Camp cooking and cult classics - how to cook outside

Just because you’re in the wilderness doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat well.

I say that to myself every time I head outdoors for an adventure, whether it’s an afternoon angling on the Salmonier River on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland or a week-long trek into the alpine to climb mountains in the Rockies of British Columbia. As someone who loves both the kitchen and the outdoors, you could say the combination of these two passions presents a unique challenge. 

This post is all about cooking in the wild. I’ll share tips about what type of foods go best in the outdoors and I’ll tell you about the camp cooking equipment I use. 

Me enjoying the fire on a recent camping trip in Flatrock, Newfoundland. Photo cred: Sarah Parisio.

And to teach the tenets of camping cooking I give a special nod to a cult classic novel written by Jack Kerouac. In it, Kerouac describes his account of the “most delicious meal of all time,” cooked at the base of a mountain in the high Sierras of California the night before attempting to climb it. In homage to this story, I recreate the meal before the biggest climb of my life, which I completed in the Rocky Mountains just a few weeks ago. Cooking and the outdoors, in turns out, go hand in hand.

The novel I will reference to help me explain to you how to cook outdoors is Jack Kerouac’s cult classic, The Dharma Bums. Like his seminal work On The Road, this work is part reportage and part autobiography, telling the story of rambling adventures around post-war America and his brushes with counter-culture. The first time I encountered this work was on a road trip across America in 2015, freshly having quit my job and about to start a half-year-long adventure of rock climbing and travel. Clean across Texas and all the way to West Virginia I listened to the audiobook version back-to-back over my car stereo. Perfect fodder for a impressionable 24 year-old who had quit his grown-up job in time to finish his car payments and experience the freedom of an open-ended road trip. But it wasn’t the stories of zen Buddhism and mountaineering and crazy San Francisco poets that got me the third time I listened to it this summer. No, for my third go-round of this book I listened to it for food references. And what I found was brilliant writing. Plot devices were often based around entire meals, characters explained through what they ate and drank. And because so much of the food stories Kerouac tell in The Dharma Bums revolve around cooking outdoors, I decided that diving into this book would be a great way to frame the story of my own experiences building up camp cooking skills on adventures in the wild. 
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In The Dharma Bums, Ray Smith (aka Jack Kerouac) learns about cooking outdoors while mountaineering with the book’s protagonist, the affable Japhy Ryder (aka Gary Snyder). Unlike the down-and-out city people Kerouac usually describes in his stories, Japhy introduces a refreshing love of the outdoors and a way of life marked by simplicity. He brings Ray on a trip to climb Mt. Matterhorn in the Sierras of California, and in Kerouac’s account of the adventure he explains with a sense of wonder the meals that Japhy prepares during the trip. It’s during these passages that Kerouac also famously predicts a “rucksack revolution:” a shift from young people’s attention away from cities and towards life in the outdoors.
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Let’s jump into Kerouac’s story now and comb it for camp cooking references. Here Ray (Jack Kerouac) and Japhy are in Japhy’s shack in Berkeley preparing for their outing into the mountains. Ray knows little about life in the outdoors and is eager to learn. Japhy is an experienced climber who grew up in Washington logging and scouting fires for the forestry service. What's about to come is an account of mountain climbing that is nothing short of genius!

My climbing partner and friend Nick Brown on the top of South Howser Tower in British Columbia. (Photo taken by me.)

On what to bring

Japhy

Ray: “What about food?” Japhy: “Well, as for food I went down to Market Street to my favourite market, the Crystal Palace, and bought my favourite cereal: bulgur, which is a kind of Bulgarian cracked rough wheat, and I’m gonna stick pieces of bacon in it. Little square chunks. It’ll make a fine supper for us. And I’m bringing tea. You always want a good cup of tea under those cold stars, and I’m bringing real chocolate pudding - not that instant phony stuff, but good chocolate pudding that you bring to a boil and stir over the fire and let it cool ice cold in the snow.”

Food for a week in the alpine. Peanut butter, dehydrated potatoes, cured sausage, bulgur, couscous, raisins, dehydrated veggies, trail mix, Clif bars, and more...

Erik

Dried bulk foods are essentials for camp cooking. I always hit the bulk aisle of a well-stocked grocery store while stocking up for a big trip. Some of my favourites: bulgur, couscous, red lentils, dehydrated potatoes, pasta. I always bring salt and pepper, as these are indispensable to transforming those dry bulk commodities into a delicious and filling meal. Good quality spices go a long way, too. For example I love to bring my favourite spicy Indian chili powder to give my meals an extra kick with every bite. Little packets of dried pasta mixes are a fantastic way to add flavour to plain pasta and they take up virtually no space in the pack.
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I’ve never once regretted bringing tea along. Just like Japhy says, it warms you up when the temperature starts dipping as the sun goes down.
And dessert is always called for in the wilderness where a few extra calories go a long way. Chocolate pudding is excellent when you’ve got a cold spot to leave it to set for a few hours. Usually, though, I just bring a generously sized slab of good quality chocolate. It always tastes absolutely delicious outdoors.

On delicacies

Japhy

Japhy: “I thought I’d make a nice delicacy for you, Ray. In the bulgur I’m going to throw all kinds of dried diced vegetables I bought at the ski shop. We’ll have our supper and breakfast out of this and for energy food a big bag of peanuts and another with apricots and dried prunes ought to do us for the rest."

Nick Brown and I hitting the bulk aisle at Nester's Market in Squamish, BC, during a 2016 climbing trip.

Erik

I’ve made a habit of stocking up on big bags of dehydrated vegetables while I’m in the bulk aisle of my grocery store. It’s often labelled as “soup mix” and consists simply of freeze-dried bits of vegetables that, when boiled for 10-12 minutes, soak up water and expand into nice chunks of veggies. It costs next to nothing, it’s feather light, and it has elevated every camp meal I’ve ever made. I also always bring Parmesan. The real Italian Parm, not that pre-grated stuff.

As for energy food, stray no further than the bulk aisle once again. The classic raisins and nuts go a long way in this department. My favourite, though, is a luxurious mix of nuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts) and a separate bag of dried fruits (apricots and dates). This will be the most expensive of your camp foods, by weight, so I consider it a delicacy as well as energy food!

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On what to leave behind

Japhy

Erik

Japhy: “canned goods is just a lot of water you gotta lug up your back. Don’t you realize we got all the water we want up there?”

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I have to agree with Japhy: avoid bringing any canned goods. They are heavy and create a lot of waste and mess. Not to mention the watery juices from a can of tuna will attract any bears downwind of you for miles. Stick to the dried grains and pulses you can store in a plastic bag and throw into your pack. There’s almost always water available you can use for cooking it up.

On good bread

Japhy

Japhy: “Good brown bread and cheese, that’ll make a fine breakfast.” The cheese was sharp cheddar and the bread was black bread, baked by the wife of Japhy’s friend Cody.

Hearty dense loaf of rye bread.

 Erik

I always make sure I have good bread for a trip. One time I brought a big country loaf from Georgetown Bakery in St. John’s on a 4-day canoe trip down the Ragged River in Northeastern Newfoundland. Not only was it delicious with every single meal, it was a handy way to “do the dishes,” just sopping up delicious leftover juices with fleshy chunks of fresh bread.

On a recent climbing trip I made two loaves of Danish style rye bread. It was extremely filling and nutritious and satisfied every calorie starved craving we had. It also kept exceptionally well, still remarkably fresh after a whole week in my pack, thanks in part to its sourdough leavening. Plus, if you’ve ever seen my rye bread, it’s virtually indestructible, warding off all assaults that might occur on less adept foods in your backpack. With a slice of sharp cheddar, rye bread makes for an exceptional snack.

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On cooking the most delicious meal of all time

Japhy

Erik

“Japhy put the bulgur in the water and started it boiling and stirred it around and meanwhile busied himself with the fixings for the chocolate pudding and starting boiling that in a smaller pot. He also brewed a fresh pot of tea then he whipped out a set of double chopsticks. Pretty soon we had our supper ready and laughed over it. It was the most delicious supper of all time."

Bulgur with rehydrated veggies and black pepper salami.

Get some water on a boil and toss in your dehydrated veggies. These take the longest to soak up water nicely. I usually boil my water using my MSR Windburner, since it’s extremely efficient on fuel and takes a mere 2-3 minutes to reach a boil. Then I transfer the water to my stainless steel MSR pot, which is better suited to cooking, and heat it over a MSR PocketRocket or MSR WhisperLite stove. With your veggies soaking up a good portion of water (about 8 minutes), toss in your bulgur and cook for 12 minutes. Typically ½ cup person works well for most dried foods. Don’t worry about careful measurements; you can always pour in extra water to get the hydration just right. The last step is to add your cured sausage. My favourite is black pepper salami or chorizo. Get the good quality stuff at the deli counter, measured by weight. You’ll end up with less packaging  and you won’t regret the extra few dollars you spend on good quality cured meats. Before serving, douse with a few tablespoons of olive oil. I have never once regretted lugging olive oil on camping trips (just bring it in a plastic container!). It lifts any meal and adds unparalleled energy per gram and is also a digestive tonic. Serve warm or cool, and keep any leftovers for breakfast.

On doing dishes

Japhy

“Supper done, Japhy assiduously got to work scrubbing the pots with a wire scraper and got me to bring water, which I did… Japhy: “Usually I don’t wash my dishes, I just wrap them up in my blue bandanna because it really doesn’t matter…”

If you don't do your dishes these little furry guys will!

Erik

I’ve seen some pretty remarkable solutions to doing dishes at the campground. My favourite came from climber and storyteller Ian Tobin whom I met at the famous climber’s campsite Miguel's in Kentucky. He grabbed his spoon (his only piece of cutlery) and announced loudly, “Doing the dishes!” and licked it with gusto before sticking it back into his pocket to show that he was done. Another amazing feat I witnessed was my friend Toba getting his folding malleable silicone bowl set absolutely spotless using nothing but his pack spoon. I typically like to use soap and a good old fashioned sponge. I always go for biodegradable soap like CampSuds and make sure to dump my grey water in an appropriate place.

On dessert

Japhy

“Pretty soon he went to snow bank to retrieve the pudding, which was absolutely delicious beyond words. We ate it all up."

Friends dig into a pot of chocolate pudding after a long day of alpine climbing in Bugaboo Provincial Park in BC.

Erik

While stoically marching up and down the aisles of your favourite grocery store and preparing for your epic journey into the wilderness, it is easy to forget about dessert. But trust me, once outdoors and settled after a nice meal under the stars you will not regret packing a dessert. I cooked Japhy’s chocolate pudding on my recent trip to the Bugaboos, which was appreciated by everyone who stuck a spoon into it just before the long march by headlamp on the steep descent trail out of the mountains. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, either; I for one always bring a generous amount of good quality chocolate to have with a cup of tea after dinner. A simple dessert that always hits the spot.

On climbing mountains

Japhy

Japhy: “The secret to this kind of climbing is like zen: don’t think, just dance along. It’s the easiest thing in the world, actually easy that walking on flat ground, which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and yet you never hesitate, and you find yourself on some other boulder that you picked for no special reason at all, just like zen."

Ray: “And you come out here by yourself?"
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Japhy: “For weeks on end! Just like John Muir wandering by myself, following the quartzite veins, or making posies of flowers for my camp, or just walking around naked, singing, I cook my supper and laugh!”

Erik

Okay, so this isn’t directly related to cooking outdoors, but it’s a good reminder of the reason you’re outdoors in the first place: to enjoy the spirit of adventure. Cooking comes second, and like climbing it should be as simple and easy as you can make it.  Enjoy!

Me climbing South Howser Tower in Bugaboo Provincial Park, BC.

More camp cooking tips

A few other things:

• Iodine tablets are indispensable for getting potable water from sources like streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, and glacial runoffs. Talk to anyone who’s had giardia and they will wholeheartedly agree.
• A little cutting board, like the ones made by GSR specifically for camping, goes a long way when it comes to prepping your meals outdoors. I got mine for about $3.
• Always pack a good sharp knife. I always bring my Finnish puukko, which is essentially an all-purpose outdoor knife with a leather sheath.
• Be a hippy and pack some granola. With a splash of milk made from rehydrated milk powder it's a luxurious and delicious breakfast.

Written by Erik Veitch
Edited by Michael Lee. Thanks, Mike!

My alpine kitchen in Bugaboo Provincial Park, BC

Camp carbonara

Granola

Polenta with rehydrated mushrooms and freshly picked Scotch Lovage

Pancakes with wild blueberries.

Camp cooking is fun, but don't forget the real reason you're outdoors! Me on the summit of South Howser Tower in BC.