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On your last backpacking trip, you probably left most of your everyday luxuries at home. You didn’t bring an electric can-opener, a toaster oven, fancy oven mitts, and most likely, your frying pan didn’t have a nice sturdy handle (if you brought one at all). In fact, if you’re any good at packing, you didn’t bring much at all. You packed light and moved fast, and were determined to ‘rough it.’
Now, I’m one of the biggest fans of packing light. If you go through my gear, you’ll find my toothbrush and spoon have shortened handles, while my cup’s handle has been cut off completely. Furthermore, you won’t find a whole lot of anything else – no excessive clothes, knick-knacks, or body lotions. I camp light and I love it. However, one thing I don’t like to skimp on is food. The point of going camping is to have fun, not to torture yourself. Not having your foot massager with you isn’t torture, but eating terrible food sure can be.
Eating well on a camping trip really doesn’t need to take all that much extra effort. It can even be enjoyable to try to make a fancy meal with as little as possible. And isn’t that one of the great things about backpacking – having a great time with as little as possible? Here are some tips on how to become an adventurous Emeril.
Breakfast
On most camping trips, getting up and out of camp quickly is a necessity (beating afternoon winds or sun). Oatmeal and granola are commonplace since we can’t always afford time to work magic over the fire. But don’t let this force you to settle for a boring meal. Bake a moist cornbread the night before and save it for the morning, or soak your raisins and other dried fruit in water for a snack that can almost give Del-Monte fruit cocktail a run for it’s money (remember to bear-bag overnight).
If you have time in the morning, have some fun. In the winter, bring eggs along that you cracked into a water bottle at home, and enjoy a delightful western omelet. In the summer, fry up some fresh pancakes and garnish with wild picked fruits. Cheesy scalloped potatoes also taste great and work any time of year.
And if you enjoy some coffee or tea with breakfast, bring it along! You can even save weight by not worrying about filters or special coffee makers. Pour your hot water into a pot with the grounds (never boil coffee!). Let the coffee steep, then add a splash of cold water to settle the grounds (you’ll be surprised how well this actually works). Now enjoy!
Lunch
We’re used to eating lunch on the go at home or work, and we do the same thing on the trail. If doing a day hike, no one wants to carry a stove and spend the time whipping up some sort of culinary delight. Sandwiches and snacks are a good way to go. Since normal bread doesn’t pack well, use flexible tortillas or flat-bread. You can settle for peanut butter and jelly, but why not try something a little more exquisite. Bring some leafy greens, vegetable dip, and cheese for a fulfilling snack. Don’t be afraid to try things like gourmet canned oysters, or if you can keep them cool, bring some muenster and pastrami.
Dinner
The backbone of fine cuisine, dinner is the most versatile meal and you’re usually allotted a fair amount of prep time. The key word to use in preparing any meal is ‘fresh.’ If you have room, try to forgo garlic powder for real garlic, onion powder for real onion, and prepackaged dehydrated meats for the real, juicy thing. But remember, avoiding botulism should be primary, and if you can’t keep things from spoiling, pick something else. Fresh vegetables are easy to do though. They’ll keep longer if you carry them in a paper bag and don’t overly pre-cut them at home. I say overly pre-cut, because in the interest of saving space, sometimes you don’t have much of a choice. For instance, if you want to bring a fresh bell pepper, cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, and then place your fresh small onion inside. Talk about efficiency! That one cut may start to look frazzled, but most of the vegetable will be in tact. When you arrive in camp, place any foods you’d normally have in a refrigerator at home some place cool – in dark shade or submerge them in a cold stream.
One thing that most people forget at the store, is that, no matter what you make and how hard you try, a little bit of nature (twigs, leaf bits, bugs, dirt, etc.) is going to get into your food. For this reason, you should try to avoid foods where little specs will stand out and make the food appear unappetizing (e.g. mashed potatoes). The truth of the matter is that a few bits of nature aren’t going to ruin the taste of a meal, but knowing they’re in there can be unappealing to some people. Vibrant foods with lots of color work well (e.g. paellas, stir-fries, and sautés).
Desert
This is probably the most foreign concept to backpackers, but there’s no reason it should be. Good deserts are easy to make and always appreciated. You’ll be surprised at the simplicity of a great-tasting pineapple dump cake, but you can improvise other fruits and experiment with recipes too. Toss butterscotch and chocolate morsels into a chocolate cake mix for that extra gooeyness that everyone loves, or bring some piña-colada mixer on your trip for a great tasting coconut-rum pie. The possibilities are truly endless.
But how do I actually cook the cake? It’s easy to bake if you have a Kamper Kitchun or a Bakepacker, but you don’t really need either of these to have a great after-dinner delight. Bake in a covered pot placed near the fire and rotate from time to time, or for making breads, strip the bark off a hefty branch and wrap the dough around and hold it over the fire. I sometimes use a homemade version of the Bakepacker – the cake mix is made in a standard oven bag and placed on a coil of copper wire sitting in the bottom of a pot with an inch of boiling water.
Finally
There are a lot of great recipes out there that can easily be converted to a one pot meal. Just because your food didn’t come in a plastic bag with instructions on the back, doesn’t mean that it’s not camp food. Weight is always an issue when camping, but see if you can leave some of that skin lotion at home, and bring some olive oil instead. Key things to remember when browsing the grocer isles before a trip is buy fresh, experiment with new things, and everything tastes better in the woods. Bon appetit and happy camping.
By Adam Domanski, Executive Director, NORSA