We’re finishing up the preparations for our next online course: Introduction to outdoor cooking (Skill 117), available for free in our online community at BushcraftSchool.com. The goal is to make you an efficient outdoor cook capable of feeding yourself under a variety of conditions, NOT to make you a professional cook or chef. This will be level 1 in series of 3, and will consist of learning in the kitchen at home. Participants will be introduced to the 10 X rule: You should make something in the kitchen at home 10 times before making it outdoors, especially if you’re guiding people in the backcountry. This gives you some muscle memory or reps, and an opportunity to fix any problems with the techniques or recipes. Two other concepts we’ll cover are:

• Minimize Variables: We start in the kitchen at home so we can minimize variables as we gain experience. It’s better to learn on a stovetop and oven where you can control the heat than to jump right into cooking over a campfire when you have little experience in managing them. This way when you transition to cooking over a fire, you’ll have an understanding on what you should be looking for.
• Consistent Containers: You should plan to use the same containers (pots, pans, etc.) at home as you use in the field. This way you’ll develop experience with amounts they can cook, what to expect, etc. It’s another variable to minimize.

Text: The Woods Cook

The Woods Cook by yours truly is available as a free download (PDF) in the Topics section of BushcraftSchool.com. Also available in print from Amazon. Don’t buy the kindle version.

Gear needed is listed on BushcraftSchool.com, and also summarized in the video below.