Camping Foods
and Recipes
Camping foods are like all food - they have to be delicious to guarantee a great time! We've been camping for over 30 years, both as a couple and as a family, and we'll let you in on the best camping foods, tips and recipes we have learnt over the years.
Equipment Essentials
There are a couple of pieces of equipment we consider essential for cooking great meals when camping. The first is a camp oven. A camp oven is a cast iron pot with a lid which can be placed directly over an open fire and can also be used for slow-cooking over hot coals. Camp ovens come in several different sizes, a small one ideal for one or two people. A medium size which is just right for main meals for a family of 4 to 6 people, and a large oven which will be necessary if you have to feed a group of 10 or more.
Camp ovens are available from camping and army surplus stores in Australia, or you may get lucky and find one at a garage sale. As they are rather heavy, they may not be suitable if you are backpacking or touring on a bicycle. But if you are going to cook a damper or hotpot, they are the best!
Jaffle Iron
The other piece of equipment ideal for preparing camping foods is a jaffle iron. This is a cast iron sandwich toaster which you place over hot coals to cook. The interesting thing we notice is that the design of these probably hasn't changed for the past 50 years. You can tell by the size of bread you need to buy to fit the jaffle iron - the main brand bread types are all too large! You have to buy the smaller loaves of bread with the slices about two-thirds the surface area of what we would normally consider to be a sandwich loaf.
Boil the Billy
Camping foods always taste better with a cup of billy tea - and you can't make billy tea without a billy! A billy is a stainless steel or aluminium vessel with a handle (and preferably a spout too) which you use for boiling your water over an open fire. Not only is the billy important for boiling water to make a cuppa, but also comes in handy for boiling water to wash your greasy dishes!
And now for the recipes and meal suggestions -
Breakfast
There are many ways to start the day, some people are happiest with a bowl of cereal or just a cuppa and a slice of toast (don't forget your camping toaster!), others will want a full cooked breakfast. The best cooked breakfasts when camping are the ones which don't leave you with lots of dishes! Our favourite cooked breakfast would have to be
jaffles.
Lunches
A great way to save money when travelling is to make your own sandwiches in the morning before you start the day's journey. We always take along some plastic containers and a small esky for this purpose. The most versatile containers are the ones used for take away meals - they stack inside each other when not in use and save on storage space.
If you are travelling with children, include a treat for them in their lunch and you'll make their day! I will sometimes put a small snack in beside their sandwich or freeze a juice box the night before. Including a piece of fruit in the lunch esky will also help to keep tummys full and happy.
When travelling, fresh fruit isn't always readily available, and we've found that Solarfruit is the next best thing and one of our essential
camping foods.
Solarfruit is a healthy, dried fruit snack made from the best quality tree-ripened fruit. They simply take the fresh fruit, puree it into a thick fruit pulp and then sun dry it into a flat fruit sheet. It is then packaged in a variety of sizes and products, which can all be seen on the
Solarfruit website.
Evening Meals
When you're camping, there are many delicious camping foods you can cook for your evening meals. We try to vary the menu and have wholesome meals. Pasta is always a favourite with the family, and you can make your own range of sauces or buy prepared ones. We make a delicious pasta sauce by frying some bacon pieces with garlic and chopped onion, and adding some tomato puree or a can of diced tomatoes - yum! If you're camping by the beach and the fishing is good, you can make your own chips (or fries) in a camp oven. Serve with your freshly cooked fish and a side salad, and you'll be eating a 5 star meal!
One of our favourite evening meals is
Mum's Hotpot.
It's very easy to vary the basic recipe by changing from beef to chicken or lamb, and you can spice it up with a dash of chilli or satay sauce!
The Best Damper Recipe
A camping holiday wouldn't be the same if we didn't bake a damper at least once or twice. This makes a great supper or morning tea and is very easy to make.
Here's the best damper recipe that we know - one of the essential camping foods.
