Looking forward to the hunting season? Love camping? Hate what camping chow does to your guts after days of canned chili, canned pork 'n' beans, and mystery meat hot dogs?
Take a tip from a long-time hunting camp cook: Make your chow before you hit the road. It's actually easy to do and more than worth the effort.
The key is to plan ahead; then back your plan with solid prep work and foolproof storage.
Your first step is to check with your hunting buddies to make sure what they won’t eat, can’t eat, or if they even care what there is to eat. Once you have a thumbs-up list of chow, you can start putting together your plan of attack.
For a week-long hunting trip, figure on five meals. That's right, five.
Tell your hunting buddies that one of them is responsible for the first night’s chow and another one has to cover the last night’s meal. You’ll cover the rest of the evening meals. Give them a few meal options, because if you’ve been doing the cooking most of the time, no one else is likely able to think of any meal beyond canned chili, pork ‘n’ beans, and mystery meat hot dogs. If there is a decent eatery on the way out of the area you hunt, then head there for the last meal of the hunt, and let the “loser” of the week can pick up the tab. Your group might be the type that makes the guy who bagged the “big one” spring for this last meal – it really doesn’t matter who does it, as long as there is an agreement that it will happen.
Here’s a list of some quick and easy meals that can be pre-cooked and warmed up at the end of each day. Use some combo-meals you already know how to cook to make this list easier. Just be sure your meals include meat (protein) and potatoes, pasta, or beans (simple carbs).
- spaghetti and meatballs
- chicken and noodles
- ham and navy beans
- boneless pork chops and scalloped potatoes
- meatloaf and home fries
- barbecued chicken and baked potatoes
- beef/pork sausage chili with red beans
- polish sausage with red beans and rice
- chicken/cheese enchilada casserole
Cook up enough for the bunch of you, plus one extra serving to make sure everyone’s outdoor appetite is satisfied. Undercook your food just a bit; that way, when you do the slow warm-up over a fire, everything will be perfectly cooked.
Once your meals are cooked, they need to be cooled – FAST! This helps retain moisture and stops the cooking process so you aren’t warming up mush later on. Take the food out of the cooking pot or pan, transfer it to a chilled air-tight container, and throw it in the freezer. Have everything ready: chilled container, space in the freezer, etc., so you can make the move from hot to chillin’ super fast.
Once the foods are thoroughly chilled – cold to the core, but not freezing yet – you parcel it into clean half-gallon milk cartons. This is part of the planning process, cleaning and saving milk cartons. Open the carton tops all the way (one side should already be open - the milk-pouring side). Fill with one meal to within 2 inches of the carton’s top. Close the carton tightly, slap a piece of duct tape on the outside, write the name of the food on the tape with a Sharpie, and stick it back in the freezer. Freeze each carton solid.
Identifying your food cartons is not mandatory. Anonymous cartons of food can add some mystery to your camp meals.
The frozen meal milk cartons pack tightly in a cooler and need almost no ice to be kept food-safe for 5 days. For best results though, set the cooler in the shade with wool blankets over it.
Pull out a frozen dinner at the end of each day, extracting the goodies from the cartons is simple (you do have a knife, don’t you?), drop the frozen food block into a cast iron Dutch oven or large aluminum stockpot, set it over the campfire, and wait for noses to start twitching.
It takes about an hour for your meal to thaw and thoroughly warm up, but that’s usually just about enough time for everyone to get back to camp, gather around the fire, and share stories of the day.
And if you want to be stuck with the job of camp cook forever, just add some biscuits or coffee can applesauce cake to each meal!
