I will be the first to admit that my cooking skills, for the most part, need some work. Even at home, with a full-size stove and regular pots and pans and standard-sized utensils, I have been known to create epic pancake failures and omelet errors.
Yet for my most recent trip (8/21 thru 8/24), I planned pancakes and eggy breakfasts and bacon; I pictured myself cooking joyfully over my lightweight propane singleburner using a mini-skillet and a "camping" plastic spatula the size of a toothbrush. What could possibly go wrong...?
It all went wrong. I am a terrible cook and pancakes hate me.
My husband kindly pretended to enjoy the spongy lump of unevenly cooked pancake batter sided with sloppily cooked "scrambled eggs" courtesy of Ova-Easy just-add-water instant egg powder. I am sure several pine needles and mosquitoes made their way into the mix. (He opted for instant oatmeal after that.)
Many, many canoe trips under my belt and food I just can't get quite right. I try. I have brought fresh eggs, egg powder-- doesn't matter, it all turns out terrible. I brought fresh avocados once--the extra weight was killing me and I made a horrible batch of guacamole on the shores of Birch Lake (and I made myself eat it all just to get rid of it quickly...and packed out all the avocado peels). I admire the paddlers I read about who can whip up epic feasts in the backcountry. I don't know how you all do it, preparing steaks, omelets, pizza, burritos and bread while bugs are whizzing around your head and there's virtually no steady surface to work with besides a fire grate! I bow to you! And then all the extra weight in the pack...I don't want to haul a heavy set of cookware or a stove larger than my mini propane.
For me, simpler is better. Instant coffee. Cheese and crackers. I do make decent campsite macaroni & cheese and packaged ramen. Grape-Nuts cereal is a winner. But I also see the appeal of real, hot meals in the outdoors. I just seem to screw it up every time.
The simpler the food, the less washing up to be done (oh boy, washing dishes in the wilderness is also a very strange task for me, no matter how many times I have done it)...and the more time I can spend paddling and playing outside.
Sorry for the ramble, but food has been an ongoing struggle for me. I would love to hear a little bit about how others face the challenges of outdoor campsite cooking: the heavy pots and pans, the extra weight in the pack from fresh meats and produce and eggs, the bugs biting as you try to deal with the food, dirty hands, small or nonexistent cooking surfaces, windy or rainy days while cooking.
Thanks!

I can cook just fine at home and do a lot of it, but I don't try to recreate it out there anymore. I don't even mind washing dishes, but don't do that out there either. Don't carry anything besides a Jetboil stove, fuel, coffee mug, spoon, cozy.

I just keep it very simple. I boil water and add it to a bag of dehydrated food, eat it out of the bag, put the bag in the garbage, wipe the spoon off, put things away. Cold cereal and coffee for breakfast is just fine. I have found plenty of dehydrated meals that are just fine for me and eliminated the others.

That's my solution. I save my "gourmet cooking" for home. But if you want to do it out there, plenty of people here can offer suggestions.

For bugs, I either go late in year when not a problem or use protection; deet, thermocel, head nets, premitherin, etc.

I dont carry a chair, just a seating pad. I cook on a stove (a Dragonfly with a Dragontamer with great flame control) so not condtrained to fire ring and grate. I set up a "kitchen" so i can sit on my pad and reach everything from first prep to last bite without getting up. Needs a log or right rock for back rest. I lay a heavy piece of plastic maybe 24 x 36 so I can set things down. I try to find a flat rock to set hot pots on. I later use the plastic "tablecloth" on a slightly sloped rock to put wet washed dishes and utensils on to drain and then rinse by dumping boiling water on them.

And I plan simple meals but fresh eggs is a common one. (2 doz for 5-6 days for 2) . One pot meals. And jmo pizza, cakes, and muffins. All except cleanup without standing up.

Its a system. It works for me. It wouldnt work for everyone. But the basic set-up solves the workspace challenge.

boonie: "I can cook just fine at home and do a lot of it, but I don't try to recreate it out there anymore. I don't even mind washing dishes, but don't do that out there either. Don't carry anything besides a Jetboil stove, fuel, coffee mug, spoon, cozy.


I just keep it very simple. I boil water and add it to a bag of dehydrated food, eat it out of the bag, put the bag in the garbage, wipe the spoon off, put things away. Cold cereal and coffee for breakfast is just fine. I have found plenty of dehydrated meals that are just fine for me and eliminated the others.


That's my solution. I save my "gourmet cooking" for home. But if you want to do it out there, plenty of people here can offer suggestions."

I guess that's the conclusion I've come to as well. I don't base camp, and we're on the go day after day-- simple is best, and cereal and dehydrated bagged meals really are the way to go for us. I'd rather shave off weight and keep things as portable as possible...

billconner: "For bugs, I either go late in year when not a problem or use protection; deet, thermocel, head nets, premitherin, etc.


I dont carry a chair, just a seating pad. I cook on a stove (a Dragonfly with a Dragontamer with great flame control) so not condtrained to fire ring and grate. I set up a "kitchen" so i can sit on my pad and reach everything from first prep to last bite without getting up. Needs a log or right rock for back rest. I lay a heavy piece of plastic maybe 24 x 36 so I can set things down. I try to find a flat rock to set hot pots on. I later use the plastic "tablecloth" on a slightly sloped rock to put wet washed dishes and utensils on to drain and then rinse by dumping boiling water on them.


And I plan simple meals but fresh eggs is a common one. (2 doz for 5-6 days for 2) . One pot meals. And jmo pizza, cakes, and muffins. All except cleanup without standing up.


Its a system. It works for me. It wouldnt work for everyone. But the basic set-up solves the workspace challenge."

Okay! That seems like a good system-- your kitchen "countertop" is the piece of plastic. Glad it works!

I like cooking outside more than I do at home. I cook on open campfires and have cooked on stoves, but unless it is a one pot meal, I much prefer cooking on a campfire. I never drag fresh meat or eggs along. I hate cook in the bag meals because you can't control the texture as well.

For breakfast we cook old fashioned oats (with powdered milk already mixed in with the oatmeal). Boil the water, then pull it off to stir in the oats and milk. Then put on low heat and stir frequently so it doesn't burn (water:oats ratio is 2:1). Then we have baggies of custom ingredients people can add to taste (brown sugar, butter, dried blueberries, dried apples, craisins, raisins, pecans, cinnamon, chocolate chips, and more).

Or we cook pancakes (this year I switched to the Birch Benders high protein mix. I usually add additional ingredients before cooking (blueberries or Trader Joes dried baby bananas plus chocolate chips or dried apples + cinnamon). The key to pancakes is to make sure there is even heat and that it isn't too high or you end up with burnt outside, raw middle.The pancakes also have a meat side (either pre-cooked bacon...just a quick reheat needed, SPAM singles...fried until crispy edges, or Jack Links breakfast sausages...jury is still out on these).

Powdered eggs...did once this year...presoaked a load of dehydrated veggies (onion, peppers, mushrooms, tomato) plus bacon and loads of cheese. It is important when doing powdered eggs to heat a little water, measure it carefully and whisk it into the egg powder to help avoid lumps.

Dinner: I always pre-measure my spices, make sure I write the water:food ratio on the bag of ingredients, and keep my long cook time ingredients separate from my short cook time ingredients. If you have trouble controlling heat levels, make hearty soups instead of rice pilaf. That way you are less likely to burn something because you can add more water. I make a delicious wild rice soup and the key is to pre-soak the wild rice in a water bottle during the day. You can do the same with lentils or beans.

Most of all, be patient with yourself. Cooking outdoors is a skill that requires practice. The heat control is key...study your heat source...what are the pros and cons. I don't think I could pull it off now, but back in my days of summer long trips I got good enough to cook eggrolls from scratch including 2 different dipping sauces. The trip this summer was my first foray back into baking with a top fire...I had 1 great success and one half success, half failure. I just need to practice more. Good luck and keep at it!

Simplify things.

I have tried pancakes also and they work at home, but not car camping, and definitely not in the BW. And they take too long, easpecially for a group. Once while car camping with friends we counted 17 mosquitos sitting on the pancake before it was ready to flip. We had enough. We packed up and spent the rest of the weekend at our friends house.

Eggs- I used to take real eggs, but now I'm ok with ova easy. Just be careful with the water measurements, and whip the lumps out before cooking. I've cooked them in a Baggie which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Now I just take a nonstick pan and cook them with bacon etc.

If you have to have a fresh food meal, keep it to the first night, and easy prep- open the Baggie and throw the steaks on the grill, boil water and add it to dehydrated mashed potatoes ( takes 2 minutes, just have to stir).

You can have delicious meals while in the wild. Take whatever you cook at home, then dehydrate it. I've taken chicken and sausage gumbo, Tex-mex hamburger meal, chili, chicken chili, unstuffed peppers, biscuits and gravy, You can eat well in the wild!!

And remember, wine makes everything taste better!

I'd like to offer some words of encouragement - please don't give up. My first several trips camping back in scouts were all about struggling with outdoor cooking. I've sure had my share of moist, barely tan pancakes and soggy French toast. But with time anyone can get better, and YouTube makes all sorts of learning possible.

One thing that may help people give you advice is how many people are you cooking for? Is it just you two, or is it a bigger group?

First, after years in scouts, including spending 3 full summers working at a scout camp, the biggest problem I've seen is not enough heat. I'd suggest playing with your stove at home, maybe measuring the heat output by taking the temp of a hot pan with a laser thermometer? Some stoves just don't produce that much heat. Last year I got a Solo twig stove and on my first trip loved it for boiling water. Then I tried to make pancakes on it and it just struggled to get them to medium rare! Or consider once or twice using a wood fire on your trips - just make sure you have a lot of good wood before you start. Wood takes more effort to prep, but is just superior to cook over as it gives a wide area of heat, allows moving to a warm area when needed, and keeps going a long time if you prepped enough wood.

Cook wear does not need to be heavy. I use a GSI 8 inch fry pan for pancakes, eggs, pizza/calzone, or fish and it works great for me. I think it would work for two people, but would require a bit more waiting. I also have two stainless steel pans I've collected than serve me for other dishes I might make like baking pan bread or making paella, and they weigh next to nothing. Like many people, I've collected and changed pieces of cook wear for years, but nothing I have is either expensive or heavy.

My suggestion is to focus on one or two things you want to get good at and practice them at home. I love cooking, both at home and in the woods, but I still practice some recipes at home (on the range, grill, or on one of my camp stoves) to get the feel.

When tripping, some meals I just boil water and stir, and sometimes I do a bit more combining of easy ingredients - but every trip I love to have a few meals - breakfast and dinner - that I really put some effort into making something right there. To me, getting better at cooking is a big part of my enjoyment of camping. Good luck!

4keys: "And remember, wine makes everything taste better!
"

Oh yes, and this^^^^^!

I've found that traveling long distances makes everything taste better up there.

Our group does a combination of fresh and dehydrated. The fresh stuff gets eaten right away to get rid of the weight. One thing we've made that's proven invaluable is a wooden counter top. it's 3/16th plywood cut to match the size of the USFS fire grates. We put that wood on top of the fire grate and use it as a cutting board/counter/serving area. When portaging it fits nicely in a Duluth pack and keeps odd shaped stuff from poking you in the back.

My secret for pancakes is to forget about trying to use a 'camping' fry pan. Every couple of years I spend $7 on a small (6-7" wide, 1-2" deep) fry pan from Walmart, unscrew the handle and then use my camp cookset pot-grabber when I need it. I buy the kind with the white coating on the inside, not sure what it's called but seems more durable than teflon coatings. A little oil goes in the pan, then the batter. Rather than try to fight a stove I move the pan on and off the flame as needed to keep the heat generally where I need it. Also thinner pancake batter cooks quicker so you don't end up with raw batter in the middle.

The same pan goes into service for shore lunch. I usually cut fillets into small 2-3" chunks and fry them in very little oil. I serve clockwise from where I cook, one piece to each person till the fish is gone. Leftover fish batter gets made into hush puppies, then I'll make hashbrowns till everbody is full. One of the milk carton sized boxes of hashbrowns ends up being 2 pans worth and for our group of potato lovers everybody gets their own panful.

Good topic. Personally I think that 90 percent of cooking in the boundary waters is preparation. You want simple to prepare meals. They can be creative and delicious meals with good flavor and seasoning, but with not too many steps in the field. I measure everything out ahead of time and put it into ziplock bags, mixing what can be mixed for a meal. If there are things that need to be kept separate, I try to put them in a gallon ziplock to sort all the ingredients for that meal.

The rest of the meal preparation is knowing how to work with the ingredients. OvaEasy eggs for example, are much easier to work with if you let the powdered eggs soak up the cool water before cooking. Once you learn those little tricks, it becomes easy.

Everyone does this differently, and it is interesting to read the comments.

When we were canoe-tripping we were more like Boonie: boil water and have a freeze-dried entree, a f/d veggie, and some sort of packaged easy dessert. There was a dessert called Apple De-Lite that we really enjoyed and it was a just-add-water and cook one minute concoction.

If we had extra time and I was in the mood I would make a cobbler or cinnamon cake in the jello-mold oven. A nice evening treat, and the leftover, if there was any, would be good in the morning, too.

But breakfasts, for us, were different. We are both "breakfast people" and it was our main meal. We took two dozen fresh eggs for the two of us for a trip (most trips were 6-12 days) and they were in their cartons, wrapped in a paper grocery bag, and duct-taped under the stern seat of the canoe. Not added to the food pack.

Our pancakes, which we had often, were made with Krusteaz Honey Wheat mix, which was an add-water-only mix. I would stir it up fairly thin so that they cooked quickly, and I just used an old teflon-coated frypan that came with our original 1971 cook kit. Put a bit of Squeeze Parkay or butter in the pan to keep them from sticking. And often added chopped pecans or fresh blueberries to the batter. One other really successful pancake was corn meal pancakes: Jiffy corn meal muffin mix just made in a thinner batter. I packaged it in a zip-lock bag with the powdered milk already added (Nido is best) and either added a fresh egg, or if they were gone I would add some powdered egg. OvaEasy is best, but it was a long time before we had those. I never was crazy about the powdered eggs by themselves, but if you add real bacon bits, or a little cheese it helped them a lot. Once the shelf-stable bacon came on the scene, we had bacon more, along with our pancakes or eggs, or both. For late in the trip, we usually had a couple of packets of BackPackers Pantry Denver Omelette, so we still had good protein in the morning. As an aside, no tiny toothbrush-size spatula for me; I always took a spatula and a stirring spoon right out of my kitchen.

But pancakes were a favorite. I can still remember how good these blueberry pancakes tasted, topped with Wild Country real maple syrup!







Another favorite for breakfast was hash browns. The dehydrated hash browns, like Hungry Jack or Pillsbury, were really good with eggs. We always took a few packets of catsup because my husband has to have it on his HB.

We found if we had a good hot breakfast in the early morning we could pretty much just have snacks (cheese and crackers, granola bars, dried fruit, salami, etc.) for lunch and then in the evening we would have a simple supper. For us, breakfast was king. There was always packet oatmeal available if we really needed to get on the water early, but a cooked breakfast was the norm.

This whole post has made me want some pancakes! Since I need to get breakfast ready now, I think I may just whip up a few!

When cooking over an open fire try to have coals to cook with. Use finger size twigs to regulate your temperature. Big sticks and logs block the heat and make cool spots on your pan. I take a digital thermometer so I can regulate the temperature when frying stuff, my fried fish is 100% better when the temperature is right.
Practice a lot.