What will you always have in your camp kitchen

[vanbrat]

I keep trying to think what to pack as far as my kitchen goes.. I know what I eat is to my own taste etc.    but I am curious, what everyone does not ever go without? I know I won't be baking, and I know some of my everything but the kitchen sink stuff wont happen, but what should/would be a staple thing to never forget? The bar is already loaded. So that is taken care of.

 

[MrNoodly]

Are we talking cookware or food? Or both?

 

[lenny flank]

My trusty little DIY alcohol stove. Costs virtually nothing, no moving parts to lose or wear out, boils a pint of water in about 8 minutes.

 

[AMGS3]

This advice doesn't really apply to me in my situation now, since I have practically a full kitchen now. Tiny, but full.

However, I used to camp a lot and one of the things I learned early is to ALWAYS bring an extra bottle, can, jug, etc of cooking fuel. Whatever your stove situation, however long you think you will be gone,  always have one more jug of fuel than you think you will need. This prevents any situation where you end up getting something half cooked and run out of gas. I cannot adequately express in words how much that sucks. One extra can does not take up that much room and prevents you from having to leave, possibly abandon camp, drive into town, or pay dearly at the nearest gas station (if they even carry the type of fuel your stove uses).

~angie

 

[WanderingRose]

Always have some MRE’s, nourishing food that can be consumed cold in an emergency.

I always have a few cans of substantial soups, also baked beans.

 

[lenny flank]

MREs tend to get a pretty bad rap, but the ones that I have had while backpacking were pretty good, I thought.

 

[B and C]

Coffee, matches and some canned goods with a knife or can opener (P-38 is a small one).    Really kinda depends.  When I first started to prepare, it became what did I like to eat and then came how do I prepare it on the road.  If you're still in a S&B, cook what you will have on the road and pack those items.  It is not like you are going into a vast wilderness with no stores to get your basic needs met.  The smaller your space, the less you will be able to carry.  There is no magic bullet here.  If you don't have it and need it, you should be able to pick it up on the way.  Good luck.

 

[cyndi]

I keep organic, no-salt canned veggies, for when I can't or don't feel like going to town for fresh veggies. Green beans can be used to replace leafy greens in a salad. Canned spinach doesn't taste much different than fresh, cooked spinach.

I also keep some canned, organic, no salt added proteins, for the same reason.

A few years ago someone came up with microwaveable pasta and rice, ready in 60 to 90 seconds. It's now available in organic brands with BPA free packaging. It cooks on the stove top, in a couple of minutes, using 2 tablespoons of water.

 

[vanbrat]

Thanks everyone we will mostly have a tiny kitchen and some electric power, but also may do some boondocking without power....

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

I really like my all-silicone spatula / spoon-ish thing, similar to this thing at Walmart for about $4 each.

It is heat resistant, so I can just leave it in the pot when I am cooking. That means I don't have to lay it down somewhere and there is far less chance of dripping on what counts for a counter in my van. 

It also doesn't transfer heat well, so when I taste the food I'm cooking, I never have to worry about burning my lips on the spoon. And the handle doesn't get hot, even if it is sticking out over the side of the pot and the heat from the flame rises up past it. So, I never have to worry about burning my hand. (Though, naturally, I don't turn the flame up too high anyway.)

It wipes clean really easily. I just spritz it with water, and then wipe it with a paper towel. Then it is clean enough for me.

Here's another tip: I don't clean it right away. I lick it pretty clean, then set it across the can my soup came from. Later, when I am finished eating out of the pot, I use the spatula to scrape as much as possible out of the pot and scrape that into the soup can. Then I spritz the inside of the pot and scrape another layer out with the spatula. After doing this, I only need two halves of a paper towel to clean out the pot. Spritz the pot, wipe with the first half, getting nearly everything else out. Spritz again, wipe with the second half, getting everything that was left. Usually, there is so little on the second half that I can set it aside to dry and use it as the first half for the next meal. In this manner, I use only about two tablespoons of water and one-half of a paper towel per meal. 

Al this because of a cheap, silicone spatula.

 

[Dingfelder]

Always have some MRE’s, nourishing food that can be consumed cold in an emergency.

I always have a few cans of substantial soups, also baked beans.

I don't mean to be pissy, but is there really something such as a substantial can of soup?

I don't think I've ever had one that had a notable amount of protein or even vegetables.  They are mostly salted water and starches, with everything else mostly as a garnish.

Maybe that is okay for a 100 pound woman. It is no more than an appetizer for a full grown man.

 

[Dingfelder]

I keep organic, no-salt canned veggies, for when I can't or don't feel like going to town for fresh veggies. Green beans can be used to replace leafy greens in a salad. Canned spinach doesn't taste much different than fresh, cooked spinach.

I also keep some canned, organic, no salt added proteins, for the same reason.

A few years ago someone came up with microwaveable pasta and rice, ready in 60 to 90 seconds. It's now available in organic brands with BPA free packaging. It cooks on the stove top, in a couple of minutes, using 2 tablespoons of water.

Canned spinach is about the worst thing ever invented.

It's the only spinach I ever had growing up way out in Micronesia, where spinach was otherwise unknown.  I thought that's what spinach was.  And, to be truthful, I liked it, though I knew the limp scrotum of unrecognizable vegetation and the pissy broth were some sort of sour salty sin against God.  When i moved to California, I literally couldn't believe friends, pointing out fresh spinach, that it was the same vegetable.  There was no comparison.

Either cooked, or raw, in taste.  It was probably my first or second realization that all I had been taught about food was terribly lazy and wrong.  (The eating of raw fish via sushi was probably the first.)  

Please, please, please, do not accept that wilted garbage leafy veggies are the same as the original.  You might as well be talking about vegetables grown on the moon.  Please do eat cheap as much as you need to, the same thing I do every day -- but don't forget the special value of the treat of eating fresh.  It's so much more wholesome, and infinitely more full of flavor, as well as the more scienc-y stuff.

But who cares about the latter.  Just ... if you can spend that extra 30 or 50 cents, even just once in a while ... do it.  Taste is joy.  It's not just for snobs anymore.

Try not to settle for garbage and mine-worker-or-soldier-who's-gonna-die-before-he's-30 level food unless you can't fight your way out of it for a while.

 

[WanderingRose]

I don't mean to be pissy, but is there really something such as a substantial can of soup?

I don't think I've ever had one that had a notable amount of protein or even vegetables.  They are mostly salted water and starches, with everything else mostly as a garnish.

I keep a couple of cans of the kind you don’t need to add water to, like chicken noodle and beef with barley, and as I said meant to be for an emergency, not to sustain life for days on end.

Meals Ready to Eat, which can be consumed without heating, if need be. 

 

[Weight]

There are plenty of canned foods that are acceptable to normal people. Beware of the sodium if necessary for your pressure. And I like wilted green leafs of cabbage. We call it sauerkraut. Bubbie's brand if I have a choice.

 

[B and C]

I don't do soups much because it is mostly liquid but a stew is another matter. A couple of cans of Dinty Moore because it is chock full of meat and vegetables and very little water. Hearty. Do I want to make it a staple, no.

 

[cyndi]

Canned spinach is about the worst thing ever invented.

I'm pretty sure some canned food has come a long way since you were a child. Was organic, no-salt even a thing when you were a child?
If you must quote posts, please trim them for those of us using cell phones.

 

[Dingfelder]

The canned spinach I've had was probably Del Monte or one of the other biggest brands. It was so limp it was unrecognizable as spinach, and it came in a liquid that smelled a lot like urine.

I actually liked it as a really little kid,but it became less and less appealing over the years.

 

[Redbearded]

Cans of chili and some of those powdered soups. Also, chicken stock concentrate is a keeper!

 

[maki2]

I don't mean to be pissy, but is there really something such as a substantial can of soup?

I don't think I've ever had one that had a notable amount of protein or even vegetables.  They are mostly salted water and starches, with everything else mostly as a garnish.

Maybe that is okay for a 100 pound woman. It is no more than an appetizer for a full grown man.

Yes indeed there are such things as substantial cans of soup that have notable amounts of protein and vegetables. I watch for them at discount prices at stores such as Grocery Outlet and Costco.
I have had some Wolfgang Puck brand of soups that were good. Also some of Amy's soups. Pacific Brand Tomato Basil and other of their soups are good. All of these soups are a lot more upscale, many are organic and the recipes are much better than the cheap supermarket varieties that date back to the 1950s which have changed very little since that time. But if you are a good cook you can make great soup for less money.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Coffee, coffee pot, water and milk for the coffee. A cup is good. Everything else is gravy.
Ted