Camp cooking isn't hard or mysterious. It should not be a laborious and unpleasant task either. If your group does not have someone inclined to being a cook, its also possible to rotate duties, assigning one person to each meal, or rotating entire trips through the group. Discuss the acceptable solution and recognize that not all camp cooks are created equal! Some of them are much better off to come armed with canned foods that just need reheating, whereas others can be quite inventive at creating gourmet meals. Now if you find that cheerful gourmet camp cook, hang onto them for dear life! That's a precious commodity, especially on a long trip, when 101 cans of chili become very tedious.
A bedroll wrapped in a tarp, backpack beside it. This is a set up used by the some of the more hardcore minimalist campers.
Home dehydrating foods
I have a new set of dehydrators and I am renewing my interest in foods that have been dried and prepared at home with a goal of creating yummy dehydrated recipes for lightweight packing in the backpack for camping. Check back to see how it is going in terms of success and disasters!
My first attempt at a dehydrated meal is dehydrating black-eyed pea and ham soup for later rehydration.
Will it be good?
Will it taste like the fresh version?
I'll let you know!
They passed muster!
Okay, we did the dehydrated blackeyed peas with ham, I made sure to shred the ham into small bits to ensure that it was good and dry. I also froze the packaged dry soup as an extra measure of "lets be careful." I took the bag along on a camping trip and rehydrated them in boiling water. I simmered them for about five minutes in the boiling water on the stove. We all sampled, and they were good, just as good as they were the first time except...they were incredibly salty. Now I happen to be less enthusiastic about salty foods than the average person--most canned foods are too salty for my tastes, but this was SALTY. That tells me that I need to use even less salt when cooking foods that are to be dehydrated. Also, for general FYI...the cats at home attacked the ziplocked bag that contained the dry soup, so it must have smelled very good.
Stove for cooking appropriate to group's size
There are a lot of stoves designed with a lot of features on the market. There is no "this is the best stove for everyone" stove. There are some things to keep in mind.
1) How many people are you cooking for?
2) What kind of foods will they be expecting?
3) How are you getting to your camp? By car? backpack? horseback? helicopter?
4) How long will you need to use the stove without getting more fuel?
5) Will you be using the stove in extreme situations such as very high altitude or very cold temperatures or very hot temperatures?
There are very compact stoves on the market that use fuels ranging from sterno canned fuel to twigs and pinecones to chemical tabs or bars. These are suitable best for heating water for freeze dried foods, emergency scenarios, or heating water for hot beverages. Don't try to cook much on them, the heat is hard to control in terms of the temperatures and limited in its applications. The easiest to cook on is probably the twig/pinecone stove, as I have cooked often on primitive versions of these. Pancakes, a can of soup, hot cereal...anything relatively quick to cook is possible.
Propane stoves: These come in a huge variety of sizes, price ranges, and features. They are immensely popular with the car camping crowd because of how easy they are to use. I personally have two different single burner versions. One uses the readily available small disposable propane cylinders, the other uses a hair spray sized can of butane. I happen to prefer the butane stove as its much easier to quickly set up, do the job, and pack away again. There are stoves with 1, 2, or 3 burners, many of which can be used from the larger propane cylinders, making it more economical to use, and requiring fewer changes of cylinders during a longer stay. There are also "trees" that permit several appliances to run off the same cylinder, such as the stove, a lantern, and some of the other propane appliances available on the market.
White gas & duel fuel stoves: These need pumped up, need more maintainance and are more intimidating to the novice user. The fuels are more readily available and easier to transport. These also predate the propane versions, so they have withstood the tests of time. These are also available in 1, 2 or 3 burner styles, although not as readily as the propane ones.
For a rule of thumb, a single burner stove is appropriate for 4-6 people, depending on how hearty their appetites are and how elaborate your meals are. For 4-8 people, you will need a double burner stove, and if there are more than 8, I would recommend acquiring two double burner stoves. Go into a store, pick up the stoves and consider how much each one weighs, how much space it occupies, and how it will fit into your cargo space on your vehicle. Can you safely lift it to pack it and set it up? Consider the weight of the fuel too, as well as the space it will occupy. A full gas cylinder can be a bit heavy, and may not be a practical addition to a camping trip in a compact car with two adults and two kids. In that case, multiple disposable cylinders would be a wiser choice.
Meal Choices
For a camping trip, there as many choices for your menu as there are at home. If you are camping on a shoestring, you will be interested in ways to have easy, tasty food that does not break the budget. For you, the freeze dried meals may be cost prohibitive. When I was younger and camping with kids in tow, I often dehydrated a number of foods and preassembled them at home for quick meals. If you are interested in doing so, I would recommend purchasing a dehydrater with an adjustable temperature and that was also expandable. They are noisy, so you will not want them in your bedroom! A preset temperature dehydrater will also work, so if you find one at a yard sale, don't turn your nose up at it simply because its not adjustable. (Mine did double duty, drying things that I used for crafts as well as for our foods.)
Either get a book on dehydrating from the library or a book store. Different foods have different requirements for dehydration, and some fruits and vegetables require some sort of treatment (i.e. heating/steaming, ascorbic acid, etc.) to maintain their quality. Jerky can be more than a snack too, I often used small pieces of dehydrated meat in various dishes, such as soups or casseroles. I even made "sausages" with ground meat and spices that my kids loved and were far cheaper and lower in fat than the commercially sold version.
You can also assemble meals from your pantry contents without the use and preparation of dehydrating your own things. Anything you can cook at home, with the proper gear, can also be prepared in camp, however, most of us aren't going to be baking bread and cakes in the campfire. That sort of cooking is nearly a lost art, requires a dutch oven, and is certainly not quick.
Camp Cookery
Campfire cookery is a lot of fun, and the old time Boy Scout and Girl Scout books used to often include recipes. Here is a very simple recipe for individual "hobo dinners".
Hobo Dinner
(for one dinner)
12"x18" piece of heavy duty foil
spray on oil
salt
pepper
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1 med. potato, scrubbed
1 hamburger patty
1/4 can tomatoes
Lay foil out flat. Spray with nonstick oil spray. Slice potato and put in a 6"x6" square in the center. Slice or chop onion and place on top. Slice carrot lengthwise in 3 or 4 slices and cut into pieces if necessary to ensure it fits. Top with hamburger patty. Spread tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with salt & pepper lightly.
Bring ends of foil together over the food, and begin folding it together tightly until its touching the top of the food. Take the other two ends, rolling each end several times for a tight seal, then folding one section over the top, the other over the bottom.
Place in the campfire with a few coals, not a blazing fire, and let it cook slowly to the side with the coals for about 1/2 hr. If you have a few coals under it, and keep putting a few small ones on the top, it will cook evenly without scorching or burning. If you try to hurry it up and put too many, you'll have a black dinner. It really does take at LEAST thirty minutes, and can tolerate even an hour as long as you don't go overboard on the coals. Its something great to put on, then deal with things like making beds up, bathing, washing up, etc. These packages can be premade at home too, and cooked in the campfire while you are putting on the finishing touches at camp that first night.
To eat: remove from fire carefully, you don't want to tear the package or get burned! Brush off ashes as best you can. You might want to even let them sit 10-15 minutes to cool down to an edible temperature and finish steaming inside. If you want to be a true hobo, you can open the top of the package and eat it right out of the foil, but if you prefer to feel a bit more civilized...and avoid the foil/ash seasoning...carefully dump it onto a plate or into a bowl after a second ash brushing.
Raw Veggies & Anti-flab Dip
This dip became a favorite years ago with my kids, and I still enjoy it. I simply would take a package of ranch dressing mix and mix with a pint of plain (make sure its plain and not sweetened) low fat or non-fat yogurt. I would sometimes add a dash of soy sauce, which makes it take on a slightly darker tint too. (Yes, I realize the directions call for sour cream and mayonnaise...but believe me, you won't really notice the difference.)
Suggested vegetables
cut everything into bite sized pieces to eliminate "double dipping" tendencies, and package them in recloseable plastic bags, then into a larger recloseable plastic bag. If its ready to eat without further work, its much easier to choose healthy vs. high fat snack foods.
green onions
sliced onions, separated into rings and cut in half
cucumbers
zucchini
yellow squash
mushrooms, halved
broccoli, cut into bite sized spears
cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
kohlrabi, sliced or cut into wedges
radishes, cut if necessary
carrots, either baby or cut into sticks
snap peas
snow peas
This is one of my personal favorites for tents, made by "First Up". It is incredibly fast to put up, I can normally have it up before anyone else in the group is finished setting up there tent, allowing me time to start making coffee and the evening meal while they are still working on getting their tents erected!
Camp Cook Rules
#1
NEVER cook inside of your tent.
Why?
First, your tent is flammable, you are risking your house to fire.
Second, you are not at home, you are in the "wilds" to one degree or another. You do not want to attract animals to the scent of food having been or being cooked inside of your little sanctuary. These animals can range from bears to chipmunks, with a wide variety in between.
#2
DO NOT store food or cooking equipment inside of your tent. This includes your cooler. If you are wondering why, see rule #1. Before retiring, secure food, cooking utensils, and related items inside your vehicle, in a "bear bag" or in an container away from your sleeping area and tent.
#3
In bear country, (where bears are commonly observed) do not cook aromatic foods when camping. Stick to quick cooking and less attractive aromas. Bears may be cute in cartoons, but they lose all attractiveness in camp.
#4
After each meal, clean utensils and camp. Burn, bury, or secure all trimmings, discards, packaging, or other debris. Don't leave anything big enough to attract an ant behind. This isn't a "neak-nic" idea, but one of practical concern. You do not wish wildlife to start depending on camper's debris for food, attracting them to the campsite, or otherwise baiting them to make their presence known. Wildlife is everything from ants to bears!
#5
Don't mess with Mother Nature unnecessarily!
Used coffee grounds are a natural insect deterrent. They don't like them, not even fire ants. If your camp is plagued with ants, this is an acceptable solution to make them find happier hunting grounds. Do not use lawn remedies when you are out camping--you are in the natural world, and upsetting Mother Nature isn't a good idea.
Mosquitos are also part of the natural environment. If you find yourself being dined upon, use insect repellants! Spraying the entire area with flying insect killer is not the answer! There are also a number of screened in shades that let in the breezes while keeping out the insects that are very practical for car camping.
Campfires seem to touch some primal instinct within us, and provide more than heat.
In the foreground, you can see a few firebricks heating alongside the fire. After being heated hot enough to fry an egg on, they'll be wrapped in towels and put under or in bedrolls to provide a slow heat through the night as they radiate the heat they have stored from the fire. Its a low-tech but very comforting way to heat your bed.