We’re not saying we have a beef with regular old jerky. We’re just saying our relationship has gotten a little, well, dry. Plus, nitrates, which are added to many meat jerkies, are getting a worse and worse rap due to correlations with�� and now�� for people with bipolar disorder. Sure, you can buy nitrate-free jerky, but you could also try something completely new: alternative beef jerky.

As the ever-shifting��diet pendulum has swung from paleo to vegan,��the jerky market has followed.��(Check out this fun mapping the two eating styles over the past five years.) Of course, you can still find “primal style” dried-meat strips and bars, but alternative beef jerkies made from��mushrooms, bugs, seaweed, and even coconut are also in the mix.

Are these even really jerky? We say yes.

The term jerky comes��from , which originally referred to dried meat—most likely alpaca. The livestock industry may take issue with us expanding the definition to include other dehydrated options the way it reacted to��nut milks branding themselves as milk. But these products are shelf-stable, savory, nutritious, and give us something to chew methodically as we march down the trail. That ticks all the jerky boxes in our field guide.

We tried the new options and picked the best for every jerky enthusiast, from the veggie curious to the hardcore vegan. Here are our favorites.

Best For: Pescatarians

Fishpeople��Lemon Zest and��Herb Salmon Jerky

It’s impossible to make a fish jerky that isn’t, well, fishy. So��we’re going to suggest you have something potent—gum, toothpaste, a few wild mint leaves—to wipe the fish flavor from your mouth��after the fact. That being said, Fishpeople’s��lemon zest and herb flavor tastes less like French kissing a merman than other iterations we’ve tried. It has a nice toothsome texture��but is more tender than a traditional slab of dried beef flesh. Like all Fishpeople��products, you can trace exactly where your wild-caught salmon came from by typing in a code on your package, a nice feature that keeps sustainable seafood companies honest. $8 per bag, available .

Best For: Keto Hikers

Cocoburg��Coconut Jerky

When you take your first bite, you will decry this being included in a jerky review, even if it is a beef jerky alternative roundup. The��texture is too firm—it’s almost more like a firm cracker than a slice of dried meat. But stay with it. As you chew, the coconut flesh goes from hard to pliable. We promise you’ll see why this totally counts as jerky. Even though I think of coconut as leaning toward��the sweet side of things, the three flavors offered by Cocoburg live in the savory realm. This was the only product I tried where I liked the original flavor the best, though the ginger-teriyaki and chili-lime ones are pretty darn good, too. I had to put the bag in another room to stop myself from devouring all of it while I typed this up. $17��for a three-pack sampler, available .

Best for: Spice-Lovers

Jack & Tom Jackfruit Jerky

Jackfruit is always a go-to for some plant-based eaters because it has a stringy, chewy texture similar to pork or beef. When unripe, jackfruit absorbs the flavor of whatever is put into it. Which is why Jack & Tom Jerky is extra spicy, because it holds the heat of poblano peppers, savory tomatoes and a spice blend. It’s a bit on the chewier, softer side, but the spicy kick might make you forget everything and anything about this jerky except for: “WOW. THIS IS HOT!” $44 for a five-pack, available, .

Best For: Sustainable Eaters

Akua��Kelp Jerky

In case you haven’t yet heard, kelp is the new kale:��it’s high in vitamins and��minerals and has a negligible ecological footprint, requiring no feed, fertilizer, or fresh water. However, the downside is that kelp tastes remarkably like licking a barnacle. Fortunately, Akua has solved this problem by flavoring its kelp strips with seasonings that have enough backbone to stand up to that saltwater flavor. The maple and��BBQ offering was my favorite, and while it doesn’t completely mask the vegetal taste, it definitely helps. $20��for a three-bag sampler, available .

Best For: Plant-Based Eaters

It’s Jerky Y’all Prickly Pear Chipotle

Made from non-GMO soy, this had the best texture of the three soy jerkies I tried. Each serving has seven��grams of plant-based protein, and a portion of every sale supports , a refuge��for cattle run by vegans in Texas. All three flavors—black pepper and��sea salt, prickly pear–teriyaki, and prickly pear–chipotle—are good, but my favorite was the sweet and smoky combo of prickly pear and chipotle. $21��for a three-pack sampler, available .

Best For: The Jerky ���ϳԹ���r

EntoLife Chirpy Jerky��Original Roasted Cricket Jerky

To be fair, even though this is billed as a jerky, it’s��more of a crispy protein bark than anything else. Still, I’m including it because it’s delicious and, with crickets in it, unique. A pemmican-style jerky, the recipe follows the Native American��tradition of mixing protein and dried fruit together to make one nutrient-packed power food. It’s nutty and sweet, and if no one ever told you otherwise, you’d never guess there were bugs in it. $6, available .

Best For: The Apprehensive Yet Veggie Curious

Shrooms Splits Filet Mignon and Portabella Mushroom Jerky

Maybe you’re not ready to dive fist first into a bag full of mushroom jerky. That’s fine. (But if you are, Shrooms��makes that, too.) This will��meet you where you’re at. A��mix of soft beef slivers��and dried mushrooms, it delivers tons of umami flavor. If you grab a handful at a time without looking closely, it can be hard to tell what’s meat and what’s ’shroom. Pretty soon��you may find yourself graduating to nothing but a bag of fungi—like the company’s teriyaki-mushroom-jerky offering. $7, available on .

Best For: The ‘I-Need-It-Easy’ Snacker

Beyond Meat Jerky

If you’re the kind of person who likes their snacks where they can see them – no extra scrounging around gas stations and supermarkets – Beyond Meat Jerky may be for you. You can find this beef jerky alternative in most popular grocery stores no problem. Made with pea and mung bean protein, this jerky has 2g of fat, 8g of carbs, and 10g of protein per serving. $5, available .

The post 6 Beef Jerky Alternatives That Are Actually Good appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

I’m going to be frank here: hot dogs are delicious. The ones from ballparks? Great. The ones from street vendors? Sign me up. That one that’s been turning and burning on a rolly thing at a gas station all night long? I’ll take it.

Meaty, salty, fatty: hot dogs, they’re just like us! And what’s not to like? Uh, ask my innards.��The problem with hot dogs is that they’re full of nitrates, sodium, and saturated fat. The vast majority rely on meat from animals raised on CAFOs—concentrated animal feeding operations—which have pretty stark environmental consequences and severe animal-welfare problems.

The good thing about hot dogs is that, because they’re processed and then processed some more, they’re actually fairly easy to replicate in a meatless option. I spent many years as a vegetarian and vegan, and my main takeaway from that time was that the more processed a meat was, the better the fake version was going to be. A soy steak is likely still a few years away, but soy and veggie hot dogs are already pretty tasty.

They’re not all good dogs, of course. I actually spit one out after chomping into what, texture wise, appeared to be a hot-dog-flavored mealworm. That one was the wurst. Another tasted suspiciously like eating waxy lipstick. But a few were good, even great, if you haven’t had a real hot dog in a long time.

July 17��is , and we urge you to throw these links on your grill, because they’re more humane (to animals, your digestive system, and the planet). With enough ketchup and mustard, you know, you might even relish them.

Best Overall

Field Roast Frankfurters, $6.49

were��the only ��I tried where I finished the first and thought to myself, I want another. While��some of the offerings I tried were simply salty, this one actually had that umami flavor you associate with meat. The texture for these vegetarian versions��was good, too—not at all squishy. The only thing I didn’t like was that each dog comes wrapped in its own plastic sheath, which seems wasteful.

The Impossible Bratwurst Plant Based Links, $8.99

These vegan hot dogs (technically calls it a bratwurst) are bulky. Their taste is most similar to that of a typical animal-based dog, but a meat eater would still be able to tell something was non-standard. The Impossible Brat comes in a classic and spicy flavor – both are tasty. However, these might not be dogs to bring to a cookout and share. At $8.99 for four links, you might want to save them just for you.

Best Available-Everywhere Option

LightLife Smart Dogs, $4.28

If I can find vegan�� at Walmart in my rural Tennessee town, chances are you have them where you live, too. The flavor isn’t quite as perfect as Field Roast’s offering, but it’s still close-ish to the franks of your youth. Do not overcook these, though, or they will turn mushy.

Simple Truth Veggie Dogs, $5.19

These Simple Truth Veggies are great in a pinch, and they’re in Krogers across the country. They tasted pretty similar to a basic Oscar Myers wiener, but don’t have that classic ‘snap’ and are a bit softer. They’re a bit sweeter than LightLife, which some people will like and some don’t. I’m not blown away, but I’d eat it at a cookout.

Best Novelty

Morningstar Farms Corn Dogs, $4.58

What isn’t improved by a little corn-bread batter? ��are no exception. I loved and would absolutely keep them around for times when I’m in the mood for junk food. And to be clear, these are junk food. They have seven grams of added sugar and one-fifth of your daily sodium intake per serving. But health wise, they still probably beat the monstrosity that is meat-based corn dogs.

Jack & Annie’s, $10.48

These are hard to find, so if you spot some in your grocery store, snag a few. Jack & Annie’s are made from jackfruit, which you’d think would give it a funny texture. However, I preferred this texture over every other vegan hot dog’s. It mimics a classic summertime dog you’d get at a ballpark with a unique spicy flavor.

Best Flavored Sausage

A Tie Between Tofurky Italian Sausage and Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausage, $5.58

If you don’t like hot dogs��yet��somehow are still 500 words into this story on hot dogs,��there are some good flavored sausages��on the market. I dug , which are livened up by sun-dried tomatoes and basil. And����would likewise go well on a sourdough roll with some caramelized onions and a hit of Dijon.�� are vegan, and the are vegetarian.

Least Favorite

Upton’s Naturals, $5.99

left me feeling super salty, both physically and emotionally. The taste was overwhelming and made me want to swallow a glass of water after every bite. What’s more upsetting is that the ‘snap’ of the hot dog is almost perfect, but the dog itself is so salty and turns to a sort of doughy texture after chewing.

The post Reviewing the Best and Worst Plant-Based Hot Dogs appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

I don’t know how else to say this, so I’ll start with the hardest part: when you’re a woman who wants children, but you waited too long and now the odds are getting worse every year, it’s hard to find anything sweet about your birthday cake.

Most of the time, watching your fertile years drip away feels like watching a leak in a bathroom faucet. Maybe tomorrow you’ll deal with it. Birthdays, however, are like being thrown face-first into a swimming pool. Another year gone, and you’re just dog-paddling through all that wasted time.

“Body, why can’t you do this one thing?” you ask yourself over and over.

For my 37th birthday, I tried easing my splash into the deep end with something soft. Like, literally soft. I begged my husband, Chris Derman, to let me add a few sheep to the herd of cattle we keep on our 45-acre farm in Middle Tennessee, near the Kentucky border. I’m a city kid whose childhood dreams always included a farm—and sheep. He’s also a city kid, but his dreams never included endless manure shoveling and animal feeding. His soft spot for my whims started getting a serious test two years ago, when we bought a dilapidated old farm. Now, despite his absolutely correct insistence that we were already spread too thin, his indulgence had to grow to include a flock of sheep.

There were five in all, bought from a lady over the mountain. Two ewes—girl sheep—plus several babies they’d raised during the winter, along with a ram, so I could breed them to produce fall lambs. Their baas, and their soft lips nibbling grain off my palms, were the perfect distraction for being two years into what doctors call “advanced maternal age.”

And then, less than a week later, things went sideways. After working inside all day, I walked out to the pasture and found two bonus sheep. Both were slimy with amniotic fluid as they wiggled around in the grass, trying to this-side-up themselves in their brand-new world. Beatrice, the mom, began pushing out a third lamb as I stood there thinking what has more or less become my farming mantra: Well, this wasn’t the plan.

The third lamb hit the ground and didn’t move. Beatrice moved away, preoccupied with her two healthy babies.

I may have been a city kid just two years into farming, but instinct told me this lamb was in trouble. She was tiny—small enough to scoop up with just the palm of my hand. I scraped birth fluids from her nose and mouth with my fingers, then ripped my shirt off and began rubbing it across her limp body, as if, through osmosis, my vigor could seep into her. Finally, a weak breath wheezed out and her eyes opened a sliver.

While Beatrice’s first two lambs were already standing and slurping milk, this one seemed too overwhelmed by gravity to rise. I picked her up and guided her toward Beatrice’s udder, hoping that all she needed was a little help. Beatrice turned and butted both of us away. We repeated this cycle—me propping up the newborn, Beatrice knocking her down—until I realized: I’d gotten my birthday wish. This was my baby now.

In case you’ve ever wondered, a 2001 Ford F-250 with 200,000 miles on it has a maximum speed of 57. I went 58, the steering column vibrating as I rumbled along for 45 minutes to reach the only nearby farm supply store that stays open late. I needed powdered colostrum—the antibody-rich milk that ruminants require in the first hours of life if they’re going to survive. “It’s in aisle three,” the clerk said.

If she dies before I get home, I have to be OK with it, I thought as I grabbed stuff off the shelf. In the past two years, I had been told no fewer than a dozen times that I was too tenderhearted to ever be a “real” farmer. I didn’t agree, but it’s true that my heart will never harden to animals, no matter what happens. And so, under my breath, I added: “If she’s still alive, I will do everything I can to save her.”

She was alive when I got home. That first night, I woke up every two hours to give her milk and coax her to her feet. Finally, right after dawn, she took her first wobbly steps. This gal was going to be OK. I, however, was entering a whole new world of trouble.

The post My Chances of Being a Mom Were Fading. Then Two Beautiful Lambs Came into My Life. appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Last year, in early March, Kristjana Anderson (who requested we use a pseudonym)��had a lot to look forward to. The 46-year-old Annapolis, Maryland–based runner had recently finished treatment for melanoma, and an elite local running team had offered her a place on its roster. The team would pay all her 2020 race entry fees. “It was my suburban mom dream come true,” she says.��

Of course, we all know what happened next: A global pandemic. A financial meltdown. And lots of canceled races.��

That’s what happened on a macro level, at least. On a micro level, Anderson��poured herself a glass of wine in her living room. Then she poured another. The 5:30 A.M. group run was canceled. Hell, everything was canceled. Why not finish the bottle?��

Americans have been drinking more in lockdown. The week after most states issued stay-at-home orders last March, online alcohol sales jumped 262 percent from the same week in 2019. A 2020 paper published on����surveyed 1,540 Americans about their alcohol consumption pre- and post-outbreak.��It found the frequency of alcohol consumption had increased, especially for women, who reported a significant increase in heavy drinking.

Endurance athletes, for all their healthy tendencies, haven’t been immune. While we don’t yet have research showing whether weekend warriors struggled more than the general public in lockdown, a June 2020 study done in Sweden found that 16 percent of elite athletes reported increased drinking during COVID.

We also know that alcohol culture is pervasive in endurance and outdoor sports, even though alcohol is the antithesis of health food. No matter how much marketers push polyphenols in red wine and bros peddle carbs in beer as recovery fuel, alcohol is bad for you. For one thing, : one ��equated the increase in cancer risk of drinking a bottle of wine per week to that of smoking five cigarettes per week for men and 10 cigarettes per week for women. Alcohol messes��, dehydrates us, and in large doses��. It’s not good for our mental health, either. Heavy alcohol use and��depression . Heavy drinking can also strain relationships, finances, and, of course, derail our training—all things that may exacerbate feelings of depression.

And yet “it’s very much a part of how you celebrate a race, or how you finish a run, like you do with brunch and mimosas,” says Sally Bergesen, founder and CEO of the running brand Oiselle. And even when races are canceled, that post-run drink remains a habit, she says. Bergesen stopped drinking��in 2020 and now runs the company’s Sobirds��running group for other sober women. Interest in the group has picked up in the past six months, she says.

If you’ve also��been boozing harder since the pandemic started, and have been thinking of cutting back, there are numerous��proven��strategies that can help.

The first step is to figure out the extent of the problem. Anderson��had a reckoning with her own alcohol use when, one morning, she tried to run through a terrible hangover. She swore off booze that day��but says she experienced withdrawal symptoms for three or four days afterward. While most moderate drinkers can handle withdrawal symptoms on their own, if you are truly alcohol-dependent, quitting cold turkey may not actually be safe. You should talk to a doctor first if you’re drinking heavily every day, drinking throughout the day (not just at night), and rearranging your life to work in alcohol.��

For casual drinkers, though, the biggest part of cutting back is finding a strategy to conquer cravings, says Brian Wind, a clinical psychologist and the chief clinical officer for Journey Pure Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers, which has locations in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida. To do that, you need to understand how cravings work.��

Cravings are essentially habits, and “habits begin with a loop-based reward system,” Wind explains. Habits are formed when a trigger elicits a response, and then that response activates a reward in the brain. So the first step to breaking a habit is to evaluate the trigger. What, exactly, is making you want a drink? Is it that your job is stressful? You’re sick of being cooped up with your family? You’re anxious about the future?��

Wind likes to let clients build on habits they already have. Say your habit is to plop down on your sofa post-run and watch Netflix with a few IPAs. In this case, you don’t need to cut out your Netflix binging. Keep that, because it’s comforting. Just stock your fridge with something else besides beer, like seltzer or kombucha. Changing too much all at once, like trying to start a reading habit and a no-booze habit to replace your Netflix and beers, sets you up for failure, he says.��

Next, tackle whatever feelings of shame or guilt you’ve been harboring around your drinking. Addiction has a strong genetic component. Just as it’s not your fault that you have brown eyes or long limbs, you shouldn’t feel ashamed of the fact that staying away from alcohol is hard for you, explains Dr. Leela R. Magavi, regional medical director for , California’s largest outpatient mental health organization. “Shame and guilt can also lead to isolative behavior and loneliness, and thus increase alcohol consumption,” Magavi says. In other words, it’s a vicious cycle.

Finally, know that your drinking may actually be masking other mental health issues. Magavi says she’s seen numerous patients who struggle endlessly with alcohol addiction until a mental health practitioner catches that there’s actually a concurrent anxiety or mood disorder. Once the patient has been successfully treated for that, addressing the alcohol addiction becomes easier. In a pandemic, when so many people are suffering with depression and anxiety, scheduling a few visits with a therapist as you work toward��sobriety may be surprisingly useful.

Finally, embrace meditation. Yes, it’s practically a cliché these days, as meditation gets lobbed at us as the cure for everything from overeating to the pain of��tough workouts. But Wind says there’s some evidence that it can really help those trying to cut alcohol out of their lives. The best way to use meditation, he says, is to practice it in direct response to a trigger. When you feel the craving coming on, set a timer and redirect your thinking to your breath for four minutes. Usually, that redirection is enough to help you think about what it is you really want. Rarely is it that drink.

The post We’re a Year into COVID. We Still Drink Too Much. appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Unless you’ve missed every single nutrition article since the early 1990s, you probably know that, in a nutritional face-off, a whole-wheat loaf beats Wonder Bread every time. Because it uses the entire wheat kernel, whole-wheat flour is higher in fiber. That means a slice of whole-wheat��bread��is less likely to spike your blood sugar than one made with��white flour,��and��it��will keep you feeling full longer, since fiber takes time to digest.��It��will��also��keep your GI tract moving along, since fiber is good for “regularity.” Additionally, whole-wheat flours��tend to contain more vitamins and minerals,��including��selenium, an antioxidant that may reduce your risk of several common cancers, including breast and colon cancer; manganese, a trace mineral that may help build strong bones; and folate, a B vitamin that helps produce red blood cells.

The problem, though, is that whole-wheat flour tastes, well, healthy. That high fiber content weighs down breads and results in��cookies that are toothsome,��to put it gently.��Some people may even find the taste of whole wheat ever so slightly bitter.

For years��bakers have tried to find work-arounds. Many “whole grain” bread recipes use a mixture of wheat and white flours. Flour makers have tried to develop offerings that taste less like whole wheat. Then there’s King Arthur Baking Company’s��, a mix of vital wheat gluten, soy flour, and inactive yeast that promises a better lift in even the heartiest loaves. While these innovations do improve baked whole-wheat products, the final results mostly retain their seventies-era, earth-mama, “would you like some carob chips with that”��vibes.

Now, though,��, a Massachusetts-based grain company, says it’s hacked tasty, high-fiber flour once and for all. Its new product, called��, claims to act just like white flour, even though it has just as much fiber as whole wheat. The secret, says Matthew Jacobs, director of strategic marketing at Flourish, is a special variety of wheat from��Australia.��

First, a quick lesson on the anatomy of a wheat kernel. On the exterior is the bran, which looks like a thin brown skin. On most wheat grown in the U.S., that’s where all the fiber resides. When you make whole-wheat flour, you mill the entire grain, including the bran. To mill white flour, on the other hand,��you pull off the bran and just pulverize the inside of the kernel, which is called the endosperm.

Flourish uses a variety of wheat that scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science research agency, began developing��back in the 1990s. At the��time, the Australian government recognized that its citizens weren’t getting enough fiber, so it set scientists to work trying to breed a better-tasting, fiber-packed wheat. , two enzymes were identified��that, when reduced in regular wheat, increased the total fiber content in the endosperm. Scientists��then set about breeding wheat that was lower in these enzymes. In 2017, this��wheat became commercially available to food manufacturers, and now it’s being offered to consumers in the form of flour for the first time. To make Flourish, the company strips the kernel of its bran, ensuring that it bakes and tastes like white flour. However, thanks to the fiber in its endosperm, it has a nutritional profile that's even better than that of whole wheat. A 30-gram serving (about fourth a cup) of Flourish has six grams of fiber, while the same size serving of whole wheat has just three grams, and white flour has, at best, one gram (my bread flour doesn't even list fiber on its nutrition label).

Even more remarkable is that the endosperm contains��amylose starch, or “resistant starch,” which is a particularly healthy type, says Abby Langer, a Toronto-based registered dietitian and author of the book . During digestion, resistant starch turns into short-chain fatty acids, which feed our gut microbiota, she says. While research on our gut microbiomes is an emerging��field, having healthy gut microbes may improve immune-system function, help regulate weight, and aid��overall digestion. Of course, Langer is careful to note that you can get resistant starch from a range of other foods too, like lentils and Jerusalem artichokes.��

She also cringes when I tell her the price. ��of Flourish for $22.50. Why does it cost so much? Jillian Wishman, strategic marketing manager for Flourish,��points to the fact that six years ago, the company had to begin building a whole new supply chain for this very specific wheat. That’s meant��contracting directly with wheat farmers and guaranteeing a premium price for growing their product.��

The real question, though, is whether it’s worth it. I plugged Flourish into the bread recipe I make each Sunday. Essentially, it’s a loaf that’s 70 percent white flour and 30 percent whole-wheat flour, with a little oatmeal thrown in for texture. I used Flourish in place of both the white and the whole-wheat flours, and because I was warned by Jacobs that “fiber loves water,” I increased��the H2O��in my trusty recipe just a bit. Normally it calls for two cups, but I added two and a quarter.

Two rises and a trip through a 350-degree oven later, I had a well-risen loaf begging to be sliced and slathered in butter. I have to admit, it did taste better than my normal white-and-wheat mix. It was a product more in line with a white-flour loaf.��

The bottom line: If you do want to add more resistant starch to your diet, and you have the money to spare, this could be a great option. Just know that, like your bread dough, your grocery bill is gonna rise.

The post We Found a High-Fiber Flour That’s Actually Tasty appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

This has been the year of the to-go cocktail, and there’s no reason for that to end now. Spiking��your thermos with a nip of the good stuff is how we’re going to survive this socially distanced winter. But before dumping out the lukewarm coffee currently in your thermos for something punchier, promise us two things:��

One: You’re either drinking these at home or have a designated driver.��

Two: You know that alcohol is not a warming strategy, even if it feels that way. (Alcohol is a vasodilator and����of warming you. Drunkenness has been an accomplice in many hypothermia deaths.) Bundle up and keep your drinking reasonable so you don’t make poor choices in the cold.��

If you haven’t yet read our guide to getting the most out of your thermos, start here. Then, pick your potion from the recipes below��and load that puppy up.��

Campfire Cider

If you’re in charge of cocktails for a crew, pack a 32-ounce thermos with this spiced,��bourbon-spiked cider. This is the creation of Darlin Kulla, a mixologist at����in Washington, D.C. It’s on the sweeter side, but the warm spices and bourbon provide that burn in the back of your throat. This makes more spiced syrup than you need, but don’t worry, you’ll find other ways to use it. Kulla suggests swirling a spoonful into your morning coffee.

Ingredients

• 6 ounces bourbon of choice (Kulla recommends .)
• 3 ounces spiced syrup��
• 22 ounces local unfiltered apple cider

Spiced Syrup��

• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 6 whole cloves
• 4 whole star anise
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar

Directions

Toast all the spices in a two-quart��pot set on the stove. Shake them until you smell the spices, but don’t let them go from toasty to burned. When the spices are fragrant, add the water and bring the mixture to a simmer. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, add the sugar and stir until it’s fully dissolved. Strain and refrigerate whatever you’re not putting into your thermos.

To make the cocktail, stir together the spiced syrup and the cider. You can heat your mixture on the stove or in the microwave (in 30-second increments) until it’s the perfect temp. Finally, add the bourbon and pour everything into your thermos.��

High West’s Quit’n Time

At High West Distillery in��Park City, Utah, quitting time is almost always “put on your puffy and head out into the Wasatch Mountains” time. In other words: we trust their judgment on what to pack in a thermos. Even when their suggestion is hot lemonade. Yes, lemonade is usually a kid-friendly summer drink, but hear us out:��spiced lemonade is a whole different beast. Add a splash of rye, and lemonade quickly becomes very adult. This recipe makes a large batch—three quarts of just the spiced lemonade, which you can then dole out into individual cocktails. It should keep for about two weeks in the fridge. We think you’ll go through it before then.��

Ingredients

• 2 ounces ��
• 3 ounces spiced lemonade, hot
• Cinnamon stick or lemon wheel��

Spiced Lemonade

• 5 cups sugar
• 4 cups water
• 2 lemons, cut in half
• 18 to 20 cloves
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 whole nutmeg
• Approximately 5 cups lemon juice, fresh or bottled

To Make the Lemonade��

Add all ingredients except the lemon juice to a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and strain. Measure the volume of the spiced syrup mixture. For each cup of syrup, add one��cup of lemon juice and 1 1/2��cups of water. Stir to combine.

To Make the Cocktail��

You can scale up this recipe in any quantity you like using a 3:2 ratio for the spiced lemonade and rye. Heat up your thermos, then add three ounces of warm lemonade and two ounces of rye. Throw in a cinnamon stick or a fresh lemon wedge for good measure.��

Tequila Tea

Believe it or not, Texas��does get cold enough to warrant hot drinks. When the mercury drops, Frank Vallas, beverage manager at Dallas-based Tacos and Tequila, brews this mix of hot tea and tequila. His go-to tea is chai, but you can sub in Earl Grey if that’s more your style. If you can’t get Blue Nectar’s Reposado Extra Blend tequila, look for something with a bit of age to it and ideally��some vanilla notes, Vallas says. This recipe makes a 12-ounce cocktail.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces hot Stash Chai Spice Black Tea. (You can also use Stash’s Cinnamon Vanilla tea��or Earl Grey.��Use two bags of Earl Grey for a strong cup; for the others, a single tea bag will do.)��
• 1 1/4��ounces Blue Nectar Reposado Extra Blend Tequila
• 3/4 ounce of Licor 43
• 3 demerara sugar cubes (or 3 teaspoons sugar)
• 2 dashes Angostura orange bitters
• 3/4 ounce half and half, almond creamer, or almond milk
• Small pinch of salt

Directions

Pour eight ounces of hot water into a prewarmed thermos. Add one chai tea bag, a small pinch of salt, and three demerara sugar cubes. Cover and steep for five to eight��minutes. Then add the bitters, cream, Blue Nectar tequila, and Licor 43. Stir gently before putting on the lid.��

Glühwein To-Go

What’s a thermos cocktail recipe roundup��without a good��mulled wine? This one is courtesy of San Francisco restaurant Curio, where they make it in��big batches to warm outdoor diners from the inside out.��This makes six servings (or four, if you’re being truly honest with yourself).��

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 orange
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 cloves
• 1 bottle red wine
• 4 to 6 ounces gin or whiskey (optional)

Directions

Combine water, sugar, and spices in a large pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the sugar dissolves. Add in the zest and juice of the orange and simmer the mixture for 30 minutes or��until thick and syrupy.��

Strain syrup and remove solids. Add the syrup back to the pot and combine with the bottle of wine. Heat gently until it’s at a simmer. You can fill your thermos with this��or further gild the lily by adding a four-to-six-ounce pour of gin or whiskey to the top.

The post 4 Hot Cocktail Recipes to Save Your Winter Social Life appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Sure, long underwear is nice, but have you ever warmed up with miso soup in the middle of your snowshoe tour? On bitterly cold days, heeding the call of the wild over the call of the couch is much easier if you know you’ll always be within reach of a hot beverage. So get your thermos game dialed.

While warm beverages alone will not protect you from hypothermia, they are one part of a multipronged approach to treating hypothermic patients in the backcountry, says Zack Fuecker, a Minnesota-based wilderness first responder. Just know that shivering, which is your body’s main method of keeping you warm if you aren’t dressed properly, is a real energy suck. So it’s more the carbohydrates and calories in the thermos that help in such situations��versus the liquid actually warming you from the inside out. (Tod Shimelpfenig��the curriculum director of NOLS Wilderness Medicine, points out that��the��average adult is about 40 liters of water. Adding a mug of hot water to that will do little to change the overall heat content.) And according to Patrick Wilson, an exercise-science professor at Old Dominion University and author of ,��while there isn’t much research showing that warm liquids��boost athletic performance, they might keep you more hydrated—but��not for the reasons you think.��“Any benefits would probably be more perception based, like increasing your drive to drink,” he says. If you find yourself returning from winter adventures barely having touched your hydration supply, try bringing a warm beverage along to make drinking more appealing.

To get the most out of your thermos (and what’s in it), you need to understand thermodynamics. Heat is essentially energy. When a liquid is hot, the molecules that make up that liquid are vibrating at a higher frequency than when that liquid is cold, says Kyle Overdeep, a scientist who specializes in this branch of physics. When a hot beverage comes into contact with a cold surface—say the wall of your drinking cup—those fast-vibrating molecules begin colliding with the slow-moving ones, heating the surface. How quickly a surface transfers heat depends on that surface’s density, Overdeep explains. With its low density, air is an ideal insulator, which is why puffy coats work so well.��What has even less density than air? A vacuum.

Between the inner and outer wall of a vacuum-sealed thermos is a tiny cross section that has had all the air sucked right out of it. In a vacuum, those energetic molecules in your beverage have even fewer atoms to bump up against. Voilà! Your drink stays hotter longer.

Now that you understand��how��your thermos works, here’s how to optimize it.

Preheat It

Your coffee will leach valuable energy��heating up the sidewall of your thermos. If you have ten��minutes to spare, fill your thermos with hot water��and allow that inner wall to warm up. Then dump it and refill it with your liquid of choice.

Fill It Up

Volume matters when it comes to keeping something hot, says David Cipoletti, associate director of advanced development at Hydro Flask. Since heat transfer happens at the surface of fluids, three ounces of liquid jostling around and making contact with the walls of your thermos is going to lose heat much faster than a filled 48-ounce container, where a significant portion of the liquid is only ever in contact with other liquid.

Pack Smart

Water stores energy well, says Cipoletti, so tea and coffee will generally stay hot for a long time. Packing food in a thermos gets more complicated. Scrambled eggs, for example, have a lot of air pockets and may lose heat more quickly than something denser, like soup.

Remember Food Safety (Even in Winter)

The danger zone for food—where bacteria thrive—is between 40 and 140��degrees Fahrenheit, says Sean O’Keefe, who works in the department of food science and technology at Virginia Tech University. If you want to eat hot food in the backcountry, you need to keep it really hot. “Soup or stew are fantastic media to grow bacteria. They have nutrients, their pH is around neutral, and they are normally consumed warm,” he warns. If you’re not sure how well your thermos works, you’re better off packing hot water and mixing it with dehydrated soup packets on the trail versus packing beef stew to go.

Be Gentle

After companies create a vacuum between the two layers of a thermos, they have to seal the whole thing up via supertight welds. But air is sneaky. Over time, molecules may slip through tiny cracks in the welds, ruining that vacuum. This is especially likely if you’re like me and prone to dropping things. The less you bang your thermos around, the longer the welds will hold. FYI:��The dishwasher is fine. It won’t hurt the seal.

Screw That Cap Tight

There’s no vacuum around the top of a thermos, so that’s a major leak point for heat, says Cipoletti. Unfortunately, heat rises, which compounds the problem. The quality of your lid is less important when it comes to cold storage. If you want to keep things hot, look for a lid that contains some sort of additional insulation; Hydro Flask, for example, offers tops with “honeycomb” insulation, which essentially add��a layer of air into the lid.��Pour your liquid into your thermos, screw the lid on as tight as you can, and don’t open it until you’re ready to pour yourself a cup.

Make Something Delicious

This will help you get your butt out the door, even on the coldest days, and it will encourage you to consume what you’ve got, keeping your energy levels topped off. At the�� guests are sent out on sleigh rides with thermoses of this house-made hot chocolate at the ready.

Oz the Clydesdale’s Favorite Hot Chocolate

For one serving, heat one��cup of whole milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it starts to steam. Whisk in a fourth��of a tablet of����and a tiny pinch of kosher salt. (At the ranch, they grind the chocolate up in a food processor to make it dissolve quicker.) Pour it into mugs with one ounce��of��. For the full-on��tailgate version of this drink, top with whipped cream and a toasted marshmallow.

Three Thermoses We Recommend

GSI Outdoors Microlite 1000 Twist ($35)

GSI Outdoors claims that the Microlite will keep beverages hot for up to 18 hours and cold for up to 32, and our testing (OK, our forgetting we left this thermos in a pack overnight) has proven that drinks do stay piping hot for an unbelievably long time. A reliable screw top and superlight stainless-steel construction make it ideal for getting jostled��around in a pack.

Stanley 17-Ounce Master Unbreakable Food Jar ($60)

This vacuum-insulated Stanley food jar is one of our Gear Guy’s favorites. It “crushed the competition in the thermoregulation test,” he wrote. He also appreciated its��heft and visual appeal. It’s a great option for transporting soups and hot foods, but we did find it a little hard to clean and eat from, due to��the small mouth diameter.

EcoVessel 64-Ounce Boss Insulated Growler ($60)

According to EcoVessel, the Boss will keep drinks cold up to 150 hours and hot up to 24 hours, though we haven’t tested it to those limits. It did keep our beer cold during long summer days at the crag��and our cider very hot during parking-lot hangs at the ski resort. There are two twisting lids: one with a silicone drinking lip, which we like for pouring, and a wider one that comes in handy when it’s time to��fill it��up.

The post Want to Get ���ϳԹ��� All Winter? Bring Your Thermos. appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

For years, we’ve been preaching the gospel of having Thanksgiving in the setting we’re most grateful for: the outdoors. We told you how to cook a turkey over a fire��and picked out the best dehydrated options for cobbling together a Thanksgiving in the backcountry. Apparently we were training for this year, when, amid a surge in COVID-19��cases nationwide, the best option is to take your feast outside.

To be clear, even dining alfresco carries risk, says Leo Nissola, a physician��who is part of the team behind the COVID-19 tracking site . In fact, Nissola and his partner will be doing Thanksgiving at home on their own. For him, getting together with family or friends is just too risky—especially as are turning out to be the source of many new infections. But he understands people crave connection with loved ones on the holidays.

So, if you’re in a place where COVID-19 isn’t spiking, and you decide to host a small Thanksgiving, you can easily make��your meal while social distancing if you have a grill or a backyard fire ring. Here’s your guide to moving the whole day outside.

Wear��Your Mask and Spread People Out

Even outside, you should be sporting a face covering if you’re around folks you don’t live with, says Bill Haseltine,��former professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of the forthcoming book . We know that time, proximity, and ventilation are all factors that contribute to how likely you are to spread COVID-19 in a group setting. If you’ll be cooking and eating with your family all day, a mask—plus staying at least six feet apart—is a must.

You’ll also want to think about seating arrangements and cooking stations. Surface transmission of the virus doesn’t seem to be as problematic as respiratory droplets, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to think about communal touch items, like tongs and serving spoons. One option is to have everyone bring their own.��Also, place hand sanitizer by any outdoor workstations or high-touch surfaces��and at the end of the buffet line. Haseltine recommends seating only the guests who live together next to each other. Because your guests will��take off their��masks��to eat,��everyone else should��be at least six feet away from��anyone not in their��immediate household. Multiple small tables, therefore, are��probably the safest way to go.

Do Some Precooking

Some dishes—like yeasted dinner rolls and pies with delicate crusts—are just not going to cook as well on a grill or fire. Make these the day before. The good news is��they’ll reheat beautifully if you wrap them��in foil and place them��next to your bonfire a few hours before dinnertime, says Dan Souza, editor in chief��at .

Grill or Smoke Your Turkey

Grilling a turkey is actually not that hard. Souza and his team have long��.��“In the Before Times, you wanted to free up your oven as much as possible,” he says. They’ve��tried a few turkey grilling techniques, including spatchcocking (removing the backbone and laying the turkey out flat on the grill), as well as parting the bird into breast, thighs, and drumsticks. Ultimately, they settled on keeping it whole. To make it work, you’ll essentially treat your grill like an oven, keeping the lid on and the heat low. There is one caveat to this method: It won’t work all that well with a big bird, because some parts will begin drying out before the interior is fully done. For best results, use a 12-to-14-pounder.

Another option is to smoke your turkey. That’s what Chris Morgan would do. Morgan is the former co-executive chef of , a Michelin-starred restaurant in Washington, D.C.,��that focuses on open-fire cooking. “I’d brine my turkey for a couple of days and then throw it in a smoker,” he says. American white oak is his go-to smoking wood for turkey, because it won’t completely overwhelm the delicate white-meat flavor. And keep that temp low. “As soon as you increase the heat, the fat leaches out,” Morgan says, and the bird doesn’t have much fat to begin with. “Keep it in the 200-degree range, and you’re going to have a beautiful, succulent turkey.”

Don’t have a smoker? You can sometimes rent them locally.

Cook Your Veggies on the Fire

If you are going to have a bonfire to keep guests warm, use it to cook some of the sides,��too. Root veggies are especially delicious when��roasted��on hot coals, Morgan says. The secret, he says, is to par-cook them first just to about al dente before putting them on. Morgan finds that veggies cooked from raw over��a fire take on too much smoky flavor, but finishing them in embers will give them just a��hint of campfire goodness.

Recipe: Fire-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Start with one medium-sized sweet potato for everyone (more if you want leftovers).

Scrub them well, then chop them into chunks or leave them whole. Wrap the sweet potato��in foil with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprig of rosemary, a few sage leaves, and��a head of garlic��halved width-wise, leaving the skins on.

Roast your packet of taters in an oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes or��until they’re starting to get��soft.

Start heating your cast-iron grate��over some hot embers. “Open fire” cooking is a misnomer, Morgan says. You don’t want the flames licking your food—it’ll taste like��ash. Instead, wait until your fire has burned down a bit before putting your potatoes on.

Unwrap the potatoes, disposing of the herbs but keeping the��roasted garlic to squeeze out onto bread. If your potatoes are whole, dispose of the foil and place them (and your garlic, if you want) on the cast-iron grate for 15 or so minutes to finish. If they’re chopped, just dispose of the herbs and rewrap the potatoes��before placing them on the grate. If you don’t have a grate, that’s fine. Leave the potatoes in the foil and tuck them into hot coals. They’re done when they yield slightly to a gentle squeeze.

You can do this same process with carrots, beets, or regular potatoes. Change up the herbs as desired.

Skip the Pie and Make a Cobbler Instead

A fussy pie is best made in the well-regulated heat of an oven. But a cobbler or a crisp? That’s totally doable over hot coals, Morgan says. And��because fruit cooks fast, it will take on just the faintest hint of smokiness without being overwhelmed.

To start, dig out your favorite crisp or crumble recipe. You can use any fruit you want, but apples are hard to beat.

Then choose your method.��There’s the tamer method that requires two cast-iron pans. Then there’s the wild method, which requires a bit of playing with fire.

Prep the fruit filling and topping in two separate bowls so they’re ready before you start cooking.

Heat one cast-iron pan over hot embers. Add the fruit, butter, spices, and sugar. Let the mixture get bubbly, stirring every now and then to keep the bottom from scorching.

Place a second skillet over another cache of embers. Let it heat up, then add your crumbled topping. You’re essentially just going to toast the topping, Morgan says. Shake the pan every few minutes to make sure the topping is��toasting evenly. When it looks golden brown and smells like warm sugar, shake the topping onto your cooked fruit.

Or try the��pyromaniac method of browning your topping:��crumble it directly onto the cooked fruit, then use a pair of tongs to pick up��a medium-sized ember��and hold it an inch or two above your cobbler to brown the topping.��“Get it really close. It’s��pretty fun,” Morgan says. You’ll see the sugary bits caramelizing before your eyes. How long you’ll need to hold it there will depend on how hot your embers are, but you should see the sugars start to brown within a minute or two.

Keep Everyone Comfortable

This may be the hardest part of the whole day, especially if it’s��cold. Chef Timothy Wastell, who manages outdoor pop-up events for , a winery in Dundee, Oregon,��gave us his tips for keeping guests warm while eating outside. First, make sure it’s clear to everyone that this is an outdoor event. “It’s OK��to ask your guests to dress in ‘fancy arctic,’” he says—think your favorite cocktail dress with thick tights and a puffy on top.��“And��ask them��to bring their own blanket.” (You can also send them the guide we recently put together on layering for outdoor dining.)

But while you can ask your family to come prepared, you are still the host. Pull out whatever blankets you have and offer them up for laps. Have an old sleeping bag or two you don’t really use? Pull that out and leave it on a chair, just in case someone wants to wriggle in for a full-body snuggle.

Hands and feet tend to get cold first. For the first, offer up warm mugs of cider, tea, or hot toddies—since holding a fork with mittens on is an exercise in frustration. For the second, purchase a bulk pack of boot warmers.

Finally, if you think you’ll do a lot of wintertime outdoor entertaining, consider investing in a patio heater. Chef Wastell says that after years of trying different types, he’s decided the infrared heaters do the best job at keeping everyone toasty. “They heat the objects”—being you and your guests—“not the air,” he says. However, which one you get may come down to what the store has in stock—patio heaters have become one of this fall’s hottest (literally) buys.

If the weather is just too awful to have your meal outside, you may end up sending folks home with to-go containers and eating Thanksgiving by yourself. But at least you had someone to invite over and hot food to serve them, even if it didn’t quite work out as planned. Those things alone are something to be thankful for.

The post Your Guide to Throwing an Outdoor Thanksgiving appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

For years��I’ve toggled between being one of two types of backpacker: the no-fuss minimalist who drinks instant coffee, and the snotty brat who trundles her all over the wilderness.

Neither approach is great. Sure, instant coffee has gotten better,��but it’s still got that sticky-stale taste. And while an AeroPress isn’t��exactly heavy, it’s still got bulk, and��it’s fiddly and inefficient for making multiple cups.

We’ve finally found our solution: steeped coffee.

Coffee roasters have long wondered whether they could package their products like tea. They were��interested in opening up��more options for when and where people could drink great coffee. “However, historically, it has been difficult to execute effectively,” says Tamas Christman, founder and CEO of , a small-batch operation��in Henderson, Nevada. One big problem, in particular, has been��producing a bag “that can hold enough coffee while still being permeable enough to saturate the grounds and allow sufficient extraction,” Christman explains.

Finally, someone’s done it. Josh Wilbur, CEO and founder of , a roaster in Santa Cruz, California, says he started experimenting by simply putting coffee into tea bags. It didn’t work. Too fine of a grind and the grounds go rogue, ending up in your cup; too rough and it doesn’t��steep well. Seven years of trial and error later, Steeped went to market with a compostable bag that doesn’t let any grounds through and makes a pretty darn good cup.

While Steeped roasts its own coffees, it’s also selling packaging to many microroasters, like Dragonfly. That means there’s suddenly a diverse offering of near instant choices. And when I say near instant, I mean it. Brewing with single-use bags is essentially like preparing a cup of tea. You plop the bag in your cup, pour hot water over it, jostle it around for about 30 seconds, then let it sit for five minutes. (My one pro tip is to resist the urge to overfill your mug—jostling the bag around will send coffee over the edges.)

I brewed 18 different cups in an attempt to find the best steeped coffees out there. (BRB—gonna go clean my whole house and then bag a peak.) These were the stars of the bunch.

Mr. Espresso��Seven Bridges Blend

Based in Oakland, California, roasts its coffee over an oakwood fire. You’d think the result would be a smoky cup—it’s not. According to the company, heat from a wood fire has a higher moisture content. That translates to beans that roast slower��and a final product with low acidity but plenty of deep baritone notes. Mr. Espresso tags this blend as having a caramel finish, and I tasted dark chocolate, too. It’s a perfect cup for someone who wants the richness of espresso out on the trail. $14 for eight servings

Chamberlain Coffee��Careless Cat Blend

All you cool cats and kittens��will like this super-chill medium roast from��Los Angeles–based Chamberlain Coffee. It brews up a half-caf cup, which is rare to find in the single-serving world. The��Careless Cat blend��walks that fine line between bitter and smooth that you’d expect from a blend of 100 percent Arabica beans from Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. I noted��hints of raisins and nuts—meaning it will pair perfectly with your morning handful of GORP. $20 for ten��bags

Steady State��Magdalena

Fans of bright, sunny, and ever so slightly sour coffees will love this single-origin roast from the Pitalito area of Colombia. One thing I love about ’s offerings is that each variety gives you the name of the farmer and the farm that grew your coffee. It’s nice to drink a brew that’s so easily traced back to its source. $2 per packet

Tinker Coffee��Conduit

Rich and tinged with the sweetness of dates and milk chocolate, this is a cup that would make me want to pack a slug of half-and-half—not because it needs it, but because a swirl of cream would be heavenly in an already-rich sip. , an Indianapolis-based roaster, has imparted Conduit with just the right amount of body and bitterness at the finish. That bite is there, but in a pleasant way. $17.50 for ten

Steeped��California Blend

I have to give a shout-out to the brand that made mass-market steeped coffees a thing. If you need to make coffee for your whole crew, this brew from Steeped is the one to buy. It’s a classic, balanced, not too dark and not too sour crowd-pleaser. $15 for ten

Dragonfly Coffee��Terre Celesti

Falling slightly on the light side of a medium roast, Terre Celesti��makes a cup with truly elegant floral notes. I kept finding myself holding the mug up to my face simply��to��sniff��the lovely aroma. It’s equally delightful to sip, though, with notes of nougat and just a touch of bright acidity. $25 for ten

The post The Search for the Perfect Backcountry Brew Is Over appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

If you’re a newbie to camping, know this: the food part doesn’t have to be complicated. Sleeping out in the woods is a palate cleanser for your soul, whether you eat a soggy PB&J by the fire or whip up a four-course meal. If figuring out what to eat is your barrier to entry, just pack a can of SpaghettiOs or a takeout salad.

However, this is�����ϳԹ���’s��Eat and Drink column, which means we’re always on Team Good Food. And coming up with tasty, creative camp dishes��can become a fun part of the experience. “For me, a big part of camping is the company you keep, and the food you’re making is a part of that,” says Linda Ly, author of��.��“Presumably, you don’t have internet, you’re not online, you’re not watching TV,” she says, adding that without those distractions, you may find yourself itching to put together a real meal.

Of course, unlike home cooking, there’s no emergency frozen pizza lurking in the freezer if things go sideways. So you do need to have a plan. Follow these tips, and we promise you won’t go hungry out there.

Plan Your Days

If you’re summiting a peak on Sunday, that’s the day to eat instant oatmeal for breakfast and dinner from a freeze-dried, heat-and-eat bag. Save your cooking for a time when the main items on the agenda are drinking cocktails and reading in your hammock.

Be Lazy

Even if you’re a diehard cook-from-scratch chef at home, this is not the time for your famous beef Wellington. “My secret weapon is Trader Joe’s,” reveals Brian Jump, REI’s director of North American field operations and a longtime hiking, biking, kayaking, and rafting guide. TJ’s is your one-stop shop for car camping, says Jump, because not only are the aisles packed with great snacks, but there are tons of heat-and-eat meal options, too. Grab pre-marinated meats (Korean short ribs are Ly’s favorite), premade salads, and even refrigerated ravioli or frozen dumplings, which cook up well on a camp stove.

Speaking of Camp Stoves, Test Yours Now

If your stove is new to you, fire it up at least once before you leave. For one thing,��you want to triple-check that you have the right kind of fuel��and you know how to light it. Also,��camp stoves are kind of awkwardly sized. The pots you’re planning to bring may not fit well on the burners—definitely check. Finally, camp stoves and cookware heat differently than your stuff at home. (Camp cookware is thinner��and therefore cooks more quickly, making scorching an issue.) This is best to find out when you have a stocked pantry at your disposal.

Oh, You’re Going to Cook over the Fire?

That’s a fun option, but it takes some getting used to, says Jump. He generally prepares his main dishes on trusty camp stoves and uses the fire just to warm crusty bread. However, Ly says she prefers cooking over the fire and reserves her camp stove for things like warming water and making pancakes. So this is going to come down to personal preference. Just know that you rarely cook over flames—instead, you cook over hot coals. (Pack your Dutch oven, and check out��this guide��on how to use it.)

Prep at Home As Much As Possible

Ly cracks eggs into mason jars, which eliminates the possibility of eggs-plosions in your cooler. You can pre-scramble them or not—that’s up to you, just make sure you keep them cold. She also pre-dices any veggie that will retain its shape post-chopping: think peppers, potatoes, carrots, and onions. Leave tomatoes and cucumbers whole, because they tend to get mushy after cutting.

Bring Snacks

While guiding, Jump quickly realized that the trick to��keeping everyone happy is feeding them well. That’s especially true in the evening when you’re done with a hike and teetering on hangry.��Before Jump starts any meal prep, he pulls some sort of tidbit out to tide everyone over. His go-to is a wheel of brie topped with a handful of nuts and dried fruit, wrapped tightly in foil, and heated for a few minutes on warm campfire coals. “People’s minds are blown when you have baked brie at the campsite,” he says—and it’s barely any work at all.

Pack Your Cooler Right

Because heat rises, the coldest part of your cooler is the bottom, says Jump. That’s where you should pack the stuff you won’t touch for a few days. (This keeps rifling through it to a minimum, too). Ice will keep your cooler cold, but it also creates a mess as it melts; instead,��Jump recommends a product called , which are reusable, freezable sheets. “They’re low volume but really cold, and they don’t sweat,” he says. He distributes a few sheets throughout the cooler, eliminating the need to use any ice at all. Also: pack your drinks in a separate cooler. Opening the lid repeatedly to grab a cold one will vastly reduce how long it stays frigid in there.

Build a Food-Prep Area

Ly brings her own camp table, in case there isn’t a picnic table at the campsite or it’s not conveniently located. (It also helps keep the stove out of reach of her young kids.) Her pick is from��, because it has adjustable legs that are perfect for use on uneven ground.

Don’t Forget the Dishes

Yes, you still have to do dishes in the backcountry. Keep all of your dishwashing gear together��so you’re not searching for it in the dark, and heat a kettle of water on the stove while you eat—warm water makes the process much less loathsome as well as��faster, since it helps break down food bits and oil, says Jump. Both Ly and Jump use a three-bucket system:��the first contains��warm water for rinsing off food,��then there’s a soapy water bucket,��and, finally, a rinse bucket. You can buy����made for this task, or just bring some plastic bins from home. Ly likes to let her dishes drain in a mesh laundry bag hung from a tree branch.

Follow����ethics when you disperse your dishwater. Pour your dirty water through a mesh strainer and into another bucket before dumping it. Make sure you dispense of the water at least 200 feet from streams or lakes��and a good distance from your campsite. Throw the strained-out food bits into a bear-proof trash can, or pack them out—even micro bits of food can cause problems in the backcountry.

Want to go further? Here’s a��guide to backcountry��dessert baking and��bread making. We’ve also got a complete��guide to cocktails��that pair perfectly with campfires. Just don’t blame us when your friends invite you on every single camping expedition—and then ask you to take charge of the menu.

The post The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Camp Cooking appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.