Camp food has a reputation it mostly deserves, and the reason is not the fire or the pan. It is that the seasoning got left at home, or arrived crushed.
You can cook a good steak over coals with nothing but salt. You cannot rescue anything without it.
Why the usual solutions fail
- Ziplock bags. They tear against a can opener or a tent peg, and then everything in the box tastes like cumin.
- The full spice rack. Heavy, bulky, and you use four of them.
- Pre-mixed blends. Fine until you want to season two different things two different ways.
- Plastic vials. They hold odors, and after a season the paprika jar smells like the one before it.
What the Field Kit is
A full-grain leather pouch, made by hand without a single stitch, holding cork-stoppered glass vials, sized to sit on a belt or in a camp box.
Glass because it does not absorb anything. Cork because it seals without a threaded cap to lose in the dirt. Leather because the vials need to not knock against each other in a truck bed, and a molded plastic case would weigh more and crack in the cold.
The pouch is made by hand at the same bench as everything else here, described in one bench, start to finish.
What to actually put in it
Opinions vary and this is ours, based on what gets refilled.
- Salt. Coarse. If only one vial makes the trip, this is it.
- Black pepper, cracked. Ground pepper goes flat within weeks.
- Chili flake or a dried ground chili. Heat travels well and revives anything.
- Garlic granules. Fresh garlic in a camp box turns into a problem by day two.
- Something that is yours. Sumac, za'atar, smoked paprika, a house blend. The one that makes camp food taste like your camp food.
Deliberately not on the list: anything wet, anything that needs refrigeration, and any blend containing sugar, which burns before the meat cooks.
Who it is for
The person who cooks at camp rather than heats something up. You know within one trip whether that is you.
It also turns out to be a good gift for people who do not camp at all. The same kit lives in a kitchen drawer, a boat, or a barbecue cart.
When people buy it
- Start of the season. Spring for most, fall here.
- For the friend who always ends up cooking. Every group has one and nobody ever gets them anything.
- Alongside a mug or a pouch as a set for someone getting into it.
Care
Wipe the vials, do not soak the leather. If oil gets on the pouch, leave it. Oil is what leather wants. There is a longer version in caring for vegetable-tanned leather.
See it here: The Field Kit, Spice Edition. Packing around it is covered in packing for the long weekend.