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| Outdoor cooking on the TGO Challenge |
Some thoughts on camp cooking - first published in The Great Outdoors several years ago. I haven't changed my approach!
The cold rain lashes down. Fingers fumble with guylines and
thrashing wet nylon. The sky is darkening as night approaches. Finally the tent
is up and you can slip inside, out of the storm. The stove is set up in the
porch. A click of a lighter, the hiss of gas and surprising heat rises from the
little ring of flames. A pan of water is placed on the stove. While it heats
big spoonfuls of chocolate drink powder are heaped into a mug. The anticipation
of the warming drink to come is great but nothing like the reality when the
sweet hot liquid slides down your throat and sends warmth surging through you.
At last you can relax and start to enjoy the camp, the shelter from the rain
and wind and the pleasure of just lying there listening to the spattering on
the flysheet. While sipping the hot chocolate you look through the food bag.
Soup first or straight to the main meal? Soup for more warmth and liquids, you
decide. Mushroom or tomato? The first tonight. Then the main meal. Pasta again,
with broccoli and cheese this time. Again just thinking of the food is
enjoyable. After eating you know you will feel tired and soon fall asleep, warm
and comfortable, which is also a pleasant thought.
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| Warm and dry in the shelter on a rainy day |
On cold wet nights like that hot food and drink, prepared
under cover, is one of the great joys of wild camping. I love the way energy
and warmth are restored by the simple food I have carried and cooked. There’s
nothing more deeply pleasurable than taking the first mouthfuls of hot soup
after a long day in the wilds as a storm batters the tent. I have spent many
nights relishing the rituals of setting up the stove, arranging my few kitchen
items and sorting through my supplies. Watching the stove flame flicker and
hearing the bubbling of the water as it comes to a boil is always a welcome
activity. As well as the immediate pleasure of eating and drinking I know that
the energy from the hot food and liquid will help keep me warm during the cold
night to come. Of course cold food could provide the same energy but there’s
not the same immediate warming or the positive psychological effect of a hot
meal.
Camp cooking is such an important part of backpacking for me
that even when the weather is warm and sunny I still make hot drinks and
prepare hot meals. It wouldn’t feel like a real camp without them. There isn’t
the same urgent desire for hot sustenance that occurs in the cold and wet but
the enjoyment is still there.
Perhaps the most pleasurable outdoor meal is breakfast, that
reviving repast that helps you wake and which is eaten with the exciting thoughts
of a day in the wilds ahead. This is especially so when the weather is dry and
the sky clear. Waking on a frosty morning fills me with joy as I look out on
the crisp white ground and the brightening sky. Rather than dash off into the
new day I like to welcome the dawn slowly, over a hot mug of coffee and a bowl
of muesli porridge. Lying in my sleeping bag while I eat breakfast and watch
the sun slowly creep down the hillsides towards my camp is a truly luxurious
experience.
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| Everything needed for dinner |
Whilst the practice of setting up the kitchen, boiling water
and preparing meals and drinks is central to camping for me this doesn’t mean
complicated recipes or meals that take ages to cook. Far from it. The opposite
is in fact true. I like simple meals that are quick to prepare. Dehydrated and
freeze-dried foods make up the bulk of my outdoor diet and my food bag is full
of foil packets and plastic bags full of dusty dry powders. On a scale running
from gourmet foodie to survival eater I am close to the latter. This doesn’t
mean I don’t enjoy the food though. A mug of instant soup with a few herbs and
spices and a sprinkle of cheese added tastes delicious in the wilds, as does
cheese and macaroni out of a packet or a curry made from couscous, dried
vegetables, soya mince and curry powder. At home I would find such fare rather
unappetising but I learnt long ago that trying backpacking meals at home, as if
often advised, was a waste of time. They have to be tried in the field after a
day on the hill to be really appreciated. I can go long periods on dried food
without becoming fed up of it though I must admit that sometimes when the
prospect of fresh food approaches it can suddenly seem unattractive. The
longest I’ve subsisted on dried rations is 23 days, which I’ve done twice, and
on both occasions the last few days were spent drooling over the thought of
eggs, orange juice, pizza and freshly baked bread. This was particularly so on
the Pacific Crest Trail when the going through the snow-bound High Sierra was
very tough, my energy output great and the calorie content of my food inadequate.
I lost a couple of stone during those three weeks that even five or six
restaurant meals in two days didn’t replace. Yet now it is the meals cooked
over my little petrol stove at spectacular camps high in the mountains that I
remember rather than the undoubtedly more sumptuous restaurant dinners.
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| View from the tent at a camp in the High Sierra on the Pacific Crest Trail |
I think much of the delight in camp cooking is a primitive
enjoyment of being comfortable and warm outdoors with just the aid of thin shelter
and a small stove. Being able to make hot food and drink is a way of knowing
that you can cope and live in the wilds - even when you have brought everything
with you. This sense is enhanced if you’ve ever spent much time in the wilds
with dwindling supplies, as I did during my walk the length of the Canadian
Rockies when I became somewhat unsure of where I was for over a week during
which I had much arduous cross country walking in dense forest and deep
canyons. For several days I subsisted on a few crackers, instant cup-a-soups,
half cups of coffee and a few bits of dried fruit. When I eventually came out
of the wilderness and reached a roadside campground the fizzy cola drink other
campers gave me tasted like nectar. Sitting in the tent with a full belly I
often remember those days and vow never to repeat them.
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| Dinner! |
