We all know the many joys that come when camping, especially if you’re with a group of people. It’s so fun being outside and enjoying the fresh air, creating new experiences that will last forever. Still, you have to be prepared for some…challenges when camping!
Most notably, how are you going to cook your food? You might be outside for a whole week, without easy access to traditional cooking equipment. Sure, you could open your phone and try to order food - or travel to a local town - but that ruins the camping experience. The truth is, cooking while camping isn’t too hard if you know what you’re doing. Here are some really important tips to make your life easier:
Bring some essential cooking equipment
You’ve got a couple of options when cooking outdoors:
Cook over a campfire
Cook on a BBQ
I suppose the most traditional approach is to make a campfire and cook over it. In this case, you’ll need to bring a host of supplies to help you start a fire. From here, you have two other approaches to this idea. You can cook over an open flame or over hot coals - pick whichever you think is easiest. Then, you will need some extra cooking supplies, like a pot, pan, grill, and something to hang your pot over the fire.
Alternatively, the easier approach is to use a BBQ. There are plenty of tailgate grills that are designed to be portable, so they’re excellent on campsites. Here, it’s simply a case of cooking on a BBQ as you normally would. You should still bring the added crockery as you can use the grill as a heat source to warm up things like soup or stews, etc.
Furthermore, get your hands on a good cooler. This will help you keep your ingredients fresh, particularly if you’re cooking things like meat or fresh food.
Plan meals in advance
Ideally, you need to plan your camping meals in advance. This will allow you to pack everything you need to feed the whole group throughout the trip. Sometimes, you may need to go out and get extra ingredients, but that’s okay!
Planning also lets you do one vital thing:
Prepare your meals beforehand
When you know what you’re cooking, you can start getting everything ready. Chop any vegetables, weigh out any ingredients, and so on. As a result, when it’s time to cook, you have everything already weighed out and ready to go. It makes things much easier as food prep is hard when camping - where will you chop your ingredients, and how will you weigh anything?!
Bring pre-made meals
Yep, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from bringing along some pre-made meals. Granted, the type of meals you bring along will be fairly specific. The best things to take will be ones that can be heated up and eaten in a matter of minutes.
Some ideas include:
Various soups
Stews
Chili
Casseroles
Obviously, ensure you seal these meals so they don’t leak during the journey. Also, freeze them before you set off, and keep them in your cooler so they don’t defrost. When it’s time to eat, take them out in the morning or the night before and they’ll naturally defrost. Then, you can heat them up and enjoy.
Cover your food as it cooks
Make no mistake about it, camping is very exciting. There’s a lot to love about it, but you can’t deny there are some drawbacks. The main one is the presence of bugs everywhere. It’s bad enough when you’re just sitting around the fire chilling, but bugs will swarm around your food while it’s cooking. The last thing you want is a herd of flies buzzing around, sitting on your food, and making it gross.
So, always cover your food as it cooks. Put a lid over anything if you can, or use some aluminum foil instead. This protects the food from all the insects and bugs that try to taint it, but it also speeds up the cooking process. As such, you spend less time cooking, making it a less stressful experience.
Oh, and as a bonus, covering the food will save on fuel. If you are using gas canisters to fuel your BBQ, you don’t want to waste it all after a couple of days!
Are you preparing to cook outdoors for the first time? It can be daunting, but these tips are all you need to make the experience much more enjoyable. Follow them to a tee, and cooking will be an absolute breeze.
