Campfire Cooking - Smart Camping Tips for Packing Your Campfire Cookware

If you have ever been a camp cook, you know it can be a lot of work. All the camping cookware has to be packed, including: the cast iron grills, the Dutch oven, heavy cast iron skillets, and the campfire tools you use for cooking your campfire meals. It can add-up to a lot of stuff. This can be a heavy workload, but you can make it a lot easier with just a little planning. These campfire cooking tips can really make being the camp cook a lot easier.

The hardest parts of camp cooking, and being the camp cook, is getting all your food and gear into camp, and then repacking and carrying it out of camp when you're done. Setting up your camp kitchen and doing the actual cooking can be fun, you get to show-off your talent and ingenuity. Clean-up can even be a somewhat enjoyable time with the camaraderie of your camping buddies who help with the job.. But nobody likes hauling a lot of heavy cast iron cookware in and out of camp. Just a little planning and forethought can save you a lot of effort. Take a look at your camping cookware sets, what will you really need?

Your camp cookware is probably cast iron cookware, the heavy stuff. The cast iron griddle, a heavy cast iron Dutch oven, and the assorted campfire tools you use. The iron cooking tripod, a campfire grill, and the folding camp tables ... There is a better way!

Think about what you will need. What is the menu for your camp food? What are the campfire meals you want to cook? What campfire recipes will you be making? If your dinner camp recipe uses two pots, why take three? If you will be using a campfire ring that includes a grill, don't take your cast iron grill. Think about these questions and think about what pieces of camp cookware you really need. After all, cast iron cookware is heavy, don't take more than you need.

I'm a bare-essentials campfire cook, I only want to take the minimum number of cookware pieces I need to get the job done. If something calls for a skillet, I just use the Dutch oven pot or the griddle, or even the Dutch oven lid for small quick jobs. So the heavy cast iron skillet stays home. The Dutch oven pot can be used in place of pots and pans if you plan your campfire recipes to be casseroles or 1-pot campfire meals. Ok, so you may need one small pan, but it should be able to fit inside the Dutch oven. The pots and pans can stay home too.

A real camp cook won't need to take a heavy cooking tripod or any campfire grills. Just lash together some sturdy tree limbs you find at the campsite for a tripod. And use your cast iron griddles as campfire grills. You can use large pieces of firewood to support the griddle over the fire. What about all those cooking utensils? If you are a "super cook" and need a ton of campfire tools, that's your decision, but a good camping knife, a large serving spoon, and a spatula, will be all you really need. Just make sure they have short handles so you can pack them inside the Dutch oven.

Do you really need a folding camp table for your camp cooking kitchen? Leave it home. If you are a veteran camp cook you will make your own camp kitchen table using farmer's twine and fallen limbs to lash together a good camp cooking tabletop. Just use some nearby trees as support. But if you must,go ahead and take that folding camp table anyway. You're the one that will have to carry it.

Now, pack it all up and see what you have. The small pan, your leather camp gloves and the short-handled utensils should fit inside the cast iron Dutch oven. That leaves you with just the cast iron griddles and the Dutch oven to carry. (just pack your camping cast iron cookware, not the fancy enameled cast iron cookware you see in the kitchen) Now isn't that better. Look how much less you have to tote around all weekend.

And don't worry about packing cups, plates, and silverware. Just tell each camper to bring their own coffee cups and eating utensils. Every thing else will be disposable paper stuff. This makes your life much easier. Less to pack and haul in and out again.

If this is too minimalist for your menu of camp meals, or the campfire recipes you want to make, just make some adjustments, but only bring what you need. If you keep these tips in mind when you put together your camping gear and campfire cookware, it will help you remember to leave out the cookware pieces you don't really need but usually pack by habit anyway.