Key to campout cooking is keeping cleanup to a minimum
I went camping last weekend, and while it mostly reminded me of
why I don’t camp more often
– too hot, too dirty, too many mosquito bites – the meals were
tasty as always. The biggest chore with camp cooking is the cleanup
so we chose meals that shared some ingredients, but packed in very
different flavors and picked others that used the least number of
dishes to prepare. For my three-
day trip we used a variety of cooking techniques – charcoal
grill, wood fire grill and camp stove – and though the wood fire
was a little unpredictable, the other tools made cooking easy.
Key to campout cooking is keeping cleanup to a minimum
I went camping last weekend, and while it mostly reminded me of why I don’t camp more often – too hot, too dirty, too many mosquito bites – the meals were tasty as always. The biggest chore with camp cooking is the cleanup so we chose meals that shared some ingredients, but packed in very different flavors and picked others that used the least number of dishes to prepare. For my three-day trip we used a variety of cooking techniques – charcoal grill, wood fire grill and camp stove – and though the wood fire was a little unpredictable, the other tools made cooking easy.
The first night, we opted for the most complicated meal of the trip with a vegetable gratin cooked in foil packets, barbecued chicken breast and Italian sausages, and baked beans (from a can to make things easier). The vegetables required a lot of chopping, but by putting things straight on the grill or the fire, the only pot we had to clean was the one from the beans. S’mores, of course, served as dessert.
The next morning we woke up early and started prepping for a leisurely breakfast. The one good thing about camping is there is no rush to get anywhere at the beginning of the day. We cooked up a hearty breakfast complete with French toast, home fries, bacon, eggs and sausage. But our trick for eliminating some pans was to cook up French toast with a hole cut out of the middle where an egg can be cracked into it. The second thing we did was cook up the sausages and then add the home fries to the same pan. The bacon caused a little more trouble since we couldn’t get the wood fire going so we ended up finishing up the other dishes and then cooking the bacon on the camp stove.
Half the bacon was saved for a late lunch of BLTs with the first fresh tomatoes from our garden and the leftover wheat bread from breakfast.
By the last night of camping, which for us was Day Two, most people are probably tired and will want a quick and easy meal. One of the best camp meals for that, and one that always made the list when I was a kid, is sloppy Joe’s. The great thing about the sloppy Joe is that everything pretty much goes into one pot. From start to finish the meal takes less than 20 minutes. It’s a great way to end a long, tiring trip in the woods.
Below are a few of the recipes we cooked up during our short trip.
Hole-in-one French toast
6 slices whole wheat bread
9 eggs
a splash of milk
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter
syrup
a glass with a two-to-three inch diameter
In a dish, beat three eggs, cinnamon and milk together to form a liquid batter.
On a plate, use a small cup to cut a hole in the center of each piece of bread. Dip the slice and the hole cut out of the center into the batter.
In a frying pan over medium-low heat melt part of the butter. Place bread into pan and as it starts to sizzle, crack on egg into the hole in the toast. Cook for a few minutes and then flip, allowing to cook until egg whites are set. Repeat with next piece of toast.
Serve the toast-and-egg along with the cutout hole with syrup and butter, as well as any other breakfast items such as home fries, sausage or bacon.
BLTs
6 slices whole wheat bread
9 slices crisp bacon, cooled
1/2 head iceberg lettuce
3 tomatoes sliced
mayonnaise
salt and pepper
Toast bread, if desired. Spread with mayonnaise and then place four slices of tomatoes on each corner of the bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Layer on two to three slices of crisp iceberg lettuce, layer on three slices of bacon, and then put the top slice of bread on. Cut sandwiches in half for easier eating.
Sloppy joe’s
¾ lb. lean ground hamburger
1 –15 oz. can sweet corn kernels (fresh or frozen corn can used as well)
1 – 8 oz. can of black olives
1 – 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
4 hamburger buns
mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste (other seasonings can also be added such as chili powder, cumin, and onion powder, depending on your preference)
Heat pan over medium heat on a camp stove. Add in ground hamburger and cook until no longer pink, about seven to eight minutes. Drain off excess grease into an aluminum can if needed (lean hamburger will not require draining.) Add in seasonings, tomato sauce, corn and olives. Cook for another ten minutes, allow vegetables to warm and seasonings to flavor the mixture. Ladle mixture onto a hamburger bun dressed with mayonnaise. Eat with or without utensils (though without is pretty messy.)
