Arrival:
The Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' cookbook arrived in my post office box on 10/29/04, in a padded envelope. The book was in perfect condition.
Website:
The publisher's website is well-designed and fairly easy to navigate, with general categories along the top and several featured titles on the main page. I had to hunt a little to find the tested book, which is listed under 'Special Interests' instead of 'Outdoor Life.' I had to delve a little deeper into the 'Cooking, Food, Wine, and Spirits' category, then choose 'Wilderness' from a list of subjects. That brings up a list of 19 outdoor-related cookbooks, which includes the Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin', as well as its predecessor, Lipsmackin' Backpackin', by the same authors. There is a search box on every page, and entering any word from the title of the book will find it. However, entering the correctly spelled version 'lipsmacking' doesn't work.
The book's web page shows a picture of the cover and some basic information about the book, and gives the same blurb that's printed on the back:
Tired of power bars, half-cooked quick rice, and endless trail recipes featuring dehydrated chicken by-products? Try meat-free dishes like Flyin' Brian's Triple Crown Curry Couscous, Springer Mountain Pesto, and Time-Traveler's Tamales instead. The sequel to the top-selling Lipsmackin' Backpackin' this all-in-one backpacker's food guide features more than 150 meatless recipes from some of the most experienced long-distance hikers in the world. Each recipe - whether it's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, or beverages - gives at-home preparation directions, trailside cooking instructions, detailed nutritional information, and backpack weight of the ingredients. Additional meal preparation and cooking tips, food dehydration how-tos, source lists, and conversion charts make this the most complete guide ever written for meatless eating on the trail. Whether you're a vegetarian or just interested in eating well, Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' is an indispensable resource for great-tasting and nutritious meals trailside.
 Details:
Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' (hereinafter forever known as LVB, or, more simply, 'the book'), by Christine and Tim Connors, is a paperbound book, of the type commonly referred to as a 'trade paperback.' The book claims to provide 'more than 150' recipes from 49 contributors in its 231 pages. The first contributions came from noted long-distance hiker 'Flyin Brian' Robinson, who hiked all three major American trails in 2001. In addition to the recipes, the book features essays on dehydrating food, sources for various kinds of hiking food, and a page on conversions, plus information about each of the contributors.
LVB is the sequel to the authors' original book, Lipsmackin' Backpackin'. In the original book, about two-thirds of the recipes were vegetarian, which doesn't surprise me -- not many granola recipes call for meat. The new book is totally meat-free, and the authors say that it is suitable for ovo-lacto vegetarians (those who eat dairy products and eggs), as well an anyone who likes good trail food. (Disclaimer: although we eat very little meat, my family is not vegetarian. That said, I am firmly in the category of 'anyone who likes good trail food.')
The authors say that they chose the recipes based on the food requirements of a long-distance backpacker: weight, taste, nutritional value, variety, simplicity, and durability.
The Recipes
LVB divides its recipes into several logical categories: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breads, Snacks and Desserts, and Drinks. For each recipe, the authors provide a complete ingredient list, nutritional information per serving, and preparation instructions for both packing the meal at home, and preparing it on the trail. Each recipe is given a cutesy name, such as Mule Fuel, or Olympus Oatmeal, or Kincora Rice, which only occasionally bears some relationship to the actual ingredients or history of the dish.
I wrote in my application to test LVB that:
I will confess right away that I am one of those terrible trail cooks who boils water and pours it over whatever happens to be in my bowl, and hopes for the best. Oatmeal, Lipton's Noodles, cheese grits (mmmmmm, grits), and pemmican bars make up the majority of my diet when backpacking. I consider Enertia Foods to be haute cuisine. But deep down in my soul, back in the furthest recesses of my hidden true self, I realize the truth: I just don’t care. I’m lazy, I don’t like washing crusty cooking pots, and all I care about is the calorie content so I can hike again the next day.
Interestingly enough, many of the recipes in LVB appear to have been developed just for hikers like me. The authors even have a special section where they talk about the safety aspects of pouring boiling water into zipper-lock bags!
Looking through the book, it appears that the recipes fall into several broad categories: those that 'dress up' prepared (store-bought) foods for a quick on-trail meal, those that require prep work and cooking ahead of time, and which are then dehydrated for use on the trail, and a few that require some on-trail cooking. Many long-distance hikers are familiar with adding fresh or dried vegetables to Lipton's Noodles for a more-interesting dinner; in many cases, the LVB recipes go further. For example, I chose to make one of the chili recipes for an upcoming hike. Kilauea Chili starts with a container of the Fantastic Food Cha-Cha Chili, and adds 1/2 cup of instant brown rice, 1/4 cup of dried corn, a teaspoon of chili powder, 1/4 teaspoon of lemon powder, and 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder. All the ingredients are placed in a zipper-lock freezer bag, and the only preparation required on the trail is to add boiling water and wait 8-10 minutes (my kind of cooking!)
The Lost Cowboy Chili, on the other hand, is a conventional chili recipe: canned beans, canned tomatoes, onions, green pepper, corn, and spices are cooked on the stovetop at home, then dehydrated into a sort of 'chili leather.' On the trail, the dried chili is torn into strips, and rehydrated in boiling water on a camp stove.
One very useful feature of the book is the Packable Trailside Cooking Instructions. The authors have printed the preparation instructions for each recipe in a separate section, arranged so they can be photocopied or simply cut out of the book and packaged with each meal. The instructions for each recipe average about 1x6 in (25x150 mm), and will easily fit inside a zipper lock bag with the ingredients.
The Test:
I plan to test LVB in several ways over the next six months. First, I usually spend a fair amount of time over the winter testing new trail food recipes, looking for interesting ingredients and different kinds of food. I plan to test many of the recipes in the book at home in my kitchen, and inflict them upon my unsuspecting family. Second, I have a number of solo backpacking trips planned over the winter and early spring, and I will make all (or most) of my meals out of the book. Finally, as a family we like to go on long dayhikes each month, and again I will prepare much of our food out of the book. One advantage to testing this book in cold weather is that I can prepare hot lunch and dinner recipes for our dayhikes.
In my Field Report, I will provide more details about the recipes in the book, and I will report on how well they worked on the trail, based on the criteria the authors used (weight, taste, etc. -- see above).
Thanks to BackpackGearTest and to the authors for the opportunity to taste, er, test this book.
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