Product Description

Imagine this: You're at a campsite 10,000 feet up in the Third Mono Creek Recess of the high Sierras. You have no refrigerator, no food processor, no non-stick cookware, no measuring spoons, no pepper mill, no sea salt. How are you going to cook a meal that is imaginative, delightful, and delicious? That's what The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook is all about.Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn show anyone who loves the outdoors how to make homemade pizza, braid challah, wrap poached trout in a sushi roll, and even make dumplings for Chinese dim sum at their campsite.

Campers who have never cooked anything more complicated than s'mores might feel uncertain about tackling chocolate mousse in the wild, but Greenspan and Kahn have three decades of experience teaching camp-out cooking. "We've taught people who could barely boil water," they say. And they are reassuring about trailside mishaps. If your grilled trout falls into the fire, take it out, brush off the ash, and rename the dish Cajun Blackened Trout. If the eggs break in their plastic container, make a dinner of crépes, huevos rancheros, and a cake. "The point of wilderness cooking is to have fun," say Greenspan and Kahn, "not worry if the Académie Française is looking over your shoulder." You'll find recipes for soups and stews; fruit, vegetable, and tofu dishes; pilafs, risottos, and polenta; pasta, noodles, and dumplings; sauces and schmeers (that's Yiddish for spreads); pancakes, crépes, and soufflés; pizza and quiche. An entire chapter is devoted to trout, and the book even includes a recipe for chocolate cake. There are instructions and tips for all sorts of of cooking techniques, including dehydrating, baking in coals or on a camping stove, grilling, frying, and steaming. And several pages are devoted to trip planning: how much food to bring, what to look for in a camp stove, how long you can expect your cooking fuel to last. This book is perfect for car campers, backpackers, bikers, canoeists, tail-gaters, and day picnickers who want good food to be part of the outdoor experience

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204745 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review

“…chock-full of recipes, techniques and humorous wilderness wisdom…” –St. Paul Pioneer Press

“…these California authors have managed to adapt everything from baguettes to sushi for trailside preparation.” –Boston Herald

“Nutrition conscious foodies…will love that they can still eat fruits and vegetables when they break camp.” -New York Daily News

“[A] beautifully designed cookbook, this one borders on – pardon the pun – the campy, and that makes it a fun read.  Recipes are easy to follow, and an interesting twist is that many of the recipe instructions are broken down by things you can do at home and things you can do at the campsite.”  -- San Diego Union Tribune

About the Author
Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn the authors of two previous outdoor books, have fressed (eaten like gourmands) in the wilderness for more than 60 combined years and have sought tall that time to convert the world to good eating in the backcountry. In their spare time, they fiver cooking demonstrations and judge cooking contests in California where they both live. 

Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn the authors of two previous outdoor books, have fressed (eaten like gourmands) in the wilderness for more than 60 combined years and have sought tall that time to convert the world to good eating in the backcountry. In their spare time, they fiver cooking demonstrations and judge cooking contests in California where they both live. 

Customer Reviews

Just another gourmet cookbook
I was hoping that this would be a more useful camping cookbook. It is really a gourmet cookbook that tries to be a camping cookbook by using "sierra cup" as a unit of measurement (a "sierra cup" is a fancy backpacking cup purchased at trendy outdoor stores, and holds about 9 ounces)and by illustrating it with camping pictures and artwork. The ingredients for most of the recipes require access to gourmet and specialty stores.

When I go camping, I like to camp. I like to fish, hike and enjoy the outdoors. If you use this cookbook, you need to be someone who likes to cook. And I mean really likes to cook. In fact, camping must be something that you do to impress your friends with how environmentally conscious you are, while you whip up a meal of "Vegetarian Chicken Lemon Grass Soup" and "Spinach & Roasted Peppers Risotto." These are great sounding dishes that I would order at an expensive restaurant, but not something that I would want to spend hours preparing over my Coleman stove while the trout are biting.

The book tries really hard to be a camping book (remember the "sierra cup" thing?). But, it refuses to call a biscuit a biscuit. The book refers to them as scones. Scones are cool when sitting at an outdoor table at Starbucks discussing the evils of a capitalistic society with your liberal friends, but come on, when camping, I eat biscuits!

All in all, if you like gourmet recipes and gourmet cooking, and don't mind spending endless hours hunting down exotic ingredients, this is a good book. If you like to enjoy the outdoors, ditch this book, put together some simple, good food and go enjoy!

150 delicious, and down-to-earth easy-to-prepare recipes
Collaboratively written and presented by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn (two experienced wilderness chefs who have served as judges for an outdoor retailer's Camp Stove Cook-off Contest), The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook presents and showcases 150 delicious, and down-to-earth easy-to-prepare recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A delightful instructional for elevating a hungry camper's palate while out of doors, The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook includes versatile dishes that can be made to go in advance or prepared once there, including Banana-Persimmon Roll, Roasted Eggplant & Almond Sauce, Fruit Cobbler and much more. The practical recipes come enhanced with tips, tricks, and techniques for preparation, including health precautions to take with the preparation and storage of the more perishable foodstuffs. The Leave-No-Crumbs Camping Cookbook is very highly recommended for the outdoors enthusiast looking for a taste of something different.

Gourmet Ultralight Backpackers Rejoice
The fact that everything tastes good outdoors has kept campers eating shoe leather and birdseed for years. This is for the serious back country gourmet who will go just about anywhere and do anything to eat well once they get there. Be prepared to break out the food dehydrator and camping oven. However, recipes like steamed Chinese dumplings and "The Most Dangerous Cake in the Wilderness" are good enough to serve at home. The book is lightweight at 17 ounces, yet packed with tasty ideas. "Leave No Crumbs" is the best kind of camp companion: it kept us well fed and laughing.