Wilderness Chef

June 15, 2020
Mears, an outdoorsman and U.K. television personality, brings his survivalist expertise to bear on this guide to cooking while camping, hiking, or canoeing. The instructions can be as clever as baking an egg on a skewer or as involved as his hunter’s spatchcock poussin with honey glaze. Food choices for heating directly on embers include steak and oysters, or one can add layers of moss to create a natural steamer for sea bass. A brief section on improvised grills instructs how to transform dampened sticks into a hibachi, and ample attention is paid to cast-iron cookware, stone or steel griddles, and soup pots. But his refreshingly minimalist and primitive approach leaves no room for aluminum foil (“It has no place in the pristine wilderness”). Mears’s British sensibility shines through with various types of curry, plus offerings such as toad-in-the-hole and a steamed pudding called dead man’s leg. Quick bakes include a panoply of breads including Lebanese flatbread and lightly pan-fried corn pone, while an extended exploration of tea drinking includes a chart of wild teas and how to use them. This book belongs in any nature lover’s backpack.