by Scott Ammerman
Torque Correspondent
There is no limit to the amount of money you can spend on a camp kitchen. I would venture to say that over the years, I have spent far more on outdoor cooking equipment than most moderate home kitchen remodeling projects.
The good news from this; you don’t have to spend all of that money at once, or even at all. If you plan your meals out well, you can limit the amount of actual components you have to bring on your camping trip.
For example, many people bring along a portable propane or charcoal grill. But while these are great at a backyard BBQ, they are horrible at making pancakes and bacon. Instead, think about a cast iron skillet. You can pan sear ribeye steaks in that skillet on a camp stove, and still make a fantastic breakfast the next morning. You can even cook with a cast iron skillet ON a charcoal or gas grill, but you may want to make sure you can get the heat high enough to cook.
Many portable propane grills don’t crank out enough BTUs to get a pan hot enough. With charcoal, you may need to stack the coals very high to get the pan hot enough. Since we’re not talking about going backpacking here, an ultralight setup isn’t essential — but an efficient one is important.
There are several challenges to cooking away from home. Lack of access to hot running water 'on demand' for hand washing is a big one. Food safety is especially important while camping, as a bout of food poisoning can really destroy a trip quickly, and lead to dehydration or far worse.
For overland trip cooking, I prefer a camp stove. Ours folds up and stows easily in the rear seat footwell area. Whatever you choose, make sure to practice at home before the trip. Take note of what utensils you use, and try to streamline the steps as much as you can for when you don’t have large countertops and a sink at your disposal.
Another practical thing to include in your camp kitchen setup is a fire extinguisher. While many people include these in their load out for 4x4 adventuring, having it readily accessible from your cooking area is essential in case of a mishap.
The H3R 2.5 lb. Dry Chemical extinguishers would be equally capable of extinguishing a cooking grease fire as well as an issue with your vehicle, and are always a solid choice. Quadratec makes a very durable and quick release rollbar mount for extinguishers of this size, and they are available in black or high visibility red.
Potholders or trivets are often overlooked items as well. I have found myself grabbing a hot pot with a pair of pliers while camping that would have been much easier to deal with had I brought something insulated along. Setting down a scalding hot skillet on a rock so you don’t burn your camp table is also a consideration, so definitely make sure you have access to something like that before you start cooking.
If you’re going to spend a lot of time handling raw ingredients, and don’t have the ability to wash your hands every few minutes, I would recommend stocking up on strong disposable gloves, which I ALWAYS have on hand (hah, get it?!) at a BBQ or camping trip when I’ll be cooking.
The Black Mamba Nitrex Gloves Quadratec sells are great for this, since they’re hypoallergenic and incredibly durable as well.
Additionally, when cooking raw meats, having a meat thermometer with you is crucial. Nobody likes medium rare chicken — salmonella poisoning is not something you want to bring home from vacation. An infrared thermometer (not even a terribly expensive one) will also let you know the temperature of your pan or griddle.
Not every overlanding setup NEEDS a skottle large enough to feed an army, no matter what you’ve seen on YouTube.
If you have a fridge freezer in your Jeep, you have a lot more flexibility in your meal choices. If you don't, this is a great item to add to your overlanding set up. This one addition has really expanded the menu more than any other for me on our trips to the mountains. Bagged frozen potatoes, either in hash brown format or even 'Potatoes O’Brien' (cubed potatoes, peppers and onion) are a great base for a hearty breakfast, and require a lot less tool cleanup than taking a bag of potatoes with you into the wild.
For this breakfast, you will need:
- Frozen hash browns
- Breakfast sausage
- Shredded cheese (save prep time by buying a bag pre-shredded)
- Egg Beaters (or an airtight container of scrambled eggs)
- Diced sweet peppers
- Burrito sized tortillas
- A second skillet (we used a sectioned grill pan)
- Butter, salt and pepper
- Your favorite hot sauce
With a few tablespoons of butter in the pan, cook the hash browns on medium low for a while until they start to dry out and brown, then flip them in sections to promote even cooking. The center of the pan under the burner will usually cook faster.
While that magic is happening, in another pan, brown the sausage and cook the peppers on medium heat, and pull the peppers off the heat if they start to get too scorched.
I then took the sausage and diced it up after it was cooked, added it to the potatoes, added the peppers to the whole potato skillet, then poured in a few ounces of scrambled eggs (or Egg Beaters) to the mix — stir until dry. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.
Spoon everything on a tortilla, douse with a pepper sauce and enjoy!
Another quick note:
People who love coffee sometimes have a really hard time being without a cup or two while camping. A quick water boiling solution and instant coffee (there are a lot of choices these days) or coffee grounds and a French press will really improve their quality of life.
Having a second burner or a backpacking stove for beverage duty is a good solution, and will keep those cranky folk from interrupting breakfast production to make their magic brown bean water. They can be very insistent.
Another trick is doing as much prep work and cooking as you can at home, and then reheating what you have prepared for your friends and family. One of our favorite versatile meals is one my good friend Jason Machler makes for our trips using a combination of fresh and frozen veggies, cubed chicken breast, spices and pasta. This is mostly prepared at home, and can be enjoyed fresh out of the fridge or cooler if you’re quickly stopping for lunch.
For this lunch or dinner, you will need:
- 2-4 cooked chicken breasts, cut into cubes
- Frozen bagged veggies like corn, green beans or peas
- Fresh cut veggies, onion and bell peppers, broccoli
- A pound of pasta like penne, rotini or even macaroni
- Italian herb seasoning
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
Jason cooks and drains the pasta, puts all the frozen veggies in a bowl and microwaves them on low for a few minutes to cook, while cutting up all the fresh ones at the same time. The pasta gets cooked and strained, then cooled. Everything gets mixed together with a few tablespoons of olive oil, some Italian seasoning and salt and pepper (to taste).
Put it all into a few lidded containers, a few servings per container and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to mix together. Freeze whatever isn’t being used right away, and it keeps very well.
Now, last time we were out, we forgot to take one of the frozen containers out earlier in the day to thaw — and we only realized a little while before dinner time.
With a few tablespoons of butter melted in the pan, we sautéed the entire pasta dish on low until the excess moisture evaporated, then cranked up the heat to medium to brown a little before serving.
Hopefully these tips will help kickstart or enhance your overlanding meal strategy. Remember to keep an eye on Quadratec’s Torque Overlanding Section for more recipes and cooking tips.
