"Backpack Gourmet"

[redhawk]

This book does not qualify as "gear" but it certainly is a "must-have" for anyone who spends any time in the outdoors and is looking for "Good hot grub you can make at home, dehydrate, and pack for quick, easy, and healthy eating on the trail." I would also add "delicious" to that description on the cover.

The book is written by Linda Frederick Yaffe who is a lifelong camper and outdoors person who works as a librarian and teaches backpacking classes. She has written two other books: High Trails Cookery and The Well-Organized Camper. She lives in Auburn, California.

This is the absolute best book I have seen on this subject.
In addition to the recipes (more later) she begins in Chapter 1: Home-dried One-Pot Meals: by explaining many of the basics, including selection of foods, food dehydrators, utensils needed, etc. There are instructions for dehydrating food in an oven as well as a dehydrator.

She tells the best way to store the dehydrated food at home and how to Recycle Dehydrating Materials.
She explains a menu plan, packing the food and food storage on the trail, re-hydrating the food on the trail, cleanup, field equipment, stoves and Safe water.

The actual recipes are broken up by chapters categorized as follows.

Chapter 2: Breakfast and Lunch
Hot Beverages, Hot Breakfast combinations, Hot Cereal
Cold cereal, Breakfast Bars
Drinks, Breads, Crackers, Toasts, Spreads, Jerky

Chapter 3: Sweet and Savory Snacks:
Nuts, Beans and Vegetables
Dried Fruit and Fruit Leather
Trail Mixes
Bars and Cookies

Chapter 4: soups and Stews
Soups
Chowders
Stews
Chilies, Beans and Pilaf

Chapter 5: Pasta Dishes and Casseroles
Meatless Pasta Dishes
Pasta with Meat or Seafood
Lasagna
Casseroles
Other Combination Dishes

Every recipe has step by step directions for preparation, how long to dehydrate and at what temperature. How much water to use to rehydrate, how many servings (4) and the dry weight of each serving.

The meals are delicious and have plenty of carbs and protein as fuel for an active outdoors person. I have often questioned how much fuel there was in many of the commercial freeze-dried and dehydrated meals.

This book truly puts the "Gourmet" in your backpack.

I have tried several of the recipes and field tested them and i have not been disappointed with any.

Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe
Stackpole Books
Paperback: 147 pages
$12.95
Rating: *****

Available through Amazon.Com, I got it for $10.12
STACKPOLE BOOKS

[Wldrns]

This book does not qualify as "gear" but it certainly is a "must-have" for anyone who spends any time in the outdoors and is looking for "Good hot grub you can make at home, dehydrate, and pack for quick, easy, and healthy eating on the trail." I would also add "delicious" to that description on the cover.

The book is written by Linda Frederick Yaffe who is a lifelong camper and outdoors person who works as a librarian and teaches backpacking classes. She has written two other books: High Trails Cookery and The Well-Organized Camper. She lives in Auburn, California.

This is the absolute best book I have seen on this subject.

I absolutely agree this is the best book on the subject, way ahead of any other. I've been using this book for 3 or 4 years and not really had need to open any of the other dozen I used to refer to. Many of the recipes may at first seem really strange, but if you follow the easy directions you get great results with meals you would enjoy eating at home. The best part is it gets you to think of how you can create or modify these and your own recipes in ways you may not have considered for dehydrating. I dehydrate roughly 300 person-meals to be eaten in the backcountry each year. Most come from or were inspired by this book. All of them are lightweight and easy to pack. None require any more field preparation than boiling water. I've never had anyone request to go back to freeze-dried.

If you get into dehydrating the one other general use book I would recommend, considered the "bible" of dehydrating, is Mary Bell's "Complete Dehydrator Cookbook".

[Dick]

A strong thumbs up for this book as well. Some of our fellow campers have sampled some of our meals as they were eating their own freeze-dried swill and were sold. Generally cheaper and easier to use than freeze-dried as well, plus you know the quality of what goes into your meals, without the chemistry lesson.

[wbwells]

Great Tip

Hawk
Thanks for the Tip on this book, I am slimming my load down this year and food was one of the areas I am looking at.....

PS I found it New on Ebay for $11.75 shipped.

Thanks Again

Wbwells