Lessons of Outdoor Cooking

Why does food taste better when it’s prepared outdoors? From stuffing myself in the U-Pick blueberry fields as a child, to helping my dad grill burgers in the backyard, I always look back on my outdoor meal experiences with fondness. Maybe it’s the experience of eating food in an environment more similar to its natural source. Or maybe it’s just the simple pleasure of being outdoors.

Over the past three weeks I did some field research as outdoor food preperation. I signed up for a Backcountry Cooking class through Colgate’s Outdoor Education program. For a few hours each week the class gathered outdoors, to prepare a two-course meal. We forwent high-tech camping grills, for a portable burner—and operated with a zero food-waste policy.

I was amazed by the meals we were able to prepare with such simple tools. My favorite meal we concocted a rice-based stir-fry, complete with grilled peppers, snap peas, corn, and carrots. For dessert we made open-faced apple pie.

I was in charge of cooking the rice. To be honest, I initially extremely confused by the prospect of cooking rice without a rice-maker. I know that sounds naïve, for rice has long been a staple food for many Asian and Caribbean cultures. But I had been raised in a world with rice makers, and didn’t know anything different. The process was simple: I poured the raw rice into a pot of boiling water, and stirred until it seemed ready. It was very similar to making pasta.

For me, my experience in the outdoor cooking class highlighted the material excess involved in everyday cooking. Our pans were worn and bent, and the ingredients were generic Price Chopper brand; nonetheless, the meal came out delicious.

As for the outdoor element, it seems to me that there is a definitive difference in the atmosphere between indoor and outdoor cooking. In a kitchen, chefs have a complex array of tools and materials at their disposal. Outdoors, the process is simplified, and the focus turns entirely to the food itself. In the outdoors, one is brought outside of their normalized cooking environment, and is forced to re-evaluate the process of making a meal.

Open-Faced Apple Pie

Cooking the Stir-fry