Transcription
This is a typical backpacking meal. It's basically a bunch of ingredients dumped into a bag, freeze-dried, and then it's brought back to life with boiling water. Honestly, even the really good ones still kind of end up the same way. Hot, salty, mushy, and very obviously a freeze-dried meal.
And this is a classically trained professional chef who has developed recipes for some of the seriously big names out there. And today he says he can make three trail meals using nothing more than a basic backpacking stove and a pot and will absolutely destroy anything I've ever eaten out of a bag. So I'm going to find out if real chef level cooking can actually happen on trail or is this about to become a complete disaster. So what are we going to be doing today? That's what I want to know cuz I I did I purposely did not eat breakfast today. Just so you know.
"Good. Uh well we are cooking three recipes here today and I have some new ones. I have a couple new recipes from some cookbooks that I have coming out soon. And kind of like what we did last time."
"Let's go this way cuz I think there's a spot right up here that's going to look really nice."
"And it's going to be a beautiful place to eat at 10:30 in the morning."
"Love it. Well, we are cooking bacon with bacon. So,"
"Bacon."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"You had me at bacon?"
"Yes."
"Yep. Welcome to Lake Michigan. Welcome to Lake Michigan. Love it. Is this the spot?"
"Yeah."
"Nice. I think it'll work. Nice flat rock. You you you know I love flat rocks, but"
"This is your third time here, right?"
"No, wait. Our third video."
"This is the third."
"Okay, so these are I think some of the more popular videos in the channel."
"Great."
"So, just throwing that out there, folks."
"Um, and I can tell you I already know why because I've already eaten much of what you've cooked."
"And I don't think you've let me down once."
"I have honestly been slightly nervous sometimes, not going to lie. Yep. when you pull things out, I'm like, not sure I'm gonna like that. And then usually the opposite happens. So my point is, don't let me down."
"Okay, great. Well, we have three more opportunities for"
"Three. We got three recipes."
"Three recipes. Three opportunities for success, three opportunities for failure, but I think we're going to be okay."
"Hey, what are we doing?"
"Yep. Okay, so the first recipe is actually one of the most popular recipes from from my channel from multiple years ago, and it focuses on the Thank you for grabbing the bacon. Uh classic uh uh instant mashed potatoes, the friend of the backpacker. But we're doing a loaded mashed potato, but actually this is even more Lotus is like the mega super loaded mashed potato."
"Okay."
"Uh so we're going to start with the basic and then elevate it to"
"So we're doing a mega super loaded mashed potato. Is that the name of the recipe?"
"Uh yes, pretty much."
"Is it really?"
"All right. All right."
"Yeah. Okay. So, uh we need your help a little bit. So, if you could chop up some bacon for me."
"I'm not going to ruin it."
"Nope. You're not. Here's a knife for you. Open up that bacon."
"Oh, I remember this knife. This is This is a really nice knife. I'm not going to lie."
"Thank you. Uh yeah, it's very very popular. I know some of you guys have have it out there and it's available at outdoor eatats.com. Just just cut it open."
"Just cut it open."
"And uh so the classic version of the loaded mashed potatoes is instant mashed potatoes, bacon, and some cheese. We throw some green onions or some uh fried onions on there. But then the way that we are going to super mega load it is bacon fat."
"Like am I just slicing it?"
"Yep. Yep. Slice it into pieces. And then we're going to add some more pork, which is some pork rind."
"Okay."
"Yep. And so we have basically three different forms of bacon product for our mashed potatoes. You're doing great. Nice job."
"Wow. Do you want all of it cut or just this?"
"Uh yeah."
"Really? Like Okay. Keep going."
"Yeah."
"Super loaded. Come on."
"Super. Yep. There's more in here."
"Oh, good."
"All right. So, this can be made on"
"Maybe you didn't bring enough bacon."
"This can be made on any camp stove. Some of you guys out there like, "Oh, I'm not going to be able to take bacon fat on a backpacking trip." But you definitely can. It's shelf stable, too. This is bacon fat."
"That's a tub of bacon fat."
"It's a tub of bacon fat."
"Yep. And I know some of you guys some of you guys out there are adding butter to your peanut butter to jack up the calories. Well, this is another way to do it with some comment below if you take tubs of bacon fat when you go out on backpacking trips because I think after this video, I'm going to guess you probably will"
"Potentially. We're going to find out. Perfect. So, throw want to throw the bacon in the pot, please."
"Like all of it?"
"Yep. Like all of it."
"Okay."
"Yep."
"And then we are going to get the burner going. My favorite part of any outdoor adventure is lighting up the fire. There you go. So, we've got our bacon fat and our precooked bacon, which can last for multiple days on the trail. Pre-cooked, packaged. Great. And we are looking to wake up that bacon and get it nice and crispy. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yes. Give me that."
"And Dan, does that smell good so far?"
"That that it smells like I just want to eat the tub of bacon. That's all I want to do right now."
"So, just a few seconds in the pot here because as you know, these pots are meant to cook quick and fast. And we're going to add some water. Do you like cooking with titanium?"
"I do. Um I think that the the tip for the titanium is is mis plus. So have your stuff ready cuz again once you you turn on that burner, it is going to heat up super quick and if if you're you're not ready, it's going to burn. So we're just going to"
"Looking to boil our water. So nothing super crazy here. And then we're also going to cook our pork rinds, which may be a little bit surprising for folks, but it is a great ingredient to pack along for some very, very lightweight protein and also increasing those calories. So, we're just waiting for this water to come up to a simmer. But I'm not looking to make trail meals that are gourmet or fancy. I'm a hiker, too. I'm a camper, too. And I usually have had a long day. I'm hungry. I need to cook and I need to eat in like 10 to 15 minutes. So, I'm not here to compromise."
"Yeah, but I feel like everything that you make, you always tell me that and then it ends up being so gourmet even though we're cooking with bagged pork pork rind. So,"
"Well, there's a difference there's a difference between gourmet and just tasty,"
"Right? We're like, we're not doing crazy goat cheese and smoked salmon and all this stuff. It's just ingredients you can get at the grocery store."
"Yeah."
"Okay. What? Hit me with potatoes. Maybe uh we'll add like maybe a quarter of that bag. We got a pretty big"
"Gosh. Here we go. You should not be trusting me to do this."
"Oh, stop."
"You don't give yourself enough credit. Yep. Keep going. Keep going. Yep. Keep going. Yep."
"More."
"Yep."
"Yep. Hydrating up. Yes. Nice. Nice."
"Yeah."
"Keep going."
"Yep."
"I can smell the butter. Are these like the buttery kind?"
"Those are the buttery kind to me. Buttery and bacon. Okay. That should Good. That's good. Good."
"Okay. We'll add a little bit more if we need to. Oh yeah,"
"I would have just brought out this like that would have been what I would have brought out."
"That's fine. That that that that will"
"As I would have been your belly. There's no way I'm going to I'm going to screw everything up. It's going to burn."
"Steve's going to see the video and he's going to be mad at me."
"That's what I would have done."
"I mean, I would rather you take this than just a package. Okay. So, anyway."
"All right. So, we've got our potatoes hydrated. Perfect. So, let's go ahead and rip up our our cheese bites. These are baby bells. You could use some uh string cheese, whatever it is. So, rip those up and throw them in the middle."
"Like small chunks, doesn't it?"
"Perfect. Yep. That's great. So, other ways to to super mega loaded jack this thing up is we have some Frenches fried onions. Not just for Thanksgiving anymore. And we have some Cheezits. So, we have, you know, double double cheese double action."
"You're putting Cheezits in there?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"What? And so what what this is going to do I this going to give us some some nice flavor and some extra texture."
"But um also increase the calories slightly."
"So do you think of this stuff on your own?"
"Yeah."
"Like this is what I think of when I go go on hike. Oh boy. What I'm hungry for this. Can we make this into a trail meal?"
"Do you go through the grocery store and you're like pork rind? That'll be good in mashed potatoes."
"Yes. And then I test it and I see if it works. And if it doesn't,"
"Cheezits, throw that in, too."
"Yep. Why not?"
"Why not? And let's Because we need some more pork."
"We need more texture. Let's add"
"Is this Is this like a a meal for one?"
"Uh, depends on on how"
"This is a meal for the entire trip."
"I mean, this could easily be two two portions here, too. I mean, that's a great part about Outdoor Eat recipes. They're super easy to scale up or scale down based on your your meal plan and who you're cooking for. All right. So, there it is. Super mega loaded whatever jazzy party mashed potatoes. All right. So, we are ready. And how long did this take to cook?"
"I don't know."
"Oh my god. Look at that cheese pull."
"5 minutes. Oh my gosh."
"Oh my god."
"I I just Okay, so I feel like I'm going to have just a really I'm never going to want to leave camp. That's my problem. I'm going to"
"Well, sorry. Not sorry, but So, give this a try. Tell tell the people how how you like it."
"Honestly, I'm not going to lie."
"Cheese. Okay. I'm normally not a Cheeit guy and somebody's going to comment and be like really mad at me for that. This is so good, dude."
"It's so bacony. What I love about this is the bacon fat just like runs through the whole bite"
"Without being gross. Remember the bacon fat?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I was That's so funny you say that because I was taking a bite and I thought I don't think I've got any bacon in my mouth, but I'm tasting bacon."
"Oh."
"Oh, baby."
"You You can't make up that cheese bowl. That's amazing."
"You're welcome."
"It's It's like a kite."
"I can I claim that, though? I put that in there."
"You did. So technically you didn't cook this. I did."
"Well, you know, team effort. This is a pretty nice spot. I was getting rock butt. So"
"Story your life. Story your life. Rock. It was It was like, "What's your next meal?""
"You want to try again?"
"Yeah. No. No. You're good. Do you want to try again?"
"He says, "Oh, that's awesome. That is totally staying in."
"Great."
"Uh so for my next trick, uh for a second recipe, we actually have a no burner recipe here. Uh which can be helpful for a trail lunch. And it is focusing on ingredients that a lot of people are packing along, which is the tuna packet. Again, nothing super crazy here. And dried mango."
"Okay."
"Okay. So, we're actually going to make a mango fish dip. Um or a filling if you like. So, if you want to open up our tuna packet, mango fish dip. Yep. I know it sounds really weird, but this has been a very very popular. I just dump it in. That's good. Yeah, just dump it in the whole thing. Yep."
"And this is a great way to flavor up and jazz up the boring tuna packet."
"They are boring."
"They are They are pretty boring. I mean, they they do the job. They"
"I actually fall asleep when I walk past them in the grocery store."
"Nice. Right. Thanks for the courtesy laugh. So, I'm just going to chop up our mango. You can also use fresh mango, but if you are going on a longer trip, this can be really helpful. And I've actually really enjoyed taking dried mango out and and adding it to dishes. You can make mango fried rice. You can add it to some other noodle dishes. And it's pretty darn tasty."
"I just This is weird. This is I'm blown away that you're that you can do this right now. This is crazy. Okay,"
"So, we're also going to add some mayo. So, mayo packet and a little bit of mustard for my condiment weasel bag here."
"Yep. Throw throw all that in there. And I got a little bit of garlic powder as well. Nice. Take that from you. We'll pack that out. And you want to hit me with a little taheen. And if you guys didn't, just hit me. And if you guys don't know about taheen, it is a great Mexican spice mix that has some a little bit of spice, some citric acid, which will give us some nice acid."
"Tell me when."
"Keep on keep on going. Keep on going."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Perfect. That sounds great."
"Yep. You did it. Great job."
"Wow. Yep. And we have an orange. You can use a cutie, some sort of citrus, something fresh. Great. Give me a squeeze of orange in there. All right. Smells really good. Color's looking good. There was even a chunk of orange that fell in there."
"You did it. You are amazing. And we're just going to mix this up. And I actually created this recipe uh on one of our TV shoots uh in St. Petersburg, Florida. And so when we were started filming, I'm like, there's these fish dip recipes all over the menus. And I'm like, "Oh, like we don't need a fancy fancy fresh fish. We can just use tuna packets and just do something a little bit different than just the standard mix." This is crazy."
"Mhm."
"I You put mustard in there."
"Yep. Mayo. Mayo and mustard."
"And an orange."
"Totally. And this"
"Well, technically I put it in there. Just saying."
"Absolutely. And this is going to turn into a little bit of a sweet savory situation. So if you like those kind of flavors, this would be really good. But then what we're going to use for dipping, because this is a dip, let's get dippy. Is some plantain chips. And have you had plantain chips before?"
"Um, you know, I might have actually. Yeah."
"They're they're super super tasty."
"It's like a banana, right?"
"It's like a green banana. There you go. Just try try that first."
"They're so good."
"Yeah, I've had these. This is good."
"So good. And literally that's it. It's all goes in there."
"So So now be Now bite it. Eat it. Bite it. Yes. Just bite it. Give it a try. Okay. Give me a second. I'm here. Give me another second. It's literally a party in my mouth like right now. Like"
"A fiesta."
"Yeah."
"Isn't it interesting? Like I was a little skeptical of this recipe, too,"
"Cuz I'm like, eh, mango and tuna really isn't going to work together."
"But it's quite tasty."
"It is. I never"
"Right. Me either. I I was with"
"If I had that stuff laying on the table, I'd be back."
"No,"
"No,"
"No."
"It's really good."
"Good. I'm glad you like it. I think what really ties it together is is using plantain chips. You could also use tortilla chips, but this is a little sweet. It kind of matches with the overall flavor and the ingredients and pretty darn solid. So, you could just eat it like this."
"I'm going to keep eating it."
"Keep it like this. Or you could al it could be a filling, too, right? So, if you do have a burner,"
"Pop that guy out. And we're going to toast up some tortillas."
"Shut up."
"Yep. Nice. And guys, like this is one of my my biggest culinary pet peeves inside or outside is just eating a tortilla like this. So, please God, toast your tortillas and just put it right over the burner. It's all you need to do. It's only going to take a couple seconds. And wow, look at that."
"Oh, look at that."
"And that's going to give us a little bit of color. a little bit of texture and some fantastic flavor that does not take very long."
"So, one of my best friends is uh from Mexico."
"Yep."
"Okay."
"And he taught me this."
"Good."
"He comes over to my house, makes tacos."
"Yep."
"And puts the tortillas on the burner."
"Yes."
"Instead of a pan or anything like that in on my stove."
"Yep. And you can do it in a in a cast iron skillet, but it's so easy. And like look at that."
"It is delightful. It does taste so much different."
"So much better. So, you're like, "Oh, I don't have time. I got to get to sleep. I'm having a big day tomorrow. Don't have time to toast my tortilla." You have time to toast your tortilla."
"That should be a t-shirt."
"You have time to toast your tortilla."
"Can you just superimpose that on me, Tim? You have time to toast a tortilla."
"And I I think we need to add some plantain chips to this, too, for some texture."
"Oh, baby. That is a That is I'm I'm I've already got a the a mashed potato bomb in my mouth or or stomach there"
"From the last one."
"Look at that."
"That's a trail lunch right there."
"Mhm. It's very good. I think if I was like on the go, I'd use the tortilla."
"Yeah, for sure."
"Totally."
"Yep."
"Mhm."
"Either way works. And if you're making this at home or at a campsite, you know, for a car camping, is put it on a salad. Put on some"
"Is pretty good, man."
"Tahins quite good. Super clutch to have in the pantry."
"So, I do have one more recipe for you, okay? And it is. Remember what we made um last time in your backyard? That was like really fun and different"
"Where we toasted a Twinkie."
"Are we going to toast a Twinkie again?"
"No."
"But we're going to take that idea and we're going to elevate it."
"You broke my heart, man."
"I I think you're going to like"
"All right. Sounds good."
"But it is it is a dessert."
"Okay. Let's do it. Okay. Okay. What do we got? What do we got? What do we got?"
"We've got dessert. And with the success of roasting Twinkies is we are going to make a dingdong. Shut up, dude."
"Black forest cake."
"What?"
"Yep. So, we're going to make a black forest cake with our camp stove. So, we have some dried cherries. Okay. And a little bit of water. And if you want to hit me with some cinnamon or some pumpkin pie spice, just a couple dashes in there. Like that?"
"Yep. Perfect."
"Okay."
"And we don't need too much, but we just need a little bit for it to rehydrate."
"And Oh, okay. You're rehydrating the cherries."
"Yeah."
"Oh."
"Uh-huh."
"Ooh, that's okay."
"Yep. So, we're getting that in there. And it this is going to take like less than 5 minutes, which is great. Again, I don't want a recipes to be overly complicated. It's pretty tasty. And let me just get that up to a burner. And you know, we're we're we're here with with friends here today, so I think we should add a little Evan. I think Evan should join the party."
"Did you bring any extras?"
"Uh, if you're cooking this for kids, don't throw this in there. Here. You want a little nip?"
"Yep. One and only time, folks. Man, this is already smelling really good."
"Oh, baby. Wow."
"So, cherries, cinnamon, little spice."
"Yeah, that's what that is. A cinnamon. I got to get in a steam."
"Mhm."
"Wow. And we're just looking for this to hydrate me."
"What does this What does this do?"
"Uh, it adds flavor"
"And it adds fun."
"So, you want to open up our ding-dongs."
"Fair enough."
"And just rip them in there. Present what the inside has in there for us. Got to get it all in there."
"Yep. Just rip it in half."
"Yep. Oh, look at that."
"Oh, baby."
"Mhm."
"Okay. More. Yep. Throw another one in there."
"I was hoping you were going to say that."
"Yeah. At least two ding-dongs."
"At least."
"At least."
"Can we go three?"
"Sure."
"You could also use ho hos cuz there's three ding-dongs here."
"I see what you did there. I see what you did there."
"I'm sorry. Um, but you can also use ho hose if you want. Or you can do a combination to maybe like a do a dingho or a hoing in there. Okay, now now it's getting wilder. So that's literally it. We're just looking for this to hydrate. You can just taste that by itself. There you go. Yep. Oh wow. Wow. And so we have this nice warm cherry compost to throw on top of our ding-dongs. And then just hit it with some nuts. You can also add some other chocolate chips if you want a little bit chier."
"How do you think of this stuff?"
"The the"
"How do you think of this stuff?"
"The wizardry of Corso."
"It is like I I I want to know what the color of the sky in your brain is. That's what I want to Very blue blue sky time for sure. But that is literally it. And how long did that take?"
"That was very probably 5 minutes maybe"
"If that. Pretty pretty quick. But that is a very elevated camp dessert right there."
"Yeah. Dude, can I try it?"
"I think we should try it."
"Okay. I need some cherries on there, right?"
"Mhm."
"Oh, baby, dude. I I'm I know. I I wasn't expecting that like at all."
"That's really good, dude."
"Thank you. Uh I was surprised with this one, too, because it's literally like five or six ingredients and takes less than 5 minutes."
"Wow. That's really awesome. If I made these out in the back country with friends, they would think like, "Who are you?""
"You're the hero. You're the hero of the campsite. You can do it."
"Then they would always want to backpack with me."
"I mean, we've gone on a backpacking trip."
"Why do you think you're on the channel all the time?"
"I know, right? So, you also are I feel like your your um your your journey has been crazy"
"Because when we first started this when I first had you on"
"We you you just were like hey can I collaborate with you right and now you're like I host a television show."
"That's exactly how Okay. So tell us what that is all about."
"Yeah. So it's been an evolution. I've been doing nut out eats for the last seven years with we started with just a couple recipes when we were when first hanging out and they started you know making cookbooks. We have eight editions of the series. We sold over 30,000 copies of those Ari picked out last year which is super cool. Um also available at Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas. But then through my own evolution of of creating content for for YouTube I'm like well I kind of want to make a TV show that has a little more storytelling and uh journey specific adventures. So, I host a TV show called Outdoor Eats TV and we're rolling in a production for season 4, but last year"
"Four. Holy cow."
"I know, right? And last year we filmed in Switzerland, Ireland, and Ecuador. Just super food. I know. Really, really, really tough time. Uh, and all those are really fun adventures, different foods. Um, as we were cooking,"
"But this is obviously your favorite place to be,"
"Right? With Dan on the shore of Lake Michigan. Um, but the but but the TV show is currently airing on uh outside TV FanDuel Sports, but then PBS picked it up in December. Huge huge step. So, if you guys are watching, check your lo local listings. If you can't find it, uh, send send a note. We'd love to be able to share it in your region."
"But, it's it all goes back to sharing of a meal outside. And it's just so much more fun to do it with a friend. And I love sharing these recipes with folks because I just love teaching people how to cook. And now we can do it in multiple ways and through multiple styles of content, too."
"Awesome. So, you're going to do a giveaway, I heard."
"Mhm. Let's do another giveaway. And so, um, if you buy two or more cookbooks at outdoor eatats.com, uh, you get entered into a drawing for a giveaway for this awesome knife and put in the notes for your order. Uh, oh, wow. There you go."
"It is a nice knife."
"Ding-dong. I'm going to put ding-dong in the notes. And then also uh if you'd like a discount code 10% off, ding-dong 10. Give you a little bit of a of a discount there. But check me out at outdoor eats.com, chef corso uh YouTube, outdoor eats 365. And if you want another chance to enter for the drawing, follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Outdoor Eats 365. Also do some writing on Substack at Chef Corso."
"Awesome. See you in the next one."