What's your biggest camp cooking gripe/challenge

I am a chef,climber,and aspiring nutritional coach. I'm starting a new camp cooking blog for climbers. My goal is to make your camp cooking experience after a grueling day on the rocks as easy and healthy as possible, with the most nutrition to keep you healthy and strong.

What I'm looking for is what you find the most challenging in your camp cooking:

a. cooking healthy
b. cooking fast
c. what can I prepare at home to make things quicker
d. cooler space
e. fresh vs. packaged
f. what else?

I'm really excited to address your camp cooking challenges and look forward to your responses.

Clean up, especially at dry campgrounds

g. cheap

On big climbs finding food thats light, quick to make, has tons of calories, a lot of protein, a fair amount of fat and not a lot of salt. Also, recommendations for on the move food with lots of calories, easily edible, and without the word GU.

When I'm cragging keeping the steak cold and hangovers.

I have nothing to add, except a memory of camp cooking I can't forget:

We were backpacking in RMNP and my partner had purchased a new brand of backpacking food. We were cooking the one pot dish (after smoking a joint), and it started to erupt in thin fountains shooting up at least 4 feet. Being in the condition we were in, it was the most hilarious event we had ever witnessed.

Then a Park Ranger strolled up and started chatting with us. We immeditely stifled our laughter. However, it was very difficult, because, even though the Ranger was standing very close to the erupting pot, he was oblivious to the strange phenomenon. As he left, he did say that it looked good and to enjoy our dinner.

It didn't taste good, but the entertainment made up for it.

I'm cheap, often packaged foods, cooking/eating just for myself, and quick. Nothing gourmet for me most days. Military MRE's often, or Freeze Dried pricy fancy foods a few times.
BUT you should come down to the Red in Kentucky later this spring or summer, camp at Miguels, and just watch the culinary wonders that go on each evening out back. They come back late from a full day of climbing. Fresh foods are a must, mostly vegen, very little meat. BIG pots and pans, multiple burner large propane stoves, lots of prep work done, with wooden cutting boards, real kitchen tools, seasonings, separate courses of food done, and a massive meal for 4 to 6 friends,,, slowly cooked and eaten over a couple hours of social time after dark. I've watched, often learning some nice recipes to take home. You could come up with a chapter of them for a book in just a few evenings of meal-watching.

SMG wrote:I am a chef,climber,and aspiring nutritional coach. I'm starting a new camp cooking blog for climbers. My goal is to make your camp cooking experience after a grueling day on the rocks as easy and healthy as possible, with the most nutrition to keep you healthy and strong. What I'm looking for is what you find the most challenging in your camp cooking: a. cooking healthy b. cooking fast c. what can I prepare at home to make things quicker d. cooler space e. fresh vs. packaged f. what else? I'm really excited to address your camp cooking challenges and look forward to your responses.

A. D is not applicable as it would be WAY too costly to try to buy refrigerated goods along a many-month-long trip. That's my largest challenge with camp cooking--you cant really buy refrigerated goods.

#1 Lack of refrigeration in warm months
#2 Regulating heat on a campfire grill in windy conditions
#3 Cleanup in dry campgrounds

I've taken a few month long trips in my truck and unless it is 90 or up I always keep a cooler with ice. If you are living our of a car at least afford yourself the one luxury of eating well, healthier and cheaper than fast food, even $5 footlongs. Cheese, meat and butter, yogurt, as well as mustard and hot sauce make everything better, yea you have to blow 2 bucks on ice every 3 days or so but totally worth it.

Cous Cous is my go to a lot of times, much better than rice, buy in bulk not the crap overpriced over salted box, no waste just refill a big container like a two liter soda bottle, quick and tasty and with some fresh veggies and olive oil great meal.

Organization is key, and cleaning is a bitch, I use my solar shower, hanging from the passenger O shit handle to do dishes, works great, awesome tip from and old boss of mine who lived out of his truck for years, come to think of it he convinced me to carry a cooler to, fill the shower with potable water and you always have a backup 8 gallons to, I do a lot more dishes than showers.

My biggest challenge is cooling down the coffee without milk or ice!

For cleanup when backpacking I bring a little towel, some cord and biodegradable soap. After I use the soap and towel (sometimes just the towel) I hang it up to dry with the cord. It's a extra weight but worth it on trips look longer than overnight.

Biggest gripe? No pot adapter for the Reactor or Jetboil so I can heat tortillas. I'd love to have a pot adapter then a FLAT titanium pan that can be used to heat a tortilla.

Wind

Cale Hoopes wrote:Biggest gripe? No pot adapter for the Reactor or Jetboil so I can heat tortillas. I'd love to have a pot adapter then a FLAT titanium pan that can be used to heat a tortilla.

I have a small 'adapter' for my jetboil; not sure if I bought it aftermarket, don't think it came with the jetboil setup (first gen. simple set up I have),, it is't very big and it's tough to balance a wide pot or pan over it to cook, but if you pay attention and keep a hand on it, it will work out for pan fried tortillas, veges, etc.

Clean up with a handful of sand to start...go with the thickest walled cooler you can find

BLOCK ICE only

and finally get a mini keg plastic 10 liter set up.. it will fit in many coolers and provides about a case of cold good beer

A few gripes/observations, that relate to the original post:

- Most of us know that Quinoa is one of the best climber foods out there. Lean protein, good fats, healthy, cheap-ish, easy to store. But the problem is that it takes a long time to cook. Just like rice, it requires a stove that can simmer (most cartridge stoves suck at simmering), and can really drain your fuel quickly. So, where is the equivalent of "minute" rice; quinoa that you can just add boiling water to, let sit unsimmering for 5-10 minutes, and then eat? Climbers would love that stuff.

-As someone mentioned up-thread, block ice is THE way to go on long roadtrips. With a good cooler, you can have a block last for up to a week. The problem is that in a lot of places, especially out East, block ice is damn near impossible to find. Even in the West, a lot of places sell what they call "blocks," but are actually cubes that have been pressed into block forms, and melt just as quickly as cubes. Lame. It would be cool to figure out how to make your own ice blocks at home in the deep freeze.

Some beta I've found for block ice:
-drain your cooler once a day, preferably first thing in the morning if it's hot weather.
-freeze as much food as possible (all meats, then double bag), before they go in the cooler
-wrap the ice block in closed-cell foam, both to insulate it, and to keep food from getting iceburned.
-if you are near a good water source, soak an old towel or burlap sack in water, and drape it over the cooler. The evaporative cooling effect really keeps the cooler's temps down.

camhead wrote: So, where is the equivalent of "minute" rice; quinoa that you can just add boiling water to, let sit unsimmering for 5-10 minutes, and then eat? Climbers would love that stuff.

Precooked quinoa:
vitacost.com/naturecrops-qu…

Mark E Dixon wrote:Clean up, especially at dry campgrounds

thats the big one for me too, saving water

we rarely have somewhere to plug our trailer in to run the microwave

Find me a way to have good food that takes up less space and weighs less but doesn't have the taste and texture of wet wood chips. Find me something besides gloopy, disgusting oatmeal or gorp for breakfast. Help me make fresh bread on long trips. Make all that fit in my 30L pack so i can get rid of the big ass ones.

Great idea for a blog. Here are some thoughts:

Block Ice: If you can find it, it usually is the crappy compressed stuff. Make your own in old gallon milk jugs. When it melts you have ice water.

Buy a Yeti Cooler. A block of ice will last a week if you are smart. Going to the desert for more than a week? Put 4" of water into the bottom of your Yeti cooler then find a friendly restaurant that will let you put it in their walk-in freezer for 24 hours. That layer of ice will keep for up to 3 weeks if you are smart about it. Commercial raft trips on the Grand Canyon serve ice cream on the last night of their three week trips. This is how they keep it frozen.

Rice/Quinoa/CousCous: Use one part grain to 2 parts water or stock. Bring it to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer, lid off for a few minutes. Then take it off the heat, wrap the pot in your down jacket or sleeping bag to keep it warm and you will have perfect grains in about 15 minutes.

Stoves: I have a Brunton Wind River Range and love it but they don't make them any more. FInd something that has at least a 20,000BTU burner.

Get a 8" or 10" Dutch Oven and learn how to use it.

Mole: Peanut Butter, Red Chili Sauce (or Red Enchilada Sauce) and fig preserves makes an amazing tailgate mole. Put in a tsp of instant espresso, a square of semi-sweet dark chocolate and you have a memorable sauce for everything from eggs to burritos to steak.

Your cooler and food box make a nice windbreak for your cooking area.

If you're serious about tailgate cooking, buy this: rei.com/product/848478/rei-…

Nutritional meals when using non-perishable (canned/dried) and slower to degrade fresh items.

This winter I am luxe living(and gaining pounds) in a full-on house, but for the last 4 years I have lived with in off-grid cabin/on the road, and I refuse to buy ice for cooler. Having no electricity, making ice isn't possible either.

It's not a problem in colder months, but in hot seasons, some vegetables can get moldy beyond use in a few days. Going to a store every other day is...well, stupidly wasteful of time and energy.

I have a stock of various things that will withstand the problem, of course, and having never been sick all this time I know that food doesn't have to look good to be good,to paraphrase Twight. But it gets tiring to rotate through the same small selection of recipes.