What foods do you associate with Yellowstone National Park? Dining is generally not the goal of a park trip, but after some geyser-watching, hiking, and wildlife viewing, you’re likely to become a little peckish. For many folks who have been going to Yellowstone for years, there are specific associations with what’s fun to eat. As both a foodie and a lover of Yellowstone, these are some of my favorite concepts to explore. Whether it brings you joy to plan ahead, shop, pack food, and eat out of a cooler, or take advantage of the restaurants and markets offered by the concessionaire service, certain flavors linger in our culinary memories and influence our choices.

Personally, I can’t visit Yellowstone without craving the Hobo Dinner, a camping meal I was introduced to in high school. My friends and I celebrated many a birthday at the Firehole River, and this was our meal of choice. In this version, you throw a mix of veggies (I like peppers, onions, zucchini, peas, corn, carrots, and kale or spinach) in two layers of heavy-duty tin foil, with pre-cooked or frozen potatoes and pre-cooked ground beef or frozen veggie sausage. It’s topped with a pat of butter and shredded cheese, sprinkled with salt and pepper, sealed, and cooked over hot coals for around 20 minutes. Eaten alongside baked beans, this is my idea of a filling camp meal after an arduous day of backpacking (or cliff-jumping, as the case may be).

Too bad teen me didn’t have access to National Geographic’s new release, National Parks Cookbook, filled with park-inspired recipes compiled by Nina Elder and Melissa Knific. My friends and I might have branched out and tried some of the delights contained within. Complete with gorgeous images, the book was released this spring and contains an impressive collection of recipes – at least one for every single one of our country’s 63 national parks. Naturally, as soon as I got my hands on the book, I went right for the Yellowstone recipes. I immediately cooked up both the hearty Yellowstone Roosevelt Baked Beans and the velvety Campfire Cobbler. Both were delicious and, incidentally, can be cooked outdoors over hot coals, which I would have done if my cats hadn’t turned our neglected outdoor firepit into a bed.

Here are the recipes, and I hope someone will try these over coals and let me know how it went.

Campfire Cobbler Yellowstone National Park

Ingredients:  
• 11⁄4 cups (150 grams) all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar, divided 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 cup (240 milliliters) whole or 2% milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1⁄4 cup unsalted butter (1⁄2 stick), cut into cubes 
• 4 cups fresh blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• Heavy cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving 

Directions:
1. Preheat oven or grill to 375°F (aim for medium-high heat on a grill, 350°F to 400°F). In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, 3⁄4 cup sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add milk and vanilla, stirring until just blended. 
2. Place butter in a 10-inch cast- iron skillet. Place skillet in oven or on grill (covered with grill lid), and heat until butter is melted, about 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss berries with remaining 1⁄4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
4. Carefully remove skillet from oven or grill, and swirl until bot- tom is coated with butter. Pour batter into skillet, and top with berry mixture. 
5. Bake in oven or on grill (covered with grill lid) until golden brown and bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Serve warm in bowls with either heavy cream or ice cream on top.

Roosevelt Baked Beans Yellowstone National Park

Ingredients:
• 8 ounces ground beef or sausage
• 8 ounces bacon, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 (16-ounce) can pork and beans
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans 
• 1 (15-ounce) can lima beans 
• 1 (15-ounce) can butter beans 
• 1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1⁄2 cup ketchup 
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper 

Directions
1. In a large pot, cook beef and bacon over medium heat, stirring often, until beef is browned and bacon is crispy, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer meat mixture to a plate. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon drippings from pot. 
2. Add onion to pot with reserved drippings, and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. 
3. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and flavors meld, about 1 hour. (You can also bake the beans at 325°F for about 45 minutes, if you prefer.) 

What about the other 62 parks and their recipes? Our neighbor, Glacier National Park offers the Huckleberry Arnold Palmer and Smokey S’mores Snack Mix, both of which I’m adding to my summer meal plans, and Grand Teton National Park features Signal Mountain Wild Game Chili (I’m saving that one for a cold day, if we ever get one of those again). These tasty treats are familiar enough ideas around these parts. If you’re looking for something more exotic, you’re in luck – try the National Park of American Samoa’s Fai’ai L’a, or the Channel Islands National Park’s Shortcut Chilaquiles. Such intriguing dishes are screaming to be sampled.

I had the opportunity to speak with one of the authors of this amazing cookbook, Melissa Knific. She was kind enough to answer my questions about the process of developing the National Parks Cookbook with her co-author, Nina Elder.

KT: What was the idea behind this book when you first began?

MK: You know, when people think about a national parks cookbook, I think what comes to mind is that it’s going to be a lot of camp food. There are certainly recipes in here that you can make over an open fire, and recipes that you can make ahead and throw in your backpack. But we also wanted to make this a true cookbook, one that people will be able to use in their own kitchens for weeknight dinners and desserts. So there’s a little bit of all of that in here.

KT: Does this mean that you and/or Nina have been to all the national parks?

MK: I wish! No, we did a lot of research. We’ve both been to lots of them, but certainly not all.

KT: How did you come up with these recipes?

MK: It was definitely a process. Nina and I would meet weekly, sometimes more than weekly. About half the recipes were contributed and the rest were newly developed. There are certain recipes, like the Roosevelt Baked Beans, that we felt the book wouldn’t be complete without. But we also wanted to make sure that there were unexpected recipes that made sense. So we reached out to somebody associated with each of the parks, and if that didn’t pan out, we took it upon ourselves to do the development and work through inspiration. Nina and I have been in the food industry for a long time, so we have a lot of great contacts with chefs and people from different regions in the U.S. who are involved with food. It was really important to us to make sure that the recipes were a genuine reflection of the regions and the people.

KT: Did you personally taste-test each recipe?

MK: We did. Nina and I both previously worked in test kitchens, and it was really instilled in me from the time that I started that absolutely everything needed to be tasted. So there are some recipes in here that Nina tested that I didn’t, and vice versa, but between the two of us, we’ve eaten all of these.

KT: What is your background in both food and in writing?

MK: I’ve been in journalism for my whole career. Then my mom, who has always been an amazing cook, ended up going to culinary school when I was in college, which got me thinking about how I could do food and write at the same time. So I went to culinary school too and found my way into it. I got my start at Family Circle as a food editor about 15 years ago and spent some time as the food director of Rachael Ray in Season.

KT: What are your goals for the book’s audience?

MK: I hope that people will pick up this book and see how wildly diverse this nation is. Digging into some of these places, going through the parks’ websites and talking to people that are native to these areas or have ancestors from these areas, it just really gave me a whole new respect for the amazing variety of the foods and peoples of this country. I know both Nina and I feel really good about how we approached the authenticity of the recipes, and we hope that people see that.

KT: Do you remember the first national park you ever went to?

MK: I’m from Ohio originally, so that would be Cuyahoga Valley National Park – it’s really close to my heart.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park? Never been there. It looks like I need to whip up the Trapp Family Farm Roasted Chicken and Twice-Cooked Carrots with Cracked Coriander to get a taste of what Melissa knows. There are so many enticing recipes in this book that I should have flagged the ones I don’t want to make. Actually, I’m impatient to try them all; Jordan Pond House Popovers (Acadia), Country Ham with Red-Eye Gravy & Grits (Shenandoah), Mango-Passion-Banana Smoothie (Everglades). I agree with Melissa Knific – this book is much more than just a cookbook. It’s a food history of our nation, and helps to connect us to the significance of these one-of-a-kind locales. Please pass the Kentucky Burgoo!