Camping is one of those great traditions that give you a chance to get away from the noise and busyness of everyday life and just relax. Whether you’re camping with friends or family or going out on your own, you don’t want to be stuck with bland and boring food.
For some, cooking is one of the most exciting activities on a camping vacation. It is a completely different experience. Just the thrill of creating a menu of different meals, putting together ingredients, smelling the sweet aroma of meat, seasonings, and vegetables over a campfire, and the satisfied look on your family after feasting on the dinner you prepare can ignite your excitement.
However, it is important to stress that cooking while camping is more complicated than regular home cooking. Aside from the fact that you can’t bring your entire kitchen with you and that if you forgot a type of ingredient, there is no convenience store you can easily buy rosemary or thyme, it also entails a lot more effort and hard work to ensure that you have a successful camp cooking experience.
Here are 15 easy and affordable camping cooking tips to get you started.
1. Create a Menu Beforehand
Write down a menu of all the dishes you intend to cook on the camping trip. It is better to opt for simple dishes that wouldn’t take your entire day preparing. From this menu, create a checklist of the ingredients, cookware, and utensils you need to bring to ensure that you don’t forget anything.
Sample Weekend Camping Menu
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | |
| Breakfast | Bag Omelette | French Toast | |
| Snack | Fruit | Fruit | |
| Lunch | PB&J | ||
| Snack | Chips and Salsa | Cheese Platter | |
| Dinner | Quesadilla | Potato Packet |
Breaking down the above example will give you a better understanding of our planning and implementation. Most campgrounds have a check-in time after 12 PM. This means that we are traveling to our destination. Plus, we needed to wait to get kids home from school or us from work so breakfast and were already taken care of.
We usually start the weekend before our trip preparing the menu and spend the rest of the week getting what is needed.
2. Prepare Ingredients Before Your Trip
With the menu written out, it is now time to gather it all together. Most recipes will require some type of ingredient. Prepare ingredients at home. Measure them and put them in resealable plastic bags with labels so that you don’t spend all day cooking. Remember, there are still other activities to do.
The basic cooking ingredients:
- Salt
- Pepper
Specialty cooking ingredients: (make eggs taste great)
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Onion salt/powder
- Garlic salt/powder
Other items based on sample menu:
- Chips
- Salsa
- Tortillas
- Chicken
- Shredded cheese
- Eggs
- Onion
- Bacon Crumble – precooked
- Friut (Apple, Cantaloupe, Banana, etc.)
- Bread
- Peanut Butter
- Jelly
- Sliced cheeses
- Potato
- Bell Pepper – We like orange and yellow
- Butter
- Texas Toast – for french toast
- Syrup
- Powdered Sugar
3. Precook Meats
To save time and not have to deal with raw meat, cook specific meats before leaving. Most of the time the menus you create, the meats can be reheated. Plus you can get everything preseasoned and bagged. This will save cooking time as well as your fuel for the stove. Place them in plastic containers or bags and then freeze them.
We usually marinate the chicken used for our quesadilla then throw it on the BBQ. Once cooked, slice it up and store it. If we decide to have ground beef, we cook it before. Then all that needs to happen is assemble and cook on the grill for dinner.
4. Use a Trusted Brand Camping Stove
Speaking of grills, it helps to have a really good and reliable one. Our favorite is the Coleman RoadTrip 285 Portable Stand-Up Propane Grill. We can easily fit 2 quesadillas side-by-side. Hamburgers for my family of 5. Love the grill lines.
Boiling pots of water, percolating coffee, or anything requiring a pot for cooking are simple. Plus with the interchangeable griddle make french toast, pancakes, or fry up some bacon.
5. Bring a Grilling Grate
Maybe you would rather enjoy cooking your meals like the pioneers, over the open flame of a campfire. Don’t assume that the campsite will have all the amenities that you need.
Often they will have a fire ring or pit with a moveable grate on it. Sometimes they are broken. It is better to have one on hand. Plus it can be used for extra grilling space.
6. Light Fire With Ease
Matches are great. Small propane lighters are better. If you ever lit a propane stove with a match you understand. Sometimes you get a little flash due to the propane being on for a second or two before lighting.
The lighters, with their long neck, help in bringing the flame closer to the gas outlets. This is especially helpful for grills that need to be lit from the underside.
Of course, you should bring extra matches and keep them dry by putting them in waterproof containers.
7. Be Flexible
There will that occasion when you arrive at your campsite, begin to make your meal, only to realize you left an important item on the counter. Be flexible. You might have to jumble the menu around.
The last thing you want to do is send someone into town or the next town to get a small ingredient that won’t ruin your meal without it. Improvise. It’s part of camping.
8. Use Travelsized Items
Bring small amounts of seasonings, condiments, and other food supplies to save packing space. Instead of bringing the bulky bottle of ketchup and mustard, just bring small packets, like those from a fast-food restaurant. You can also place them in small plastic containers.
The seasonings you use can be brought in small packets the same way. Use a plastic ziplock-type bag. These don’t take up much room and be easily stored.
9. Block Not Cubed
We have all been there. Ripped open that bag of ice and dumped it in the ice chest. After a few hours of travel, you get to the campground, and as you get prepared to cook the ice has already melted. Maybe you left the ice in the bag, it melted, and now you have bagged water.
Try to use a block of ice rather than the cubed or shaved ice. Block ice when used for food storage can last between 5-7 days in a well-insulated ice chest or cooler. Whereas cubed iced will give you only about a day or two.
10. Get Soapy
An old Boy Scout trick to keep your pots and pans from getting sooty. Take dishwater soap and rub the bottoms of pots and pans with it before cooking. This will make cleaning time afterward easier.
This is especially important if you plan on using just the campfire to do your cooking.
11. Bring a Pocket Knife or Multi-tool
Pocket knives come in handy while camping. My father-in-law has carried one with him since he was a kid. Slicing up an apple to share while out hiking, cutting a piece of bread, or using it to cut twine or rope.
Just be sure to use those that have locking features to avoid accidental folding of the blade when you are cutting. Nothing is worse than having the blade fold back on itself. It can be a bit painful.
12. Use Protective Storage
When camping out in the wilderness never leave food outside your tent or your trailer. You are just leaving an open invitation for wildlife to stop by for a visit. And although squirrels and raccoons may look cute, they can be visicous.
But it is the bigger animals you need to be wary of. Bears get hungry and they tend to rip into things if they smell even the hint of food. This is why you need to use provided food lockers or bring your own.
Always pays to be prepared and keep you and your family or friend safe.
13. Don’t Foil Yourself
Don’t skimp on aluminum foil. Bring the most heavy-duty one you can find. When using a campfire or grill the foil tends to break and punctured. Having a thin foil will only leave your food in the fire.
When I make our potato packets, I need the foil to not fall apart or tear. This is because they need to be rotated every few minutes to ensure even cooking.
14. Put a Lid On It
Cover pots and pans during cooking so that water boils quicker and the meals will get done faster and conserve fuel. Most importantly this will also keep unwanted insects and debris out of your food.
There have been occasions when a stray pine needle or two has fallen into something cooking on the grill or over the fire.
15. Oil Up
It is always a great idea to apply a little cooking oil or spray on your camp grill so that food will not stick on it. Propane cooks differently than your gas stove at home.
If using a campfire, be sure to oil the grill before lighting the fire. You could also place aluminum foil sprayed with cooking oil on the grill and cook on it. Makes for easy clean-up as well.
Wrapping It Up
Let’s face it, we all love to cook while camping, but it’s much more enjoyable when you have everything you need to do it. If you go in with a game plan, it will make your life easier when it comes time to eat. Plus it makes you feel more prepared, and also lessens the chance that you forget something you need (like the meat, utensils, or something to light the fire).
