Backcountry Cooking: From Pack to Plate in 10 Minutes (Backpacker Field Guides) (Paperback)

by Dorcas S. Miller (Author) "Just as siting your tent is "location, location, location," preparing backcountry meals is "ingredients, ingredients, ingredients..." (more)
Key Phrases: instant hash browns, insulated bowl, small oven bag, Hot Tips, John Emelin, Spicy Teriyaki Turkey Jerky (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Tasted, tested, and trouble-free from the editors of "Backpacker" magazine and other outdoor experts, this book includes over 144 recipes, along with expert, trail-tested advice on how to plan and pack simple, delicious meals, plus culinary tips from trail veterans. 50 photos. 100 illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 173 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books; 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898865514
• ISBN-13: 978-0898865516
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,080 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a book for those that like to eat, January 31, 2000

By	D. B. Cecil (El Dorado Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is excellent. It may not have the largest number of recipes, but the ones it does have are well thought out, backpacker friendly, and just plain good. The book has a lot of variety too. Each recipe is organized into two parts, the pre-hike preparation (what to do at home) and then then a on-trail section. The authors have tried to simplify the on-trail requirements making meal time easier. The book emphasizes using standard ingrediants (no more expensive store bought freeze-dried stuff) and includes instructions for preserving (dehydrating) your own.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not my first pick, but may be good supplment for hikers., July 30, 2004

By	John H. Henderson (Rockledge, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading many reviews, I purchased this book, BACKCOUNTRY COOKING, and THE BACK-COUNTRY KITCHEN by Teresa Marrone. I can't help but compare the two books, so my opinion on this book is relative to my opinion of the other.

The introduction of BACKCOUNTRY COOKING categorizes camp chefs as Ascetics, Pragmatists or Gourmands. This book leans heavily toward the ascetic-pragmatist end of the scale. As the subtitle, FROM PACK TO PLATE IN 10 MINUTES, may suggest, the emphasis is on quickly-prepared meals. As a consequence, the meals tend to be simple. If you're someone for whom part of the challenge of the camp experience is to create fabulous multi-course meals in the wild, this book is not for you. And, as expected for a book from BACKPACKER magazine, the emphasis is on light packing and cooking with a single-burner stove.

The first part of the book discusses ingredients, tool and procedures as does Marrone's book, but I find the discussion in THE BACK-COUNTRY KITCHEN to be better and more complete, in particular, providing much more detail in home drying foods. BACKCOUNTRY COOKING discusses a plethora of grains, most of which I've never seen in a grocery store. (Different kinds of oats, different kinds of rice, bread bases, etc.) Baking methods are very briefly touched upon, but the book goes little beyond single-burner stove-top cooking.

Sidebars from different magazine contributors are interspersed throughout the book, and give good tips. Some black-and-white photos are also sprinkled throughout the book.

After the introduction, the book goes into the chapters containing the recipes, with each chapter representing a meal or course. One very nice thing is that each recipe includes nutritional information.

Now, I just have a so-so opinion of this book, and it was hard for me to establish why. Like I said, I found the introductory information to be better in the other book. But I think part of my indifference is due to the recipes. There seem to be a lot of ethnic foods - Oriental, Middle Eastern, Mexican. The desserts are mostly rice and bread puddings (yick), and include mincemeat (for dessert?!). Maybe you eat a lot of hummus, but I suspect many people will find that a lot of the recipes are not the kind of things you find at home, and perhaps the trail is not the best place to find out that your body has strange reactions to strange food. Furthermore, many of the ingredients, such as the grains and beans, are things I just don't see in the local supermarket. To the author's credit, they give a complete appendix of mail-order companies, but I'm not particularly excited about paying shipping to experiment with recipes.

Teresa Marrone's book, although including more multi-burner, multi-pot recipes for canoeists, car campers and others able to carry more gear, also has many single-burner lightweight recipes for hiking. It seemed to me that her book had more recipes that BACKCOUNTRY COOKING but, in fact, the number of recipes were similar. (BACKCOUNTRY COOKING has 144, and THE BACK-COUNTRY KITCHEN has 150.)

My recommendation is to start with Marrone's THE BACK-COUNTRY KITCHEN. If you feel the need for more single-burner meals, or more quickly-prepared meals, augment it with BACKCOUNTRY COOKING.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of useful advice and stories mixed in with the recipes., August 21, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Socorro, New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

If you subscribe to Backpacker magazine the things in this won't suprise you, but having them all collected together is great. Lots of interesting recipes, good stories about cooking, and useful advice really rounded out my bookshelf.