Camp cooking

How do you eat yours?

1 to 20 of 61 messages
01/04/2002 at 09:47
With lots of us gone off/going off camping, I'm wondering what you eat?

What do you have for breakfast, lunch and tea?
01/04/2002 at 10:05
Brekkie - bacon buttie & tea or coffee

Lunch - butties & water

Tea - brew of tea immediately on arrival at tent
Dinner - some examples:-
(a) pack of Beanfeast supplemented by something fresh - makes up with water and a quarter of the price of those fancy dried meal sachets - served with some carbs
(b) meal made from fresh ingredients of the locality e.g. moules in Normandy - 'one pot meal' served with baguette
(c) can of chunky soup fattened up with leftovers brought from home e.g. a few spuds, carrots etc, served with pasta

Once a week a treat meal out at a pub or Pete's eats etc. With there being 4 of us, can't afford to do it more often - a plate each in the ODG last week was £26 - ouch!

What do you eat then, Dan?
01/04/2002 at 14:51
My last backpack:

Breaky...Porridge and a Banana mixed in!

Lunch and snacks...Malt loaf, Banana, Garibaldi Biscuits, Mars Bar, Misc Choccy Bar, Cake Bar. (occasionally I'll get some sarnies but they wouldn't last for a multi-day)

Tea/Dinner...Pasta, soup, mix in a tin of Mackerel (I'm a veggie, who eats meat but hates Tuna!) That sort of stuff.

Also a big fan of "meal" soups, which can be thickened up with rice cous cous or pasta.
01/04/2002 at 21:24
Depends mostly on whether I'm carrying it! If I can't get to a shop daily, I prefer Reiter ready meals over all the others I've tried - but they ARE expensive, around £10 a day each for three meals. These are made simply by adding boiling water to a bag, so if you get more complicated than this, you not only have to carry the food, but also (potentially) extra fuel and pans. Flavored couscous is my second choice.

If we're car-camping, it's the full bacon sarnie breakfast, sandwich and chocolate lunch , and pasta/rice (or pub) dinner. We usually take two or even three stoves for the full Nigella-style experience.

For something like backpacking in Scotland, it's a bit of a compromise, because you don't need to be carrying loads of food if you can reach a shop each day (which is usual) but equally you don't want to be carrying the full stove and fuel complement for the ultimate gourmet experience. So I just try to be flexible and cope with whatever's available - great if it's Tunnocks Teacakes, not so much if it's only Pot Noodles.

I tried living off the land in Skye last year, but not only is it time-consuming to catch/harvest a decent fill, it's also incredibly tedious and not particularly palatable. I never used to think I was that fussy, but after a just a couple of days of cob nuts and razor fish (a ghastly rubber/snot/sardine hybrid) I was happy to change my mind.

One thing I never carry is fruit, even dried - although I eat it regularly at home, I don't think the weight/nutrition payoff is good enough to justify carrying it.
02/04/2002 at 09:08
B'fast.
Bacon, sausage, black pudding & beans. I usually pre-cook the meat, leave it to become a congealed mess & wrap in foil. It's a lot easier & quicker when it comes to cooking.... warm through, add a tin of beans.... Hey Presto!

Lunch.
Malt Loaf, pork pies, scotch eggs, etc.... Generally snack type foods.

Supper.
Pasta! : )

Oh and copious amounts of herbal teas (saves having to faff around with milk & sugar) and soups.

If I'm camping out of the car, the options become more luxurious.... If it's a long, backpacking trip then I'll be planning more around muesli & dried food!

M
02/04/2002 at 09:53
Just in case anyone has lost them:

Found by a wall in Mosedale on Thursday - 2 Chicken Casserole ready-cooked meal-in-a-bag pouches. I left thenm there in case they were someone's emergency survival rations, but as the Wasdale Head Inn is less than half an hour away it seemed unlikely...
02/04/2002 at 11:43
Fig rolls. Tunnocks. Cheese and onion crisps.

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

02/04/2002 at 18:23
ALL the major food groups covered there then, Jon!
02/04/2002 at 20:11
Oi! DORAN! NO!

No comedy entries yet please. It's been v interesting so far thank you everyone, keep 'em coming
02/04/2002 at 20:25
Dan...actually that IS what Jon eats for lunch.
02/04/2002 at 20:48
trekking diet:
Brek: Porridge with raisins (put in there pre-trek) to sweeten it.
Lunch: Sarnies of cheese, marmite, tuna, sometimes all 3. TIP: Buy mild cheddar in the summer, and it will gradually turn to more expensive mature cheddar (in a pool of oil) over 4-7 days! Bonus!
Dinner: Pasta/rice with beans, tuna, cheese sometimes all 3 but not marmite. Or boil-in-a-bag if I'm travelling light/lazy.
And of course constant water, tea and also dried apricots when I'm feeling wealthy or er, constipated ;[
02/04/2002 at 21:15
Okay, for real, depends on what I'm doing but brekky is usually porridge, unless I'm at altitude when the taste makes me want to vomit, in which case muesli with fruit juice or just water and biccies will do me fine.

Lunch: depends on access to bread. Bread and cheese or ham plus bread and jam. Sometimes a can of rice pudding. Cheese and onion crisps, for no good reason except that I like them. Sometimes oatcakes and cheese. Banana if I have one or can be bothered carrying it.

Evening: on campsite pretty much anything. Backpacking or trekking usually soup to start with for rehydration followed by either pasta or flavoured couscous or occasionally rice with some sort of added protein, usually fish or beans followed by instant custard and cake or chocolate or fruit if it's available.

In UK often carry bottle of wine for training and masochistic reasons.

Snacks: fig rolls, Tunnocks, bananas, dried fruit, Caramel Rockies, if I'm climbing somewhere nasty might also use energy bars on high days.

In Andes favour anything made in the USA or Chile, Peruvian or Ecuadorian chocolate for example is to be avoided like the plague.

Drink - when it's serious I use a dilute solution of PSP22 energy drink, otherwise water. Expresso in morning on campsite, often converted into latte if I have enough milk.

Best meals ever: Picos de Europa, northern Spain. Paella cooked with frozen seafood bought that morning and defrosted en route. Peru - egg and chips for breakfast courtesy of the cook we borrowed from an American guided party when we got back down to base camp.

Worst: too many to mention ranging from a sad energy bar picnic by Malham Tarn (that's outdoor journos for you) while everyone else was cracking open hampers, plus numerous terrifying Peruvia soups on a mountain rescue course in the Blanca.

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

03/04/2002 at 16:42
OK,

Breaky - muesli or porridge

Lunch and snacks - occassionally sarnies, more usually malt loaf, banana, energy bars (not the exensive ones - usually frueslis, tescos own), dried fruit, more malt loaf

Tea/Dinner - dried pasta meal usually mix in a tin of sweetcorn or tuna, Tescos flavoured couscous (so easy to make). Followed by Desert - Custard usually with the squashed banana, or in summer fresh fruit or tinned pineapple with cream.

Drink - usually water, as I don't drink tea or coffee.

& possibly some red wine!
03/04/2002 at 18:13
Breaky- weetabix

Lunch-choccy,crisps and frueslis, all washed down with isostar. Also sarnies if ive been nr a shop or feelin like carrying extra weight.

Dinner-Wayfarer meetball and pasta. Best of a bad Bunch!

Drink-Tee, Coffee, water and isostar.

+beer on DofE one nighters!!
03/04/2002 at 22:41
Brekky - Nope. Don't ever eat any. No adverse effects either. Body actually can't take it anymore.

Lunch - Ryvita with Primula. Packs small, and easy to make sandwiches at lunch stops. Crisps, and Nutrigrain bar

Dinner - Boil in a bag, then use water for very sweet tea, or Pasta, but need to boil tea water at different time.

During the day - Yorkie bars are the best I have found for energy. They have soooo much it's unbelievable.
Si
04/04/2002 at 09:19
Brekky: Fruitibix or if its really cold then Readybrek (Chocolate flavour). Tea or water.

Lunch: Pork & Pickle Pies, Bananas or Banana chips, Chorizo sausage, raisins.

Snacks: Chorizo, raisins, dairy milk bars, snickers, Nuitrigrain Elevenses bars (yummy).

Dinner: Pasta, cheese and Tuna, or Reiter dehydrated meals (good selection of edible flavours) or Wayfarer hydrated meals. All depends on weight requirements etc. Tea or coffee, bicuits, squash. Glenmorange.

Si
04/04/2002 at 12:15
Readybrek, do you still get the orange glow?
Si
04/04/2002 at 13:18
Oh, THATS what that is, I thought it was a personal hygene thing. Phew, thats a relief.

Si
14/04/2002 at 19:54
Try cous-cous. Sainsburys do it in little, light bags and it cooks OFF the stove after reaching boiling point.

Snacks: remember thos little sesame seed things packed in crunchy glue. Well they've replaced the crunchy glue with chocolate (honest)

The above two things are designed to compliment any half decent restaurant you come across. Subsistence is one thing, living another. Wahey!
15/04/2002 at 09:38
Ok my previous list was for car camping so here's my backpacker version:-

Brekky - porridge is sooooo warming after a frosty night

Lunch - my own version of the US trail mix - nuts (cashews and flaked almond); dried fruit e.g. cut-up prunes, apricots, papaya; a handful of maple and pecan crunch-type cereal for some texture; seeds (sunflower etc). It's very tasty and full of energy and a zip'n'seal bagful made in advance can last 3 days. A mate chucks Jelly Beans in his for added interest...)
If I can pass a shop maybe a butty or bag of chips for a change...

Dinner - flavoured cous cous with something added - pack costs 80p, compared to £3 or so for dehydrated meals. One brand sold in Tesco has 2 sealed sachets in the box - each sachet makes enough for two.) Beanfeast etc. Too many chilli beanfeasts are rather (ahem) loosening so go steady on them....

Luxury items? bananas, bottle of wine, tin of beans, tin of fruit.
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