Camp Cooking Lessons Learned Through Making Mistakes

My family, friends, and I love camping and camp all summer long. I usually end up the one who does most of the cooking. While I love to do this, I have learned some tips that have helped me along the way.

1. Be prepared and have a backup plan for those rainy days.

I learned this lesson on a camping trip where it down poured everyday of our trip. I thought I had done a great job planning every meal. Unfortunately, almost all of my meals included a dish that needed to be cooked. Not to mention we really had no other place to eat but the tent.

With the rain and nothing "good" to eat, everyone was miserable.

What I learned from this experience is to always have some food that is already prepared and is easy to eat while sitting in a tent. Some foods that I make sure I am never without while camping include: pop tarts, cheese and crackers, ingredients for sandwiches, fruits and vegetables (either fresh or dried), trail mix, granola bars. For drinking, juice boxes are a nice alternative for children.

They are harder to spill while eating in a tent.

2. Cooking and storing chicken is easier if the chicken is parboiled before your trip.

What better way to eat chicken than cooked over a campfire. Sounds good but you need to be careful how you store and cook raw chicken. I have found that it is much easier to bring chicken along when it is parboiled at home.

This eliminates the need to store it in a separate cooler. No more drippy raw chicken juices all over the bottom of your ice chest. Also, the chicken only needs to be reheated. No more worrying whether the chicken is cooked thoroughly. From a cook's point of view, this makes life while camping much more pleasurable.

3.

Bring oven mitts or pot holders.

I could not tell you how many times I forgot the potholders and I have the scars to prove it. I went out and bought the silicone oven mitts. Most of the silicone mitts can withstand temperatures up to 550 degrees. These are also great for doing anything around the camp fire: adding wood, roasting marshmallows, and putting out the fire to name a few.

4.

Lighters or matches.

I guess this would be a matter of how you are camping or what you prefer. I prefer to use the long handled lighters rather than matches.

I find it is easier to light either a fire or your charcoal with a lighter. I can control the lighter better and you don't have to worry as much about a lighter getting damp.

These were just a few hints and tips that I have gathered over the years. I hope they have helped you make your camping experience a little less stressful and a lot more fun. Happy Camping!!.

By: Pat Hogle