I've taught expedition skills for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for over a decade. In that time, I've become quite accomplished with my little camp stove. This summer I spent 13 days in the mountains of central Wyoming with a light pack. My cook kit included only one pot with an aluminum foil lid and an alcohol stove. With this minimal setup we ate like royalty, but it required careful planning.
I am a vegetarian, and I spent those two weeks with my co-instructor Lauren, who is a Vegan. This course was our chance to really dedicate ourselves to creating as healthy a diet as we possibly could. This article documents our cooking style and pre-trip planning for meals with an emphasis on whole grains and organic products without dairy or processed sugar. We call this eating style "Groovy-Biotic" due to the selective inclusion of the grooviest parts of organic/vegan/macrobiotic diet principles.
Below are some of the tools and recipes that made our menu so joyous, despite the tiny cook set. We include a rations plan for six days on the trail for a two-person team. Obviously, the information in this article is not likely to perfectly fit your next trip, but you can easily tailor these ideas to fit your needs. And carnivores don't be scared off - there are plenty of useful ideas on cozy cooking, sauces, steam baking, packaging and spices that you can use.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- The Cozy
- Benefits of the cozy
- Cozy construction
- Using Barge Cement
- The Cozy as a fuel saver
- Good Cozy Cookin' Food
- Polenta Recipe
- The Liquid Sauces
- Middle Eastern Sauce
- Pesto Sauce
- Thai Peanut Butter Sauce
- How Much Per Meal?
- Oatmeal
- Super Spackle
- GORP
- Steam Baking
- Biscuit Batter Recipe
- Yams in the Dehydrator
- Packaging
- The Spice Kit
- Rations Plan
- Daily Ration Plan for Two People
- Balance Within the Diet
- Acknowledgements
# WORDS: 3810
# PHOTOS: 7
# TABLES: 2
Member Exclusive
A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.
* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events
Discussion
Become a member to post in the forums.
I bought a SnowPeak bowl like the one pictured in the article.
I mixed up a batch of corn muffin batter. Oiled the inside of the bowl and set my pot on my kitchen stove with 4 pebbles in the bottom to elevate the bowl.
Timing started from the time steam was visible escaping from under the lid.
6 minutes – muffin was about half done. Into the trash.
8 minutes – muffin was 3/4 done. I picked at the edges – not bad.
I'm trying 10 minutes next but this is pushing it for alcohol or Esbit stove use.
I'm at 7800 ft but I doubt this is a problem. I'm thinking the batter is too thick. The only batter I'm familiar with (I'm not a baker) is pancake batter.
Should the muffin batter look runny like a pancake batter or is lumpy OK?
Any help is appreciated…..
I thinned the batter to pancake consistency with the following results.
6 Minutes – worst muffin EVER, raw batter in a shell.
With only enough batter left for 1 more test I cranked the time up to 10 minutes.
10 minutes – not good. Similar to 8 minutes with the thicker batter.
Maybe the steam environment calls for less moisture?
Just to be clear I'm filling the SnowPeak bowl to about half it's height.
Greg, I know when I do my muffins and stuff, I steam them for 15 minutes (I based this on the suggestions from the actual Bakepacker website btw).
Try a muffin baking cup worth of batter. That should be done in about 6 minutes – or one esbit tab worth. The snow peak bowl holds a lot of batter. Probably 3 muffin cups worth like the Betty Crocker Warm Delights mini – which takes about 15 minutes to steam.
I use a thicker batter, guessing that the steam will add moisture.
Wow – I'm glad to see that this article has generated so much cool chatting.
About steam baking. THe batter needs to be THICK! And, you can't over fill the vessel (the snow peak titanium bowl is perfect) About 1/2 way is good. The batter should rize and fill it up.
Also – i am gunna praise the esbit tab. It has a built in timer, about 12 minutes.
AND – Just a TINY bit of water in the bottom of the pot. About a 1/4 inch deep MAX!
Bon Apitite
Carol,
Your suggested times are correct. Thanks!
I went to a Kmart and found a Silicone 6 muffin pan. Took it home and cut out 2 individual muffin cups (leaving a slight rim and leaving 2 "ears" to grab them).
I can easily cook 2 of these at one time in my Evernew 1.3L pot.
I also got the SnowPeak bowl to work by increasing the time to 14-15 minutes.
I like the idea of the silicone muffin cups because I don't have to baby them and the food pops right out.
I just heard about these from Mike C! Is there any problem cleaning them in the field so they can be reused on another night? (Wondering about the folds.)
Don't get the ones with the ruffled sides. Too many edges to clean. But there are ones with smooth sides which clean up very well. I carried one on the JMT this summer and loved having hot black and whites (chocolate cake with white chocolate chips).
Silicone is about as nonstick as it gets. Also doubles as a pot grabber/hot pad.
Double as hot pads – great idea!
I didn't know they came ruffle-less – I'll be on the lookout for some. Cool!
Also, you can pop/invert/flip most of the silicone muffin cups inside out to make it real easy to clean off (lick the crumbs clean)… however I"m talking about the smooth sided ones, not the ruffled ones as Nia mentioned
What does one of the silicone cups weigh?
I have a 5" mini round pie pan that fits just inside the AGG 3-cup pot. It weighs 1 oz. Same weight as the pot grabber it replaces.
Darn!
5" diameter won't fit inside my SnowPeak 600 (about 3.5" diameter) or even my FireLite 1100 (about 4.5" D). I really need a muffin baking cup with no ridges. Are they out there?
The Betty Crocker Warm Delights mini plastic bowl won't replace a pot grabber, but it is reusable, easily cleaned and only weighs 0.2 oz with a 4" diameter – perfect in the 1100.
No problem. You can get a muffin tray and cut out the individual cups as suggested above. Here's one:
http://www.kitchencollection.com/Temp_Products.cfm?sku=00231715&RankThis=Y&Searched=silicone&
Pay attention to the depth of the cup. This one's 1.5" deep with about a 3.75" diameter. You want a good sized muffin if you're going through the trouble.
Edit: These match your dimensions well at 3.5 x 1.5 and you don't need to cut.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/items/Silicone_Round_Mini_Pans_Set_6
Excellent!
Thanks Nia.
http://fantes.com/images/21703silicone.jpg
This one looks like the muffin tray I bought at Kmart. 10 bucks. Cleanup is ridiculously easy. There are no ridges on the inside of the cups.
I had not thought of the pot grabber idea. I did think that this would be a good way to steam/poach eggs without much trouble.
I went to Target yesterday – they have a nice selection of silicone stuff. Including individual muffin cups, muffin pans like in the photo above, and a 1 cup measuring cup that collapses that probably could be stripped of handle and used for steaming. I bought KitchenAid brand "Fluted Silicone Baking Cups" that are mini bundt pans with an inverted hollow cone in the center. 12 on sale for $10. Each one weighs 0.7 oz. The cone in the center should help muffins cook faster. I wanted something smooth but couldn't resist these little babies. Although bigger than a muffin cup, they hold about the same amount of batter – only 1/4 cup. One fits fine in my SnowPeak 600. Haven't tried it out yet and still love the idea of those mini cake pans that should just fit in my SP 600. I'll be on the lookout for them!
IMPORTANT NEWS!
The MUFFIN issue has been solved, at least a light weigh solution.
I made 4 extremely CUTE and utterly PERFECT muffins.
(see photos)
Visit this link:
http://www.surlatable.com/product/kitchenbakeware/cupcakes+&+muffin+pans/reusable+sili-cups&%238482-,+set+of+12+pastel.do
These very pretty pastel silicone muffin cups are the freekin' bomb! Using these (4 per 1.5 liter MSR titanium pot) are utterly simple, small enough to avoid "sogginess" and their colors add a festiveness to the humble muffin.
.32 oz per pastel cup
* The muffin batter was simple pancakebatter.
* I used a smaller titanium lid under the muffin cups while steaming.
* Approx 12 minutes cook-time (about the same as 1 esbit tab)
* Yummy…
peace and love light-weight comrades!
M!
It was so easy, even Scott Cristy could do it!
cover shot for GOURMET magazine
nice!
VERY NICE
LOOK! Andy Skurka, the lightweight hiking fiend, makes muffins. Fuctionality vs WOW-factor.
dudddddde, my wife and I were cooking yesterday when she broke these same muffin cups out and the same idea dawned on both of us…..
Mike,
The link to the muffin cups doesn't work.
– try this link –
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
so, so helpful.
Cindy (the girly half of Cindy and Andy)
http://www.cindigo.com
Become a member to post in the forums.