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Some of the more useful spices for backcountry cooking:
Allspice: Use in veggie soups, stews, and on applesauce or baked apples.
Anise: Use in camp breads, pancakes, or sprinkled on applesauce. Chewing a few whole anise seeds freshens your breath.
Cardamom: Ground and add to chapati dough or other flatbreads.
Chile pepper: Crush a bit of dried hot pepper (such as cayenne, chile de arbol, or chiltepin) on almost anything that lacks oomph. Or use red pepper flakes or ground cayenne.
Cinnamon: Stir ground cinnamon into pancake batter, hot beverages, and cereal. Mix with brown sugar and sprinkle on skillet-toasted bread.
Clove: Use ground or whole in sauces, curries, stews, or soups.
Coriander: Try it in mac ‘n’ cheese, instant potatoes, and cooked fruit.
Cumin: Add ground cumin to beans or mac ‘n’ cheese; use ground or whole in soups and spicy sauces.
Fenugreek: Sprinkle sparingly in flatbreads and on chicken-and-rice or chicken-and-noodle dishes.
Ginger: Sautß thin slices of fresh ginger in oil, then remove, to flavor the oil for frying fresh trout or for stir-fry. Ginger settles an upset stomach.
Nutmeg: Just pack a whole or half nutmeg seed and scrape off what you need with a knife. Great for cheese dishes, sauces, cooked fruits, and vegetable dishes.
Pepper: Use black and white interchangeably, whole or freshly ground, with almost any food except sweets.
Saffron: Add just a pinch or two to rice, couscous, eggs, and curries.
Turmeric: Adds color and warm tang to rice and pasta, and to freeze-dried egg and chicken dishes. Like ginger, turmeric helps settle abdominal upsets.