Rarely overlooked but often overcooked, shrimp is the shellfish that home cooks love to botch. Despite the pitfalls that often accompany this much beloved protein, there are some hacks that can help make shrimp on the barbie a resounding success, every single time. Chef of offers much-needed advice on grilling perfect shrimp.

There are, to hear Lonsdale tell it, more than 300 species of shrimp, most of which are classified by color. “Gulf white shrimp, the most ubiquitous variety in North America, can be fished from New Jersey all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico,” she says. Shrimp are also categorized by size. “A label reading 21/25 means that there are 21 to 25 individual shrimp per pound,” Lonsdale says. This information can help determine appropriate cooking time, she notes.

The time it takes to grill shrimp depends on size and whether you prefer to cook them with the head and shells on, which, she says, adds about a minute—sometimes a little less—to overall cooking time. “Large shrimp (16/20-count) should take about two to three minutes a side on a hot grill,” Lonsdale says. (The that shrimp reach an internal cooking temperature of 145 degrees before being consumed.)

To avoid overcooking, Lonsdale recommends using a very hot grill. “Since shrimp cooks quickly, it’s crucial to develop a good char as fast as possible,” she says. She also suggests drying the shellfish thoroughly before grilling. “If I’m not camping and have access to a kitchen, I’ll use the refrigerator technique from J. Kenji LĂłpez-Alt,” she says. This technique involves uncovering shrimp and refrigerating it for an hour to promote browning and allowing it to dry out before it hits the hot grill.

Another helpful hack to keep the interior of shrimp super moist: skewers.“Nestling shrimp snugly on skewers protects the inner flesh from overcooking, allowing a little more time on the grill to develop color and texture,” Lonsdale says. “Before grilling, brush your seasoned shrimp skewers with olive oil to boost charring and prevent sticking.” Make sure that the grill grates are clean, too, she advises, since shrimp are particularly prone to sticking to the grates if they are not well seasoned and well cleaned from previous grill sessions.

And, of course, one other way to promote best grilling practices is to choose a quality product to begin with. The better the shrimp, the better the outcome, and that extends all the way down to the moisture retention in the end. “Choose wild shrimp for the best flavor and sustainability,” Lonsdale says. “And don’t be afraid of frozen shrimp. It can be of higher quality than the fresh options and is easy to defrost quickly.”

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It’s a topic too taboo, too controversial for dinnertime, though debating it might make you hungry for seafood. Grilled clams vs. grilled oysters – which is better?

“A raw oyster is one of the best things a human on planet Earth can consume,” says Christopher Sherman, CEO of in Duxbury, Massachusetts. “Why grill it once it is shucked?”

Island Creek grows both oysters and clams, so Sherman is quick to claim he doesn’t “have a dog in this fight.” But the CEO does confess a certain preference for raw oysters over raw clams, and generally he only grills oysters as a last resort. “I really only find myself grilling oysters when I have a lot of them (which, given my line of work, I often do) and grow tired of shucking,” he says.

Sherman explains that grilling oysters requires a bit of finesse. Sure, he admits, you can place them onto the grill whole and allow them to pop open the same way you would clams (one point for clams here, it seems), but oysters fare better when they’re shucked first and adorned with extras. This allows them to “parboil in their own liquor, taking on the smoke of the grill,” he explains. Oysters cooked this way are best served with breadcrumbs, bacon, “or whatever else you can come up with.”

And what of clams? Hard-shell clams are best for grilling, which means quahogs and littlenecks on the east coast, and manilas on the west. Clam shells, Sherman cautions, can break when brought up to too high a temperature, while oysters are heartier and can withstand more time over the grates. (As an aside, Sherman highly recommends clams on pizza: “If you are lucky enough to have a pizza oven in your outdoor grilling setup, clams make a better pizza topping [than oysters].”) To help avoid issues of temperature, says Eric Bartle, the culinary director at , a Willamette Valley winery and the Pacific Northwest’s premier producer of olive oil, it’s often best to cook clams in a pot. “You can use a cast-iron pot and get the smokiness and have fun with a grill, but they just need to be quickly steamed until the shells pop open,” he says.

Bartle, though, is partial to oysters when it comes to this battle. “Clams are amazing,” he says. “I love them, and they’re great for a clambake, but you don’t get the nuance of the grill, even in cast-iron. And there’s something magical about putting that oyster right over the fire.” The best oysters for grilling, he says, are larger ones, which are often referred to as barbecue oysters. The summer months, Bartle says, is when the larger, more succulent, more grillable oysters are available, since oysters continue to grow. “They aren’t as firm or tight [as younger, smaller oysters], and are more suited for the barbecue, especially with a knob of your favorite compound butter.”

Butter—any kind of fat, really—can help absorb the smoke from the grill, and will pair well with the oysters’ natural salinity, Bartle says. “Olive oil would be delicious, with a squeeze of lemon and some herbs,” he says. “It’s endless. That’s the fun thing about grilled oysters.”

Whether your heart lands on oysters or clams, Sherman has some wisdom to impart to those thinking of grilling. “Some people think a clam or an oyster isn’t cooked until its shell opens,” he says. “This is erroneous.” Both bivalves can be eaten raw, and so there is, he says, “little risk in underdoing them and all downside in overcooking.” He suggests pulling shellfish off the grill as soon as the first few pop open.

So, grilled oysters or clams? Oysters seem to win slightly in this debate, although the best way to find out may be to fire up the grill and taste for yourself.

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Justin and Danielle Walker, owners and operators of Walkers Maine, a seafood restaurant in Cape Neddick, Maine, know clams. Several months ago, as part of the Ogunquit Soft Shell Clam Commission’s clam flat re-seeding program (which has taken place every year since 2008 under the supervision of Shellfish Warden Everett Leach and other local wardens) Danielle arranged for some of her guests to go clamming on Ogunquit Beach.

“We went down and brought a group of our guests—about 30 of them—to the last day of clamming,” Walker says. “We showed them how to harvest clams, how to find them, how to clean them, work with the product, and then, later in the evening they came back at 5 o’clock to the restaurant to have dinner.”

The day was a success, and Danielle soon received a call from Everett Leach, the Shellfish Warden for the towns of Wells and Ogunquit, asking her if she would drum up some volunteers to help reseed the clam flats, part of an existing program that typically takes place in early spring.

The Whys and Hows of Reseeding Clams

Reseeding clams means just what it sounds like: these fingernail-sized mollusks are buried in mud in order to create pressure so the clams grow thicker, stronger shells.Ìę

The process begins with volunteers digging numerous shallow trenches in the sand, where a net can be installed. Baby clams, also known as seed clams, are placed directly into muddy sand and then covered with the net. Reseeding plots are often denoted by buoys or flags, which can help clam farmers and marine biologists chart how many clams have dug into the sand, and how many have survived through the year. Clams naturally find a soft, muddy plot and attach to it for years at a time; netting simply helps these bivalves have a longer lifespan in a world filled with predators, tidal variation, and other natural variables.

Determining a possible success rate of reseeding is challenging, particularly in the face of the European green crab, which hitchhiked to the United States in the 1800s. The green crab, an invasive predator, has seen a spike in population with warmer sea temperatures. “The biggest thing that we’re up against is the green crab population,” Danielle explains. “The green crabs, even the small ones, go for the seed clams that are smaller than themselves.” According to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, these crustaceans can eat as many as 15 soft shell clams in a day, and it takes a single clam two years to grow to harvesting size.

Soft-shell clams, often referred to as steamer clams, though the shells are still firm and inedible, are not classified as an endangered species. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization, or NOAA, lists the species as particularly imperiled by ocean acidification, warming water temperatures, and warming air temperatures, and the National Environmental Education Center states that the average global sea surface temperature has been consistently higher during the past three decades than at any other time since record-keeping began in the late 1800s.

Other fish, though—most notably ama ebi, otherwise known as Maine shrimp, and certain species of tuna—have seen a more precipitous decline in numbers than clams, which are still readily available. For Danielle, who grew up in this area, prioritizing the humble clam is a way of recognizing an ecological moment that is actively unfolding. “As the years go on, we’re harvesting less and less clams, not because we’re allowed less, but there are less,” she says. “There’s perspective on it, for all of us who live here. You can still go and get what you want, but we don’t go as often, just because we know that they’re not there.” Re-seeding clams now, she notes, can set up more robust populations for the future.

A Community Passionate About Clams 

Drawing attention to the reseed through social media, Danielle got about a dozen people to congregate in April. “The request was: Bring your garden weasel and bring your strength, we are going to rough up areas,” she explains. The Downeast Institute, based in Machias—about four hours north—provided close to 50,000 clam babies for seeding, and the conservation committee flew a drone overhead to take photographs, recording how many clams had been seeded. Next year, conservation will return to these same spots to gauge the success of the program, and to make a plan of action for next year’s seeding.Ìę

Ultimately, Danielle, who hopes to be part of the future of reseeding at Ogunquit Beach, sees clam re-seeding as part of preemptive ecological work that can help to tackle a problem before it becomes endemic. “It’s ahead of being endangered,” she says. “It’s inspiration to do something before you can’t have it. It’s the Maine shrimp. That’s my analogy. It was here. It was cheap. And then it was gone. There was no in between. It’s something that everyone misses.” 

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On a brisk January morning, my family and I drove down to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where ’ on-site experience coordinator Karla Murphy gave us a tour of the company’s hatchery. We tracked the life cycle of an oyster; in the middle of winter, the iconic Massachusetts seafood purveyor was simulating summer. Full-sized oysters, taken from Duxbury Bay right outside the hatchery’s window, sat in temperate water, waiting to spawn, at which point a laborious process of reproductive magic would occur.

Walking through the rooms of what felt like a science museum, we peered through beakers of brightly colored liquid, a spectrum of algae in a kaleidoscope of brown, kelly green, and red. Island Creek’s job is not only to breed and sell oysters, but also to study their environment, which is why the company knows, for instance, that a winter oyster, plucked from the bay’s cold, briny water, tastes different than a summer one.

 What’s The Best Season for Oysters?

If oysters are now associated with summer— kicking back on a balmy summer evening with a dozen fresh ones on the gorgeous deck at Glidden Point Oyster Farms in Edgecomb, Maine, say, overlooking the Damariscotta River—perhaps we’ve moved a little far from the old adage that used to define oyster-eating. That’s the one that instructed oyster-lovers to eat oysters only in months that contain the letter “r.” We have refrigeration now, after all.Ìę

Still, it’s worth considering the oyster, in 2023, as a both year-round delight or and a food that can be enjoyed more resolutely in winter than in summer. Like agricultural products, the taste of which reflects where they grow and the soil in which they are grown, oysters, which are filter-feeders, deeply reflect their environment.Ìę

“For many years now, people have been using the term merroir,” says Evan Mallett, chef and owner of in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and former owner of Ondine Oyster + Wine Bar in Belfast, Maine. “The difference in microclimate can actually take place in the same part of the same river, depending on how and at what elevation in the water that oyster was raised.” Mallet contrasts this with the wine term often used to describe the same quality: terroir.Ìę

“I think the best example of this is from two of the most famous American oyster appellations—Island Creek and Wellfleet, which are only 17 miles apart,” says Chris Sherman, CEO, Island Creek Oysters. “Much like legendary areas of, say, Napa Valley in the wine world, they are close, but there are vastly different environmental factors.” Sherman cites tides, breezes, freshwater inputs, bottom substrates, and even farmer intervention, all of which can create a dramatically different tasting oyster.Ìę

Oysters are not only impacted by where they grow; their flavors are affected by when we eat them, and there’s a good argument to be made for doing so in the colder months. “Oysters eat cleaner and taste better in the winter,” Evan Mallett says. That’s because lower water temperatures can cause many varieties of algae to die off, changing the food availability for the bivalve and forcing it to rely on stored glycogen for survival.In shorthand, the oyster fattens up, filtering mostly water and whatever else it can find in colder waters. This is particularly true up north, in areas like Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia.Ìę

Oysters, adds Ryan McPherson, owner and president of the aforementioned , taste different at every time of the year and are particularly rich when they are preparing for the long, cold winter. “It’s that fatty buildup that happens at the end of the year, going into the colder months,” McPherson says, specifically of cold-weather oysters. “They plump up and they put on this fat.” That fat, he says, can often hold salt, making winter oysters richer and brinier than their summer counterparts.Ìę

How to Eat Oysters

As for how to eat an oyster in winter, well, it’s time to let the imagination run wild. My own winter has been filled with bivalves. One night, at , in Lynn, Massachusetts, I enjoyed a Kusshi, a cultivated species from an oyster farm in Deep Bay, British Columbia. The oyster had a deep pocket from a good tumble in Pacific waters, and its cup held a firm, briny, and fatty oyster (I’m not sure a summer version could have held up as well to the hackleback caviar, strips of preserved lemon, and black truffle mignonette that came on top).Ìę

I could imagine tucking a puck of butter and a sprinkling of smoked salt into a sextet of Kusshis and tossing them onto the grill for just a few minutes until they cooked through—warmed but not chewy—and slipped onto a piece of crisp bread like escargots with the butter and brine infused as one.Ìę

The opportunities for creativity with winter oysters, says Daniel Sabia, creative director and owner of , in Hudson, New York, are endless. “We’ve done everything from cold-smoking oysters and serving them with their classic pairings to serving perfect ice-cold oysters with the following sides: burnt harissa cocktail sauce, charred corn and burnt scallion mignonette, cold-smoked oyster aioli cut with tangerine juice, and charred pepper vinegar,” he says. “It’s truly a fun dance of flavor and technique.”

If you prefer a warm oyster cooked over wood fire, refrain from cooking them over direct heat. “Oysters are so fragile and delicate,” Sabia says. “We still use red-hot coals and let the shell do all the work by retaining the heat and keeping all the liquid in the shell from drying out.” Pacific Coast varieties, like the Baynes Sound oyster, from British Columbia, is a large and toothsome bivalve that can hold up to pan roasts, wood-fired grilling, and cold-smoking.Ìę

As our hatchery tour at Island Creek wound to a close, Karla Murphy escorted us to brunch at The Windsor House, where she had set up a true oyster tasting for us. There, Island Creek owner and oyster farmer Skip Bennett’s prizes were on full display: four Island Creeks from Duxbury Bayand and four Tumblecans from Saquish Neck, which were tumbled oysters deep in the pocket with a robust, briny meat.Ìę

We also ate four tiny Aunt Dottys, named after Bennett’s own aunt, also from Saquish. They were salty and meaty, with an intense and powerful finish. Hungry for our bivalves in their natural, winter state, we ate these plain, then accented with a trio of caviar from the hatchery’s impeccable stores, then with an eyedropper of mignonette, until, sadly, they were gone. Winter always feels long but with more oysters on the menu, it now feels far less interminable.

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This rustic skillet galette has all of the Thanksgiving flavors with the addition of natural smoke put off by the grill. For best results, use a combination grill-smoker—I used a Traeger Ironwood 885 with the brand’s applewood barbecue pellets, which offer particularly rich and smoky results for baked goods. This model also allowed me to set a temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so there was less cooking variation. Gas grills are fine, too, though you may find that you get a less smoky end result. For more information, here’s a comprehensive guide to using your grill as an oven.

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This turducken is made only on special occasions by Anna Miller, chef on the Schooner Ladona, which is part of the eight-vessel Maine Windjammer Association. The stuffing, by recipe developer Hannah Selinger, brings the flavors of Thanksgiving to any meal, and the drippings from the turducken make great gravy.

A few notes about making the turducken: If you’re not comfortable removing the bones from a turkey, duck, or chicken yourself, you can ask your local butcher to do this for you. Just make sure to call ahead of time around the holidays, when there may be prolonged wait times for special butchery services. Some purveyors, it should be noted, do sell partially de-boned chickens and ducks. D’Artagnan, the online retailer, is one example. There are, too, conventional grocery stores that now offer “spatchcocked” chickens for sale (this means that the backbone and part of the ribcage has been removed). Keep in mind, however, that these birds are not completely de-boned—they still have their leg bones intact—and that they typically cost more money than bone-in birds.

A trussing needle, which you will need to tie the bird together, is a long, thick, stainless-steel needle that is typically used to tie pieces of meat and poultry together. You can find one at your local butcher, specialty cooking supply shop, or online retailer. Most trussing needles are about 7-inches long and have a large enough eye to facilitate threading thick, waxed butcher’s twine. Butcher’s twine can be purchased at most conventional grocery stores, as well as at specialty retailers and online.

For a turducken of this size, you will need a large—or 18-inch—roasting pan. Roasting pans typically come in three sizes: small (14-inch), medium (16-inch), and large (18-inch). Small pans are useful for birds that are up to 12 pounds. Medium pans can accommodate birds up to 16 pounds. But for a turducken, which requires a much larger turkey, use the largest roasting pan you can find.

If intimidated, remember that Miller produces this meal in a 196-square-foot galley kitchen—meaning that your home’s kitchen is probably up to the task.

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It’s the perennial issue that plagues us all around the holidays: not enough oven space. But, according to the latest research conducted by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, 70 percent of households in the United States own at least one grill or smoker—it’s time to put those appliances to use as secondary ovens for the holidays. Here, we spoke with two barbecue experts about the best strategies for using grills to help with Thanksgiving and beyond.

Determine the Best Use for Your Specific Grill

Knowing which type of grill you own—gas, charcoal, pellet-fueled, or wood-burning—will help you understand its specific benefits when using it as a backup heat source on Thanksgiving. If you have a gas or charcoal grill, consider cooking sides like broccoli and corn outside, says Steven Raichlen, and host of Project Fire and Project Smoke on PBS. These dishes benefit from the grill’s direct heat source and can stand a bit of char. For indirect grilled sides, like stuffed squash or sweet potato and marshmallow casseroles, Raichlen often uses a kettle or pellet grill.

For Consistency, Go Pellet

Some types of grills offer more temperature consistency than others, says Raichlen. “Basically, pellet grills are like outdoor ovens with an added whiff of wood smoke,” Raichen says. “So anything you would bake in an oven, from side dishes to desserts, you can cook in a pellet grill.” The benefit of a pellet grill is that you “basically set them and forget them,” Raichlen says. There are no flare-ups or issues with temperature consistencies.

This also makes them ideal for baking, where a steady and controlled temperature is necessary. “Typically, we want to cook our baked goods between 350 and 400 degrees, and that management is much more challenging in a non-pellet grill,” says , Traeger Grills Ambassador, world champion of barbecue desserts, and winner of 24 perfect 180 barbecue scores. She finds that the consistency of a pellet grill makes it ideal for baking bread, pies, and other Thanksgiving baked goods like cornbread stuffing and dinner rolls.

Consider the Smoke

Pellet grills also provide a smokey flavor to your dish, so if there are recipes in your Thanksgiving repertoire you prefer on the less-smoky side, go for a gas grill. It will impart a less smokey flavor, Raichlen says, thanks to its venting: “The smoke just spills out the back,” he says. Gas grills are also what 68 percent of Americans own, so they may be the most approachable option for those looking to find a secondary oven source. A gas grill’s side burner can also be used to make sides like mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce, Raichlen says, which wouldn’t necessarily benefit from smoke.

If you’re going to embrace smoke, on the other hand, consider the source of the wood that you’re working with, Bennett says. “When it comes to doing recipes on a wood-fire grill, the smoke, to me, becomes one of the ingredients,” she says. But while an applewood or cherrywood may pair well, say, with an apple dessert, a mesquite—among the stronger smoking woods—may overpower the dish completely.

Take the Main Event șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű

If you’ve never cooked a turkey on the grill before, it can be a failsafe way to free up the oven.“I think it actually provides a lot of stress relief over the holidays,” Bennett says. She prepares her whole Thanksgiving meal, including the turkey, on a large Traeger grill, which is big enough to accommodate many different sides and baked goods in stages. Plus, turkey and a smoky pellet grill are a natural pairing.

Raichlen agrees that cooking the bird outside is a good way to alleviate the stress put on the indoor oven. It offers countless options for creativity, too. “Last year, I spit-roasted my turkey on a Kalamazoo Gaucho. The year before that, I smoked it on a Big Green Egg. Depends on the grill,” he says. In terms of cooking a bird that won’t disappoint, it must be cooked over indirect heat. “Otherwise, you’d burn the skin, but leave the meat raw,” he says.

Don’t Discount Charcoal

Although charcoal can be a little fickle in terms of heat reliability, it also offers up exceptional smoky flavor, and, as Raichlen notes, can be a lot of fun to cook with. Charcoal grills can be enhanced with hardwood chips and chunks, and dishes that don’t require a ton of temperature stability can easily be cooked on them. Sides that are normally baked in the oven, Raichlen says, like baked squash, scalloped potatoes, and even macaroni and cheese, can benefit from a charcoal grill’s smoke and won’t be impacted much by temperature variation.

Raichlen notes that you’re most likely going to be setting it up for indirect grilling as opposed to direct heat. This requires raking the embers to the periphery and cooking the food in the center, which helps create more precise temperatures, within about a 50-degree window. (That’s still not ideal for baking, but it can be fine for most casseroles and sides.)

Ready to move things outside? Here’s a recipe for a smokey apple raisin galette that’s baked on a grill.Ìę

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This year, celebrate Thanksgiving sustainably with a celebration that forgoes the store-bought bird. You can always try wild turkey (check out our guide here), but if your taste tacks toward something slightly off-beat, we’ve curated a few of our non-traditional favorites. Read on for a look at how to prepare Thanksgiving, your way.

For a Rich Main: Duck

Although duck is smaller than turkey, weighing an average four to five pounds, it has some distinct advantages, including a high-fat content and richer taste due to skin fat that naturally bastes the bird and retains moisture.

To roast a crispy, moist whole duck, trim the bird of excess fat and brush it with a three-to-one ratio of soy sauce and honey. Place it breast side down in a roasting pan in a 450-degree oven, and place another pan filled with water just below the rack. Allow it to roast for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, prick the duck all over with a sharp knife and flip it onto its back. Season it with salt, pepper, and more of the soy-honey glaze. Add a little more water to the pan and roast for 20 more minutes before pricking the breast with a knife. Continue to brush with the glaze every 10 minutes until an instant-read thermometer inserted at the thigh reads 150 degrees. As with turkey, you’ll want to wait a minimum of five minutes before carving.

For an Impressive Presentation: Pheasant

These small game birds weigh about two to four pounds and are best for smaller gatherings or lush presentations, as you can cook multiple pheasants and serve them on one large platter. The meat is leaner and more savory than chicken and tends to contain fewer hormones and antibiotics than the store-bought birds.

Like chicken, pheasant can either be spatchcocked—a method by which the backbone and part of the leg bone are removed—and placed directly on the grill, or seared on the stovetop and cooked in a pan right in the oven. The bird cooks faster than a turkey by several hours and is a more approachable option for budding cooks, but it goes just as well with traditional Thanksgiving sides. Wisconsin-based , the country’s largest pheasant farm, suggests roasting a whole pheasant at 350 degrees for one hour and then reducing the heat to 300 and cooking until the bird reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

For a Lean Tenderloin: Venison

Venison is a lean, red meat that can often be substituted for beef—great for those inclined to serve a tenderloin at Thanksgiving. Cuts, it should be noted, are much smaller than beef cuts. And since venison has a lower fat content than beef, you should add ample fat to the pan while cooking and avoid preparing venison past medium.

For cuts like the tenderloin—a particularly lean, prized cut—consider searing it in a pan and forsaking the oven. , one of the premier online retailers carrying venison tenderloins, suggests searing a seasoned loin in an oiled sautĂ© pan for two to three minutes on each side, until it has achieved a brown crust and has reached an internal temperature of 125 degrees. Deglaze the pan with stock, wine, fortified wine, or even sweetened juice for a pan sauce that you can serve on the side.

For a Sustainable Protein: Boar

Wild boar is an invasive and destructive pig species that’s sustainable to hunt. A rack of chops, which can be roasted whole, bones included, breaks down to eight full-sized individual rib chops. The meat is rich and heady, with a taste that falls somewhere between pork and venison (their flavorful diet of acorns and fallen fruit contributes to their compelling taste).

According to , one of the top purveyors of wild boar, it’s best to cook rib racks of wild boar at 375 degrees, until they reach an internal temperature of 140 degrees, which is about medium-rare.

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In the beginning, there were cans: very heavy cans. “This was before my time—before I was even born,” says Soraya Smith. “The Girls Scouts were putting cans of cans of beans, cans of tuna, cans of food into their backpacks when they would do treks for hiking.” Smith, a graduate of the Culinary School of the Rockies, is an owner, founder, and head of recipe development for American Outdoor Products, the parent company of . She continues the mission that began in the early ‘50s, when Dri-Lite Foods, the predecessor of American Outdoor Products, was launched by Anne Benedict, a Girl Scout Troop Leader who had started dehydrating foods in her garage: to make the most packable, light, and delicious freeze-dried food for backpackers.

American Outdoor Products has spent the past five decades tracking the changing moods of the food world. On any given workday, she can select from thousands of different freeze-dried ingredients at her disposal: vegetables, proteins, herbs, spices, powdered dairy, powdered stock. “We have a process internally, where sales and marketing will identify a hole in our line,” Smith says. “Maybe we need more Mexican entrees. Maybe we need more breakfasts. What’s the newest, latest, greatest ingredient that everyone’s dying to use out there?”

Creating a dish from ingredients that have been dried is like working backward, says Paul Lightfoot, General Manager of . The brand’s head of food development, Erika Thornton, often works with a team of food scientists in a process that is the opposite of conventional recipe creation, where the smells and tastes of ingredients, combined with the sensations of heat in the kitchen, yield a result. The team, for instance, might be interested in creating a chili: they know what they want the end result to taste like, but they have to troubleshoot which ingredients to use, what volume of ingredients to use, and how much hydration a recipe requires. The brand also highlights so-called environmental hero products, like carbon-neutral lentils and kernza. The process of creating recipes, then, is a matrix that depends on everything from how a product is grown to how it comes together in a commercial kitchen.

For Smith, although the process isn’t exactly like conventional cooking, it does bear some similarities. She first starts with the flavors, taste memories, or dish ideas that she knows—perhaps that’s a food with which she’s familiar from her home kitchen, or a recipe that she’s made in the test kitchen.“I taste everything,” she says of the freeze-dried products. “I taste it dry, because I want to see what it does when you taste it and rehydrate in your mouth, and then I taste it after having added water.” Smith has been creating recipes for Backpacker’s Pantry since 2010, and has, she says, a good sense of how flavors—and freeze-dried ingredients, in particular—will mesh. “I can pretty much understand how an ingredient will rehydrate when you add water back into it, because, through the freeze-drying process, that’s literally the only thing that you have done, is take the water out. The cellular structure is there, the color is there, the flavor is there.”

The recipe is built on the scale, with smaller ingredients like spices and sauces going in last. She then adds water, hydrates the dish, and tastes it, adjusting the amounts of different ingredients afterward for flavor. “I add the water to it and see, ok, was that too much water, was that not enough water to get everything hydrated as I intended? So my process is very personal and private,” she says.

While Patagonia Provisions’ line of outdoor-friendly foods includes chilis, hot cereals, and snack foods, Backpacker’s Pantry has a line of slightly more culinarily escapist foods, like Pad Thai (one of the company’s best-sellers, Smith says), fettuccine alfredo with chicken, Kathmandu curry, and chicken larb. Smith relies on “flavor bombs” that are heavy on spices in order to recreate classic dishes. “To me, because I’m trained in culinary, it was a huge hurdle to get over to understand how I could develop flavor without cooking,” she says. (Cooks often reference the chemical process known as the Maillard Reaction, whereby proteins turn brown in the presence of heat, achieving what we commonly recognize as brown, or “cooked,” flavors.) And yet, in a tiny packet, without the aid of a stove, somehow, Smith has developed comparable flavors.

Looking to the future, brands like Patagonia Provisions hope that backpacking food isn’t only restricted to the backcountry. “I doubt we’re going to eliminate convenience from our supply chain and the way our economy runs,” Paul Lightfoot says. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make the right foods that are good for the planet convenient enough. That’s part of what we’re trying to crack the code on here.”

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These days, it seems like everywhere you look—trendy restaurants, boutique food shops, Instagram—tinned seafood, a long staple of Mediterranean cooking and eating, is making an appearance. And no wonder: the food, says Chris Sherman, CEO of Duxbury, Massachusetts’ Island Creek Oysters, is “the holy grail” of convenience and luxury. “The fact that it’s a great protein choice for you and our world—packing nutritional benefits, a reduced carbon footprint, easily recyclable packaging, fair labor practices, and sustainable fisheries—means you can feel good about indulging,” Sherman says. Plus, it makes a great take-along snack or meal for your outdoor adventures. Just add bread, crackers, or some salty garnishes like olives or pickles. Here are four tinned fish producers that you should check out this fall.

Island Creek Oysters

Island Creek Oysters a line of single-origin tinned shellfish in partnership with Galicia, Spain’s Conservas Mariscadora. The six different 3.7 to 3.9-ounce tins range in price from $10 to $25 and are harvested by small, independent fishermen and women from fisheries in Spanish waters and then hand-packed in a 100-year-old Spanish cannery. Included in the selection of tinned seafood: clams in brine; cockles in brine; scallops in a tomato-based Vieira sauce (serve it over pasta or rice); razor clams in olive oil, garlic, and chili; razor clams in olive oil; and mussels in pickled sauce, a briny, vinegar-base sauce inflected with tomato.

Patagonia Provisions

Regenerative and organic food brand recently stepped into the tinned fish game with their mackerel, mussels, and white anchovies. Fish appear in various flavor incarnations: anchovies may be seasoned with roasted garlic, lemon, and olive oil, or plain; mussels may be smoked, cooked in sofrito, or marinated in lemon and herbs; and mackerel may be enhanced by roasted garlic, Spanish paprika, or lemons and capers. Tins, which contain 4.2 ounces, start at $8, but some are available in sampler packs or are offered in discounted 10-packs for $72.

Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co.

Founded in 2020 by Becca Milstein and Caroline Goldfarb, embraces sustainable aquaculture by focusing production on small-boat fishing and micro-canneries. The company sells five different types of seafood: wild-caught smoked albacore tuna; smoked rainbow trout; smoked salmon with Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp; smoked Atlantic salmon; and, coming up at the end of the month, trout jerky gems, tenderloin pieces of trout sourced from Magic Valley, Idaho. Tins are sold as a set of three and range in price from $26.99 to $38.99. For those seeking variety in a three-pack, Fishwife offers a “Smoky Trio,” for $27.99, a three-pack combining smoked tuna, trout, and salmon.

Ekone Smoked Oysters

Small, sweet, Pacific Coast oysters from Washington’s Willapa Bay are the name of the game at . One of the company’s canned varieties is harvested, brined, and then smoked over maple chips—eat them straight from the can or use them in everything from Thanksgiving dressings to side dishes. Additional flavors include habanero and lemon pepper. Three-ounce cans cost $11.95, but sample packs of six cans (they also include Ekone’s smoked mussels) are available for $65.

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