Yvonne Prater - Beyond Gorp: Favorite Foods from Outdoor Experts

beyondGorp

Favorite Foods from Outdoor Experts

beyond Gorp

Yvonne Prater and
Ruth Dyar Mendenhall
with Kerry I. Smith

THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS is the nonprofit publishing arm of The Mountaineers Club, an organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

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

2005 by Yvonne Prater and Ruth Dyar Mendenhall

All rights reserved

First edition, 2005

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Cordee, 3a DeMontfort Street, Leicester, England, LE1 7HD

Manufactured in the United States of America

Project Editor: Laura Drury

Editor: Uma Kukathas

Cover, Book Design, and Layout: Mayumi Thompson

Illustrator: Judy Shimono

Cover photograph: Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Prater, Yvonne, 1932

Favorite foods from outdoor experts / Yvonne Prater and Ruth Dyar

Mendenhall, with Kerry I. Smith. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-89886-890-4

1. Outdoor cookery. I. Mendenhall, Ruth. II. Smith, Kerry I. III. Title. TX823.P6897 2005

641.578dc22

2004021304

Printed on recycled paper

O utdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, skiing, snowshoeing, and kayaking always result in a combination of exhilaration, fatigue, and hunger. Drawing upon the success of the book Gorp, Glop and Glue Stew, which Ruth and I published in 1982, this book is devised to keep you well fed when you are outdoors doing the things you love.

This book is a collection of classic recipes and stories, noted with the icon on the left, from Gorp, as well as new contributionsmany by well-known outdoors folk from several continents. Their culinary talents, insights, wisdom, and wit are sure to hit the spot.

Several of the recipes are well-loved favorites that have been handed down from one generation to the next. Others are favorites that have been adapted to make them easier to prepare on the trail, in locations around the world. Some of them have become standards made and shared at family gatherings, backyard potlucks, and county fairs.

The recipes in this book include snacks to keep your energy from waning, dishes that are prepared at home and then cooked in camp, wild food feasts, and good food with little work. Adaptations of ethnic concoctions might bring back fond memories of a favorite climb in a faraway land. You will also find lots of hints on how to add a little variety to your menu on the trail.

We hope that this book will inspire imaginative cooks who recognize a good recipe when they read one, whether or not they are outdoor adventurers. Who knows, you may become the designated chef on your next outing.

One more thing: be sure to stash the book in your packthe real-life stories shared by these well-known outdoor adventurers may lead to some yarn-spinning of your own.

From kitchen to trail, have a splendid adventure!

A project of this complexity takes a while to complete. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the following people for their interest, enthusiasm, and expertise in helping with this book. Louise Marshall, founder of Signposts magazine, for her brilliant suggestion that Ruth and I include in our cookery book not only recipes, but anecdotes and biographies of well-known outdoors people as well.

My coauthor, the late Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, who passed away in 1989, only seven years after Gorp, Glop & Glue Stews publication. Ill bet she is smiling now, happy to see the book not only endure twelve printings but become the basis for a new book.

Each of the books contributors, for believing in the project and for the time spent combing through personal recipes and cooking ideas, sharing stories, andeven more difficultwriting a biography of themselves.

Dorcas Miller, an outdoor cookbook guru herself, who captured the essence of this book in the introduction. Thanks are extended too for her helpful tips.

The staff at The Mountaineers Books: Helen Cherullo, publisher, Deb Easter, editor, and Kathleen Cubley, managing editor, for encouraging me to update Gorp; Uma Kukathas, copyeditor, Laura Drury, editor; Cheryl Landes, indexer; Mayumi Thompson, book designer; the marketing team; Christine Grabowski and Anne Moreau, interns, the super-sleuths who diligently tracked down many of the original contributors to obtain updated biographies and researched trail food lore; and those who sacrificed off-duty hours to test the recipes in their own kitchens and outdoorsHelen Cherullo, Deb Easter, Kathleen Cubley, Alison Koop, Hally Swift, Tim Warne, and Elaine Bongiorno.

Additional recipe testers, Kymmberly Myrick, Hannah Myrick, Toni MacAdam, Merrill Hayden, and Helga Byhre; thanks to Merrill and Helga for their recipes as well, found on , respectively.

Finally to Kerry Smith, the writer who shared the vision of a renewed life for Gorp, for her tenacity in soliciting new contributions, and for making the difficult decisions about which recipes would make the final cut.

Yvonne Prater

By Dorcas Miller

B efore setting out on a canoe trip in the North Maine Woods, my friend Elaine and I agreed that I would pack breakfasts, she would pack lunches, and we would split the dinners. It was a great plan. But on day one when she pulled out a big bag of carrot and celery sticks, a container of hummus, and a little box of crackers, I knew I was in trouble.

I travel on my stomach.

With thirty-one calories per whole carrot; six per celery stalk; twenty-six per tablespoon of hummus; and fifteen (more or less, depending on the brand) per cracker, there was not nearly enough fuel to keep me going until dinner, on that day or the days following. It was the only time that I have been consistently hungry on trail, and Im looking at thirty-four years of backcountry eating. With carrot sticks in mind, Ive rarely relinquished control over how much and what type of food goes into the communal pack.

An adequate amount of tasty food, a warm sleeping bag, and a comfortable sleeping pad go a long way toward attaining backcountry nirvana. (So does good weather, but thats outside my realm.) Food can make or break an outingit can provide a potent antidote to mosquitoes, blisters, sore muscles, and a heavy pack.