizza a few days in make the weight worth it. When solo? Depens on the hike. Sometimes slow & enjoy, other times food+ furl & taste doesn't matter much.

      Planning the Idaho hike this summer has me thinking. 300 miles of wilderness be resupplied via airplane. What fuel can be shipped? Should/can I use a fire?

      I have always considered food as a reward when hiking. I will muti-purpose when setting up camp. Collect water, set dinner water to boil, set up tent, By then water should be boiling & start cooking. Filter next days water & read book while cooking.
    • odd man out wrote:

      When I was a boy scout I was very good at foil cooking. All ingredients were wrapped up in foil at home. Cook on hot campfire coals. Eat. No clean up. I remember teaching classes on this to others. But for the life of me I can't recall any recopies. Sad.
      All of the recipes are now on line. There are multiple easy sites

      boyscouttrail.com/recipes.asp


      Part of the problem or maybe it just smacks of effort - is possibly planning meals - but it was a "have to do it" back in the day, with options of Freeze Dried and singles... I opened the door to making choices of not cooking. As a group dutch oven is prohibitive from a weight standpoint. But the scouts still teach it and I have done it over and over again. I love it... just not backpacking turns out I cant find my pics from scouts - so this is an odd substitute.

      [IMG:https://i1.wp.com/www.pmags.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/boy_scout_camping.jpg?resize=500%2C407]
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Wise Old Owl ().

    • odd man out wrote:

      When I was a boy scout I was very good at foil cooking. All ingredients were wrapped up in foil at home. Cook on hot campfire coals. Eat. No clean up. I remember teaching classes on this to others. But for the life of me I can't recall any recipies. Sad.
      jamboree stew!!! :thumbsup: Potatoes carrots (celery), stew meat tin foil on hot coals........ damn! My first trip back with the troop(just out of the Corps), I showed the boys how to make it. Some had seen it, they had not seen it with a can of V8 added gif.013.gif
      I have another tin foil meal, but I bury flat rocks in the coals... prep the meal, then pull the coals back, and put the trout seasoned with a packet of Goodseason Italian, add what ever greens you can forage....... oh baby. :thumbsup:
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:
    • ......... but, to get to WWOs question. I have fully embraced FBC......... when long distance backpacking. I last 'cooked' something at Cranberry Stream campsite. I made my veggie stew/ soup for HB and I......... in '12' maybe! I have turned that meal into a much better FBC meal.
      Now on a camping/ fishing road trip, there will be no FBC.
      Shorter hikes w/ newbies, I would whip some cooked meals up.
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:
    • I recall making some great fruit cobblers in the dutch oven as a scout (can of pie filling, Bisquick). But as you said, hauling a cast iron pot is not for backpacking.

      I went backpacking with two friends right after graduating from college. We did the old rag loop in SNP. One insisted on on having pancakes so we hauled up the pan, and syrup, and butter, and plates, and knives, and forks, and pancake mix, and oil. It was a disaster. I'm not sure we go one edible cake out of the whole ordeal.

      Thanks for the BSA Menu link. I do recall making that Hobo dinner, but used A1 steak sauce, I think. Also if you take that Hobo Dinner recipe, but wrap it in a pie crust instead of foil, bake in an an oven for an hour and then wrap in foil, you have a pasty. That was always our go-to meal for the first night's supper when car camping with the family. If you discuss the merits of making your with or without carrots and rutabagas, then you have an Upper Peninsula bar brawl (Finns vs Cornish).
    • The Jan17 issue of Backpacker magazine carried a piece by a PCT hiker whom elected not to carry a stove thereby replying mostly on rehydrating rice and beans in a water bottle. At the article's conclusion, a stove was requested in the next mail drop.

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • We cooked every meal in Scouts. One time we did coffee can casserole. The cans back then had metal lids that came off with a metal key but would still slide back on.

      We cooked burger meat, carrots, a small potato, maybe celery.

      Bed of coals. Bury cans in the coals. I think it took about 20 minutes. I could be off on the time.

      Use a stick to carefully move the can out of the coals. One guy didn't and got ashes on his food. Mine was delicious. No ashes.

      but dehydrated meals means no more worries about spoilage or big bulk. I would carry flour tortillas along with peanut butter.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.
    • odd man out wrote:

      When I was a boy scout I was very good at foil cooking. All ingredients were wrapped up in foil at home. Cook on hot campfire coals. Eat. No clean up. I remember teaching classes on this to others. But for the life of me I can't recall any recipies. Sad.
      When I take my oldest grandson camping we cook sliced up potatoes and onions eith olive oil in foil. Also corn on the cob with olive oil wrapped in foil is great as is asparagus.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
    • SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • Dan76 wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.
      In my area Field Day is all about the food! Everyone keeps asking me when am I going to get a license, and tell them we already have enough to fight about, I don't need to add radios! Last few years I have been on the AT instead of doing Field Day! :thumbsup:
    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.
      In my area Field Day is all about the food! Everyone keeps asking me when am I going to get a license, and tell them we already have enough to fight about, I don't need to add radios! Last few years I have been on the AT instead of doing Field Day! :thumbsup:
      I've been thinking of getting my lic. For years, we have a local club here @ the David Sarnoff center, which has in the past had a fantastic field day...fun stuff, but like you my interests are else where...maybe one day.

      My Pop was a radio man in the military and we had radios growing up he built, he was an electronics genius!
    • meat wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.
      In my area Field Day is all about the food! Everyone keeps asking me when am I going to get a license, and tell them we already have enough to fight about, I don't need to add radios! Last few years I have been on the AT instead of doing Field Day! :thumbsup:
      I've been thinking of getting my lic. For years, we have a local club here @ the David Sarnoff center, which has in the past had a fantastic field day...fun stuff, but like you my interests are else where...maybe one day.
      My Pop was a radio man in the military and we had radios growing up he built, he was an electronics genius!
      Previously the neighborhood at the site of the former WTC was a Mecca of electronics shops and electro-mechanical experts. Wonder if your dad ever visited the area?

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • Dan76 wrote:

      meat wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.
      In my area Field Day is all about the food! Everyone keeps asking me when am I going to get a license, and tell them we already have enough to fight about, I don't need to add radios! Last few years I have been on the AT instead of doing Field Day! :thumbsup:
      I've been thinking of getting my lic. For years, we have a local club here @ the David Sarnoff center, which has in the past had a fantastic field day...fun stuff, but like you my interests are else where...maybe one day.My Pop was a radio man in the military and we had radios growing up he built, he was an electronics genius!
      Previously the neighborhood at the site of the former WTC was a Mecca of electronics shops and electro-mechanical experts. Wonder if your dad ever visited the area?
      My dad worked at the World Trade Center from late '69 to about '87 in think, then transferred out to San Fransisco to finish out his carrier of about 35 plus years with the same company.
    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      I campfire cook only when car camping and I have my big cooler to keep things fresh. Camping and backpacking are two completely different ways to enjoy the outdoors in my opinion. When joining my husband on a HAM radio field day excursion he is totally amazed at what comes out of foil on the fire. It gives me something to do after I hang all the antennas in the trees for him!
      Fellow antenna hangers need to unite and demand better food. Usually what I find at such events are charred hot dogs and nearly raw burgers.
      In my area Field Day is all about the food! Everyone keeps asking me when am I going to get a license, and tell them we already have enough to fight about, I don't need to add radios! Last few years I have been on the AT instead of doing Field Day! :thumbsup:
      My wife Deanna wasn't interested either, I enjoyed having the license for years - then the internet came... no worries.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Hey anybody else out there eat blackeyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Year's day? It's so popular here that if you don't get your blackeyed peas days in advance they get almost impossible to find the day before.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Hey anybody else out there eat blackeyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Year's day? It's so popular here that if you don't get your blackeyed peas days in advance they get almost impossible to find the day before.
      blackeyed peas and collards cooked with pork. never heard about the stewed tomatoes part of the tradition.
      2,000 miler
    • max.patch wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      Hey anybody else out there eat blackeyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Year's day? It's so popular here that if you don't get your blackeyed peas days in advance they get almost impossible to find the day before.
      blackeyed peas and collards cooked with pork. never heard about the stewed tomatoes part of the tradition.
      Yeah. Mix them together with a ham hock or some ham and chopped onions. Serve with cornbread.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Hey anybody else out there eat blackeyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Year's day? It's so popular here that if you don't get your blackeyed peas days in advance they get almost impossible to find the day before.
      Black eyed peas and cornbread for me. :) Have to make them myself since my wife is a Yankee (Indiana). Supposed to make us prosperous, but I just do it for the flavor.

      My mom used to always fry some salt bacon up too.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • couple comments.

      i've "cooked" when hiking, but only on overnighters. don't need to mess with "cooking" on longer hikes. and i rarely do it on short ones. not why i'm out there. i'll cook when car camping.

      i bet many are "cooking" more now than ever. i'm thinking of those who have dehydrators and make elaborate dishes at home and then dry em and then just boil em on the trail. the "cooking" has just moved to the home kitchen rather than on the trail. if was going to "cook" on the trail this is the route i'd go.

      the simplicity of oatmeal, cheese and sausage, and mountain house works for me.
      2,000 miler
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Back on topic, I am thinking about cooking in my pot instead of FBC because of some concerns (founded or not) that I have about injesting chemicals from plastic bags.
      i'm not concerned about chemicals, but i've never gotten into FBC because i never felt that cleaning a pot was that big a deal. i've used plastic bags in the bakepacker but that kinda goes with the territory.
      2,000 miler
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Back on topic, I am thinking about cooking in my pot instead of FBC because of some concerns (founded or not) that I have about injesting chemicals from plastic bags.
      I'm not a fan of FBC due to the above listed concern, valid or not. I'll continue to utilize an elderly SS pot but am considering a Ti if a deal occurs.

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Hey anybody else out there eat blackeyed peas and stewed tomatoes on New Year's day? It's so popular here that if you don't get your blackeyed peas days in advance they get almost impossible to find the day before.
      No, but I remember you guys mentioned this a year or so ago, prior I hadn't heard this before. Love me some black eyed peas and ham bone though, been awhile since I made it though.
    • max.patch wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      Back on topic, I am thinking about cooking in my pot instead of FBC because of some concerns (founded or not) that I have about injesting chemicals from plastic bags.
      i'm not concerned about chemicals, but i've never gotten into FBC because i never felt that cleaning a pot was that big a deal. i've used plastic bags in the bakepacker but that kinda goes with the territory.
      I share similar concerns - so you test the bags at home by filling them in the sink with hot boiling water.

      Freezer Bags are the best
      Glad held up very well
      Ziplock not so much
      other brands fell apart.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Wise Old Owl wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      Back on topic, I am thinking about cooking in my pot instead of FBC because of some concerns (founded or not) that I have about injesting chemicals from plastic bags.
      i'm not concerned about chemicals, but i've never gotten into FBC because i never felt that cleaning a pot was that big a deal. i've used plastic bags in the bakepacker but that kinda goes with the territory.
      I share similar concerns - so you test the bags at home by filling them in the sink with hot boiling water.
      Freezer Bags are the best
      Glad held up very well
      Ziplock not so much
      other brands fell apart.
      I only used Glad freezer bags, but I am still concerned about chemicals leeching out. And I'm one of those people who despise plastic bags, especially the kind from the grocery store. Sometimes I forget my re-usables and I just carry the stuff out in my arms if I can.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference