All things back-country camping! Gear discussions, destination talks and everything else within that realm
What are your best camping recipes?
One perennial favourite is an improvised Palak paneer with cauliflower and cottage cheese. Wholly unpractical on the other hand (500 g fresh spinach per person) but handy otherwise (needs a long time on low heat, perfect for Trangia).
Spinach down as fine as you can get it. Oil, butter, garlic, chili in deep pan with lid. Get hot, add spinach, simmer until smooth. Add curry, mix, add rest, enjoy.
I do 90% of my camping with my kids' Scout Troop so cast iron dutch oven meals are always high on my list. There are so many choices and some great flavorful options. We do a good chicken pot pie in a dutch oven with american biscuits (like the beef stew mentioned previously). And, of course, any sort of fruit cobbler in a dutch oven will always be a winner.
Foil packs are really great because kids (and adults) can do a choose-your-own-adventure. Want lots of veggies, you got it. Want zero veggies, you got it as well. As long as you have moisture and heat, you can get a tasty meal.
You'll love this one. It's my favorite camping recipe.
It goes very well with mine
My buddy made this one day while camping. He brought a cast iron Dutch oven and a tripod with some chain. Set the tripod up over the camp fire. Chopped some potatoes onion carrots celery garlic and cube some chuck. Browned the chuck in the Dutch oven and then threw in the veggies. Added some water salt and pepper, raised the pot and let stew for a few hours. 15 minutes before pulling the stew he popped open a tube of pre-made biscuits and threw them on top of the stew, put the lid back on and pulled some coals from the fire and put them on top of the Dutch oven. Campfire beef stew and biscuits.
I'm a big fan of foil packs. Protein veggies seasoning garlic and butter in a folded foil pack. Place a grate over the fire and toss the foil packs on, flip after a few minutes then pull and eat.
So far this one flabbergast me. How the cookie didn’t taste like stew 😅. But great one, thanks
I think the biscuits in the post are the American style ones, not British biscuits. The dough often come in tubes where you pull them apart and then bake them. They are fluffy, savory breads.
Ha got it 😂 I was there thinking they were chocolate chip biscuits
Not cookie. More like flaky buns or rolls. The dough comes pre-cut and stacked in a cardboard can, you peel off the label and whomp the side of the can to pop it open and free the dough rounds .
That's the best part. Flakey stew flavored biscuits
Depends on the sort of camping. But if we are carrying our food its mostly homemade dehydrated meals with the usual backpacking snacks. Semi-perishable foods (fruit, cheese, etc) work well for the first couple days. Shelf-stable stuff left in its original packaging will last forever.
Glenn McAllister's website and his book Recipes for Adventure is great -- seriously, check it out. I used his style of food prep to fed 6 people for 11 days on a 160 mile canoe trip last year. It was better food and a hell of a lot cheaper than the off-the-shelf stuff.
Another calorie dense trail food is Hudson Bay Bread, especially if you pair it with jelly/jam and peanut butter.
GORP (trail mix) is an essential snack between meals on strenuous trips or as treat. Fruit leather is also a favorite.
"Just add water" pancake mix is a nice mid-trip treat on a rest day. You can make a passable maple syrup substitute by adding 1/2 tsp "Imitation Maple Flavor" (Mapleine) to 1 cup cane sugar. On the trail add 2 cups water and heat until it dissolves. Serve with with shelf stable pre-cooked bacon (boxed, not canned) and rehydrated butter powder
Quick cook steel cut oats with powdered milk, brown sugar, granola, and dried fruit.
"Trail Pizza" is a no-cook meal good for lunch on group trips. Pita bread, tomato sauce (the "box with a screw cap" packaging for weight/space), dry oregano, shredded cheese (rehydrated freeze dried or fresh), and pre-sliced pepperoni. Assemble into Lunchable style "pizzas".
Bookmarked this, good ideas here.
Replying because this seems to be the most backpacker related comment in the post.
My recent backpacking discovery, was that if you coat eggs in a thin layer of oil, they'll keep in the cupboard for weeks/months. I tested it myself, ate 3 month old eggs that were stored in my cupboard. I tested one every few weeks as they got older.
So now for backpacking, I oil a few eggs and bring them with me on 2 or 3 day trips. Makes for a nice breakfast with a tortilla cooked over the fire.
As mentioned here, I've also done just add water pancakes. Great for kids, and kids at heart.
Usually we do freeze dried meals, for the simplicity. But they're so expensive, a 3 day trip costs $30-40 in dinner alone, double if your doing breakfast too.
I'll still bring the occasional freeze dried meal, I do like them. But I discovered Idahoan makes a bag of instant mashed potatoes with added protein. The bag is almost water tight, so if you hold it with a sock you can pour you water straight into it and stir it up. No cleanup!
I add a can of turkey gravy, heavy, but a tasty addition. Toss it in the fire to burn off the leftover gravy remnants, then pack it out.
Honestly the whole meal is almost too filling. If I plan that, then I'll eat a light lunch. But it's only like $3 for the whole shebang!
And finally, I've been known to pack in frozen steak bits and fry them up in my titanium pan, for a first night dinner.
We call them "turtles".
Ingredients:
Prep:
Put the burger patty on a sheet of aluminum foil, salt/pepper to taste, and throw the onion slices, butter, and diced potatoes on and around it. Fold the rest of the foil around it to seal it up. Toss it on the hot coals of the campfire for about an hour. Eat right out of the foil.
These aren't part of the "turtles", but we also usually wrap an ear of corn in foil with some butter, salt, and pepper and throw it on the coals alongside them.
This is to be made before camping / hiking, not during, but:
180g butter
60g brown sugar
4 tablespoons maple syrup
250g porridge oats
50g mixed nuts
150g dried cranberries (or raisins)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
200g dark cooking chocolate
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
Melt the butter in a saucepan with the sugar and maple syrup.
Once melted into an homogenous liquid, add the oats, nuts, cranberries, and cinnamon. Mix well until everything has an even coating.
Spread onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15m.
Remove from the oven to cool.
Once cooled, melt the chocolate and spread on top.
Allow to cool and restrain yourself from consuming until out in the hills.
For the sake of simplicity I often don't bother melting the chocolate on top, and just take it separately.
Jambalaya 🤤
Get a pack of zatarans as the base and a kielbasa (is good without refrigeration) w/ oil to sautee. Can also bring a small bag of your fav Cajun seasoning, hot sauce, green onions, whatever else you want to put on top.
If you are making it the first night you can bring frozen shrimp and let it thaw in your pack until dinner and throw in at the end
Flap steak 'arachera' most markets season it for you
Tortillas
Avocado diced Tomato diced Onion half diced Lemon squirt Salt Pepper
Bunch of beer
If only you could find a site like that