Best Outdoor Cooking

NOLS Cookery National Outdoor Leadership School

NOLS Cookery National Outdoor Leadership School

Wilderness chefs looking to make their meals more nutritious and appealing need look no further than this newest edition of NOLS Cookery, the National Outdoor Leadership School’s classic guide to backcountry cooking. From Cowboy Coffee to Darn Tootin’ Black Beans to Scrambled Brownies, the book’s recipes and culinary advice are guaranteed to please the palate and provide the energy needed for strenuous outdoor activity. Extensive revisions based on up-to-date research have been made to the nutrition section, and nutrient analyses are provided for all recipes. Additional sections cover fire preparation, cooking technique, and ration planning.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Good Cookbook But Not For Backcountry
Claudia’s book uses NOLS techniques to cook in the backcountry. However NOLS is promoted by Backpacking Light Magazine staff who in turn teach ultralight backpacking techniques. The paradox is that in her book Claudia’s cookery involves carrying a heavy pantryload of ingredients most of which do not have the desired nutritional/energy calorie ratio required of backpacking. On short hikes her methods might work but for my purposes (ie JMT,LT,AT) buying her book was a waste of money.

5 Stars nols cookery
a cookbook my son used while going to a nols session, he loves the cookbook even when your not camping or hiking.

4 Stars A classic…
One of the best of the many How-to-cook-in-the-backcountry books. Might as well buy a good digital kitchen scales along with the book since the so-called “NOLS System” is primarily weight based. I give it four stars because of it’s claims regarding NOLS invention of the system (which worked great for the Greeks 2K years before Petzolt and his ilk laid claim to it). Next thing you know they’re going to claim they invented wilderness First Aid.

Oh wait! They already did: Nols Wilderness First Aid (Nols Library)

5 Stars A unique perspective on cookery techniques
I’m a window shopper at outdoors stores. I like the stuff they sell, but I’m a basement rat, the sort of person who might go into convulsions without a nearby internet connection or even a cellular signal. I am most assuredly not NOLS material. But I love this book.

From the perspective of a kitchen geek, this is a pretty cool book because it explains the challenges of cooking in the outdoors, especially without a premade meal plan. The gear is very different from what might exist in a typical kitchen — campstoves little bigger than bunsen burners, cooking pans of appalling thinness and lightness, interesting uses for gear that no one would even consider in a normal kitchen, ingredients that a “serious” cook would never touch. But it all works, and this is a no-panic guide to getting it to work. This edition adds extensive nutritional information about the recipes, essential to backpackers who need to keep their calorie intake up or limit some aspect of their meal ingredients such as salt or fat.

An interesting point about the recipes is that a great many of them are vegetarian. It seems meat does not travel well in the backcountry, so with a very few exceptions (stock bases, beef jerky, bacon bits, etc) a large amount of the recipes use more backpack-stable meat substitutes such as TVP or beans to bulk out the finished dish. The recipes go from the simple (polenta and other boiled grains, soups) to the ambitious (yeasted breads) to the highly unusual (NOLS specialties such as Phil’s Power Dinner, apparently a distant, meatless relative of oyako donburi made with couscous or bulgur wheat). Extensive information is provided on ration planning, and virtually nothing requires at-home preparation (a departure from most backpacking cookbooks).

The one gotcha of this book: know your sources. Some of the ingredients this book uses are NOLS-issued, and you will need to find substitutions for some of them, so familiarize yourself with companies that specialize in camping food so you know where to order your ingredients. Also, their process of packing bulk rations in unmarked bags and distinguishing them by taste when necessary strikes me as being a little brute-force — while it’s always useful to be able to do, is it really that hard to slip a sharpie in your backpack so you can label the flour and potato flakes out on the trail?

5 Stars NOLS Cookery is hot!
I really liked this book on backcountry meal preparation. There are all sorts of usefull ideas from meal planning to packaging. The bulk of this book contains a large list of actual recipes proven at the NOLS. I liked the fact that the book actually has recipes that you could use. I expected a little more in the stove and cookware category, but only a minor gripe. I really did enjoy this book and plan on using it for future camping trips.

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Lodge Texas Treasury of Dutch Oven Cooking Cookbook

Lodge Texas Treasury of Dutch Oven Cooking Cookbook

This Dutch oven cookbook is full of easy to follow recipes cooked in competitive cook-offs sanctioned by the Lone Star Dutch Oven Society during 1995-1996. This book also includes history, valuable facts, and welcomed cooking tips. 234 pages

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars This is the best dutch oven cooking book around!
I don’t usually buy cookbooks any more becuase you can usually find any recipe you want on the web and you don’t have to house the cookbooks. I saw this cookbook in a store one day and there were so many great recipes and good information that I bought it for my husband as a gift. It is the best collection of information on dutch oven cooking and recipes I have ever seen and I own a number of dutch oven cook books already. It has many great recipes and even has a recipe for dutch oven ice cream, no kidding. It is just really great. I would reccommend this book to beginners as well as seasoned cooks (no pun intended).

5 Stars Great companion to the Dutch Oven.
As a former Scoutmaster, My scouts and I have cooked many a meal in Dutch oven and cast iron cookware. After browsing through this cookbook, I plan to dig out my dutch oven and try some of the recipes I had never thought of.

5 Stars Lodge Texas Treasury of Dutch Oven Cooking Cookbook
Great cook book like the way it tells you how much charcoal to use easy to follow .

4 Stars A great collection
This book is a great collection of easy to read and easy to follow directions. Some of the recipes might be over the head of the first time dutch oven user but cooking with a dutch oven is so easy and the directions so well written that you will be cooking the most complex recipes in no time.

I have over 25 years experience in the Boy Scouts of America and have been dutch oven cooking for almost as long.

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Variety Cooking Vol 1 Ep Vi Entertaining Outdoors

Variety Cooking Vol 1 Ep Vi Entertaining Outdoors

Chef Tim McCusker takes his talents outdoors to the grill. He’ll show you how to prepare the ideal dishes for a party in your backyard. In this episode, Chef McCusker will prepare a simple and tasty Cedar Plank Salmon, Smoked Tomato Hummus, Chicken satays, and Cuban Lemonade” - which are perfect for the summertime Pool Party or Garden Cocktail Party. So fire up your grill and join us for some outdoor fun.

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