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What do you like to cook when you go camping?
I'm going camping for the first time with just my partner (as opposed to a bigger group) and it's been a while since I've camped in general so I'm looking for some food ideas! Do you have any go to things you always make? Any special meals that are best enjoyed outdoors? Or simply dishes that are convenient and tasty for camping? I'll be car camping with a stove and cooler, but all suggestions are welcome!
Google "hobo dinners". Just cut up potatoes, onions, carrots, beef or sausage, season it up, and wrap it in aluminum foil. Super easy to make and very tasty.
Edit: I just realized OP said they'll be cooking with a camp stove. I'm not sure how these would cook on that, typically as a kid my granny would cook them on the grill or traditionally they would be cooked over a campfire.
This is the easy and delicious answer for camp cooking. These foil packets can be cooked in the coals of a campfire as well. If you choose to omit meat, or include a lean meat, make sure to add some fat in there with the seasonings.
I don't know what it is, but something about camp cooking makes everything taste better.
I've been making a version of this for years ever since I learned to make them while going camping as a kid. Such a filling and hearty meal, I like to top mine with cheese and plenty of spices
Car camping makes this pretty easy: stew in a dutch oven or other heavy pot. It'll take a good while to cook, but if you get the fire going in the early evening the stew will have a nice long slow cook and you'll have a good campfire that has warmed everything around it; perfect to snuggle up next to later in the evening. Assuming you eat beef, something like this is good, though I haven't cooked this particular recipe.
Stew and/or Pot roast is a staple when we go camping.
Another new favorite is to make different types of things with a cast iron sandwich press. A friend showed us how she basically makes mini pies with it with just some butter, bread and some canned pie filling.
Ooh, that panini pie idea is fantastic. I'll have to try it out.
I had a hard time figuring out what to eat the last time I went, so I'll offer up some of the things I either did or found interesting. Everything tastes better when you eat it outside!
Things I didn't think of the first time I went camping on my own:
Good call on shouting out prep and clean up supplies.
Speaking of coffee, you can get an aeropress or percolator for around $20 if you gotta have your cup of Joe in the morning.
Aeropress is my go-to camping brewer. As a 15 year vet of the coffee industry, it's the most convenient and delightful way to brew it with minimal requirements. Even the Aeropress Go now comes with a little ~15 filter paper holder that packs into the setup. It's perfect for camping and has its own cup as part of the package.
Is there anything that as good without any plastic that touches the liquid? I've been looking for something to replace my French press lately...well, my wife's French press at least.
If you don't like plastic (this stuff lasts forever, I've had one for like 5 years now) then a Metal French press is probably your best next bet. Maybe someone has made a metal Aeropress-esque product out there, but the gasket is (hopefully) made from Silicone.
Anything else is going to be awkward, heavy, or too fragile to bring camping.
I love camp-cooking. I HATE camp-cleaning. A friend of mine that I regularly camp with has a whole freaking traveling kitchen setup that unfurls and has a canvas "sink" you can fill up and zipper "cabinets", it's kind of wild and makes the cleanup a lot less of a hassle.
I really like having a little gas two-top burner (Coleman or the like) for handling things that don't necessarily need/want to be over a huge camp fire.
I really want to see that now. Can you find out where they got it?
Can't track down the exact one but something kind of like this
Thanks!
Great ideas, and I very much appreciate the forgotten items list!
Car camping makes things pretty easy on this front, but if you ever do an extended camping trip with lots of driving or set-up/break-down days where you might be too tired to cook, I highly recommend those freeze-dried meals you can get at like REI or on Amazon. You just boil water and pour it into the bag and instantly you get a decent meal with very little cleanup or prep. I go motorcycle camping and these meals were a hit because we were all exhausted from travelling. Definitely on the pricier side per meal though -- so maybe reserve them for like extra-long travel days to keep the cost low.
You can also pre-make meals and store them in ziplock bags in the cooler for later reheating in a pot over the camp stove or a fire. This also saves on the camp clean up from food prep. For example, breakfast sausages, spaghetti and a marinara sauce, a stew, mac and cheese all lend themselves to this.
Also, refrigerate beverages before you leave so that they help keep the cooler cool. This could be beer or batched cocktails (citrus does not lend itself to pre-batching).
"*You just boil water and pour it into the bag and instantly you get a decent meal *"
well, not instantly, you need to let it sit and hydrate for 10-20min. and dont forget to take out the oxygen scavenging packet
…as a side note those dehydrated meals (like Mountain House) last for thirty frickin years. We keep a bunch in the house as part of our “end of the world” plan
When my family goes camping, we make what we call pudgie pies. Idk what the actual name for them is, but essentially it is a cast iron clamshell on the end of a handle, and you make a sandwich inside of it and toast it over a fire. They're delicious. I'm partial to one with pizza sauce, pepperoni, ham and turkey. Idk of they're classic camping food, but they're always wahtwi think of.
My friend has one of these! I don't know what she calls them haha. She always made the pizza vareity. I've heard you can make dessert versions too with our filling or Nutella!
Yes! I learned about desert options just after we went camping the last time. Definitely on the list of things to try next time.
Instant mashed potatoes are always a hit. They're easy to pack and you only need boiling water. Pair it with a protein (sausages are easy when camping), and maybe another veggie or side and you have a pretty good meal. If you do sausage, your second side could be peppers and onions. Simple, filling and warm.
My brother likes doing meatless chili with corn bread on top. He has a cast iron dutch oven that can go right on the fire. I'm pretty sure he uses this recipe and then he puts some of the glowing firewood on top of the Dutch oven lid to help it along.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/campfire-dutch-oven-chili-and-cornbread-8149919
During the day I usually do sandwiches. PB&J is easy and deli meat and cheese don't take up a ton of room in a cooler.
Instant mashed potatoes are insanely good for how easy they are to cook.
Roasted corn. This is the absolute best. Get corn on the cob unshucked. Carefully peel back the husks but don’t tear or remove them. Remove the silk, then put the husks back on like they were. You can twist the end or tie with a little string so they stay pretty closed. Then soak them under water for at least a couple hours or overnight. Let a campfire burn down, then pull out the corn and drain off any running water. Then bury the corn in the hot ashes/coals. Cook until the husks are kind of burned on the outside and the inside is just getting toasted. Super good, I promise.
I was wondering how cook corn in the fire without having to deal with the silk after!! Thanks so much for the instructions.
Does the corn end up being an end of the night snack?
90% of my camping trips involve fishing as well, so usually we eat what we catch, but bring backup foods and breakfast stuff.
Usually eggs, bread, meat for breakfast. Sometimes we'll also make oatmeal.
Lunch is generally skipped or some kind of granola bars/cured meats.
Dinner is potatoes with whatever we've caught, and if we got nothing, we usually cook up the meat we brought for breakfast (always extra) and some backup veggies. We've never not had a catch so usually the last breakfast is quite a feast.
Soup, beans on toast (I heat up the actual can which is possibly not ideal), small fry up (sausage/egg/bacon, etc) and pretty much anything that won't go off and can be cooked in the same pan.
I think you don't want to heat up the can because you risk getting the inside lining mixed into the food? But it's fairly resistant to temperature... That's what I was always told
Bacon and bread! With some tomatoes and cheese.
I don't actually know if you can get the sort of bacon I'm thinking of, but it's a staple of my childhood camping memories.
Talking about this sort of stuff: https://www.retetadeazi.ro/aperitive/slanina-afumata-ardeleneasca/(800c600)slanina-afumata-ardeleneasca.jpg (it's smoked)
Stick a slice (with some cuts so the heat penetrates better) on a stick, hold it over hot coals, drip the fat on bread/toasted bread, eat, repeat!
Can also do thin slices on the stick with some other things - onion, mushroom, slices of peppers... Yums.
I also have good memories about instant mashed potatoes and beans - I think we did two packages of each in a single mixed pot, it tasted amazing.
Stews also taste different when done over the fire outside in a cauldron, but it's a multiple hour thing, not really worth it for two people
I think I've seen something like that bacon at the Asian grocer. Might have been pork belly, but it'd be pretty close.
A lot of the commercial stuff isn't smoked properly - ideally you want to be able to eat it as is. You're melting it and you slice it and cook it, but it being properly, thoroughly smoked makes a big difference. It can be from any part - though belly is thinner (and more delicious). I think the Asian shops carry it for use in hotpots or to place over ramen? Not sure how it's cooked
I don't think it is cooked. I didn't realize it was meant to be smoked.
You can get (okay-ish) smoked in Germany, and it gets better the further east you go in europe :D I guess in the americas you might want to look for eastern european / balkan stores? Not sure they'd carry meat that isn't frozen/canned, though.
You can also just use a fattier bacon... a quick google gave me "european style bacon" on a canadian website, I don't know where to even start looking for bacon offerings in the normal shops in the US. There will be slightly less fatty drippings, but you'll get the meaty bits to eat
I have access to a smoker, so this new knowledge will probably lead to me smoking some pork belly. Aside from that, farmers markets might also be a good bet.
This weekend
Dinner first night: fast food on the way to camp
Breakfast day 1: eggs and breakfast sausage
Lunch day 1: hard salami, cheese, other snacks
Dinner day 1: box of Mac and cheese (I boil the water in my coffee percolator) with cut up Hebrew nationals in it
Breakfast day 2: instant oatmeal, maybe an apple
Lunch day 2: pb&j, dried fruit
Dinner day 2: kielbasa and corn. Keep the corn in the husk, tie a rope around it and throw it in the river for a bit. Soaking the husk will basically steam the kernels once you put it in the fire
Breakfast day 3: repeat of one of the above
Lunch day 3: can of tuna, crackers, other snacks
Hotdogs always have a special place in my heart as campfire food.
Chilaquiles work really well for breakfast, as do breakfast burritos. You can buy pre-shredded chicken or beef at the store if you want too. Tacos at night and then use the leftovers for chilaquiles in the morning.
Outside of that, soups and stews can be made ahead of time and brought along in jars. Bring some ramen noodles and broth with whatever accouterments you want too. Grilled sandwiches are pretty easy. I've had mixed results with hamburgers (they don't always cook all the way through in time on a camping stove). Fried rice (with the rice cooked ahead) and pot stickers are easy enough too.
And don't forget to bring stuff for s'mores.
This is a legal requirement for camping in America. And they must be made with Hershey's chocolate and Jet-Puffed marshmallows; the only ingredient you can go generic on is the graham crackers.
The chilaquiles sound delicious, I'm definitely saving that recipe! Thanks! S'mores and hot dogs are essential, won't forgot those 😁
Short (2-3 day) car camping or winter sled-in camping trips: I really like pre-making hearty stews, chili, or curries at home, freezing them (don't freeze potato chunks), and packing into 1-meal-sized containers. I enjoy cooking but simple re-heating is more relaxing when camping. Large twist-top peanut butter jars are excellent containers.
Longer road trips: veg+carb meals become a staple. Pasta and sauce + salad; couscous or polenta + sauteed veg; veggie risotto; rice noodles+veg (bun). For rice dishes, soak the rice in a sealed container while driving during the day so it cooks extra fast (also makes brown rice manageable).
I have a cast-iron grill “basket” that’s basically a frying pan with holes in the bottom. It lets me grill smaller things like chopped vegetables and slices of meat together over an open fire.
One mind blowing thing i stumbled across awhile back was to fire up onions and peppers in the basket, then toss them in to some baked beans. Serve it with some grilled chicken or other protein of choice.
Fun to make and you get that legit campfire taste to your food
I use this:
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/seasoned-cast-iron-grilling-basket
Cowboy steaks.
Get a fire going with either hardwoods (like oak, and not a softwood like pine which has a lot of resins you won't want to taste) or with chunk charcoal such as mesquite (and not briquettes, which you will not want to taste).
Allow a couple of steaks to come to ambient temperature while seasoned with salt and pepper.
Wait for them to get grey with ash, then toss the steaks right on the coals.
Believe it or not, the 1000F coals give the steaks an incredible char without a lot of residue that you end up eating.
Like former President Eisenhower, I recommend martinis all around and subtly watch your fellow campers when you toss the steaks right on the coals. Exactly the right air of insouciance is required. (Of course, if your fellow campers are actual cowboys, they've been cooking steaks like this for a while now.)
I prefer my martini dirty, gin, stirred, two olives.
Cheese on Toast. Im sure its a global law somewhere that you have to have cheese on toast
Egg drop soup with ramen noodles. Oatmeal for breakfast. Bacon. Smores.
Biryani, dal, bolognese, curries, chilli con carne; pretty much anything I can cook with a maximum of two stove rings. For breakfast I often make up some granola with oats, seeds, dried fruit and honey.
Whenever we go camping I just go through my normal recipe spreadsheet and pick out things which can just be cooked in one or two 2 pans. I have two of those camping stoves that take disposable butane canisters that I use and I don't find it very limiting, but I want to buy a better setup because the heat control is pretty bad.
salt potatoes: dutch oven: water, new potatoes, salt. They sell them as salt potatoes at Wegmann's. It is more of a NY thing. But man it makes it easy to drink beer the rest of the night!
Sounds delicious honestly. Is this like... Enough water to boil them I assume?
yep!
If you have more than a couple people this recipe is cheap and fun!
Just have each person or couple or group grab a pack of hotdogs/smokies/kelbasas? Any type of hot dog style with different flavours, then you cut them all up into bite size chunks and skewer them randomly. Roast over the fire and slide off onto a bun. Different taste every bite!
I would have never thought of this but that's such a good idea! Thanks!
It's fun cuz it's "interactive" persay haha. Toss in some spicy jalapeno chunks so everyone (consenting) gets a single one and then it's a game. Just lots of fun and tasty. It's my go to!
My dad and I used to throw a bunch of stuff in a pouch of foil with italian dressing and cook it over the fire. The usual ingredients were scallions, a squash or zucchini, cherry tomatoes, spices, and a protein like sausage or beef. Then you'd open up your pouch on a paper plate and presto, cowboy food ;)
Eggs and bacon were a staple too, with some coffee prepared on the side. Throw some tortillas on the grate while you're at it, yup yup.
Chicken of the woods cooked in a cast iron pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Truly nothing tastes better than food you foraged for yourself outdoors.
I always try and eat what I catch when I go camping/fishing.
Nothing beats a fire roasted white perch (fish) seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked over some hot coals.
I have only been camping twice.
Once we had a disposable BBQ and grilled chicken and lots of veg, the other time we walked to town and ate Chinese food in our tents 😅