Posted on: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Campout cooking can be made easier
By Wanda A. Adams
With the Fourth of July just upon us, many of us are planning camping trips, or at least an overnight stay at a beach park.
Trolling the Internet, I've collected lots of tips to help with your camp cooking and, even though food does already taste better outdoors, these will help both to make your work more efficient and your camp recipes still more delicious.
Things to take: LOTS of briquets and wood chips or wood chunks; newspaper, fire starter or wood matches; long-handled tongs and asbestos or silicon oven mitts; a multipurpose knife, with scissors and pliers; a large, heavy-bottomed pot with handles for stewing and baking; kitchen parchment and heavy-duty aluminum foil for making cooking packets; nonexplosive imu rocks; a sharp knife and a large cutting board.
For delicious side dishes or desserts, place sliced fruit or vegetables in a square of parchment on an equal square of heavy-duty aluminum foil, dot with butter, season or sweeten and throw in a couple of ice cubes to keep them from cooking too fast and to retain moisture. Fold into packet. Place on coals 10-15 minutes.
To smoke fresh-caught fish, place wood chips in the bottom of pot. Clean fish and thread onto thin sticks. Hang from pot rim. Cover and place pot on coals. Smoke one hour.
For a campfire imu treat, heat rocks to red hot and place inside a whole, cleaned, oiled and salt-rubbed chicken. Wrap chicken in heavy duty foil and a thick towel. Chicken cooks from inside out in 3 hours.
Bacon egg: For each serving, slice off top of whole, unpeeled onion and cut out center. Chop a slice of bacon or ham and drop into onion with a dab of butter. Break an egg into the onion. Place the top slice back for a lid and nestle onion in coals and roast 4-5 minutes.
In a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, make a dough with your favorite biscuit mix and briefly knead. Pat dough out to cover bottom of pan and use a glass to cut biscuits. Pull off scraps and form round biscuits with hands. Nestle pot into coals and use tongs to place coals in a packet of heavy-duty foil to drape over the top. Bake 10-15 minutes.
Measure, mix and season ingredients for each meal ahead of time and pack in zip-closure bags. Label each bag accordingly. Place in cooler, if needed.
Have plenty of ice and frozen gel packs. Freeze meat before placing in cooler; it will help other foods stay cold longer. Frozen juice cans do the same.
Prepare soups, stews or chili ahead of time. Freeze and keep in cooler. Reheat in Dutch oven over hot coals.
Cover pots whenever cooking outdoors so food cooks quickly and sand and insects don't get added to the mix.
For ease of clean-up and to protect from smoke and fire damage, put liquid soap on outside of your pots and pans before putting over the fire. Apply oil on camp grill to keep foods from sticking.
To keep matches dry, dip stick matches in wax and, when needed, scrape off the tip of the match and light. Also keep matches in a waterproof container.
To fix a cooler leak, apply melted paraffin wax inside and outside the leaky area.
Pita or flatbread packs better and stays in better shape while camping than loaf breads.
At home, fill gallon milk jugs or 2-liter soda bottles with water, Kool-Aid, iced tea or juice and freeze. Use as a gel pack and then as a drink.
Use a separate cooler for drinks so as not to open the food cooler too often.
On your last day of camp, use leftover meats and vegetables to make breakfast omelets.
Instead of "stick" or "tub" butter or margarine, pack easy-to-use "squeeze" margarine.
To get your charcoal pieces ready faster, use a charcoal chimney.
Disposable water bottles make great dispensers for salad dressings, oils and sauces.
Take an old closed-cell foam sleeping pad and cut it into an 8-by-8-inch square. Wrap it completely with duct tape. Use as a cutting board, stove pad, seat and to cushion sharp objects.
Before making frying-pan biscuits, press a bit of butter into the center of each.
Save unused condiment and sauce packets from restaurants for use while camping. Ditto plastic utensil and napkin sets.
Pack eggs, butter and cheese in a clear plastic lidded container to prevent leaks, breaks, soggy cartons. Ditto bread.
When you are through cooking, place a can of water on the fire to heat so it will be hot when it is time to clean up. A crumpled ball of foil can double as a scouring pad.
Sprinkle a few drops of water on sliced bacon to keep it from shriveling in the pan
Between trips, keep all nonperishable camping stuff in a plastic tub so you're always ready to go.
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