Favorite Camp Food

[keepin' on]

So the post the other day on favorite post hike meals got me thinking about what we all eat while on the trail (more specifically at camp). I’d like to know what you all like to prepare. Are you satisfied with a simple “boil and munch” or does it take 2 hours of prep time and a good hour to simmer before you can eat like a king in the woods? So post your favorite camp recipe and all of our camp cookbooks can grow a little. Here is mine.

Baked Mac-and-Cheese

1. Boil pasta (about a lb) with a bullion cube/ramen flavor packet (any flavor)
2. drain into nalgene (drink it, it’s good!)
3. cut at least a block of your favorite cheese into ¼” square cubes
4. make powdered egg/powdered milk mix (should be close to the consistency of scrambled eggs: a little more runny) start with a half a cup of water and add equal amounts of egg and milk (maybe 4-5 tbsp of each). A little flour helps too
5. In a pot or pan (the more shallow the vessel, the faster the cook time) mix the pasta and most of the cubed cheese well (put in any other spices you might want now: chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion......bacon bits or even SPAM!!!!)
6. pour the egg/milk mix over the pasta
7. optional: add the smushed remains of crackers that might be in your pack to the top of the pasta
8. more cheese on top
9. cover and cook for while (LOW HEAT) using the round the clock method of pan rotation (you know it’s done when it stops bubbling and the cheese is melted on top. Be ready for a bit of burning on the bottom, it adds to the flavor....really!)

Feeds 2

 

[Barbarossa]

A can of pineapple.

Prep is simple, though it is heavy to carry.

Like an unmatched drumstick, ya can't beat it.

 

[twigeater]

LOL...baked macaroni and cheese is my least favorite food, second only to tripe!

I like to eat well when backpacking, but stick to the boil water, or boil some pasta, then throw in some ad mes. The right combos are yummy!

 

[Bluethroatedone]

egg burritos for breakfast

1 pack of Tortillas
1 pack dehydrated Huevos Rancheros (from Natural high I think) or scrambled egs
Cheese (I like to bring Comte). To have the cheese fresh, freeze overnight, put in Nalgene insulator, should be perfect next morning.

Prep is basically cook the huevos, put in tortilla with the cheese, wrap and eat as best you can.

-Blue

 

[rondak46]

sardines

Sardines/3 oz canned, oil drained

Calcium (mg) 325
Potassium (mg) 338
Selenium (mcg) 45
Calories 177
Total fat (g) 9.8
Saturated fat (g) 1.3
Monounsaturated fat (g) 3.3
Polyunsaturated fat (g) 4.4
Protein (g) 21
Cholesterol (mg) 121
Riboflavin (mg) 0.2
Niacin (mg) 4.5
Vitamin B12 (mcg) 7.6

 

[jbrown]

I must say, that recipe for baked mac and cheese does sound good, way too much work, but good.

Call me lazy, but I don't get that involved in making dinners on the trail anymore. There was a time when I would par-boil a bunch of chicken breasts, butterfly them, freeze them, carry them in with some ham and cheese and make some cordon bleu for dinner. There was the time I would carry keilbasa, onion, pepper and a block of cheese for the mashed potatoes but not any more.

One of my recent dishes that I liked was the following:
1 pack ramen noodles (leave flavor packet at home)
1 packet Knorr tomato and basil powdered sauce
1 fistful of grated parmesan (~1/4 cup?)

crush the noodles a little just to get them out of block form.
empty all three into a quart ziploc bag.
in camp, boil about 1.5-2 cups of water, pour into bag and seal.
wrap in a fleece to keep warm and let it sit for 5 minutes.

My criteria for camp food is strict. It must be lightweight, high calorie, cheap, and cooks by adding boiling water. I don't like cooking anything but water in my pot anymore, because I inevitably burn stuff to the bottom. I don't like doing dishes at home, why would I want to do them on the trail?

 

[Mr. X]

That recipe reminds me of what Beavis and Butthead used to call the character Daria..."diarrhea cha, cha, cha-diarrhea cha, cha, cha"

Just kidding, I bet it's awsome!

 

[Structure]

When I was on the Buffalo River in Arkansas my favorite meal was one of two things. Chicken in a bag with cheese and bar-be-que sauce. Somehow bar-be-que sauce makes any meal good. But also another good one was tortilla wraps, chicken and a bag of spanish rice. Easy to make, easy clean up, and fills you up. All you have to do is cook the rice and then you are done.

 

[onrhodes]

One Word

One word sums it all up.

S'mores.


If you're camping there is no other ultimate camp food. All the other stuff is just to keep me alive and replenish glycogen stores. The s'mores though are best served while camping.

 

[jfb]

I've made strawberry shortcake at camp. If you have a mess kit with a plate that nests inside the pot and a pot cover, put a few stones in the bottom of the pot to keep the plate off the bottom, mix the Biscuit mix and place on the plate. Put the plate in the pot and cover. Bake until cooked. Add either fresh or a package of thawed strawberries and a some Reddi-Whip cream to complete the treat. Of course, this works best in cooler temps. so the cream stays cold.

 

[sp1936]

I don't like doing dishes at home, why would I want to do them on the trail?

Exactly! And although I love to eat, I don't like to cook. Which is why I recently became a fan of Enertia Trail Foods . Goodbye forever, Mountain House.

I admire you folks who actually make real food out there, but I will never be one of you. I wouldn't mind tagging along and sharing your food, however. Some of this stuff sounds really good.

Steve

 

[Trailhead]

I'm with you, nothing fancy at the end of a long day although that changes with car camping. My real consideration is ease and volume. I was recently out for a week and brought some Mountain House, Backpacker's Pantry and Enertia. I only took one meal for Enertia and several of the others. Very good stuff although I liked the Mountain House also. Backpacker's Pantry was not so good.

Funny thing about those things is the calories. One serving is supposed to be your dinner and it has 330 calories. Even on a 2000 calorie a day diet that would be pretty paltry, after a long hike where you've burned off a few calories one serving is an appetizer.

 

[Toe Cozy]

Green peppers. (or any other color) I know this sounds a little odd, I suppose. Mostly I'll take them on day hikes, but I have taken them on overnights as well. When it's really hot and I know I should eat but just don't feel like it, munching on a few refreshing green peppers usually whets my appetite and real eating can begin shortly after! Green peppers are sort of like water in solid form! Then again, I'd choose green peppers over chocolate most times anyway...so maybe you shouldn't listen to me on this.

But in the chocolate category: those "Flipz" chocolate covered pretzels are great trail snakcs. Salty, sweet, crunchy, good even when smashed up.

My favorite trail cooking solution:hike with Seema!!!! I'll never forget the awesome veggie fajitas with sour cream and guac at Peru Peak Shelter on the LT after a bone chilling, rainy, long day . She carried so much extra weight that first day back out on the trail just so we could eat like royalty. And the chicken tikka masala this past weekend! Yum!

Packlite Foods has a really tasty dehydrated meal called Green Bean Cuisine...it's veg, but you could add stuff. It smells divine while it's simmering and is like trail comfort food. Their chilis are good too. Again, it's veg (I'm not a vegetarian, but I found their food to be delicious, fresh tasting, lightweight, healthy, made meal planning so easy etc. so I used their food on my LT sections) http://www.packlitefoods.com/index.htm

 

[Artex]

.....Which is why I recently became a fan of Enertia Trail Foods . Goodbye forever, Mountain House.

Steve

Ditto. Throw in some chicken from a foil pouch and you have an easy-to-make, somewhat filling meal. Oh yeah, and it tastes great. The new blueberry couscous one is excellent (I forget its real name).

 

[Puck]

linguine, olive oil, chopped garlic, smashed anchovie, jullienne pepperoni and fist fulls of romano or asiago and cracked pepper. A nice chianti and don't forget the checkered tablecloth

 

[Toe Cozy]

Thanks for the info on Enertia looks like it's backpacking food right up my alley!

 

[wolftone]

mountain couscous

This is my standard trail dinner. It's fast, tasty, light, and can be made in a single jetboil cooker. Cleanup is a bit of a pain, though.

1 pkg Couscous
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 stick spicy sausage

Chop onion and garlic very fine, then boil for a few minutes to mellow them out. Add couscous and turn off stove. Add sausage once most of the water is absorbed by the couscous. Stir and let sit for a minute.

This tastes great in the backcountry, though I suspect I may find it a bit gross if I was sitting comfortably in my kitchen at home.

Ever since I discovered vacuum-sealed mussels and 500 ml boxed pinot grigio at the store, I've been wanting to try this one:

Jetboil Mussels from Erik Larson

One garlic clove
Mussels
One cup white wine

Fill mussels 2/3 of Jetboil cantainer and add cup of white wine. Steam mussels for 5 minutes.

 

[jbrown]

Wolftone,

My friends and I collected a ton of freshwater mussels on a hike one time and I was dying to have some white wine to cook them in. We only had a little butter to melt and didn't even have salt. They were the most flavorless things... Live and learn.

 

[dfernald]

shishkabobs - cooked over a wood fire - beef, swordfish, chicken - recipes wide open to creativity - learned this type of cooking in Russia - one 30 inch steel kabob supported by two 30 inch steel stands (with a Y-shaped end)
cooked over hardwood campfire coals -

the kabob set is very light in weight - although long in shape - not as fast a gas cooking - but it does taste better

 

[woodstrider]

Fav Foods

Mashed pots with butter and chunks of chez (Idohoan makes very good instant mashed pots, and I don't usually promate brands)

Any kind of fresh food that you can bring