Camp Cooking

Camp cooking is very much a make or break type of exercise. If you do a good job of it, you will enjoy it and everybody else will think you're a hero. But if you cook badly, you're going to be extremely unpopular - even with family and friends who really love you.

Nothing sorts the men from the boys (or women from the girls) as much as cooking over a wood fire or a camp stove. For a start, it is completely different from cooking in a "civilised" kitchen, you'd expect at home. But the interesting thing is that many youngsters enjoy camp cooking so much they become real chefs of the camp site.

Camp fire cooking takes time to master, because wood fires are somewhat difficult to regulate, and a momentary flare-up when you're not paying attention can reduce your much anticipated meal into a blackened charcoal. But once you've done it a few times, you'll find it really fun. Your friends will acknowledge your cooking prowess, and you'll have a real feeling of accomplishment. You'll have earned it, as well.

Most times, cooking on a camping stove is easier than a camp kitchen fire. It's normally easier to regulate, but then there's the fuel supply to worry about, lighting the apparatus with matches or a lighter, and the packing-up and unpacking of everything you need.

At least in a home kitchen, you have running water, which you may not even have at some camping sites. And you have better and more work-surfaces in a home kitchen, for preparing the food, stacking the clean dishes and cutlery. Why, even electric light isn't a given at many camp sites. You may have to bring your own lanterns.

Hot water for doing the washing-up, doesn't always come out of a convenient hot water faucet (tap). At most camps, when it's time to clean your dirty plates and cooking pans, you're going to have to boil it yourself... on the fire or on the camping stove!

Refrigerators and deep freezers are something most camp cooks only get to dream about, until they discover the workarounds for themselves. One way is to use an insulated food chest and pack it with party ice from the local camping store or liquor shop. It will keep food cool for a few hours, like a fridge, but it is no good as a freezer.

Cooking fresh meat less often is another strategy, and this will benefit your pocketbook as well as your health and wellbeing. Anything fresh that can "go off" in the heat, needs to be cooked right away if you can't store it.

Cowboys and adventurers from centuries ago made do with dried foods, such as beans and lentils, instead of meat. And many vegetarians, or people in poor countries, do the same today.

Meats were dried, salted or smoked, so they wouldn't go bad very quickly. We still enjoy dishes such as corned beef, bacon and ham today. But originally they were preserved meats that adventurers took with them on long journeys.

But most times, you can buy your food from a supermarket an hour or so before you cook it. And that pretty much eliminates the cooler problem.