It seems that every season there is an abundance of new ultralight camping equipment on the market, and while I do love me a titanium spork or french press, I feel like outdoorsy folks can be a bit obsessed when it comes to the weight of our equipment.

Now, mind you, if you are packing 3 days worth of kit into your pack then the following probably won’t pertain to you (more on ultralight gourmet cooking in a future article!) With all of this said, let’s talk about cast iron.

Why cook in cast iron? It’s heat retention, flexibility of use and ease of cleanup cannot be beat. If you want to cook acidic based sauces or soups (not recommended with regular cast iron) simply use an enameled cast iron pot.

I usually bring along several cast iron cooking implements including a skillet (or two) and an enameled pot. Skillets are perfect for cooking pancakes and eggs and enameled pots are perfect for soups and stews.

The post Kimchi Beef Stew and Defense of Cast Iron Camp Cooking appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

Farm-to-table restaurants and known direct sourcing of food is all the rage in the restaurant scene right now. Go to a steakhouse and you’ll hear from your waiter where the cows graze. Go to a coffee shop and you’ll likely see photos of the fair-market coffee harvesters carrying coffee sacks on burros and working the beans in roasters. People like knowing where their food comes from. Don’t believe me? Remember “mystery meat” from your high school cafeteria? I know I do and that is why I put that memory in the very back of my mind. Recently, I had a chance to take a great group of my friends out into the backcountry for a camping trip and demonstrate among other things, how I source food in a truly unique way. As someone who believes in sharing bushcraft skills and good food, my signature “bushcraft trout” is an eating experience I know they will not soon forget. 

I live near one of the best trophy trout rivers in the country, the Farmington River in Connecticut. Having grown up in this area and having guided kayaking and canoeing on the river during my summer breaks from high school up through graduate school, I have a very good knowledge of where the big fish are and how to catch them.  On the camping trip I previously mentioned, my friends joined me to learn some of the bushcraft skills they know me for in my Instagram feed photos, Facebook posts, and in casual conversation when they ask me where I’m going and what I’m doing on the weekend. During that weekend, I wanted to show them the whole process of catching fish from the onset of collecting bait to the ending in wiping their mouths clean when all the meat is stripped from the fish bones.

After a torrential downpour at the start of the weekend, bait meant one thing: nightcrawlers. Even the rain that annoyed us earlier in the morning turned into a great group-building experience searching for crawlers under leaves and laughing in the process.

I showed my friends how to look for “worm poo” and how to rattle them out of the ground. The latter of the two steps involves driving a stick into the ground approximately 12-18 inches where there is plenty of worm poo near the surface and then tapping on the side of the stick. The vibration drives many of the worms out of the ground and they are easily picked up. Other times, we just turned over logs and flipped leaves over to find worms wiggling together and bouncing wildly to escape. My friends learned what “opening a can of worms” meant literally. In a short time, we filled an old worm container with a few dozen big and juicy crawlers with nice fat bands to hook into.

Worms !

After collecting crawlers, I went right to my favorite fishing spot. Located behind the canoe shop not far from where we camp and…wait..I can’t tell you the exact location as it is a secret fishing hole. Once I arrived at my favorite location, I cast my line upstream and let it float down in front of a large tree that provides great shade even on the hottest days. The combination of a float, swivel, length of fluorocarbon with split shots, swivel, another length of fluorocarbon, hook, and worm was too much to resist. This hole normally produces a good 12 inch plus trout but on this day, I pulled out a brown trout that was approximately 16 or 17 inches using my crude end of the fishing pole to marking measurement system. As my friend Dave H. says, it’s “pert-in-nair” measurement as in pretty near that size.

After a respectable fight, I walked ashore to see my friends with my fish behind my back. They expected a guppie and were surprised when I delivered a fish large enough to share. After a brief fish cleaning demo where I demonstrated the process of removing the guts and examining the contents of the stomach, I told my friends I was going to cook them up something special. 

With my fish cleaned and set aside on some aluminum foil, I walked to a section of the property where we were camping where I had walked through earlier. At this spot, I located wood sorrel and garlic mustard. I collected a handful of wood sorrel and also trimmed some of the old garlic mustard seed pods. For those of you unaware, wood sorrel and all sorrels for that matter contain oxalic acid that imparts a lemon-like flavor. It is a great stand-alone trail nibble and it is fantastic in salads. In this circumstance, it was going to provide ½ of the flavoring of the fish I just caught. The garlic mustard seeds made up the second ½ of my flavoring. Mustard seeds are spicy and when cooked together, a “bushcraft lemon pepper” seasoning is accomplished. I took the sorrel and the garlic mustard seeds and filled the fish’s cavity with it before covering it in aluminum foil and placing it right on the grill over the fire. Anyone can use premade seasonings. Going out into the woods and finding everything needed really went over great with my friends. 

After cooking the fish sufficiently on one side, I flipped it over and cooked it on the other. Only occasionally did I test how done the fish was by slightly peeling back the aluminum foil. I didn’t add much olive oil (it actually isn’t necessary) to prevent sticking since the skin of the fish peels cleanly off when it is fully cooked. As hot as our hardwood fire was, it didn’t take long for the fish to cook and I removed it from the fire to portion it out.
The great thing about catching a larger fish is that there was enough for everyone to try it. A larger fish has a good set of shoulders and this meat peels easily from the bones. The rib meat is also more substantial than a smaller fish and this too is worthwhile pulling away. In smaller fish, you really need to suck on the bones to access it. With something more substantial, the meat can be grabbed easily. Once one side of the fish was consumed, I flipped it over and served the other side. It didn’t take long before it disappeared too. Friends who eat fish regularly remarked how fresh it was and those who don’t even like fish commented on how they simply had to try it and when they did, they didn’t regret it.

To say, “the fish did not go to waste” is an understatement. I’m not saying this because all that was left was an intact skeleton. Not only was I able to give some caloric nutrition to my camping party, but I was also able to show how a person can source bait, herbs, and spices and fresh protein from the great outdoors. As much as we all love gear, I’m certain we all appreciate experiences equally if not more. In less than an hour, I showed a group of people how I do it, and sharing what I love with those who are willing to listen is what propels me forward. There was no waste in taking that fish. Friends shared a great meal together and a transferable skill set was passed along. I’ll take that dining experience to the trendy restaurants any day!

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All around the world different civilizations and cultures have developed ways to get necessary and filling carbohydrates by making bread while on the go and/or from minimum ingredients.

Fry bread, tortillas, pita- some baked directly in the ashes of a campfire have kept people going for centuries. 

Today’s Camp Kitchen recipe comes from an amalgamation of these recipes with a North American spin. 

Hoe cakes are often thought of a southern dish, but probably go back further to American Indians who cooked ground corn mixed with water and possibly salt on hot rocks. 

Over time the ingredients expanded and method morphed to what are known as Hoe Cakes, Johnny Cakes.

The food picked up the semi-misleading name of Hoe cake started as early as the 1700s. Some believe the term hoe cake came from the method of actually using the farm implement as the cooking surface. Others point to the term hoe being a common name for a flat griddle. 

In 1793 “Rhode Island Johnny Cake” was used in possibly the first cookbook printed in the United States. Even Johnny Cake, may have been originally called Journey Cakes since they could be made in advance and eaten on the go. -Whatever you call them they are good!

The Hoe Cake batter is pretty much the basics of what you’d use to make corn bread. The Ingredient list is pretty straight forward and depending on what you have on hand can still be made with substitutions here and sugar and salt adjusted to taste. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Self Rising Flour 

1 Cup of Cornmeal again self-rising if you have it or corn meal mix for making corn bread. 

2 Eggs

1 Table Spoon of Sugar (Again this can be subbed with another sweet like honey or agave)

3/4 cup of butter milk- if yo don’t have it add a dash of lemon juice to milk. 

1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil or Bacon Grease (We like the bacon method!)

1/3 cup of water

This should make 10-12 cakes. 

Something to fry your cakes in: Oil, butter, or clarified margarine or you guessed it, bacon grease!

Method:

Combine all the ingredients and stir throughly to make sure you don’t have lumps. Should be a fairly thick batter. 

Once your skillet or frying pan is nice and hot and you have your frying oil going start spooning in the batter a table spoon or two just like making pan cakes. As the cook they edges should turn golden and once the cake is solidified on the bottom where it can be lifted completely without breaking you can turn it over. 

This again is up to your taste some people like them more “well done” just don’t burn ‘em.

Depending on the size of your pan you should be able to dow two at a time. As you cook your cakes you may have to add more grease, oil or butter as the cooking cakes will soak it up. 

Put on a paper towel to take up the extra grease and then dig in. 

Depending on your personal tastes and ratios of sugar these can be enjoyed with maple syrup just like a pancake or eaten along with more savory dishes like stew, chili or cooked greens.

Hoe Yeah, Cakes !

Take your Hoe Cakes to the next level and make them a meal in them selves by adding grated cheddar, chopped jalapeño, green onion and chopped bacon (cooked you knuckle head)  into your batter. This makes your cakes even more filling and much tastier!

Cook the bacon first and then your skillet will have a nice layer of delicious bacon grease to cook in. Extra bonus- your cakes will pick up the cooked bacon bits on the bottom of the pan.

Once you get the hang of it you can substitute any left overs you have or try different flavor combinations like ground meat or sausage, ham, cheeses, onions and peppers.

Pro tip: Make your batter ahead of time and put it on a water bottle. It will keep in your ice chest or fridge for two days which is enough for a weekend campout., but we don’t think they’ll last that long!

The post Hoe Cakes appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

I have been thinking about writing this article FOREVER and finally had a chance to test out a few recipes on a recent trip to Lava Beds National Monument. I am a relatively seasoned camp cook but baking over a fire has always seemed like a daunting task. How silly of me, it’s so easy!

First off, in searching for a recipe I wanted to find something that was multi-useful. In other words, the base ingredients would be flexible enough to use the recipe for multiple dishes. In baking, as long as you get your basic ratios straight (flour to fat to leavening ingredient) you can season it for sweet or savory.  I also used this basic recipe (minus the butter) for campfire chicken and biscuits so look for another article soon.

Secondly, I wanted a recipe that could be partially put together before hand at home so it was easy to prepare when outdoors with potentially limited counter space. For this recipe, I combined the dry ingredients at home, threw it in my pantry bag or cooler, once camp was set up, I kneaded in the butter and added the buttermilk…voilà, instant biscuits!

A few words on the method of baking over a campfire: essentially what you want to do is to create radiant heat that evenly cooks the food. My first few attempts at this resulted in overcooking on one side of the pan and undercooking on the other. I think this is a pretty common rookie mistake and I was happy to get advice from my dad on how to fix the issue. He recommended using a second larger cast iron skillet filled with rocks set atop the hottest coals to create a base that will help distribute the heat more evenly as well as creating a buffer zone to prevent the bottom of the biscuits from burning…brilliant!

Cooking Method:

1. After getting my coals gray hot (I found a combination of charcoal and firewood provided the perfect amount of heat needed for this project) and half-buried the large skillet.

2. Next, I filled the large skillet with 1-2 inch sized rocks.

3. Then, I placed the Dutch oven atop this and added the biscuits to the pan.

4. Put the lid on and cover with a few pieces of charcoal and a few of the smaller pieces of wood coals. Leave for 15 minutes before you take a peek at the progress (timing is not an exact science when using fire). Carefully remove the lid to see if the tops of the biscuits are golden. You don’t want to wait until they are completely browned to remove them from the coals as the remaining radiant heat of the Dutch oven will continue baking them for several minutes after.

5. I found using silicone oven mitts to remove the oven from the fire worked brilliantly.

Campfire Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar (1 Tb. If you want slightly sweeter)
2 tsp. baking powder

1 stick cold butter, chopped into small pieces
3/4 to 1 cup of buttermilk (add just enough liquid so the dough holds together without being too tacky)

Preparation:

1.  Before your trip, combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Mix well and store in a leak proof container.

2.  Make sure your butter is cold.

3.  Combine dry ingredients with butter bits and rub butter into flour mixture with your fingertips until the butter pieces are the size of peas.

4.  Put ¾ cup buttermilk into dry/butter mixture and gently mix just until it comes together…don’t over mix or you will have tough biscuits, yuck!

5.  Put dough onto a floured board and press gently with your fingertips until the dough is about ¾ inch thick.

6.  Use a biscuit cutter something that is round to cut the biscuits. Alternatively you can simply cut them with a knife if you don’t mind square biscuits.

7.  Place in pan, pressing biscuits against each other. I found this recipe worked well to fill the bottom of a 12-inch Dutch oven with about 10 biscuits.

8.  Place lid on top, cover with coals and let it bake for at least 15 minutes before you check it. If the biscuits are still pale, cover and check every 5 minutes until the tops are golden but not browned.

9.  Serve with gobs of butter and honey or jam and pig out!!

In the next Dutch oven article will tell you how to use this recipe to make Chicken & Dumplings!!  XO and Get Outside!

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Food tastes best when eaten outdoors. It does. It’s what many of us know as a backcountry truth. If you’re overlanding or enjoying vehicle supported camping, the camp kitchen is typically afforded a larger array and variety of supplies, utensils, ingredients to food stuffs. You can achieve a rather high degree of gourmet cooking in these circumstances. This article will focus on a more person-carried, backpacking-centric recipe and preparation for one of our favorite meals, the Vietnamese noodle soup known as pho. Note that this is our best approximation of this dish in a backcountry context. While we will describe our recipe with a number of fresh ingredients, our dish is field expedient and is not intended to go toe to toe with a culinary purist’s definition of a regional Pho dish served at a sit down table. That said, most pho fans who backpack will find this a very tasty meal while in the wilderness.

Before we begin, we can acknowledge the many readily available freeze dried, quick prep backpacking food options that have been on the market for decades. Literally “just add [hot] water” into these foil coated plastic packets, stir, wait and eat. The taste and menu selection for these vacuum sealed food packets have certainly improved over the years. Some are actually pretty good, some are more on the meh side of things, and for some an acquired taste. For backpackers on 5+ day trips to alpinists where an ability to cover greater distances and lighter weight loads are very important considerations, these freeze dried meals are quite often the standard fare. Compact, low weight, easy prep, and calories to keep you going. Some downsides of freeze dried backpacking meals are a growing desire for “fresh” food after a few days, being too salty is a common criticism, and for some the wish for your gassy tent mate to sleep outside.

For those of you who are looking for an alternative to the freeze dried pre-packs and are DIY capable, I will walk you through a backpack friendly, trailside meal that is low cost, easy to prep and a fresher tasting break from the norm. This dish is best eaten in the first two days out in the backcountry due to the nature of the fresh ingredients.

Many parts of the US now have grocery stores that offer a wide variety of international foods. In the California Bay Area and many other cities, an Asian-centric store can be found. For around a dollar and some change per package, any number of imported Asian-style packaged instant noodles are available. These are different than familiar Top Ramen® variety, and are instant in the fact they do not require any “cooking”. Like the freeze dried backpacking pre-packs, “just add hot water”.  Unlike the freeze dried foods, you do not end up with an unrecognizable mash of flavor in a bag. Over time, numerous trips to the grocery store, and taste testing, here are a few instant noodles that we like after a few rounds of trial and error.

These are all rice based type noodles. The two with “Pho” on the packaging are based on the Vietnamese noodle soup of the same name, and the “Bo” and “Gha” indicating beef flavor and chicken flavor respectively. The package of noodles with the unrecognizable title pictured was something we landed on by trial and error, we’ve tasted tested, and by reading the back learned it has the same 3 minute hot water steep time as the pho variety shown. We mentioned it here as it allows a wider variety of proteins and add-ins to be added, and yields a more general “Thai” flavor. We like it because it’s easier to mix and match add-ins with this style noodle if you don’t happen have the ingredients more apropos for the pho styles.

Again, all these instant noodles “cook” by simply soaking in hot boiling water for 3 minutes in a small covered cookset pot or container.

The key to this entire dish is the DIY pre-prep.

• You’ll need to use pre-cooked beef or chicken before hitting the trail. We use anything from sliced leftover rib eye steak or roast, to shredded roast chicken breast. Put meat into a ziplock baggy and freeze it overnight.
• Slice Jalapenos and green onions, and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro and bean sprouts (mung bean) to your liking and set aside. If you want to go the extra mile, bring a slice of lime.
• Not typical to Pho, but I added a few sugar snap peas to our recipe. They have a great crunch, flavor and stay fresh for days.
• The morning before getting in your car or shuttle to the trailhead put in the fresh greens in with the frozen meat, wrap well in the ziplock or even make a mini vacuum seal pack. Place in the middle of your backpack to keep cool for for as long as you can.

For those of you who wish to extend this dish beyond 2 trail days, we would recommend replacing the previously described fresh ingredients with the following:

• Freeze dried green onions and cilantro. Our favorites are from the herb brand Litehouse Foods.
• Vacuum packed vegetarian soy “meat slices”. Many brands out there, try out a few and pick one that you like.
• Bring an uncut lime and Jalepeno pepper to cut and use at time of field prep.
• Sugar snap peas if desired as these will last and stay fresh for more than 3-4 days in mild temps.
• Skip the bean sprouts as they won’t last beyond 2 days in our experience, especially when the weather is warm. You can replace with a carrot to julianne for a nice crunch and fresh taste as an alternative.

With this selection of these latter ingredients, you can extend this dish to prep out 3-4 days. Longer if you are winter camping.

The day and conditions of this field food demo was during the winter, 4100’, and 27º at 1300 hrs. Any number of backpacking style of stoves can be used to boil the water needed to make this dish. To keep my wilderness skills honed, I opted to use a Solo Stove, which burns wood and is my favorite biomass fuel backpacking stove. Because this was a winter run for this dish, I also brought along a 17oz, double wall, stainless steel vacuum food container to prepare this meal in. It keeps everything hot, and longer, especially while eating. I used an Isosteel brand food container, which is FDA approved, BPA free and boasts ‘approved for use from the German Bundeswehr”. This well made and affordable double wall container was purchased from amazon for $12 delivered, at the time of this article.

During warmer weather, preparing this dish in your stove cookset pot works just fine.

I typically carry a small camp hatchet or tomahawk and my PDW Griffin Pack Knife to prepare wood to use with my Solo Stove. Sure, this whole process takes longer than using a liquid or gas fossil fuel stove, but I enjoy this aspect of time in the field where I can practice my competency in fire starting and using wood as fuel.

Please note where you are hiking/camping and whether or not you can collect downed wood or cut your own. Some areas may require a permit to use a stove, have a fire or cut wood. If you wish you can bring a few pieces of precut “kindling sized” wood, which takes up little room strapped on the outside of your pack, and in my case I also used the unburned kindling as a base for my stove on the fresh snow on the ground.

It’s always a good idea to have matches and/or a Bic lighter in your pack. It is the easiest manner in which to start a fire. Some type of tinder of your choosing either store bought, or DIY is very helpful, unless you really want to try your fire starting skills with found materials in a snow covered winter environment. I opted to start up my stove fire somewhere in between without using a match or lighter, but using tinder, a one-handed sparking unit and kindling to cut when setting up.

Setting up this trailside meal while sitting on top of my PDW Technical Picnic Blanket with my pack and gear laid out kept me off the snow covered ground and a nice area to kick back on.

Of the many wood burning backpacking-survival stoves I’ve used, the Solo Stove is by far my favorite. It is very well made, easy to set up, use, and burned cleanly and efficiently. It all nests perfectly inside my cookset. I really like how you can feed the stove with wood without moving the pot once it gets going. It is a smart, simple design.

I used the Pho Bo instant noodle package for this demo and brought along some leftover sliced ribeye steak with my other ingredients. As it was in the high 20s during this day out, all my pre-prepared food stayed cold. Some of the meat was actually still frozen. I poured about 400ml of water into my cookset pot (the instructions on the back of the noodle package calls for 350 ml or about 1.5 cups, but I like a little extra water to use for clean up) and placed on top of the Solo Stove to boil. I then placed the noodles, included flavor packets (this where I like how you can choose how much of the flavor packet to use and suit to taste) and DIY add-ins inside the stainless food container. The 17oz container size fits all the ingredients with hot water just about perfectly.

While taking my time and preparing this meal, I was feeding the stove with wood to keep the fire burning. All said and done, it took about me about 7 minutes to notice the steam from the boiling water.

Once the water was boiling nicely, just pour into the stainless double wall container and then screw the lid pack on. Since it was 27º out this day and the ribeye was still a bit frozen, I opted to wait 4 minutes instead of the instructed 3 minutes for the meal to steep. I wouldn’t recommend steeping for more than 4 minutes otherwise you may end up with mush instead of nice noodles.

The vacuum container was definitely a plus for the colder conditions and kept everything nice and piping hot at the end of 4 minutes and also while I was eating. It was nice to keep the stove going for a little longer as company while I chowed down on the pho. The fire also kept my extra water hot I had leftover in the cookset pot to rinse off my cookware after I finished eating.

A hot bowl of pho on a cold day in the backcountry definitely hit the spot. Anyone who has camped out or bivouacked in the winter knows how quickly hot food can get cold in a normal bowl or cookset pot. Using a double wall container kept the food hotter longer in these colder conditions and made for a really great trailside meal.

Taking a little time to try out new DIY dishes in the backcountry can really expand your camp menu. You don’t have to always be stuck with the same, tired old freeze dried chili mac or beef stroganoff in a bag as a hot meal when hiking or backpacking. This is just an example of what you can do to experiment and come up with some fresh alternatives to your meals in the field. Our Field Pho can easily be rotated into your overlanding menu as well for the times when you may not want to spend as much time preparing something more elaborate even if you can. Variety is the spice of life and when it comes to eating in the backcountry and adding this dish to your line up may be a very welcome and easy to make change up.

*Please remember to always take care when making and using fires in the wilderness. Extinguish all open flames and embers properly. Pack out what you pack in and leave no trace.

Live wild, wise and free my friends!

The post Field Fi Pho Fun appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

The first time s’mores appeared in print was in a 1927 book called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts” by Loretta Scott Crew. Since then “Some Mores” have become a campfire staple for campers of all ages. S’mores check all the boxes of a good dessert: tasty, gooey, crunchy and fun to make. Usually S’mores are only enjoyed during the warm summer months, but you can make them indoors anytime you like and its super easy.

Step 1.

Place a layer of of graham crackers on the bottom of your baking dish.

*You can go fancy if you like and use a pre-made graham cracker pie crust or make your own by crushing the graham crackers and mixing them with some butter before lining you vessel.

Step 2.

Cover the graham crackers with your favorite chocolate. Use broken up/ chopped up hershey bars or chocolate chips.

Step 3.

Cover the chocolate with a layer of marshmallows. You can use the little guys like we did or their big brothers. You can fine tune your ratios by cutting the large marshmallows in half and placing them with their outer layer facing up.

Step 4. 

Bake your S’mores in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until the marshmallows have obtained the level of golden brown deliciousness you desire.

Step 5.

LET’S EAT ! -You can hand everyone a spoon and dig in family style, serve it up on a plate or use more graham crackers to scoop up the gooey, molten goodness.

As you can see it is super easy to enjoy S’mores any time and anywhere you want indoors and it is a real crowd pleaser at parties !

The post Indoor S’mores appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

There’s nothing like a good hot meal after a long day on the trail. The kind that fills you up and warms you from the inside. Along with camping gear the food options for preparation in the Great Outdoors has improved considerably. In the old days strange concoctions using oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts and dried meat weren’t that unusual. Now, with freeze drying and modern packaging and preservation techniques you can have a “home cooked meal” in the middle of nowhere.

Interestingly enough, Chili was one of the original meals made to be prepared in remote places using reconstituted, dried ingredients. There are records going back to 1850 of “Brick Chili” being made for Texas Cowboys working out on the ranges. Dried beef, fat, pepper, salt, and chile peppers were pounded flat together into stackable rectangles. Once on the trail, all the cooks of the chuck wagon had to do was throw the “Chili Bricks” into a pot of boiling water creating reconstituted stew that became a hit with the Cow Pokes.

Fast forward to today and Chili is still as popular as ever for eating along the trail. For our Chili Cook off I purchased several brands of Chili that could be made in the pouch or using a compact camping stove such as a Jet Boil.

On a sunny weekend I iced down some beers and invited some friends over to be judges. We also had condiments that you could have on the trail without refrigeration such as chopped jalapeños, onion, grated cheese and Fritos. (Frito Boats!) All the food was judged without the condiments.

Each Chili was judged on a four point scale on Taste, Spice and Appearance, with one being the lowest and four being the highest. Scores for each brand are averaged out.

One overall comment is you are really hungry, you need to plan ahead. Almost all of the brands required boiling hot water to heat and reconstitute the food, followed by waiting 10-20 minutes to reconstitute. 20 minutes is a long time if you are really hungry and cold.

Luckily, we had fresh made chips from the local tortilla factory to snack on and a cup of dried green salsa, which we also reviewed. If you are on the trail I’d suggest bringing some tortillas or crackers to help fill up on.

Also “Spice” in relative, but as being a collection of Texans and Californians none of us felt that any of the food we tested could be considered spicy. This makes sense since it does come down to individual taste and they need to cater to the lowest common denominator. So if you like your food spicy, better bring some hot sauce.

Mountain Standard Green Chili Salsa “Spicy”

Preparation: Mix supplied packet of olive oil into the cup, add 8 ounces of water, stir and wait 10 minutes before eating.

Taste: 2.4

Spice: 1.5

Appearance: 2.5

Comments: The salsa didn’t really look like your typical salsa, it had more of an appearance like a chime churn or relish.

Quotes: “looks like a spread” “not too salty” “better than nothing”

Mary Jane’s Farm Organic Kettle Chili – 3.3 oz. , 1.5 servings, 270 cal per serving.

Preparation: Add 3/4 cups of boiling water to package or bowl. Wait 7 minutes.

Taste: 3

Spice: 1

Appearance: 2

Comments: This Chili had a more of a soup like consistency. Flavor was pretty good, high on cumin.

Quotes: “lentil soup” “cheese thickens it up” “smells good” “great as a soup, just not chili”

Omeal Vegetarian Chili– 8 oz. , 1 serving, 160 cal per serving.

Preparation: Add heating element to package, pour in 3-5 oz. of liquid. Steam/ heat for 3-5 minutes.

Taste: 3

Spice: 1

Appearance: 4

Comments: The meal is already cooked and not dehydrated so in a pinch you could eat it cold. We used boiling water rather than the heating element. More packaging do to the bag within a bag preparation and heating element. Bag also contains utensil and napkin.

Quotes: “needs hot sauce”  “there’s sweetness from corn ingredient” “Filling” “Self contained” “It would be a four across the board if it was spicier” “beany, Blazing Saddles chili”

Alpine Are Mountain Chili– 6oz. , 2 servings, 270 cal per serving.

Preparation: Add two cups of boiling water to package. (EZ Fill line on bag) Let stand for 10- 12 minutes.

Taste: 3

Spice: 1

Appearance: 4

Comments: The package has a built in ziplock for resealing/ leftovers.

Quotes: “just needs added spice” “very appetizing” “looks like chili” “good”

Good to Go Smoked 3 Bean Chili– 7 oz. , 2 servings, 340 cal per serving

Preparation: Add 2 .5 cups of boiling water to package. Reseal and wait 20 minutes. *Rehydration will take longer at higher altitudes

Taste:1

Spice: 1

Appearance: 1.5

Comments: Even after the prescribed wait time, the chili wasn’t fully rehydrated.

Quotes” “20 minutes is a long time” “2 and a half cups is a lot of water to boil and add to it” “needs longer soak” “label is cool”

Omeal Turkey Chili with Beans– 8 oz. , 1 serving , 220 cal per serving.

Preparation: Add heating element to package, pour in 3-5 oz. of liquid. Steam/ heat for 3-5 minutes.

Taste:2

Spice: 1

Appearance: 3

Comments: Like the other Omeal Chili, this meal isn’t dehydrated and is ready to go cold if necessary. The self-contained kit includes heating element, utensil and napkin.

Quotes: “It’s good overall especially considering ease of making” “pretty filling”

Alpine Aire Black Bart Chili with Beef and Beans– 6 oz. , 2 servings , 290 cal per serving.

Preparation: Add 2 cups of boiling water (EZ Fill line on bag) Let stand 10-12 minutes.

Taste: 2.5

Spice: 2

Appearance: 3.5

Comments: This one got better marks than it’s vegetarian counterpart. We felt 2 cups of water was actually too much and would have had better consistency with less water.

Quotes: “this tastes like chili” “a little salty” “meat flavor” “needs lees water”

Conclusion:

The overall the feeling of all the judges is that these meals were definitely better than they expected, but wait times and prep needed to be considered ahead of time.

And finally, if you are at altitude or been surfing, the salt water does a number on you taste buds – always carry your own source of hot sauce or spices to add heat and kick up the flavor!

Hard work on a Sunday!

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In my constant quest to be more slim-lined and organized with my overlanding gear, my mind was blown when I came across this hack a few years ago from a buddy and fellow adventure on a trip. 

When I first saw this ingenious organized way of storing condiments I couldn’t help but think of Luke Skywalker’s field rations he utilized after crash landing on Degobah. The simplicity of this hack makes it a great inexpensive addition to your gear setup.

To get started all you need is a parts organizer with removable dividers found at just about every local hardware store.

Now onto condiments, the way we do it is instead of throwing out the extra condiments if we run through a fast food establishment we add them to our field condiments tray. Crushed red pepper from your local pizza delivery is a versatile addition to your mobile spice rack and so is soy sauce from Chinese take-out.

Also when staying in a hotel if we have left over tea,instant coffee, sugar, and creamers we will take those home as well and add them to the kit. Some condiments we like aren’t available at food places, but that’s where our PDW Versa Bears come in handy. We fill them up with our favorite condiment and into the tray it goes!

Meals always taste better in the middle of nowhere and having little creature comforts like this make it even sweeter.

*Recipe Extra- when making scrambled eggs add a few hot sauce packets from your favorite source for drive-through tacos. Just add the sauce packets when you beat the eggs- it will add a lot of of flavor and it’s super easy.

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Food always tastes better in the outdoors. Ask anyone who hikes, camps, or spends enough time in the woods to warrant a snack or meal and they’ll confirm this statement. There is no doubt food keeps us running and good food makes us smile. When we travel solo, we concern ourselves more with what we eat rather than how we eat it. For the same reason we likely don’t garnish a single dinner plate at home and eat right from the pot, we also likely don’t go the extra mile in the great outdoors to add an element of flair to our food. That all changes when we travel with those we care about and those who we want to have a great experience. In these circumstances, we pull out all the stops, assume the role of the only cook in the kitchen, and make sure the food we plate up is as attractive as it is delicious.

Presentation Matters

I recently read children tend to eat with their eyes and adults with their minds. Think about the appeal of certain foods and how they eat them. Cold Lunchable pizza, really? An adult wouldn’t consider this a viable food option but a kid would. In the great outdoors, people expect food to look a certain way. They eat the way a child does. They expect hotdogs on sticks or freeze-dried pouches of mush.

When we assume the role of the only cook in the kitchen, we can control how food is delivered. That bag of chilli mac and beef might not be appealing in a foil bag but when placed in a bowl and topped with some fresh onion and a stable hard cheese like cheddar, it starts to look more like a food we’d find at home. When we are able to drizzle sauces on grilled fish or freshly harvest foul, we take the visually food game to whole new level. The same goes for adding an all-spice to grilled fish or a bag of fish fry to dredge your catch in before throwin’ it in some oil.

Anytime I’ve ever taken a friend into the woods and took responsibility for all the camp chores, I’ve splurged on food. Many of these friends have commented on the quality of the food, have come on repeat trips and even snapped pictures of it. Make your food look good and people will react in a favorable manner.

Bake Bread

Bannock mix is a staple in the bushcraft community. It’s only three ingredients, flour, salt and baking powder. Ok, maybe 4 ingredients if you count water. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of mixing your own, carry Bisquick mix. When you bake bread in a camp, you exceed the expectations of those you take out who would never believe fresh baked bread as a possibility.

Bread is enjoyed by our noses as much as our mouths. There is nothing that smells quite like it and whether you make ash cakes, twist bread on a stick, dropped fry bread or bread in a dutch oven, you’ll have everyone on high alert when you get it going in camp. Just remember, it’s bad luck to cut bread with a knife and it should be broken between friends. Think of how fresh bread makes bacon better. Think of how it makes hot soup better. Think of how it tastes with some sugar added. Learn to make bread and not only will you be the only cook in the kitchen but you’ll be the best cook around, at least until the bread runs out.

Sweets

You know how to make an old salt smile? Drop him in the Alaskan Arctic on a sheep hunt and tell him after hiking around the high country you found some Halloween-sized candies in your pack. I can’t vouch for all outdoorsmen but this is what happened when my buddy, Mark Knapp of Mark Knapp Custom Knives, said he had a surprise for me. We were deep in the backcountry and that sweet chocolate was a great morale booster far from our base camp. Later in that trip, Mark’s lovely wife, Angel, packed us some homemade jelly we covered backwoods bread in. Hard candies can hold over hungry campers before dinner. Chocolate can be mixed with peanut butter packets for make-shift peanut butter cups. Chocolate can also be added to the aforementioned bread to make a dessert treat in camp to enjoy right before bread.

Chocolate gives us instant energy from the sugar and sustained energy from the fat it contains. Lately, my chocolate of choice comes from Willy Pete’s, a veteran-owned company that isn’t afraid to incorporate real bacon into some of the flavors. Chocolate doesn’t weigh much and you can’t make s’mores without it. Chocolate, sugary candies, hot cocoa, all of these will boost the morale of campers. I swear, aside from alcohol and tobacco, candy is something grown men will fight for.

Enough Drinks

Whenever someone comes over your house, you offer them a drink. It’s simple courtesy to ask what someone wants to drink when they’re your guest. The same applies in the great outdoors and the being able to offer someone more than chemically-treated water can boost morale and the overall outlook of a camping situation. Powdered instant coffee or cowboy coffee are options to get folks moving in the morning. Tea is good anytime of day whether is is packed in as bags or harvested off the land like white pine needle tea, willow tea or St. John’s Wort. Powdered energy drinks are lightweight and take the funky smell out of water. Alcohol, carried in a small flask, is something that helps bond a group more than intoxicate it. I said, small flask right? Alcohol can be medicinal and fits the multi-use requirement of equipment and provisions carried if that is a concern.

Drinks, whether hot or cold, have a way of improving group morale. Unlike a more choice cut of meat and unfair selection of who gets what, drinks are all the same and you can’t differentiate one guy’s glass from the next. Hot drinks warm the body, cool drinks offer refreshment, bushcraft teas allow you to show off your skills in plant ID. If you’re making hot drinks for a big group, invest in a real coffee pot and don’t mess around making a single cup at a time with a smaller container. Learn to be the type of cook in the kitchen that offers his guests a good drink while they wait for the food to show up in their plate/bowl.

Clean Up

Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Just as we pride ourselves in our ability to keep our firearms and knives clean, our vehicles polished and tuned and our clothes free of mustard and ketchup stains, we should keep our kitchen clean. Do you recall the last time you walked into a disgusting restaurant and expected to eat something with an unknown number of suspect curly hairs in it? I don’t recall one time I saw flies landing on my food on the hot plate where I didn’t question how clean that back kitchen was. We have a habit of associating how clean a restaurant is with how good the food will be.

In the backcountry, you don’t have large stainless-steel restaurant surfaces clean. You don’t have a sink or dishwasher to drop dirty dishes in. You have to work with what you have. The good news, this will require less elbow grease and you don’t have much to clean. The bad news, you don’t have the luxuries of home to make your job easier. Without a scouring sponge, stubborn stuck-on food can be scrubbed off with sand. Without a lot of running water, a collapsible bucket can be filled with soapy water and dishes can soak. If you have a campfire, you can wash plates with untreated river water and dry them off near the fire. Don’t worry, waterborne parasites can’t live on dry surfaces. Take care of your kitchen kit as it will make your cooking experience much more enjoyable than working with pots, pans, and utensils with leftover food on them from whenever the last time was you used them. If you’re the only cook in the kitchen, you have no one else to blame for dirty dishes than yourself. Maybe you can strike a deal with those you’re cooking for. You cook, they clean.

Whenever we go into the woods, our minds track the experiences we have. You likely can’t recall the specifics of conversations from your last trip but I bet you remember if you enjoyed the weather. You might not recall how much money you had in your pocket or how many miles you hiked but I bet you know if you were well-fed. Taste and scent are senses so closely connected and these are both so closely tied to our memory. Make great memories for those you take outdoors by giving them an experiences that hits all of their senses. As the only cook in the kitchen, you have incredible power and responsibility. Follow these tips and you’ll be just as memorable as the food you serve.

The post Why There Should Only Be One Cook in the Camp Kitchen appeared first on Danger Ranger Bear.

On a recent camping trip with friends, we made fresh-baked backcountry biscuits for breakfast. After mentioning this to others, it became apparent that both the method and recipe is little known, or at a minimum, not readily available.

Anyone who regularly goes into the bush for any length of time knows that most camping food leaves a lot to be desired. We spend a lot of time off-grid, and thus occasionally like to indulge in some comfort food. We’ve been experimenting with a Chinese cooking technique, adapted to our Bushcrafting endeavors and gear, and feel it worthy to share.

As we set out to find a way to improve our field cuisine, a couple stipulations came to mind:

1. Minimally complicated: the method had to be fool proof when cold, hungry, resource limited, and as mess-less as possible.

2. That it require the least amount of specialized gear or add-on ingredients to accomplish the goal.

3. Reasonably quick baking time.

4. Easy to transport/robust packaging.

5. Low/No fuss clean-up.

6. IT HAD TO TASTE GOOD!

So with that said, here’s what we did, and how we did it.

The perfect mix for the perfect biscuits

The most efficient method is to use a pre-mixed “add water only” biscuit mix as your base. We have tried more than a few, and have settled on Bisquick Butter for a few reasons: it’s packed in a very sturdy foil-like package, it only needs 1 cup of water to fully reconstitute, the taste is excellent, very low mess/waste, and the cook time is relatively short. Additionally, you can augment the basic mix with locally sourced berries for a breakfast focused side dish or with grated cheese for a hearty dinner accompaniment. Your imagination is the only limit on where you can take this technique.

For the equipment list

You’ll need either a medium sized pot with lid, one liter to 1 ½ liters, or a JetBoil –YES! We have made this same biscuit just as easily with a JetBoil. You’ll also need a silicone baking bowl or cup –check on Amazon as they are pretty inexpensive and it just needs to fit inside the diameter of your cooking pot. Look for Silly Feet Cupcake Cups for the JetBoil, or measure the diameter of your pot, we used a Mors Camping Pot, to find your correct silicone bowl diameter. You want to have at a minimum about ¼” of space around the bowl to allow the steam to travel freely all the way around the inner bowl.

*Note: You want to get a silicone bowl with feet or one that is thick. Normal silicone cupcake liners, especially used with the JetBoil, could melt.

Silicon Bowl and Silicon Cupcake liner with feet

Bushcraft/Camping Biscuit Process

Now that you’ve got your ingredients and equipment, the process is quite simple.

1. If you’re using a traditional pot, build a fire and fuel it enough to get a nice bed of coals going.

2.  According to the manufacturer’s directions, add water to your dough and mix well inside the package that the dry dough mix comes in. Stir thoroughly until the dough forms a sticky ball.

3.  Using the empty silicone baking bowl for reference, add water to your pot or JetBoil until approximately 2/3 the height of the silicone baking bowl’s height is submerged. If you get any water into the bowl be sure to dry the inside thoroughly.

4. Remove the silicone baking bowl and transfer the dough ball into it.

5. Gently place the silicone baking bowl with the dough ball into the cooking pot, and put the pot’s lid on. Be mindful to NOT let any water spill in over the sides.

6. Place the covered pot onto the bed of coals and let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Do not crack the lid until at least 15 to 20 minutes have passed or you’ll lose the steam pocket that’s cooking the dough. The JetBoils cooking time is a bit shorter, as the cupcake liners are smaller, so check those in 12-15 minutes.

7. Test doneness by poking the cooked biscuit with your finger or stick looking for firmness. The biscuit will NOT be browned as it has been cooked with steam, not conventional heating. Consider the biscuit done when it’s as firm as the palm of your hand.

You should end up with a nice biscuit ball in a bowl. The downside to these is that they are not browned. If the moist texture bugs you, it’s easily remedied by taking the biscuit ball out of the bowl, skewering it with a pencil diameter stick and then hand roast the biscuit ball over your coals. In practice this work well, but we usually are too hungry to make the extra effort in browning it up. The upside of fresh warm biscuits is tremendous, and they are texturally they are pretty close to oven baked biscuits, maybe just a tad denser. The fact that we can now “bake” over a bed of coals without a Dutch Oven or folding reflector stove is a huge benefit for the backpacker/bushcrafter. This culinary trick can add variety to your camping experience, and with a little imagination you can really get creative with both main and side dish options –the JetBoil and cupcake liner combo is killer for softboiled eggs!

We have found that the biscuits pair really well with eggs and sausage for breakfast, and any stew, chili, or similar dinner entrée. We’re eager to try Grouse and Dumplings this coming Fall.

We hope you enjoy this quick field expedient technique, and please share your personal results with us if you try it yourself.

Bon appetit!

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