Cote - Wild Eats: Campsite Cooking

WARNING: Although there has been an effort to make the cooking techniques and recipes in this book as accurate as possible, camping, backpacking, and cooking in the outdoors involves some risks, and users of this cookbook assume full responsibility for their own safety.

Wild Eats: Campsite Cooking

2021 Nick Cote

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

PUBLISHED BY

The Colorado Mountain Club Press

710 10th Street, Suite 200, Golden, CO 80401

303-996-2743 | email:

Founded in 1912, The Colorado Mountain Club is the largest outdoor recreation, education, and conservation organization in the Rocky Mountains. Look for our books at your local bookstore or outdoor retailer, or online at cmcpress.org.

CONTACTING THE PUBLISHER

We greatly appreciate when readers alert us to errors or outdated information by emailing .

Nick Cote: author and photographer

Vicki Hopewell: design and composition

Casey Blaine: editor

Gretel Hakanson: copy editor

Sarah Gorecki: publisher

Cover photo: ) cooks over an open fire in the Lolo National Forest. Photo by Nick Cote

DISTRIBUTED TO THE BOOK TRADE BY

Mountaineers Books

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134

800-553-4453 | mountaineersbooks.org

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the people of Colorado through the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District of greater metropolitan Denver for our publishing activities.

Print ISBN 978-1-937052-73-7

Ebook ISBN 978-1-937052-78-2

Printed in the United States of America

Note:= backpacking-friendly recipes

A well-stocked freezer and pantry were necessities where I grew up in rural Wyoming, nearly an hour from the nearest grocery store. Delivery and takeout were never options, nor did we rely on frozen, ready-to-eat meals. Rather, my parents were masters of substitution and creatively stretching fresh ingredients. As a kid, I would often hang around the kitchen, where my parents exposed me to a variety of basic techniques, from roasting a chicken to braising a stew or clearing out the crisper to make a stir-fry. When our family went camping, there were no hot dogs on a stick, but rather feasts of buttered corn on the cob, fish wrapped in foil, and buttermilk pancakes, all cooked on an ancient, forest-green two-burner Coleman stove (maybe you know the one).

When I grew older and started going on scouting trips, our troop leaders took things to a new level: Dutch oven cooking. We learned to cook everything from cakes and biscuits to stews and chilis for a crowd, as well as how to care for the cast iron and leave a clean campsite. Eating in camp was not about just surviving; it was about actually enjoying the time spent cooking, gaining confidence, and learning new techniques. And while theres nothing wrong with a good hot dog on a stick, Im forever grateful to have learned early that campfire cooking can be so much more than that.

For me, cooking is not just a passionit is a lifelong journey to continue to learn and improve my cooking knowledge and skills, indoors and out. I read food magazines when I cant fall asleep at night and spend most of my days thinking about what Ill make for dinner (when Im backpacking, this line of thought usually begins right after breakfast). I have acquired a cookbook collection that requires its own bookcase. Cooking has never been a chore (dishes are another story), but rather a way to slow down and relax at the end of the day. Eventually I found an outlet for my cooking (and camping) obsession, contributing recipes to Backpacker magazine. There I honed my ability to test recipes outdoors and also learned to appeal to a wider audience, forcing me to try new techniques and recipes that I wouldnt necessarily make on my own.

So, if youre wondering about your own ability to take on some of these recipes or arent quite sure about your Dutch oven baking skills, keep my story in mindI have no formal culinary training, just a passion and a strong desire to practice, learn, and discover. If I can do it, you can do it; just be patient, learn from your mistakes, and most importantly, enjoy the journey.