Cookbook Review: Fire To Fork

Me? I am usually a camp kitchen girl when out on the land and making the meal thing happen. I watch with curious delight when I see those more equipped at the open flame concept. I believe this breed of people have a heat map radar built into their brain that I was not DNA-gifted with. This is the only way they can maneuver the radiating heat of an open flame that I would rather gather around with a warm cocktail and some stories up my sleeve. But others, they can command the heat like Poseidon does the waves! Me? No! I couldn’t! Until I read Fire to Fork.

Now the desire to try open flame cooking is burning within me. And what is great, I don’t have to wait until the next trip into the wild with my canvas tent. Many of the tips and tricks are applicable to the (boring but oh so true) indoor variety of meal making as well.

Steak Basics (pages 102-103) is a solid guide for even the home cook to understand and master a medium to medium-rare to rare varietal of the treasured meat. (Put your steak in the freezer for a bit before throwing it on the fire- genius.)

Same goes for the Burger Basics (pages 78-81) brilliance.

Chicken Gyros (page 133) would be a must for my man.

Feel like I could survive on all meals a day on the Shrimp Fried Rice (page 155). Yup, wake up and fry a fresh egg on top of those leftovers…

Puff Pastry Apple Pie (page 171) looks off the chain (do people still say this?) and McDonald’s has nothing compared to this pie iron magic!

Fascinating Finds:

Tent Biltong: Homemade African-style jerky seasoned over the course of a couple of days hanging like a laundry line of meat dancing in the (warm/dry) breeze in your tent. Next level.

More than anything, Fire to Fork is a greater call and a bolster of a cook’s courage. I would never think to attempt meals like Spaghetti Carbonara (page 83) out in the wild. Recognizing this could just be my unique set of intimidation…but now…Me?...I will give it a go! Why not! What was I so afraid of? Fire to Fork challenges these assumptions and gets you closer to the flame (safely) and warms your outdoor skills and imagination with a dutch over, or not.. Now…just need to get a pie iron for the gear set.