Anyone have any favorite camping recipes to share?
We’re heading on our annual pilgrimage to the north coast for a much needed break and I’m working on the menu.
For cooking gear, we have the campfire and a 2-burner Coleman and the standard pots and pans.
7 Likes
What are your parameters? If you’re bringing a Coleman, that sounds like you’re driving to a camping location and then staying put, rather than backpacking along a trail. Food suggestions are completely different for those two scenarios!
If you’re staying in one place and spending the days hiking nearby, and you’re allowed to have open campfires there, I’ll remind you of the old way: dig a hole in the ground, start a fire (or use charcoal briquets, or the coals from last night’s fire), drop the coals/briquets in the hole, put a cast iron dutch oven on top – filled with whatever combo of cut-up potatoes, veggies, meat you want/have – and cover the hole back up. When you get back from hiking all day, famished and too tired to prepare dinner, just dig up the pot and there’s dinner ready for you.
10 Likes
Whenever we go car camping for a night or two, I’ll usually whip up some stir fry or curry-adjacent meals by prepping all the pieces beforehand and plopping them into various tupperwares. That way I can dump things as needed into the skillet and not worry about dealing with the hassle of cutting raw meat away from a sink. It also allows me to par-cook certain ingredients (like sweet potato) and reduce the cooking time so that it’s closer to the others. Serve on top of some warm starch or in a tortilla for easy clean up.
Cous cous is also super easy to make when camping and serves as the base for a lot of our dinners: pour in boiling water, cover, and let sit for a few mins et voila! You could even add some dehydrated/freeze dried herbs and spices if you were feeling fancy. Nutritional yeast and peas is a favorite of mine 
Last suggestion: are you familiar with the skillet method of cooking gnocchi? I did this last time we were camping out and added in some halved grape tomatoes, cooked chicken sausage, spinach and pesto and it was sooooooo satisfying. You could even top it with mozzarella if that’s your jam.
ETA: I don’t have a lot of actual campfire-cooking suggestions because it seems like we’re always under a fire ban of sorts 
9 Likes
Though I have never been camping, my first thought is Pork Belly.
Okay, almost every day my first thought after coffee is Pork Belly.
10 Likes
Exactly. It’s right on the water, so we also have clamming and fishing opportunities, so if anyone has any camp-cooking recommendations for those, I’m all ears.
I’m going to stick to freshwater fishing this time since I’m still so new to it, so if I get lucky I’ll be dealing with smelt, perch, bass, trout and/or salmon.
Oh, also, I’ve been looking around for good car-camping ready solar cookers (for exactly the kind of thing you mention, but for when we can’t build a fire or dig a hole) and I’m finding the offerings rather disappointing. Any recommendations from fellow foodies?
I was not! Thanks!
7 Likes
Do you double shuck? That outer rind you can do thing with (batter fried…mmm), but when you eat them raw, you toss everything but that…
5 Likes
The bigger ones I pinch out of their skins after steaming right into my mouth.
5 Likes
we use a 2 burner REI cookstove that uses bottle gas (Coleman propane bottles) while out on the boat. we can use it on the bait cutting table that mounts in a rod holder on the rail. can’t dig a hole or build a fire on deck, but this makes it possible to pan fry snapper right there on the boat, or find a nice beach on one of the “10,000 Islands” out in Florida Bay and make a nice picnic of our catch.
we pack bread crumbs, cornmeal, oil and spices to prepare for cooking out and cooler will have some prepared tomato/onion/cuke/cilantro/citrus juice for making impromptu ceviche (don’t forget tortillas and hot sauce!). also, if we know we’re fishing for tuna , I like to bring some wasabi and soy sauce for the absolute freshest sashimi you can ever get!
we do spend the night out on the boat a few times a year, so that is the extent of our “camping” and camp cooking.
8 Likes
Clam bake. Traditionally involves lobster but if you’re not in a position to get them locally or carry them in crabs or large shrimp work.
Just layer components based on the time they take to cook in a tall stock pot or other suitable tall, lidded, metal container. Buckets, trash cans, and milk cans are all traditionally used. But nothing galvanized.
The usual order is potatoes, smoked sausage, lobster (crabs would go here). clams, corn, then any quicker cooking shellfish like mussels or shrimp.
Sprinkle old bay, or whatever preferred spice mix or shellfish boil between the layers.
Crack a beer or two and pour it into the bottom.
Prop the pot up on some rocks or a rack and rake coals from a bonfire under it.
You could go old school and actually do the bury it in the ground thing. But doesn’t actually taste any different, tends to over cook and it gets a lot of sand in the food. If you do go that route you need lots of rocks (dry ones, wet ones can explode), burlap or cavas, and you need to collect a bunch of edible seaweed. Traditionally rockweed.
You dig your pit and line it with your rocks. Build a fire over the rocks, and let it burn down till you’ve got very hot rocks and some smoldering coals. That gets topped with a thick bed of rock weed. Food gets layered in in roughly the same order. Then you cover with burlap or canvas, soaked in seawater. And pile sand over the top.
The seaweed provides the steam, and keeps (some of) the sand from the walls of the pit and coals from contacting the food. The wet fabric seals the top and keeps (some of) the sand from the top from collapsing inward.
8 Likes
now that’s a proper clam bake!
opt for the boil/steam version, because as you said, it keeps sand out and your seasoning will be more even.
crawfish boils are somewhat similar with the addition of sausages, potatoes, corn and enough cayenne to melt your face (in addition to the Zatarain’s crab boil and a shit ton of garlic, onion and celery).
mmmm… and a pirogue full of iced Dixie beer. my time in bayou country was good. indeed, it was very good.
edit: typo
7 Likes
I’ve been curious about barramundi but never cooked it. Let us know how it goes!
5 Likes
Deep frying in camp is a nightmare unless you have a huge rig and one of those propane-deep-fryers. Still a nightmare, frankly, as what the heck do you do with all the oil??
So linguine with clam sauce is the way to go for clams when camping. A little white wine and (dried) garlic and butter with herbs is great.
I love carne asada over a campfire, if you can do that.
I’ve never done it, but I remember living in Germany and one of the dishes they serve at Munich Oktoberfest is trout on a stick - they gut the trout, but then skewer it with a long stick and spread out the belly with two small sticks and slow-roast it over coals. Mmmmm.
ETA: they call it “steckerfisch” and they also do it with mackerel.
9 Likes
Is there non-edible seaweed around your way? Some’s tough so requires cooking but as far as I know it’s all edible around here.
6 Likes
Barra is beaut! I’ve caught it in the Northern Territory and it’s delicious. It used to be hard to buy in the southern states but it’s now successfully farmed and you even see it occasionally in good fish and chip shops. Which is nice, but there are plenty of better things to do with them.
ETA southern Australian states.
7 Likes
Yeah your various seafood boils are all in the same vein. Including the being steamed rather than what it says in the name part.
What I’ve done in the past is par fry wings ahead of time. Then package them up and finish them on the grill in camp. You get that “it’s been fried” crispness and it’s easier to work on a tiny camp grill.
Fair point. There’s a lot of seaweed around here that no one bothers to eat. So it’s a go with the one you want to eat situation.
6 Likes
That might be the way I go this time! Pasta is always yummy and easy, and we can bring some canned clams or something as “backup” in case we don’t get lucky. Then cry our tears of shame into the empty tin, 
This spot is so pretty, I’m getting really excited. I’ll post pics somewhere when we’re back.
7 Likes
Just no.
6 Likes
Step 1 of diet plan: think of this image any time I’m tempted to eat junk food.
Step 2: not necessary. Not hungry anymore.
9 Likes
Fun with leftovers-scraped the kernels from two ears of last week’s corn, chopped some shrimp into medium bits, sautéd them in bacon fat from two slices of chopped bacon, then tossed in last night’s fettuccini Alfredo and let warm over a gentle heat. Alfredo is the most boring pasta sauce, but sometimes mom wants it anyway…. At least she ate both all of her salad and her serving of pasta tonight.
7 Likes
