In a world where we’re bombarded by complex recipes, elaborate sauces, and ten-step marinades, there’s something deeply healing about cooking with just the essentials.
On our recent trip into the Uinta Mountains, we kept things beautifully simple. With cast iron skillets set over an open fire, we cooked grass-fed steaks and wild-caught salmon using only salt and pepper. That’s it.
No fancy rubs. No infused oils. Just clean fire, honest ingredients, and the kind of flavor you can’t replicate indoors.
What we found was this: when you strip away the extras, you don’t lose depth, you find it.
When you simplify ingredients, something shifts, not just in the flavor, but in how your body receives the food.
Here’s why:
There’s something magical about steak seared on cast iron over flames—its edges crisped, its juices locked in. Or salmon, just kissed with fire, its oils bubbling slightly, with a flake that pulls apart like nature intended.
When all you use is salt and pepper, the food speaks for itself.
The coals, the wood, the air, and the cast iron each add layers of taste that no spice rack can replicate.
Even if you’re not cooking over fire in the wilderness, you can bring this practice into your home kitchen. Here’s how:
There’s a reason humans have cooked this way for thousands of years. Not because they didn’t have access to 25-spice blends—but because simplicity works.
It’s nourishing. It’s intuitive. And it connects us to something deep and ancient.
So next time you cook, ask yourself:
What if less… could be more?
