Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail

by Linda Frederick Yaffee

Over 160 recipes for soups, stews, pasta, casseroles, and breakfast and snack ideasPotato Soup Parmesan, Seafood Stew, Sweet and Sour Noodles, Spicy ChickenTips on drying food in a dehydrator or ovenMeals on the trail can be as delicious and varied as meals prepared at home. You can create meals to suit your tastes or diet--vegetarian, low fat, Asian, Italian. Meals prepared and dehydrated at home are compact and lightweight, perfect for the backpacker, and safer than packing perishable foods. The author shows how to prepare the meals so that they will travel well and will be easy to reconstitute in camp. The easy step-by-step instructions detail how to cook and dry lightweight, satisfying meals at home and then prepare them easily in camp--truly complete, instant meals.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Outdoors

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[Felicia A Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heart this book so hard, and I am not even a backpacker. In fact, I stay as far away from the woods and mountains and trails as I can possibly get. If there is not a Starbucks within shouting distance, I am just lost, city girl that I am.

That said, I totally am a prepper-ish type, and this book is awesome for that. Prepred dehydrated meals that you can purchase come from God knows where and contain God knows what. If you prepare and dehydrate your meals yourself, you have much more control over the ingredients.

I tried a few of the recipes for bars and veggies, and all were just fine. I have stocked some things in the freezer and some in glass jars in the pantry...have been pleased and the kids even ate the stuff, which is the deciding factor for me.

What I unfortunately did NOT get to do, that I REALLY want to do, is try some of the complete meals (soups, stews, etc.), and dehydrate them myself. I do not think I have the right dehydrator for that. I have a home use Nesco type (the round kind) and I think to dehydrate liquid meals I need the pull out tray kind, and I have not yet purchased one. So bummer on that score, because I can't wait to try some, but i need to get a different dehydrator first.

Overall, even if you keep yourself off the trails but still plan and prepare at home for when the apocalypse happens (heh), this is a great reference book.

[Lex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was recommended as a grail of trail cooking, but I'm not seeing it. There wasn't a single recipe that struck me as "I should try this" much less "I gotta try this." The book can be boiled down to a single sentence: Cook and meal and then dehydrate it.

[Cory verner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good quick read if you just want some information on dehydrating food. Probably is best used to get new ideas for the trail. If you've ever been stuck for days with a pack full of Mountain House meals, you know you need to do something...that's what prompted me to pick up this book.

In reality much of what is found here can be located for free on the web, but if you want an easy way to browse hundreds of recipes in one place then maybe this book is for you. I prefer to have my wife make a few home cooked meals and start there as a base. Getting too fancy with this stuff is a lot of work and let's face it, expensive.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been searching for this book for such a long time. Finally a book that will tell me how to make dried meals for emergencies. This book is incredible!

[Cassandra Cridland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good options if you have the time and equipment to dehydrate your meals in advance.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book with lots of options for each meal and snacks. I look forward to trying these at home & deciding what I want to dehydrate & bring on my next camping trip.

[Christi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good information with lots of recipes I would actually use. Highly recommend this book and I need to buy it now!

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good stuff. But really only useful if you have a dehydrator.

[Michelle Houghton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked that there was variety in this book that is not available with commercial freeze-dried foods. I also liked that you cook the meal, then dehydrate. This makes cooking in camp a cinch. I just tried out rehydrating one last week on an overnight trip. I let it sit for a couple minutes with water over it. Brought it to a boil, stirred, and let it sit a few more. Great consistency, great flavor. So much easier and cheaper than store bought backpacking foods!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for planning light backpacking trips. I've gotten into some of the one-bag cooking lately, and this makes it all less complicated (and cheaper) by giving you recipes to make in full ahead of time, and then dehydrate. Much easier than trying to find all sorts of already-dried ingredients to combine. I tried the Salmon Stir Fry for this past weekend, and it was great!

[Christy Keeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent advice and tasty recipes. Different from similar books, these recipes are all single pot recipes. You make the full meal at home, dehydrate it as a complete meal, and then cover it with water and just reheat on the trail. The recipes don't require mixing in additional ingredients while camping and take seemingly less time to reheat.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being gluten free, this book was ok, it would require a lot of tweaking to the recipes but I could manage. I personally don't eat a lot of refined carbs like pasta and bread (even if GF) and that's what the majority of this was.

I hate to say it, but the most helpful part of this book was the suggested readings in the back.

[Bob Miller]

I prepared several trail snack receipes from this book: all were great. She focuses on one pot meals more than some more 'elaborate' backpacking cookbooks. If I ever acquire a dehydrator, I will get back to this cookbook.

[Elizabeth Webber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've used the recipes in this book several times and have always found them practical and tasty. The recipes are thoughtful about weight, taste, and nutrition for energy. A good book if you tend to know a while beforehand that you are going on a trip.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gave me ideas not only for camping meals, but for improvements to my 72-hour kits.

[Nicole]

In preparation for this spring?

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made copies of recipes, now need to actually try them.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am inspired by the recipes and if I had a dehydrator I would so be into making some of these for my families adventures.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

These recipes look really good, even for just eating at home! I will have to look into a dehydrator to try with our family's favorites. These will be great for trips to the Boundary Waters!

[Rhoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only criticism is that all the breakfast options; both cold and hot are sweet. Otherwise, I'm really excited to try some of these recipes - even for long road trips; not just hiking and camping.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

All-in-one meals pretty much result in dehydrated slop.

[Kristen Gurri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great recipes but I really need to get a better dehydrator before I try them.