BJC 2024 will be in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire!

Cooking while camping

Some brief tips:

Aside from a camping stove don't bother with cookware designed for camping. That generally just means it will be lightweight and flimsy, and more expensive to boot. Always buy equipment with its primary purpose in mind. For cooking equipment that means cooking!

Only store foods that won't spoil in your tent otherwise you'll just end up throwing it away. So that's anything that is not stored in a chilled cabinet in the supermarket. Top up daily with fresh fruit and veg but always use it within a day.

You can keep some stuff cool for a couple of days by putting the foodstuff in a waterproof container, then putting the container in a bowl or pan full of cold water, then keeping the pan in a cool shady spot (generally NOT your tent).

Those pouches of microwaveable rice can also be cooked on a gas stove. Just mix the rice into a sloppy tinned curry and cook together for 5 minutes for a very quick and easy meal. This saves on gas and you only need one pan.

Never reheat rice.

Avoid cooking greasy foods to make washing up easier (however, fatty food is better for keeping warm).

Mopping up sauces from pans with bread also makes washing up easier.

Wash up straight away, don't let food dry on to your pan otherwise it will be harder to clean. Then you won't want to cook using dirty kit and will end up eating out.

For snacking try to keep the chocolate, cake and crisps to a minimum. Fruit, nuts and berries are your friends. Tinned sweetcorn or tinned mackerel fillets are also very good if you have a fork.

Easy camping recipes

Chickpea & Chorizo Curry

Courgette & Lemon Linguine

Got an easy camping recipe? Do you have any more tips or advice? Help us improve this page.


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BJC 2024 will be in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire!