Beginners guide to eating outdoors when cycle camping

[Chris N]

1/2lb cheese, cold baked beans, small squeezy marmite and a load of oatcake biscuits ... tinned tuna or the tinned lentils that I usually eat without cooking ... homemade flapjacks ... porkpie then peanut M&Ms for afters!

 
You sure you don't want hot food?  I'll let you use my stove if you want.  I'll even make you coffee.

[Paul D]

Cold beans, cheese, marmite, maybe a bit of bread...food of the gods. Other than warming up the beans (to stop the missus complaining), it's exactly what I eat out of choice at home! What hot food could possibly be better?!

Just thought of something else luxury I could bring - press-seal bag of sundried tomatoes. Yum.

My new fave snack food is Sesame Snaps.

As for coffee, I can suppress my addictions when there's other things to do. Water + rain + miles to ride will work fine. I'd need to carry my own double cream anyway.

[mrcharly-YHT]

You can cook rice fairly easily, over several hours. 

Put rice (I prefer short grain brown) in pan, apply heat for a minute or so. Add water and bring to the boil. Boil for 5-6 min. Then transfer to a clip-lock box and seal. Wrap in something insulating, like a bit of newspaper or a jumper. Leave for a while. the time depends on the air temperature.

You can add stock instead of plain water, put lentils in with the rice (split red lentils are easiest to cook). If you fry onions and veg you end up with something like risotto.

You can even do this in the morning, pack the box in your pannier. When you get to destination, rice will be completely cooked, just needs heating or eat cold.

[Quint]

Our first time ever camping last June on two recumbent trikes, we took a Coleman petrol stove and a couple of Sirloin steaks (took them frozen to de frost on the way) plus container of six eggs, add a bottle of wine a sunny summers eve, perfection.
                                                             
The weather had its revenge in Brittany in the Autumn though   

[Pancho]

Aren't you supposed to cycle with the steak down your shorts to tenderise it during a day's long ride?

[andygates]

Tinned peaches eaten from the tin with a penknife, then drink the syrup.

Stabbing things and eating them off the knife is one of camping's great little joys. 

Aren't you supposed to cycle with the steak down your shorts to tenderise it during a day's long ride?

Did anybody ever *actually* do that, or is it a tall taley myth of Ye Anciente Wheelmen to see if we young'uns are daft enough to try?

[Quint]

I don't think I would like that with a couple of eggs on top   

             

Aren't you supposed to cycle with the steak down your shorts to tenderise it during a day's long ride?

[Canardly]

Jamie Oliver would have a fit.....lol

[Quint]

Super U super marche in Brittany in September, two soggy trikies stalk the aisles in search of wine and food, King Scallops in the freezer section (thinks) they will defrost nicely by the time we get back to the campsite, they did and Barbara created a dish fit for royalty, finished off with some excellent french cheeses and wine.
     Camping is brilliant  

[Canardly]

I suppose the american equivalent camper would go.......... first throw some grits into your oiled trangia pan.........

[Canardly]

Super U super marche in Brittany in September, two soggy trikies stalk the aisles in search of wine and food, King Scallops in the freezer section (thinks) they will defrost nicely by the time we get back to the campsite, they did and Barbara created a dish fit for royalty, finished off with some excellent french cheeses and wine.
     Camping is brilliant  

The french are a civilised race

[Panoramix]

For me it was a tin of hot ravioli: light campfire, pierce tin at top, block it between small rocks in the fire, wait a bit, eat!

On fork and one tin opener to wash up!

If you are not so lazy, you can also do some bread on a camp fire, I have tried once but it ended up undercook as some wild boars came to inspect our camp! Thanks god we had our priority right and saved the bread before climbing in trees.

The thing I really want to do one day is a "diagonale" bivvying at night.

[Arch]

You can cook rice fairly easily, over several hours. 

Put rice (I prefer short grain brown) in pan, apply heat for a minute or so. Add water and bring to the boil. Boil for 5-6 min. Then transfer to a clip-lock box and seal. Wrap in something insulating, like a bit of newspaper or a jumper. Leave for a while. the time depends on the air temperature.

You can add stock instead of plain water, put lentils in with the rice (split red lentils are easiest to cook). If you fry onions and veg you end up with something like risotto.

You can even do this in the morning, pack the box in your pannier. When you get to destination, rice will be completely cooked, just needs heating or eat cold.

Like a haybox...

Marigold veg boullion powder is handy stuff - make it up in hot water for stock to soak couscous (or a drink), or just stir into rice and stuff to season a sort of rissotto.

(from someone who's barely cooked while camping, I have to admit).  Super noodles is about the size of it.  But supernoodles in a cupasoup sauce isn't bad.

[andrewc]

+1 for the Marigold stock powder. 

[Fab Foodie]

Vesta Curries.

[peliroja]

In NZ we got used to stocking up on food during periods when we knew we'd be away from civilisation and shops for several days. For example, at the Mavora Lakes, quite a way on dirt tracks from the nearest town.  Our staples were sachets of couscous and pasta, with vegetables that would keep for 2-3 days reasonably well in panniers: onions, broccoli, courgettes, asparagus. Cheese was difficult as it got really sweaty and soggy quickly. But, we love our cheese and can't really live without it, so we chose harder cheeses, such as parmesan. Having a tin of baked beans as a back-up was invaluable when our gas canister leaked one day, and we couldn't make the pasta we'd planned.

During the day, we couldn't have managed our trip without a loaf of sliced bread (Vogel stayed fresh for 2-3 days) and tubs of peanut butter and nutella for sandwiches.

[Canardly]

Its the bacon sarnies and Eggs that intrigue me, Oil, bread, cleaning up, keeping food chilled etc.

[Regulator]

First select your coffee beans and, using your hand grinder, grind appropriately.  Then warm one's cafetiere...

Yes - I have travelled with all three... 

[Oaky]

Its the bacon sarnies and Eggs that intrigue me, Oil, bread, cleaning up, keeping food chilled etc.

For shorter trips, freezing a pack of bacon and popping it into a jiffy bag works very well, it defrosts over the course of the day/evening, and is cool but ready to cook the next morning.  TBH, unless it's really hot, that's probably overkill, but I do it anyway.  Eggs are OK at room temp anyway, so, again, unless it's hot or your trip is long, you probably need to worry more about them breaking than overheating.

Oil (and washing up liquid) go in small plastic bottles.  You don't really need much oil if you choose decent (i.e. not chock full of water) bacon.  you'd probably get away with none at all with good bacon and a non-stick pan.  Whether that would leave you enough fat to fry an egg, I'm not sure.  I usually forego the eggs in favour of more bacon when camping.

I "pre-wash" the bacon pan by pouring in any unused hot water from my last round of coffee, with a little washing up liquid, and popping it on the Trangia to boil up for a bit, scraping the worst of the grunge off as it does so.  The resulting "soup" usually gets transferred to the bean pan to loosen any gunge in there too.  (My Trangia frying pan and saucepans aren't the non-stick variety).

[Oscar's dad]

Its the bacon sarnies and Eggs that intrigue me, Oil, bread, cleaning up, keeping food chilled etc.

(My Trangia frying pan and saucepans aren't the non-stick variety).

Peasant! 

[bobb]

Tinned fruit.

Tinned peaches eaten from the tin with a penknife, then drink the syrup.

Oh I used to love consuming peaches like that when I was a kid. Must try again soon!

After all - peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory down town....... etc.....

[Canardly]

Years ago was not uncommon to see people stop by the side of the road and brew up over camp fire. Whatever happened to camp fires?

[Fab Foodie]

Years ago was not uncommon to see people stop by the side of the road and brew up over camp fire. Whatever happened to camp fires?

Not many camps allow them.
We use a camp at the bottom of White Horse Hill that allows camp fires and we have one going all w/end to cook with.  It's also a good focal point for the crowd.

[Quint]

Britchcombe Farm, brilliant place and the woman in the Range Rover who runs it is also brilliant

Years ago was not uncommon to see people stop by the side of the road and brew up over camp fire. Whatever happened to camp fires?

Not many camps allow them.
We use a camp at the bottom of White Horse Hill that allows camp fires and we have one going all w/end to cook with.  It's also a good focal point for the crowd.

[Canardly]

+1 for the Marigold stock powder. 

Thanks for this new discovery for me its really very good.