Best Gifts for Hikers, Backpackers, Outdoorsy People (2025)

After suggesting a hatchet, a wood burning stove, and a mini bellows, you should have seen this coming. What you need to complete the full fire package is Cooking On Fire, a gorgeous book of recipes and techniques for cooking over an open flame. Cooking on Fire has a good mix of recipes, ranging from simple and delicious veggies to slow-cooked meats that require hours. There’s also plenty of background on different types of fires and cooking techniques, as well all the equipment you might want to cook various things (for example: spits, forked sticks, cast iron pans, and so on). It’s everything you (er, sorry, your outdoorsy friend) need to get started cooking on fire.

What I really want to try is the fire inside a log technique pictured on the cover, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. So far I’ve only had a chance to make the grilled pork belly, with grilled carrots and “Krabbelurer” griddle cakes for desert. All of them were excellent, though of course, perhaps that universal rule applies more so here than with any other form of cooking: your results may vary. In the end, though, this isn’t really a gift about cooking. It’s gift to remind us all to slow down and take your time, with food and everything else.