From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: Summary of camp cooking
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 21:54:56 GMT


Well, I'm a tad embarrassed.  I often ask people for summaries
but forgot to do it with the camp cooking info that was sent 
to me <blush> until someone reminded me.

Here goes:
___________________________________________________________________

From: Eileen Kupstas <kupstas@cs.unc.edu>

 I recommend Sierra Club's _Food for the Pack_ by Axcell, Cook and
Jackson (??I think) and The Well-Fed BackPacker by Gretchen Mc??
Both of these are available in paperback, about $10 US each. 
Any outdoor store (REI, etc. or local equivalent) will have
several to choose from. Look for SIMPLE recipes that give
lots of information on preparing ahead (mixing, bagging).
The Well-Fed Backpacker has a lot of good "combinations"--
they aren't real recipes but are different ways to combine
ingredeints to get the most novelty out of the fewest types
of items. 
I try to include a rotation of foods, say three days worth,
so that meals don't get repetitive. So breakfast rotation
is granola, oatmeal or other hot cereal, instant grits with
cheese -- whatever you all can agree on as staples. (I'm
known to eat a handful of gorp for breakfast, then want to
chow down at 9:30 -- depends upon your crew..). Dinner rotation 
is beans and rice, stew-product, or pasta product. (You can
vary the tastes of each of these immensely, depending upon 
seasonings and sauces.) 
I've had good luck with some pre-packaged grocery store products,
especially Taste Adventure brand soup mixes, Fantastic Foods
brand mixes, and (of all things) Lipton Bean and Rice mixes.
These are all tasty and quick, as well as light to pack. 
A big thing I've found is including some treats and some 
different textures, even if it means carrying a bit more 
weight. I always miss crunchy things and tart things, so 
we pack some carrots and some unsweetened lemon drink mix.
My partner misses the treats, so I pack a long-lasting
ginger cake and the makings for fruit stew with dumplings.
Something new and different every three days or so makes
trail food a lot more bearable. 
_______________________________________________________
From: blau@sol.crd.ge.com (lauren h halverson)


Ok, I'll take remote areas to mean that you won't have access to a
grocery or a farm stand, but most car camping places have ice so I'll
assume you can keep what you bring cool for awhile at least.
(If you do have access to fresh veggies it's a big help for variety
and balance).

For the first few days anyway you should be able to keep meat and milk
fresh in a cooler, so fit those in early.
I find that delicate veggies (like lettuce, scallions and other things
that need refridgeration) tend to last just under a week in a cooler.
one hint about coolers: if yours has a plastic bin that fits in the
top, try and replace it with a wirer basket type thing..keeps water
from collecting and provides some breating room for the things in it.

(if you can bring two coolers and keep one for the end of the week,
you can keep stuff better (opening and closing the cooler causes a lot
of heat loss)

We make shish kabob (usually we cut up and marinate the meats at home
first and just bring them in tupperware), chili, stew, lots and lots
of pasta with varied toppings (fresh sauted veggies, red sauce,
ratatouille, pesto, etc.), bbq chicken, corn on the cob, salads,
steamed peas, squash, etc. (we usaully raid the garden before we go in
summer and take whatever is ripe and use it somehow).

Later in the trip beans and rice dishes work quite well. Onions
provide a lot of flavor, and they keep really well. Potatoes keep well
too. Bake them, and make some extras to cut up for home fries the next
day. Also bean soups (split pea, lentil) work well also. Carrots keep
pretty well, though celery can start looking bad by the end of a week.

One good thing for flavor. Lots of spice places now sell dehydrated
veggies for soups and stews without a lot of additives. The mix
usually includes red and green peppers, carrots, celery, onion, etc.
these can be very handy at the end of a long trip.

Oatmeal is good for breakfast since it only needs water, but the pans
can be a pain to clean.

Some cheeses keep really well, especially unopened (look for ones
packed in wax and by more small cheeses instead of one large one)

Early in a trip we'll have cold cut sandwiches for lunch,
supplemented with instant soup mixes if we're at the campsite
(usually we're off riding bikes or hiking.). Later in the week make
peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and bean sandwiches (there is a
dehydrated black bean dip mix available in the "health food" aisle at
our grocery that I really like with sprouts in a pita. (Pitas and
bagels last well uncooled, also tortillas last pretty well cooled)

When we're camping we tend to eat a lot more canned stuff than normal,
also more meat. I'm not sure if that is more a factor of the people we
camp with, or the ease of prep.

We've spent a lot of time building up a camp "kitchen". We have a big
plastic tub with a lid that we keep all the utensils and basics in
(oil, matches, spices, etc.). That way, we don't have to worry about
forgetting important implements.
If you're going to be with a large group, a big bowl or gallon sized
ziplocs can be used for making salad in  (or a big pot, but we always
seem to find other uses for all the big pots we bring).

A two level  pot lets you heat something in the steam of something
else (for example, we heat pasta sauces above the cooking pasta. saves
fire/stove room).

_________________________________________
From: tmartin@DPW.COM

Plain chicken cutlets for grilled chicken is great.
_______________________________________

From kiran@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu Thu Jan 21 00:40:29 1993

There are several books on the subject, with titles such as "Simple
foods for the pack" (the only one I can remember, and my copies are
all boxed up right now.)  Any good outdoor shop sould have these.
They are, I think, mostly for backpackers, so they use light and easy
to trnasport ingredients, usually dried.  
 
____________________________________________
From: cgk@m.tam.uiuc.edu (Chris Kocher)


Here is one camp cooking idea I like very much, but it may involve
lugging along too much stuff.  I don't have a title for the recipe,
and I'm not in a creative enough mood to think of one at the moment.

Take a couple of potatoes (I'm not sure which kind would work best, but
I used brown ones), some butter/margarine (or, perhaps, olive oil), some
garlic salt, some herbs, and aluminum foil.  

	The idea is simple:  cut the potato into thin slices and place it on
a large piece of aluminum foil (you will probably have to put two or
three pieces of foil together).  Put on lots of butter/margarine, and
sprinkle with garlic salt and herbs.  Seal the potatoes in the foil and
bake over a camp fire.  

	The only perishable item is the butter/margarine, but olive oil
wouldn't be.  (pardon my poor sentence structure.)  Whenever I've gone
camping, in the Sierras, we always slept at a 'base camp" where we had 
our cars, so our hikes never lasted more than a day.  This way, we could
bring big coolers which allowed us to bring some perishable foods.  Our
first evening meal is always a grand one!  Then we are reduced to canned
beans and other less appetizing fare.

_____________________________________________

From: "Anthony C." <acc4636@tamsun.tamu.edu>

Give everyone their own big bag of granola trail mix to last for the whole
two weeks.  Bring packages of instant oatmeal or a large tupperware
of quakers non instant oatmeal.  Bring flour, salt and cornmeal for
frying the fish that you will catch.  Boullion cubes for making soup
and dried meat and veggies to make soup.  Go ahead and bring some
fresh stuff, although it will only last a few days, it will be nice to
have.  I suggest you get a book on wilderness camping to be sure you 
get everything you need. :-)  Good luck!  Oh are you going camping 
in a campground or in the back country?  You could try rec.backcountry
or something like that..

________________________________________________
From: ST402676@brownvm.brown.edu

Here are some of the things I have done (I can give you recipes if
you want, but usually I just make it up as I go. You can get the
basic idea for any of these from most cookbooks). You might also
try to find the NOLS cookbook, which is a book of camping recipes.
You can probably write to NOLS (in Wyoming? anyone have an address?)
for it.

                      -Tamar

A few things to consider when choosing what to make:

If you will be at altitude (9000ft or more, probably) avoid regular
pasta unless you have a backpacker's pressure cooker. It comes out
VERY mushy.  In fact, think very carefully about anything that needs
boiling water.

If you are going to go where there will be berries, you might want
to plan on adding them to things like pancakes or corn bread.

You can bake on a camp stove by turning the stove way down (can't
really be done with a whisperlight) and building a very small fire on the
pan's lid.

You should consider how much time you will be walking. When biking, or when
I am on a backpacking trip that involves many layover days, I tend to plan
for much more elaborate meals (I once baked chocolate croisants on a
backpacing trip). On other trips, I have discovered that
I am either too tired, or cold, or hungry to deal with anything more elaborate
than ramen soup.

places to look for lightweight (dry) ingredients other than camping
supply stores:
oriental grocery stores (mushrooms, garlic, etc)
health food stores (refried bean mix, all sorts of good stuff)
your grocery store (betty crocker makes dehydrated scalloped potatoes.
     there are all sorts of pasta mixes with dehydrated vegetables.
     Also look at the instant gravy and soups sections)

so here's my list:

staples to bring:  (total food 1 to 2 pounds per person per day)
rice (quick rice if at altitude)
pasta
nuts
couscous
dehydrated potatos (scavenged from betty crocker packages)
ramen
spices
sugar (brown and white)
flour (or pancake mix if that's all you plan on)
soup mixes
dry mushrooms, onion, garlic
sun dried tomatoes
dry milk
dry vegetables (from camping stores or scavenged from soup mixes)
cheeses (sealed ones keep better in hot weather)
butter/margerine/oil
dry fruit, munchies, drinakbles, the usual hiking stuff.
consider bringing: cornstarch for pudding, baking powder for pancakes,
etc.
Sometimes I bring a can of tomato paste, a fresh onion, or some
olives. See how the weight is coming out.

you can make:
curried rice with almonds and tomato
macaroni and cheese
pasta with whatever sauce you can think of
corn bread and chili (either carry canned beans or soak them overnight
            on one of the last days so the wight is not so annoying)
polenta
tortillas and instant refried beans
potato stew (dry potatoes, gravy mix, various veggies, onion)
bagels fried with butter, garlic, and cheese
dundun noodles (ramen, peanut butter, hot peppper, scallions)
tortilla pizzas
wild rice with pine nuts, mushrooms, and cheese

__________________________________

And one poster, whose name I lost, suggested that I take
a turkey, a string, and a bag of corn and let my dinner walk
in with me.


:)


-_______________________________________________________________


Julie
DISCLAIMER:  All opinions here belong to my cat and no one else