First time campers: how to cook?

[Denni2]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

You can't beat a cast iron skillet for cooking over the fire. I call cast iron the original non- stick. I also find it easy to clean. G-g-grandma taught me to heat the pan with some oil, add some salt, use a paper towel and wipe the pan inside and out. I dump the dirty salt in the fire and wipe with an additional paper towel. I rarely cook a meal without cast iron because they heat even and are easy to clean. You can usually find them cheap at secondhand stores. So many people just don't know how to care cast iron. Never put soap in it.

[New Daddy]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

I am interested to hear how your camping experience went and if you went again - and invested in some cooking equipment.

Thanks for the interest. It was almost three months ago, but we went with campfire + campfire grill (http://amzn.to/TjNyZO). We also decided on a meal that would not require additional cooking utensil than the grill; so we cooked buns, sausages, beef, corn on the cob, and popcorn.

Overall, it was really fun and the kids had a kick out of cooking their own meal, as somebody suggested.

In retrospect, however, I think I'll get a cheap gas stove on our first campout next year, because in the following morning, people really wanted a cup of hot coffee or coco after waking up.

[Joyous56]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Your campfire grill might come in handy on future trips, however for not much more, you can buy a Coleman propane stove, or if you go used, you'll be able to find one even cheaper. Sounds like you made great meal choices for your family and they'll want to camp again. There is something special about meals cooked in camp.

Also, you can always give 'em cold cereal in the morning, but a nice meal of bacon or sausage and eggs tastes 10 times better in camp....nothing like the stuff you make at home for some mysterious reason.

Glad you enjoyed your camping trip!

[kcscout]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Some camp sites have grills where all you need to supply are charcoal and food so hamburgers and hot dogs are always easy.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

check out Craigslist. I bought a bunch of new stuff (still in the box) for about half the retail price.

[Joyous56]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Some campsites do have usable grills, but some have a nasty grill with the grids 3 inches apart, which works okay for a pot, but not so good for burgers or other things that will fall through. This summer I bought myself a Texsport heavy duty camp grill, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o04_s01_i02, and it serves for burgers, will hold a pot or pan for cooking (if you wish to do so on the fire) and is sturdy enough to last. Save the box for storage...which someone else suggested. Wrap the box in duct tape for endurance.

[New Daddy]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

This summer I bought myself a Texsport heavy duty camp grill, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o04_s01_i02, and it serves for burgers, will hold a pot or pan for cooking (if you wish to do so on the fire) and is sturdy enough to last. Save the box for storage...which someone else suggested. Wrap the box in duct tape for endurance.

I looked into the Texsport grill too, but ended up with http://amzn.to/TjNyZO instead, because this one was height-adjustable. It came with a fabric bag for storage/carriage too.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Make sure to check craigslist or ebay. I purchased my camp chef explorer 3 burner for $50 on craigslist. It retails for about $100 in stores, so I got it for half price, and it was still new in box, and in the plastic.
Here is the grill that I take when I am by my self, and I purchased one for my boy for Christmas. I camped out for 2 weeks while working out of town this summer and it worked well. The lid comes off and you can add a skillet or griddle as I said earlier. I will post a link to the grill and cook set I got for my boy (age 17) so he will be set up to camp and cook without dear old dad.

propane Grill
http://www.walmart.com/ip/UniFlame-1...Grill/19597660
coleman cook set (I got it for $24 at a coleman truck load sell)
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-8-Piec...piece+cook+set

[Fat Jay]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

My wife/kids love to have pasta while we camp. We'll boil pasta at home and put it in one gallon zip lock bags. Make your sauce and pre-mix or keep separate (your choice). Then heat a pot of water at camp, drop your bags in and you have your meal.

[Fat Jay]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Thanks for the welcome Hogsnapper! I hope to be on here quite a bit as I try and work my way back into camping a bit.

[Mike]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

The cooking heat source can be so easy or so complicated. It can be a cheap tin-can or an expensive multi-fuel stove.

I read a lot of posts here that discuss the difficulty of cooking over a hot flame from a campfire and recommend waiting until the fire burns down to coals. This is a good idea but takes a long time AND is not very practical if you are burning soft woods like pine.

Remember the charcoal briquet option. In developing countries, many people still use charcoal for cooking. The very poorest people use simple wood or animal dung, but a good level up is using charcoal. As an example, many Japanese homes still used charcoal in their home hibachi pots for cooking and for heat well into the 1960's.

No sparks, no flame, no explosions or flare-ups, just a steady heat.

You can punch a couple holes in a big #10 tin can and use it as a stove. Call your neighborhood restaurant and ask them for a #10 tin can. Funny, when I was a kid we always had #10 cans around because that is how my folks bought their coffee and peanut butter. They bought Folgers coffee in #10 cans and their cigaretts by the ten-pack cartons. No fooling around for them. They drank coffee by the potfulls and smoked cigarettes by the packs... and died before they should have.

... but I digress...

If you can't find a #10 can, you can use an old fry pan. just put some charcoal briquets in the fry pan, squirt on some lighter fluid and away you go. Put the hot pan on a rock or on the ground and not directly on something burnable like the picnic table or that will burn too. Use a cookie cooling wire-rack over the top of the fire pan and you have a functional stove (you can get them at Dollar Tree for a buck). When you are done, dump water into the fire pan, and you can carry it by the handle to dump out the ashes appropriately.

[woodsters]

Re: First time campers: how to cook?

Late post here, but I will throw in my 2 cents. If you can get a propane stove, then by all means. If you can't, all is not lost. As someone mentioned, foil packet dinners are awesome! Another thing you can get is a couple of pie irons. We did this, this past year and we made some awesome dinners. My kid really enjoyed doing it. We made mini pizzas, mini apple pies and for breakfast, breakfast sandwiches with them. They are very versatile and there are a lot of youtube videos out there on what you can make with them. If you ever try a dutch oven, you will love that as well. If you want any recipes or links to some great sites with information, just let me know.