Reviews > Books > Cook Books > Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail > Clifford R Haynes > Initial Report

"The Hiker's Guide to Preparing Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail"
By Steven Mroz

Initial Report
3/30/2004

Personal Stats:

Backpacking Background:
I am from and live in Maine. I have been hiking, backpacking, and canoe camping for over 45 years. I am also an assistant scoutmaster; I average 2 to 3 days a week in the woods year round.

Over the years I've used or tried a variety of different gear. When I joined scouts as a boy, most of the boys my age didn't have backpacking gear, and their families didn't have money enough to buy it. So we had great fun making our own gear.

I can't really say that I have a backpacking style. I take what I need or want, depending upon what I plan to do on the outing. Even before my knees became a problem, I could never see being in a big rush. It is my opinion that camping is part of backpacking, and should be enjoyed at least as much as the hiking. In areas where there is a lot of hiker traffic, I tend to pack heavier in order to minimize impact. I just like being out in the woods, and exploring.

When it comes to eating in the woods, I believe quick easy meals like Raman Noodles or Lipton Noodle dishes are fine for short overnight or weekend hikes, but for long distance hikes or extended outings meals should be more substantial and offer a variety of ingredients. It is my opinion that on these extended outings nutrition is as important if not more important than pack weight (within reason).  

Product Information:

Initial Report:

My copy of "Hiker's Guide to Preparing Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail", arrived on 03/16/2004 in good shape. A note from Mr. Mroz the author was included. The note said that the copy was a proof copy and that it contained some typos and misspelled words, which are currently being corrected by Trafford Publishing. Mr. Mroz also included his e-mail address so I could contact him if I had any questions. 

Product Description:
The "Hiker's Guide to Preparing Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail" is a soft covered book, about 9 in (22.8 cm) X 6 in (15.2 cm) X 0.25 in (0.6 cm) and weighs 6.5 oz (184 g). This book contains 114 pages and is divided into: Introduction, eight chapters, and an index.

Introduction:
The introduction is nine pages long. In my opinion the first two pages are fluff, but the rest covers basic information on home drying foods for rehydration and consumption on the trail. Mr. Mroz covers the basics of what is needed to prepare dehydrated meals for extended hikes (like a through hike), and equipment needed on the trail to rehydrate and prepare the meals.

I am a bit disappointed that detailed instruction for drying the meals are not included, but Mr. Mroz does recommend "How to Dry Foods" by Deanna DeLong as a reference. 

Chapter 1: The Backpacker's Oven
In Chapter 1, Mr. Mroz describes how to build a lightweight backpacker oven that he used to bake on the trail. The oven is made from a non-stick aluminum cookie sheet, and a light aluminum sauce pan. Mr. Mroz recommends using the oven with a Zip stove (fueled with natural charcoal, not briquettes). He does state that the oven will work equally well with a gas stove. 

I had some difficulty understanding the directions initially, but after rereading a couple of times the directions became clearer. A picture of the finished oven or a drawing would be very helpful. I haven't constructed an oven yet. I haven't been able to find a lightweight aluminum cookie sheet. We don't have much variety locally, I'm sure I will be able to find one in the city.

Chapter 2: Breakfast
This chapter consists of recipes for: scrambled eggs, biscuits, omelets, hash brown scramble, biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, ham and cheese sauce over hash browns, and grain bars. All of these sound quite good to me, but I'm not sure I want to home dry eggs and/or milk.

Chapter 3: Soups
This chapter is split into two sections. 
Stock Soups: chicken vegetable, chicken noodle, chicken and rice, beef vegetable, beef barley, steak and potato, and vegetable
Cream Soups: cream of asparagus, cream of chicken, cream of celery, cream of mushroom, tomato basil, pea, potato, clam chowder, cheese, broccoli cheese, and potato cheese

After reading through these recipes, I'm looking forward to this chapter. I think I will like most of the recipes. I think I will enjoy the cream soups for cold weather lunches. The stock soups look like they would be very good for supper (especially with biscuits or dumplings added).

Chapter 4: Gravies and Sauces
Gravies Recipes: chicken, beef, sausage, hamburger, and vegetable
Sauce Recipes: white, basil, stir-fry, stir-fry marinade, beef stir-fry, shrimp sauce, cheese, parmesan, sweet and sour, spaghetti, pizza, vegetable broth

These recipes are the gravies and sauces used in other recipes in the book.

Chapter 5: Delectables
Recipes: brown rice, noodles, barley, couscous, hash browns, beef jerky, fruit leather, tofu, baked beans, and tomatoes

Chapter 6: Meat and Vegetables:
This chapter doesn't really contain recipes. It is made up of six pages of basic instructions, suggestions, and tips for drying various meats and vegetables used as ingredients in recipes.

Chapter 7: Dinners
Recipes: pizza, chicken fingers, chicken and noodles, chicken fettuccine, chicken vegetable over biscuits or stuffing, chicken and mushrooms over potatoes, sweet and sour chicken, chicken chow mein, chicken lo mein, turkey and stuffing, steak, beef stew, beef chili, beef noodles, fajitas, fettuccine and hamburger, pork, sweet and sour pork, ham and Swiss pasta, ham and cheese macaroni with broccoli, polish sausage, shrimp, shrimp fettuccine, sweet and sour shrimp, cheese ravioli and tortellini, fettuccine alfredo, macaroni and cheese, pasta with tomatoes, beans and rice, and vegetables with barley

Just about all of these recipes appear to be good, and I'm looking forward to trying them. 

First Impression:

The "Hiker's Guide to Preparing Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail" is a guide for preparing meals at home, drying and packaging them for rehydration and consumption in the field. I was a bit disappointed in the book because I was hoping for more detailed instructions for actually drying. Actually my previous statement is a bit misleading, because even though the instructions are very basic I believe that one could get by with just the instructions provided, I would have liked more detail. 

Some of the recipes are a bit confusing, because Mr. Mroz doesn't use abbreviations generally used in other cookbooks I have seen, for example "tblspns" instead of "T". On the other hand, if I were totally new to cookbooks I would probably figure out what a "tblspn" was, long before I have would had he used "T". Also a couple of recipes are missing the amount of an ingredient used in the recipe. For example, the beef jerky recipe tells me how much of  each ingredient used in the marinade, but doesn't tell me how much meat or curing salt to use.

On the plus side, the ingredients used in the recipes are available locally. Often many of the ingredients used in cookbook recipes aren't available where I live. The recipes appear to be easy to make and the methods used in these recipes can easily be applied to other recipes made at home and dried for the field.

I'm looking forward to trying these recipes. I have only tried one recipe, drying baked beans. Instead of using Bush beans as suggested I used B & M Original recipe (they aren't as sweet). They were delicious. It has been years since I have had a baked bean and biscuit sandwich for lunch while backpacking. 

Test Plan:

I plan to use the recipes from the "Hiker's Guide to Preparing Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail" for the majority of my outdoor meals during the test period. I plan to use a variety of different stoves on the trail (zip, alcohol, canister, and camp fuel stoves). I also plan to use a pot cozy with some of the recipes. I'm also considering plugging some of the recipes I try into a computer cookbook program and report on at least the calories in the recipe.

Reviews > Books > Cook Books > Home-Cooked Meals on the Trail > Clifford R Haynes > Initial Report