Norcal Spotted and BS Thread

It all really depends on what your cooking goals are. If you just want to heatup water, the jetboil flash is fantastic and cheap from the website i showed you. However, if you actually want to cook more delicate foods, that will require either technique or equipment to match. Your choices end up being more for an entire system than a single piece.

 

I'd like to be able to actually cook Eggs and stuff mainly but it would be nice if I had a grill and pan to cook some meat as well.

 

use the truck

 

That is totally doable.

I made eggs for Mikey on my Jetboil with my REI aluminum Frying pan. However, performance suffers at altitude with canister stoves, that's precisely the reason I stole Alex's DealExtreme wind screen to contain what heat I could.

Since I don't care how much energy I use, I just use giant stoves and stuff. I left them at home this time since I didn't have time to get all the ingredients together. Otherwise I was going to make beef chowfun which requires a 100kbtu stove or higher to do that. Typical dual burner camp stoves are between 8k and 10k btu. Typical singleburner backpacking stoves range from 6k-10k btu. My commercial wok stove is 120k.

(education time)

Liquid fuel stoves or stoves in general with a gas generator work best at altitude because they require priming (heating the generator tube to the vaporization temperature of the fuel, so the fuel comes out as a high pressure gas vs a low pressure low performing gas or liquid).



Cooking at altitude also presents additional challenges such as boiling water temperatures not being as hot at altitude (197.4F @ 8000 ft). Cakes and breads don't fluff up as much and end up really flat or fall apart. Drip Coffee extraction is difficult when the water is boiling due to rapid cooldown properties of boiling water.

I generally don't recommend cooking a huge pieces of protein on a camp stove because it requires an enormous amount of energy to do so well and without overcooking your meals.

If you want to cook meat efficiently, nothing works better than an actual BBQ Grill or cooking with a grate on top of the open flame. A close second is cooking steak on a carbon steel pan, or skillet, using the butter baste method. Then comes the Dutch oven with coals on top and bottom. Or braising with a pressure cooker.

(education time over)

 

I have a small gas bbq, a gas stove (two burner coleman), a 2qt pot and a 10" fry pan. I use a Jet Boil for coffee and freeze dried stuff. Both the pot and pan are no-stick coated. The pot and pan are no name brand pans. $10 or cheaper at Target or Wally World. A small chef knife, tongs, a can opener and a couple of other utensils (also cheap stuff). and I'm good. I prefer to eat off of paper plates-I know, not eco friendly but less work for me. I like my coffee so I also have an insulated french press. A small bag with a brillo pad, sponge and cleaning stuff and a couple of towels round out the box.

I also have a big cast iron dutch oven, a cast iron skillet and a flat top.
If I'm heading out to beach camp or basically stay in camp, I like the cast iron stuff. If I'm moving, just the pot & pan. A small bowl helps as does a box of gallon bags-you can use them as bowls too.

I bought very little at REI or any other camping store. Maybe the stove and a lantern are from a traditional camping/surplus place.

My thoughts are to try and take only the min amount of stuff whenever possible and to try and do as little prep as possible. So that means sliced mushrooms or a bag of salad or dried potatoes. It's not that I don't like prep but because I want a good meal with as little work as possible.

Hope that helps you when you're looking for supplies and stuff.

 

Hahaa!

 

Damn, thanks for all that Stanley lol. Thanks as well Ian. I'm honestly putting truck stuff on hold right now. I keep forgetting I have a couple weddings and bachelor parties to attend to so money is going to gifts/clothes for me right now

 

So in regards to camp food, One thing my wife and I have been doing on some of our more recent trips (especially the 16 day baja expedition) is pre-cooking meals and freezing them in tough tupperware.

For instance, before our baja trip I slow cooked a big pork shoulder in the crock pot, adding onions and peppers, plenty of juice and sauce. Also a chicken cacciatore, whole chicken cut up, no skin, w/ fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions, red wine, all in the crock pot. Packed it all away in stackable tupperware and froze it. When it came time to eat, we just popped out a meal/sized tupperware and dropped it into the pan. We also prepped and froze a large tupperware full of cooked pasta.

It only takes a minute or two to heat up the food, and crock-pot style cooking generally yields plenty of sauce along w/ the protein, so it goes perfectly over a carbohydrate like pasta, or even easier is the pre-cooked polenta packages, which don't need to be refrigerated, just heat em up and go! Tacos too, we grabbed fresh tortillas in each town we passed thru.

In less than 5 minutes you can be grubbing super good, home cooked meals that took hours to prepare. This is very helpful when on an expedition-type trip, where you're often breaking camp every day, traveling to a new location and often setting up camp late in the evening.

Another benefit of this setup was the frozen tupperware containers helped keep the cooler super cold. They act as blocks of ice and keep the temps down.

Of course this only applies to car-camping/overland stuff, I don't expect you to be lugging a 40 gallon cooler on your backpack or anything


As far as our kitchen setup, i use a coleman 2 burner, with a cast iron dutch oven (wont leave home w/out it!) and a set of lightweight non-stick camping pans from rei. (good heat transfer for fast water boil, quick heat-up) Everything packs up into the dutch oven, collapsing plates, cups, silverware and all.

 

Yeah. Mine was meant to give you an idea and also let you know you don't have to spend a fortune.

Weddings are big money drains...

 

Just seen a grey tacoma on 880 north exit Alvarado blvd. black badges, black wheels, lifted, sliders, beats by dre sticker (I think) on lower left rear window... Member on here?

 

Interesting, that crock pot idea actually sounds good. I'm just not a fan of any of the meats from crock pots. I hate how tender and different chicken tastes but it could just be from the recipes I've had. Best camp food I think I've ever had was during a week long river camping/fishing trip in the middle of nowhere in AZ with my buddy and a bunch of his coworkers. On the last day after we had all the fish gutted (small mouth bass) and bagged on ice, we kept enough out to cook. They had three friers going with different home recipes. Cajun spice, beer battered and some other recipe I can't remember. They made fish tacos with rice and beans and stuff. Ohhh myyyyy. I don't even like fish but I could have eaten those all day.




Side note, how is the weather in the bay area this time of the year? In a couple weeks I'll be down there from a bachelor party. More of an all night thing, like 3pm-next day. Should I dress for cold weather?

 

It's fine weather here in the South Bay. SF? You know what they say about cold weather in summer...

Shorts will probably be fine. Bring a sweatshirt.

 

Heh, I'm the complete opposite, I mean, I'll do prep at home if it makes sense, but I actually like doing prep at camp for stuff that's time sensitive like crushing garlic, cutting up onions, tomatoes, the only thing is I need to start 2 hours earlier than everyone else. My pizza took forever this past trip at slickrock since I had issues getting my oven to 350f.

But yes, if I'm moving about on the trail, I'm coming up with a better solution to cooking on the trail. I think the next trip we'll have hot ham and cheese sandwiches (with sear marks) for lunch.

Also, Ian, have you heard of the muff pot?

 

I didn't mean to imply no prep. Just trying to minimize what I need to do in camp.

Try cooking your pizza in a dutch oven. I'd never heard of a "muff pot" and had a pretty smart ass answer all prepped for you When I Googled it, I realized I'd see them before.

 

nono, I got that you wanted to minimize prep cuz u know, when you're camping u want to relax and make things more enjoyable. simple prep is preferable to feast type prep since it can be draining and the opposite of a relaxing vacation.

But yea, I was half hoping to see what kind of smart ass response you would have. Google foiled again.

 

Haha just making sure. I haven't been down there in ages but I remember it being cold every damn time.

 

Everytime I've been to a bachelor's party, I've ended up somehow in SF at Centerfolds or Gold Club. It's always cold in SF at night, so bring a windproof jacket just for the club, but keep it classy.

Also, bring plenty of singles.

 

Seth, I sent you a PM. I have a truck that fits what you are talking about I think....

 

Haha, this guys not about those kinds of clubs His bachelor party is still going to be awesome. Going to hit up a whiskey distillery, whiskey tasting, bar hopping, club hopping etc.

 

Damn. Planing on a hangover too? Hehe.
Hard alcohol and me is a no no!

Brett