Outdoor Cooking 101
One
of the great attractions of going "bush" for many people is that it gets you
back to basics. Jobs such as cooking and preparing the meal take on more significance and
become one of the key events of the day. A time for the group to come together, reflect on
the days adventures and consume some reconstituted gruel that bears a remote resemblance
to food, but more similarity to something that you may serve your cat.
The purpose of this article is to correct this misbelief that because you are in the bush, and therefore roughing it, you have to eat correspondingly rough food. This is simply bollocks! With a little bit of planning, careful thought and experience one can dine as well in the bush as you do at home.
I won’t promise that after reading this article that you will be qualified enough to become the executive chef at a bush Parkroyal but hopefully it will lift your skills above that of simple dehydrated gruel reheater.
The first thing to consider for any chef is preparation and organisation of the food. In the bush you need to be really well organised for if you forget some crucial ingredient you can’t duck down to the local dairy. To this end study your recipe carefully and make sure that you get all the key ingredients. In particular if you are cooking any of those pasta sauces that come in packets (e.g. Continental or San Remo) make damn sure you remember to take some butter or other kind of "fat", for this is essential to get the stuff to thicken. Without it you will have to endure pasta soup.
Once you have got all your ingredients together pack them carefully in plastic bags, with all the ingredients for one meal in one bag. This makes it easier to check if you have everything. If you are going to open, say milk powder on your first night of a five-day trip, make sure you pack something to keep it closed for the next four days. Twist ties and Glad snaplock bags are also useful in this regard. Beware ignoring this advice at your peril, for having milk power or Raro strewn throughout your pack is not much fun at all, particularly if it manages to mate with some H2O.
If your taking meat, say mince for nachos (see recipe) I have adopted the practice of freezing it the night before in a large plastic yogurt container. This will keep it cool all the next day in summer. Or for 1+ days in winter. If you are going on a long trip, plan to use your meat up in the first few days. For example for a five day trip in winter, I would take mince for the first night, sizzler sausages for the second (there is more preservative in these things than meat and they correspondingly have a long life) and maybe some vacuum packed bacon for the third night. In summer I would cut this back due to the increased daytime heat that can make your food go bad. Food poisoning is bad enough at home, but in the bush it is horrendous. Hence it is also a good idea to avoid chicken.
Now you ask what in earth should we be packing? Well let’s consider each of the three main meals.
Breakfast
You have probably heard the saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well when your tramping its true, and without it you will find it very hard to get up the big climb that you invariably encounter 5 minutes from your campsite. Breakfast suggestions that I can offer are pretty much the same as those at home, cereal and porridge. Cereal is great in that it is light and easy to prepare. It also stays beside you for a long period of time. Many people complain that powdered milk just doesn’t cut it compared to real milk. To a certain extent this is true. One solution I have used is to mix up a runny instant pudding mixture and mix it with my cereal. This tastes infinitely better than powdered milk, sets quickly (particularly in winter) and is easy to clean up in cold water.
This latter quality cannot be said about porridge. A porridge pot, particularly if it hasn’t been soaked, or worst still if its been burnt, is really hard to clean. Porridge also doesn’t seem to stay beside you as long and you feel that you want lunch about an hour earlier than normal. Its redeeming feature is that it is hot; a real bonus on a cold winter morning.
Toast is pretty impractical, but a good substitute is fruit loaf or fruitcake. These taste good, are reasonably squash resistant and last a long time. Remember to have a drink. Hot Raro is a personal favorite and I have converted many people to this sweet sickly drink first thing in the morning.
Finally if you have a really early start, you often have a corresponding lack of appetite. Try to eat if you can, but if you simply can’t get anything down then stick some food in your pockets, e.g. a museli or fruit bar, and try and drip feed yourself as you go along.
Lunch
Lunch. Do as you want here but I prefer crackers and cheese. There are heaps of crackers on the market, though mealmates are particularly popular with club members. They also taste really good, particularly the vege ones. Cheese slices last for ages, but I prefer the more fancy processed cheeses which you slice yourself. Tuna and salami are other good toppings.
The traditional sandwich still has its place, particularly on shorter trips. However sliced bread doesn’t travel well, pita bread and buns are better alternatives. Fruit bread, buns and cake are other good stomach fillers.
Dinner
Dinner is a major event of the day. A good dinner after hard day’s tramp will taste better than any gourmet meal from a flash restaurant. Several general words of advice here make sure it is quick and easy. There is nothing worse that when your buggered having to slave for an hour over a temperamental stove, in bad light, while your stomach rumbles its discontent that its demands are not being met.
To this end simple meals such as rice and pasta are good; for they are quick, easy and filling. These can be livened up with vegetables (the Surprise dehydrated range is fantastic), meat (e.g. tuna) and flavorings (Maggi makes a huge range). To add variety you can vary how you serve the food, a personal favorite of mine is to serve rice and vegetables in pita breads (see recipe). Shorter trips also offer the scope for more gourmet foods such as nachos (see recipe).
A crucial part of any dinner should be a dessert. Desserts taste good no matter how bad they look. My personal favorite is cheesecake. These can be found in the baking needs section of your supermarket, and come in a whole variety of flavors; though watch the chocolate one, its superrich and you really need a sweet tooth to be able to stomach more than a few mouthfuls. I can remember on one trip having an argument with someone over whom "had" to eat the last mouthful. All you need to convert the ingredients in the box to a cheesecake is butter and milk. Butter is crucial if you want to avoid having biscuit crumb surprise (something I have endured once or twice when I forgot the butter) as it is needed to bind the base together. The quantity of milk you add is also crucial to the success of your cheesecake, too much and it won’t set. Sam, the ultimate cheesecake maker has come up with a solution to getting this quantity just right, mix in the required amount of milk powder with the filling mix, then gradually add water until you get the right consistency. You are meant to put it in the fridge to set, but sticking it outside usually has the same effect, but do post a guard for possums are know to be rather partial to cheesecake.
Other suggestions are instant pudding, chocolate spongy pudd and Christmas pudding. The latter two come in containers that you simply heat in boiling water. A Christmas pudding covered in hot custard goes down a treat on cold winter nights. Look for the custard power that already contains milk powder, and only needs boiling water added to it (from memory I think it’s the "Birds" brand). It doesn’t suffer the lumpy problems that ordinary custard powders do.
Well there’s a few ideas on what to take with you in terms of food, now its time to consider utensils. I carry three "utensils". The first of these is blindingly obvious, a billy. I prefer to carry a large billy with a big diameter. This spreads the heat from the stove over a bigger area, and helps to prevent burning. It is generally easier to cook for a group of four in two billies than one big one. Because there is a lessor quantity it will be quicker to heat, easier to stir and therefore less likely to burn. The second invaluable utensil is a potholder. This will ensure the skin stays on your fingers and doesn’t become at one with the billy. It also gives you something to hold onto when you are stirring and serving. The final utensil I carry is a wooden spoon. Normal spoons are often not long enough to touch the bottom and therefore scrap the sludge off the bottom before it burns. If you are cooking a lot in one billy then constant stirring is recommended if you don’t want to have to clean out a burnt billy.
Here are some other general cooking tips.
1. Watch directions about adding liquid to dry ingredients, be very careful not to add too much. If in doubt always add less, for more can be added later. The quantities most packets describe are at the upper end of what you need. I recommend that you add 2/3 of the suggested amount at the start, then top it up as needed. Also mark regularly used quantities on your mug or water bottle.
2. Stoves. Check them before you go. A malfunctioning stove can cut a trip short. A larger group should carry several. I you are buying a stove, get one that has simmer control; it will make your job a lot easier.
3. A headlamp is great for cooking as it leaves your hands free to hold the pot and stir.
4. Stir, stir, and stir …… The more you stir the less your chance of ending up with a burnt pot. A good way of ensuring that you don’t end up with a burnt pot is to make the person responsible for stirring also responsible for cleaning it.
5. Simmer, simmer, and simmer…If your getting that crunchy feeling then it generally needs longer. Rice is best cooked by leaving it cooking on a low heat for a long time.
6. Soak, soak, and soak… If you do resort to dehydrated gruel, then the longer you leave it soaking before eating it, the better it will taste!
One other thing to consider is when to eat. If you are going to be faced with a hard climb, or need to traverse a dangerous exposed rocky ridge, then it pays to stop and have something to eat fifteen to twenty minutes before you get to the obstacle. From personal experience I often feel faint and my balance gets worse when I am hungry. By stopping beforehand it will ensure your body has the adequate energy resources, which in turn will improve your concentration to enable you to cope better with a difficult or dangerous situation.
This is definitely not the definitive guide to outdoor cooking. I am sure others will have some suggestions to add and recipes to contribute. If you do then send them in to Bruce so he can incorporate them in the next newsletter.
Bon appetite!
Darren
Nachos
500g mince Grated cheese
Chili seasoning Sour cream
Can of tomatoes Nacho chips
Can of baked beans 1 tsp. of Oregano
1 tsp. of Basil Garlic
2 onions chopped
This is one of my all time favorite tramping meals. On the night before chop up your onions. Mix with your mince and add the basil, oregano and garlic. Cook until brown then put in a large yogurt container. Let it cool, then freeze overnight.
The next night simply reheat the mince. Add the remaining ingredients, heat and serve. It all takes about 10 minutes. Garnish with grated cheese and sour cream. The chips are best carried by sticking them inside your billy. This stops them getting crushed.
Rice & Pita
Rice Risotto (whatever flavor takes your fancy)
Surprise Mixed Veggies
Pita Bread.
This one is really simple. Mix up rice and veggies according to their instructions. Then simply fill the pitas with the mixture. Pitas can be heated either in a billy on a low heat, or wrap them in tinfoil and put them in the embers of a fire.