Backpacking Cooking and Food
Fundamentally, whatever serves your purpose for a given trip is the right food to take. There are some qualities that usually describe good backpacking food:
There are times when one or two of the basic qualities listed above are the deciding factors in your menu planning. In cold weather camping you are traveling in a huge refrigerator and can enjoy the luxury of many foods that would be too perishable on summer treks (such as fresh eggs, fruits and vegetables).
Sometimes you will want the food to be one of the highlights of a trip, as when you are base-camping and setting a more leisurely pace, with time for plant study or lolling in the sun. At other times you may look at food mainly as adequate fuel for prolonged, strenuous activity, and so forgo a luxury food that takes more pack space or preparation time. (On the other hand, your spirits may need that luxury now and then!)
If variety is so important to you that you would feel bored and oppressed by repeating the same main dish every night for a week, then you'll probably do something about it. What you'll do is invest a considerable amount of ingenuity and some advance effort so that variety will be the result. In the process you'll be rewarded by an increasing level of resourcefulness and a lot of pure fun.
A simple way to package the meals is to put all the dry ingredient for one recipe in a plastic bag (some recipes require two bags), label it, and add liquids in camp. We like to use the "zip-locking" type of plastic bags since they close airtight, taking up less volume in the pack and keeping the food fresher. Wide-mouth plastic bottles are good for liquids and condiments such as oil, peanut butter, and honey; you can also use the plastic, soft drink bottles, they are free! To organize the food in your pack, put all the suppers in one stuff bag, breakfast in another, and lunches in a third, leaving the condiments in a fourth bag by themselves. Save the ketchup, mayonnaise that you get at fast food restaurants for camping.
On backpacking trips everyone will be responsible for his or her own food, cooking and eating utensils. You may choose to cook and eat together with several other Pathfinders. Keep it simple. Don't bring canned foods, these are heavy, and the empty cans must be carried back out. There are plenty of dehydrated foods available in the grocery stores. Examples: cooked cereals, soups, pasta and rice dishes. You may wish to put all of the foo for each meal into individual zip lock bags, this is a good way to be organized. Please note: many dehydrated foods, such as individually packed hot chocolate, have foil linings to keep them fresh. These also must be packed out and not thrown in a fire.
Put packets of antimicrobial wet wipes with each meal. This way you'll be able to wash your hands before you eat even if there's no water immediately available.
- nutritious
- easy to fix
- quick
- lightweight
- tasty
- compact and sturdy
- not too costly
- non-perishable
There are times when one or two of the basic qualities listed above are the deciding factors in your menu planning. In cold weather camping you are traveling in a huge refrigerator and can enjoy the luxury of many foods that would be too perishable on summer treks (such as fresh eggs, fruits and vegetables).
Sometimes you will want the food to be one of the highlights of a trip, as when you are base-camping and setting a more leisurely pace, with time for plant study or lolling in the sun. At other times you may look at food mainly as adequate fuel for prolonged, strenuous activity, and so forgo a luxury food that takes more pack space or preparation time. (On the other hand, your spirits may need that luxury now and then!)
If variety is so important to you that you would feel bored and oppressed by repeating the same main dish every night for a week, then you'll probably do something about it. What you'll do is invest a considerable amount of ingenuity and some advance effort so that variety will be the result. In the process you'll be rewarded by an increasing level of resourcefulness and a lot of pure fun.
A simple way to package the meals is to put all the dry ingredient for one recipe in a plastic bag (some recipes require two bags), label it, and add liquids in camp. We like to use the "zip-locking" type of plastic bags since they close airtight, taking up less volume in the pack and keeping the food fresher. Wide-mouth plastic bottles are good for liquids and condiments such as oil, peanut butter, and honey; you can also use the plastic, soft drink bottles, they are free! To organize the food in your pack, put all the suppers in one stuff bag, breakfast in another, and lunches in a third, leaving the condiments in a fourth bag by themselves. Save the ketchup, mayonnaise that you get at fast food restaurants for camping.
On backpacking trips everyone will be responsible for his or her own food, cooking and eating utensils. You may choose to cook and eat together with several other Pathfinders. Keep it simple. Don't bring canned foods, these are heavy, and the empty cans must be carried back out. There are plenty of dehydrated foods available in the grocery stores. Examples: cooked cereals, soups, pasta and rice dishes. You may wish to put all of the foo for each meal into individual zip lock bags, this is a good way to be organized. Please note: many dehydrated foods, such as individually packed hot chocolate, have foil linings to keep them fresh. These also must be packed out and not thrown in a fire.
Put packets of antimicrobial wet wipes with each meal. This way you'll be able to wash your hands before you eat even if there's no water immediately available.
