Best Advice for Cooking on the Campsite

For some people, the best part of going camping is to cook a good meal while immersed in nature. In fact, when you’re on your camping holidays, you’ve got more time than ever to cook up that perfect meal.

So here’s some of our tips for cooking the perfect meal while you're out camping:

Shop locally – This is even more important when camping during a pandemic, but despite this, you will always find the freshest locally-grown ingredients at your nearby store. Equally, if you’re camping near the seaside, you’ll no doubt have access to some incredibly tasty local seafood. Not only can you enjoy the taste of the local produce, you can feel good about supporting the local economy surrounding your campsite by spending your money on the hard-working independent retailers, rather than your usual major supermarkets.

Double hob cookers – A double hob cooker is extremely useful, because you can be more creative and cook two separate ingredients at the same time (duh, obviously)! But it’s also useful when you’re trying to cook your morning breakfast and boil the kettle in time for a cup of tea that will set you up for the rest of the day. A butane gas, propane gas or electric cooking stove will get the job done nice and quickly for you, allowing you to spend more time on an extra-long walk in the sun.

Alternatively, buy one-pot recipe books – Sadly, we're not all blessed with tank-sized 4x4 vehicles, so you might not have the space to take and store all of your favourite kitchen pots, pans and cooking products. To get around this, you might want to invest in a ‘one-pot’ recipe book, where you’ll be able to cook professionally-crafted recipes designed for cooking in just one pot. A guaranteed great taste, with minimal washing up… that sounds perfect to us!

Cook and freeze – You can save yourself a headache by cooking and freezing some easy meals for the first night of your camping trip. Your food will defrost while your travelling to your campsite destination and will be ready for heating as soon as you unpack the camping stove. Then all you have to do is give it a good heating - easy peasy!

Don’t cook inside of your tent – As convenient as it may seem, you should avoid cooking inside of a tent. Cooking inside of a tent can excessively heat up your tent which can cause condensation problems, leaving puddles at the bottom of your tent. Of course, stoves also come with a fire risk and potential carbon monoxide risks, so be careful. You might want to purchase a windbreak to help to create a well-protected kitchen space that will allow you to cook outside.

High-quality storage boxes - We hate to say it, but you will only have a limited amount of space available for taking food with you, so finding the right size of storage boxes will be very important for keeping your food and drink as cool as possible. Make sure your storage box is durable as well, as it’ll have to survive the journeys to and from the campsite, and may even be subject to some interested wildlife when you’re out and about.

Invest in a strong table – If there are likely to be a few of you gathering around for food, then it’s best to invest in a strong table that will provide enough space for you all to eat from. Folding tables will help you to conserve space in your car boot, but you can help yourself by making sure you don’t overload your table with heavy items that you don’t really need. Keep your table nice and sturdy by pitching on level ground.

Take your best melamine with you – To keep you safe from any potential accidents, we would encourage you to take melamine with you, rather than porcelain crockery. Melamine is designed to take bumps without breaking and also comes with some pretty stylish designs that you won’t find on typical porcelain crockery. They're also really easy to clean!

Make washing up a lot easier for yourself – As always, you should make sure to keep your pitch clean and tidy by washing up everything you used during the cooking process. Dirty pots and pans will only attract the unwanted wildlife and leave your pitch space smelling. Make sure to use cleaning chemical when possible and try to keep a plastic bag bin handy with you at all times.