When you imagine campground cooking, the chuckwagon food that was prepared for cowboys in the old west comes to mind. I can imagine hearing cowboys saying, “Not beans again”. I can remember many campouts where we prepared baked beans with freshly made biscuits, yum. Also, doesn’t chuckwagon stew sound good?
Although baked beans are great with barbeque, it is not necessary for every camping trip. The food that you plan for your camping trip does not have to be the same old fare that you prepare at home or take to a picnic. It is your choice, but I personally try to stay with an outdoors style menu. There are dozens of campground cooking books available at your local bookstore or on Amazon. The following are six different outdoor cooking style ideas:
- Dutch oven- Campground stew, take hamburger, potatoes, carrots, onions, and a package of stew mix, and simmer on the camp stove or firepit until done.
Dig a hole, prepare coals with firewood or charcoal, when you have a good bed of coals, put the Dutch oven in the center of the coal, mix a cobbler or cake mix, pour contents into the Dutch oven, put the lid on and cover with coals. Bury the Dutch oven with dirt. Cook for two hours.
- Campfire– Our family likes to do the in-foil dinners. Get some good coals going, take tin foil and double wrap hamburger, chicken, or pork, with green peppers, onions, potatoes, and carrots. Coat with Worchester sauce. Put into a bed of coals or even on top of the grill. Turn frequently with tongs. Serve in the foil or put on a paper plate.
- Camp stove– Skillet dinners cooked in a cast iron skillet, love it. Bacon frying in a pan on a camping trip is about the most delightful aroma I can imagine. I love campground breakfast.
- Charcoal Barbeque- I personally do not use charcoal, it takes time to get the coals ready to cook over, and you cannot control the heat. Barbeque fare is mostly what you will cook over charcoal and you get the charcoal flavor.
- Propane Barbeque- Although I believe this is more of a picnic fare; steaks, ribs, chicken, hot dogs, and hamburgers, are always a welcome cookout fare for camping.
- Solar oven- Most of us do not use a solar oven, but they are sold at sporting goods stores. Making a solar oven yourself does not take a lot of time. The only issue you will run across is controlling the heat and cooking time. Most outdoor cooking fare can be cooked in a solar oven.
Various Issues with Each Cooking Method
Your campground cookout does not have to be the same old fare that you prepare at home or take to a picnic. Get a good outdoor cookbook and try something new. The Dutch oven does not have to be buried, it can be used on campfire, stove top, or on the barbeque, most campgrounds will not allow the hole in the ground style of cooking.
When you cook over a campfire, you cannot control the flame, you get soot on the bottom of the pan or skillet, and cooking times will vary greatly. Charcoal takes time to get hot, you can’t control the heat, and you get the taste of charcoal. A camp stove is the most popular camp cooking method, and my favorite camp stove is the Camp Chef brand. The Camp Chef camp stove has large burners, this helps when you are at a high altitude where the air is thinner.
