Camp Cooking Help Needed

[bobcat charlie]

Ice Man Speaks!

I was co-owner of Harold's Ice Inc in San Fran in th late '70s and a avid camper. Easilly got 10 days with a 12"X12"X12" block of dry ice (-72*) in an aluminum Coleman ice chest. Packed in frozen food, and frozen steaks. Fill any unused space in the chest with crumpled newspapers...air circulation is the enemy! Cover the ice chest with a heavy, insulating shipping blanket and only uncover and open once a day! When you remove something, insert more crumpled newspaper. Good for 10 days in the summer in northern Nevada, and it was hot! Steaks still frozen solid on day 10.

Second Ice chest for drinks and vegies...used 25# block wet ice, got about 4 - 5 days, but what the heck! Again, used newspaper to cut air circulation. Cooled the beer in a stream after that and all was well! Vegies arn't all thier cracked up to be anyway...

 

[DurangoSteve]

Cooler management is the key. We freeze water in 1/2 gallon milk jugs for our ice. The meltwater is contained and adds to your potable water supply when it's gone. We take frozen soups, stews and chili in tupperwares. Fast and easy meals and a source of chillin'. Keep food and beverages in separate coolers. The bev cooler will be opened more frequently, and will lose ice faster. I put a piece of Reflectix foil-covered bubble stuff in the top of the cooler, and a wet towel around the outside for evap cooling. In extreme conditions I'll wrap the cooler in Reflectix. I know some folks who duct tape the cooler shut. They're sorta like the "hyper-milers," competing to see has the most ice left at the end of a trip.

We have a 3-way fridge in our pop-up, but I loathe the thing. It's a food storage cabinet, and doesn't get turned on. I've used coolers camping and on river trips for years and like 'em way better than the 3-way.

 

[DesertBoater]

As a couple of other folks have mentioned, if you're going to do regular ice, I would generally stay away from cubed. Block ice is much more easily manageable, and stays for a longer period of time (something about volume vs surface area). If you're thinking about it a couple of days in advance, you could even buy a couple of jugs of OJ, lemonade, etc, drink a small bit, and then freeze them, so that you A) have ice blocks from your own freezer, B) you can drink them as they melt and they're always really cold) and C) you won't get nearly as much water hanging out in the bottom of your cooler. It sucks to open up the cooler and find that something has busted open and now you've got, lets say, ketchup and icewater saturating everything in your cooler...Even if you don't use frozen juice, re-using plastic jugs (2 liter soda bottles) will save you a lot of hassle and money in the long run.
I won't even get started with dry ice...simply amazing, but takes some learning.

Cheers,
West

 

[paulj]

I travel with a small cooler (25L 3.5day Igloo) that fits in the footwell behind the front seats. With 3 half-gallon juice bottles of ice, there isn't a lot of room for food. That means I mainly keep things like mayo, lunch meat, cheese and eggs in there.

If I buy fresh meat, it is only enough for a meal or two (for 2 people) at time. In small-town Idaho I had good luck at finding small quantities of beef at decent prices. In British Columbia fresh meat prices were quite a bit higher, and I depended more on cured meats (sausages, deli meat ends etc). A small pressure cooker lets me buy stew meat and make a quick stew. I don't buy much chicken when camping, since it is harder to handle safely (without running water). Lack of good cleanup facilities (esp. lots of clean water) constrains my cooking choices as much as cooler space. I don't like cooking things that require a lot of soap and water to cleanup.

I also keep an eye out for meats and meat substitutes that don't require require a cooler. On one trip across eastern Oregon, it was 5 days between decent groceries. I may fry up a can of Spam once during a 2 week trip. Canned corned beef is an option. I've not been too happy with the cans of chicken or turkey. Tuna in olive oil is a good start for lunch time tuna salad.

I also use more canned foods while camping than I do at home. For some reason i ended up using a lot of Campbells hearty soups (e.g. Italian wedding) on a trip through Utah several years ago. In some cases I prefer foods 'canned' in mylar pouches over cans.

I try not to have leftovers, especially ones that need to be kept cool.

As to the starches, I take quick (not instant) grits, instant mashed potatoes, rice.

One a long Alaska trip with a larger cooler, i bought a whole frozen chicken on several occasions, letting it thaw in the cooler, and then stewing it with canned tomatoes and such in a 4qt pressure cooker.

 

[mk4]

I will go pick up a better ice chest (or two) and use that...:chef:

Save the $40 or so and put that towards a fridge. I think those Edgestars can be had for $400. A lot of fridge owners will say that their fridge is their best piece of equipment.

 

[Corey]

I agree here.
Not having to mess with ice anymore and bringing along food that keeps fresh without ice melting is a huge plus for me.

Once you fridge, you will not look at ice coolers again.

 

[DurangoSteve]

I agree here.
Not having to mess with ice anymore and bringing along food that keeps fresh without ice melting is a huge plus for me.

Once you fridge, you will not look at ice coolers again.

Whatever works for you. As I mentioned in my previous post, our 3-way fridge in our pop-up is a nice food cabinet. I find 3-ways to be a giant pain. Gimme a well-managed, quality cooler anyday! To each his/her own.

 

[Desert Dan]

I have an Igloo MaxCold 50
http://www.igloocoolers.com/products/FullSize/MaxCold/214/

and it works great.

You can also add an exterior layer of foam around the cooler for extra insulation.

Has anyone tried dry ice?? It might be too cold and freeze everything

 

[paulj]

I have an Igloo MaxCold 50
http://www.igloocoolers.com/products/FullSize/MaxCold/214/

Mine is the MaxCold 36, a 24 qt size. I keep it all the time in the footwell behind the front seats - both when camping and grocery shopping. It is also small enough to keep inside, when the car is setup for camping. That's means no cooler outside at night.

 

[computeruser]

A couple ideas:

My camp kitchen is a 1-burner dual-fuel with a 10" non-stick skillet. My fridge, for now, is a cooler. I'm about keeping things simple (Jeep Wrangler means no room for surplus gear). I really like to cook fish when camping, and get the frozen blackened salmon filets from SamsClub. I put two filet pieces in a gallon ziplock bag, fill it with ice and some water, and freeze the whole thing solid before we leave. It will easily stay frozen like this for a few days in the cooler, and cool enough to be safe to eat for another day or two.

Otherwise, I do a lot with pre-sliced onions and green pepper, cut thin and like french fries. This mix makes for good veggie fajitas, or you can mix in some of those simmer sauce mix packets, for example. I tend to build my dinner menu around these ingredients, usually consumed in a tortilla to save on washing dishes.

You can do first-rate burritos using refried beans or some sort of seasoned rice in place of meat. Or make fresh guacamole and kill a whole bag of chips for lunch. A fist full of Cilantro will keep in your cooler all week!

Pasta+sauce can be done up a number of ways, and its component parts travel well. Pasta salad made at home before you leave, if the liquid component is oil- and not mayo-based (think: something built around pasta+veggies+Italian dressing), will last for a long time in a big zip-lock bag the cooler. Ditto a 3-bean salad or similar dish.

Breakfast can be based around pancakes made from just-add-water pancake mix, with fresh local fruit either in or on the pancakes. We've picked trailside blueberries in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and used them in our pancakes the next morning, to great effect.

 

[RHINO]

So, for those of you that do NOT have a fridge, what do you take and cook when you are out camping on multi-day trips? Obviously, I cannot take perishable items, so once again, all I can think of is instant things like noodles, mac and cheese, etc. There has to be better options though right?

THANKS!:chef:

i can see the problem, your thinking like a backpacker. i take all the same stuff in an ice chest that i take in a fridge,,,,,my cooking at camp is pretty much the same at home. nothing special, no prepared, boxed or canned things specifically because i am camping.

 

[mesha]

one suggestion is take cabbage instead of lettuce. It holds up to the abuse of camping better. It will do better than lettuce at everything.

 

[paulj]

Fennel is another crunchy vegetable that travels well.

 

[john101477]

funny that you should ask this. i have been working on a menu for us. for extreme hot we are looking at maybe a 6 day cooler for a 4 day high desert trip. I like the one guys idea of an insulation layer on the outside, we never leave our current chest in the sun anyways but our current is an igloo ice cube. it does ok but not great. the Foam idea has me buzzing here. add some resin over that to give it a semi ridged design.... A little pre-chill might help as well. RR1 suggested dry ice mixed with our block ice so we may look into that as well.
This is common for us. We do not bring that much drinks nor do we bring bottled water as i haul 7 or 14 gallons of fresh water depending on what where and how long

 

[Roktoys84]

Whatever works for you. As I mentioned in my previous post, our 3-way fridge in our pop-up is a nice food cabinet. I find 3-ways to be a giant pain. Gimme a well-managed, quality cooler anyday! To each his/her own.

I've never dealt with a 3-way unit but I love my Engel 45. The Engel has more in common with the fridge in your kitchen (and will probably last as long) than the one in your pop-up. The Engel will maintain 0 degrees in 100 degree Moab weather easily without killing your battery. On my 10 day trip last year I still used a cooler for beverages, but I'm planning on buying an Engel 60 to use as a fridge so I can use the 45 as a dedicated freezer (more room for ice cream :sombrero.