Cottage and Camp Cookery

Blair Thompson was Adult Collections Co-ordinator at the North Vancouver District Library.

Off to the lakeshore, or on a backpacking trek to the alpine meadows? Cottage and Camp Cookery won’t take up much space in your gear. It is lightweight and coil-bound (as every self-respecting cookbook should be); it is not, however, spatter-proof, so have it laminated before you leave, as camping trips can be notoriously grubby affairs, especially around the camp stove.

The philosophy behind Cottage and Camp Cookery is that “roughing it in the bush doesn’t mean you have to rough it in your meals.” The 150 or so recipes (with quantities given in both imperial and metric) will move the camper considerably upscale from beef stew in a can and the marshmallow on a stick.

The author claims as credentials 25 years of cooking outdoors for her family. Along the way, she compiled enough recipes to fill a book — thirteen chapters, in fact, divided into such categories as Beverages, Sandwiches, Meals in a Skillet, One-Pot Meals, etc. The index is alphabetical by recipe name.

The keynote of this recipe collection is convenience for the cook. At the same time, however, it upgrades the cottager’s menu with meals that are a “cut above” and nutritionally sound. Back home in the modern kitchen, Cottage and Camp Cookery will make many friends among working people who find themselves daily having to cook in the fast lane.

Cottage and Camp Cookery is not the only entry in the field. The author is up against stiff competition from such giants as Sunset (Picnics and Tailgate Parties, Lane, 1982), and Time-Life (Outdoor Cooking in the “Good Cook” series, Time-Life Books, 1983). But this modest Canadian entry stands up quite nicely against the competition (on its coil-bound spine) for easy consultation right next to the Coleman stove.