Campsite Food

When camping out, feeding the crew is both challenging and rewarding. It will be necessary to plan in advance and plan on bringing everything with you that will be needed. Even convenient campsite/recreation areas can be an hour or more from the nearest store or convenience mart. And the well stock panty of food stocks, spices and ingredients are not right at hand. Your selection of cooking pots, pans and cooking utensils will be limited to what you pack in. Preplanning is required down to hom much fresh food (dairy, veggies, meats, fruits will be required based on the length of the trip and the number of camping party.

And of course, it is necessary to plan the recipes and how they will be cooked. If a travel trailer / motor home is involved, that can solve some issues with an available (likely propane) stove and oven. But no real camping trip is complete without at least a few fire cooked meals – even if only burgers and hot dogs. There are separate discussions on cooking with fire, cooking with foil, cooking on a grill and dutch oven cooking for more details. There are a few simple sample recipes for each to get your creative juices flowing.

For the chef in the family, campsite cooking will likely be considered boring as most recipes are simpler and easy to make. Sometimes people that are avid cookers using spices, rubs, sauces and marinades will discover that the simple, basic minimal ingredients recipes can be tasteful, nutritious and enjoyable. Plus require substantially less effort leaving more time to socialize, relax and enjoy company. Relaxing and enjoying company is the essence of camping in first place.

It is entirely possible to prepare everything from breakfast, lunch, dinner and deserts over an open camp fire. While many campsites have available charcoal grills, open pit fire cooking is challenging and rewarding in both accomplishments and taste sensations.

This section contains numerous detailed subjects from cooking with fire, keeping food (and people) safe, proper water hydration, dutch oven cooking, simple foil wrapped cooking, open flame grilling and other subjects. As your experience in camping increases and your desire to expand your culinary flare grows, you will start to build your own recipe file of favorite meals. As your recipe file fills, you will also learn exactly what to bring and what not to bring. Anything you pack in, must also be packed out.

It is harped on in detail plus discussed in numerous places, the importance of fire safety. Never, ever under any circumstance for even 10 seconds leave an open fire unattended. If you are the only one in the campsite and you need something from the camper or motor home – Do Without It. Or find another camper near by to come stand guard for you. It takes only a few seconds for a gust of wind to blow loose embers from the burning fire in to nearby dry brush or leaves. Once a fire starts, they are very hard to stop.

Trash and Litter control is also reviewed in multiple different sections. Among them are Protection from Wildlife (wild animals can smell food from a great distance and will come into the camp ground looking for it) and The Code of the Woods & Hiking discusses it as Leave only Foot Prints, Take only Pictures. Leave the campsite cleaner then you found it.