Cast-Iron Camping Cookbook

by Pauline Reynolds-Nuttall

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Cast Iron Camping Cookbook is a new niche cookbook collection for cast-iron cooking in the great outdoors. Released 30th June 2020 by Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 180 pages (for the print copy) and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The book has a logical and easy to follow format. Following an introductory chapter which covers the background how-to of outdoor cooking and how to incorporate cast iron utensils, the author covers the other necessary tools, supplies, and ingredients, and the following chapters include the recipes, arranged thematically by meal type: breakfast, snacks & sides, lunch, dinner, and dessert. No nutritional information is included in the recipes, but the author has provided portions, and cooking times as well as tips and variations highlighted in text boxes.

The recipes have their ingredients listed bullet style in a sidebar. Measurements are given in US standard only. Special tools and ingredients are also listed, along with yields and cooking directions. Special classifications for each recipe (30 minutes or less, 5 ingredient, vegan, etc) are included in a header bar. Most of the ingredients are easily sourced at any moderately well stocked grocery store. The book also includes a short author bio and a metric conversion chart, but lacks any index or a general ingredients index. The recipes are tasty and easily prepared, requiring few ingredients and little prep time.

My main quibble with the book is that the recipes are mostly not photographed. There are a few photos, and they're clear and attractive, but they only represent about 5% of the recipes included in the book. It is, however, a very well written book and especially given the pandemic, when camping and socially isolating is one of the few alternatives for vacation time, this is a very timely book.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.