Customer Reviews

The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook: 150 Delightful, Delicious, and Darn-Near Foolproof Recipes from Two Top Wilderness Chefs

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I was hoping that this would be a more useful camping cookbook. It is really a gourmet cookbook that tries to be a camping cookbook by using "sierra cup" as a unit of measurement (a "sierra cup" is a fancy backpacking cup purchased at trendy outdoor stores, and holds about 9 ounces)and by illustrating it with camping pictures and artwork. The ingredients for most of the recipes require access to gourmet and specialty stores.

When I go camping, I like to camp. I like to fish, hike and enjoy the outdoors. If you use this cookbook, you need to be someone who likes to cook. And I mean really likes to cook. In fact, camping must be something that you do to impress your friends with how environmentally conscious you are, while you whip up a meal of "Vegetarian Chicken Lemon Grass Soup" and "Spinach & Roasted Peppers Risotto." These are great sounding dishes that I would order at an expensive restaurant, but not something that I would want to spend hours preparing over my Coleman stove while the trout are biting.

The book tries really hard to be a camping book (remember the "sierra cup" thing?). But, it refuses to call a biscuit a biscuit. The book refers to them as scones. Scones are cool when sitting at an outdoor table at Starbucks discussing the evils of a capitalistic society with your liberal friends, but come on, when camping, I eat biscuits!

All in all, if you like gourmet recipes and gourmet cooking, and don't mind spending endless hours hunting down exotic ingredients, this is a good book. If you like to enjoy the outdoors, ditch this book, put together some simple, good food and go enjoy!

The fact that everything tastes good outdoors has kept campers eating shoe leather and birdseed for years. This is for the serious back country gourmet who will go just about anywhere and do anything to eat well once they get there. Be prepared to break out the food dehydrator and camping oven. However, recipes like steamed Chinese dumplings and "The Most Dangerous Cake in the Wilderness" are good enough to serve at home. The book is lightweight at 17 ounces, yet packed with tasty ideas. "Leave No Crumbs" is the best kind of camp companion: it kept us well fed and laughing.

When I purchased this camp cook book, I didn't realize that the recipes would all share one thing in common: they involve using the food dehydrator at home before the camping trip. It's really a gourmet dehydrator food cook book!

For those of us who like to cook, camp and eat well, this book has no peer. If you love to cook anyway, this is the book for you. If you don't, stick with the premade stuff you buy at the sporting goods stores as the home prep is critical and time consuming. For me, it was heaven. And the rewards paid off in spades at the campsite because you merely "just add water" to create meals worthy of the finest home dinner party (as proof - we're home and I made one of the recipes for a dinner party this week!). Thank you Rick and Hal for changing the face of camp food -- and for your bright, witty text that made it even more of a pleasure. I can't wait for the sequel.

Collaboratively written and presented by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn (two experienced wilderness chefs who have served as judges for an outdoor retailer's Camp Stove Cook-off Contest), The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook presents and showcases 150 delicious, and down-to-earth easy-to-prepare recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A delightful instructional for elevating a hungry camper's palate while out of doors, The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook includes versatile dishes that can be made to go in advance or prepared once there, including Banana-Persimmon Roll, Roasted Eggplant & Almond Sauce, Fruit Cobbler and much more. The practical recipes come enhanced with tips, tricks, and techniques for preparation, including health precautions to take with the preparation and storage of the more perishable foodstuffs. The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook is very highly recommended for the outdoors enthusiast looking for a taste of something different.

I used to think lightweight backpacking meant settling for bland meals until I came across this cookbook. Not only are the anecdotal stories from this book entertaining, but the recipes are so delicious and easy to follow that I use them at home just as much as I do in the wilderness. The menu from my most recent backpacking trip included: pad thai, risotto, calzone, fresh baked bread, chocolate cake, and sushi. All my backpacking comrades were completely blown away! The book also includes a slew of handy tips to help you get ready for your outdoor culinary adventure. If you are someone who loves backpacking as much as I do, but wants something more satisfying to eat after a long day of hiking, this book is for you.

I spent an hour contemplating and chuckling over the first 50 pages... and I have 150 more pages to go. A quality cookbook is one that provides a fresh perspective on techniques and/or ingredients. If you're looking for simple camping fare, then you don't need a cookbook - stick a hot dog on a stick and you're happy. And who can blame you? But if you're reaching for an altogether different outdoor cooking paradigm, grab this book.

This book has great recipes, especially considering most backpacking food comes in freeze-dry packaging. The writing is entertaining, as well as very comprehensive and useful.

This "camping cookbook" has some very good ideas in it. Most of the recipes, however, do not seem to practical for tent camping considering the lack of storage and refrigeration. Using a home dehydrator is an excellent idea. If one were camping with an RV these recipes would be very useful.

My husband and I are avid campers, and granted we like to eat well. But a nice grilled steak or a trout with lemon slices and pepper wrapped in foil with a salad on the side, takes only minutes to prepare and is just as good to us as a meal we would spend hours at the coleman to make.And those meals would leave us time to play in the woods, swim, or sight see. Granted the book has some cool ideas and tips but as a cookbook to the dedicated camper instead of the gourmet, forget it.