Variations on camp cooking convenient

Camp cooking is an art. Not only is the cook required to prepare edible meals three times a day, the cook must contend with using a different type of heat source than used at home.

Cooking over an open fire was the only way to prepare a camp meal when traveling in the olden days; from the first European settlers well up into the 1800s. Even then the cooking wasn't conducted over an open fire. But, rather in a large cooking area, with the open fire at one end and coals at the other end.

Food was placed in skillets or pots and placed over the coals, not the open fire. The fire was necessary, of course, in order to keep a supply of coals available.

Modern-day Dutch oven cooks will have a fresh supply of charcoal briquettes always at-the-ready to replenish ones about to burn out. The wood fire in the old days was used in the same manner.   

Even in colonial times, when a large cooking hearth was used for cooking inside the home, part of the hearth was used to maintain a fire in order to produce coals.

The portable stove was the next innovation in camp cooking. Although it's fondly thought the first portable or camp stove was invented by Coleman, there were plenty of those before Coleman.

Still, the Coleman camp stove remains a favorite among campers. Today, several variations of the familiar green two or three burner stoves are available.

It was common to see the camp cook at the end of a picnic table cooking a meal, which meant the cooking area was cramped and limited. As a result, cooking tables were invented to provide more room for the cook. Seeing the trend, manufactures developed various types of camp kitchens, with food preparation areas, a spot for the stove and pantry space for food storage. Some even have a kitchen sink for cleanup purposes.  

The food prepared at the campsite is usually a treat for those on the receiving end. The usual saying heard from campsite to campsite throughout the camping season is, "This is the best (pork chop, steak, spaghetti, hash browns, biscuits, (insert your choice of food item) I've ever tasted."

Perhaps it's because campers seem to be more active when at the campsite. They may take a hike, short or long, tend to the campfire, fish the stream, row a boat on the lake, go swimming or participate in any one of a number of activities.

One contention is the camper, being more active, is hungrier so any food, no matter how well or poorly prepared, would taste better than food cooked at home.

The amount of energy expended to prepare camp meals also varies greatly. The Dutch oven cook needs to keep an ample supply of charcoal at hand during the entire cooking process.

The oven is extremely versatile, however cooking with a camp stove is much easier, with only a skillet and pot needed to fry a pork chop and heat canned corn. But the oven function is missing.

When asked what her family cooked when camping, a friend once told me only hamburgers and hot dogs because no one wanted to mess with cooking.

There is nothing wrong with this way of thinking and it certainly narrows down the answer when the kids ask what's for supper? But it does seem a bit boring.

My wife Garnet and I were faced with an interesting dilemma during a recent camping trip to Potholes State Park. The mosquitoes were numerous, healthy and out for blood.

Walking from the trailer door to the Dodge Ram and back was a six-bite ordeal. So, we didn't build a campfire during an eight-night stay. Cooking outside, our usual procedure, was rejected for fear of death by mosquito.

The slow cooker was our salvation. Garnet browned a beef roast in Moses Lake the day we left for the campsite. It was placed in the cooker. A can of beefy mushroom soup was added plus as many carrots as the pot would hold. The roast was moist and tender for the evening meal.

The second night we enjoyed pizza at a friend's house. The third evening Garnet cooked carrots, potatoes and more soup in the slow cooker. A couple hours before meal time, she added the leftover beef roast. Again, this was a delicious and fitting meal.

Sticking with the slow cooker theme, Garnet prepared a pork roast the next day, with more carrots, brown rice and mushroom and garlic soup. The last evening we enjoyed chicken breasts cooked in cream of onion soup. Pearl onions were also added, and a couple of hours before the meal was to be served, she put in another can of soup and topped the dish with a package of frozen peas.

Bread and salad were also served at each meal. Sour cream lemon pie or blackberry cobbler, one of Garnet's specialties, was the desert of choice.

Campsite cooking can be as complicated or as easy as the camp cook sees fit. And it provides an opportunity to find out if meals really do taste better than those cooked at home.