HIGH SIERRA adventures

Skills and Tips    from your virtual guide

Backcountry Cooking Tips

It's all about advanced planning.

Let's face it...you probably aren't excited about having to prepare meals while you're camping. Whether it's because you just finished a long day of climbing, or you just don't feel like spending the time to wash up, prepare your food, cook it, and then finally clean everything up. It's tough doing all that on a camping trip.

So DON'T. Plan your meals for every day and prepare as much of them as you can while you're in the comfort of your own home. That way, you can focus on minimizing bulky items, consolidate foods that will be cooked together or for the same meal, and prepare and package other foods that can be cooked at home.

In the High Sierra, you need to make sure that you package your food and store it so that bears cannot raid your stash. There are several companies that make bear-proof plastic barrels that you can store food in. You can also rent or borrow these bear bins from the National Park Service at their wilderness offices. Given that you have to store all your food in these bear bins, you need to make sure that you can fit it all in there. So the goal is to MINIMIZE bulk.

For example, if you decide to eat pasta, you'll want to go with a spaghetti or other flat-like noodle. You wouldn't want to bring penne or any other type of cylindrical noodle because it takes up a lot of space. That is space that you need to put other food.

Do NOT bring canned food into the backcountry. For one, it is heavy to pack in. Secondly, you can't leave the metal can behind, so you have to pack it out. Therefore, your canned food is also heavy TRASH. Finally, cans are bulky and solid and do not conform to the container around them.

Pack food in plastic bags.
Plastic bags conform better to the container and empty space around them. In that way, they help minimize the amount of empty space and reduce bulk. Plastic bags can also be re-used for holding trash.

Measure your food at home.

With a measuring cup, determine how much of a certain food you'll need. Typically, 6 ounces of pasta is ONE serving. So if you plan on having one meal of pasta for 4 people, you should pack 24 ounces (6 oz x 4 people = 24 ounces). That's one and a half pounds of pasta. Put it in a plastic bag. Separate each meal into its own plastic bag so that you no longer have to measure when you're camping. That's less time, hastle, and cleanup not having to break out a measuring device. The less that you sort through bags, the less chance you create for possible cross-contamination also.

sanitation in the backcountry

Being clean and sanitary (without germs) is as simple as bringing a hand sanitizer. To some people, it may seem like overkill...but trust me...there's nothing worse than having diarhea in the woods. You want to prevent it.

Make sure you:

• sanitize your hands before eating
• sanitize your hands after urinating and defecating

tip: Dip your utensils in boiling water to sanitize them before eating.

cooking and cleaning in the backcountry

As long as you prepare for you camping adventure, you'll cook and clean your meals with ease. You can minimize the amount of pots and pans you have to use when you cook by knowing if each ingredient can be cooked with other things in the same pan. Make sure that you bring lightweight cooking pots. Titanium is the lightest and strongest, but hardly a necessity. Basic aluminum pots will do you just fine. If your cook set has a non-stick surface, make sure to use ONLY PLASTIC cooking utensils to stir or eat with since metal will scratch and ruin the teflon surface.

>food

Bring things like cheese to boost otherwise low-protein and low-fat meals. Bring things like tortillas and pitas because they're flat and still provide a lot of good carbohydrates. Bring nuts because they're high in protein and fat. Fatty foods like nuts give your body slow-burning fuel that will heat you well throughout the night. (tip eat fatty foods for dinner). If you can, cook a couple pounds of bacon and vacuum-seal it. If properly sealed, the bacon will be good until you open it. Add bacon to breakfast burritos, soups, quesadillas, pasta, or any time you want a great taste with less cooking. tip - bring small plastic bottles of olive oil and soy sauce, but make sure they have caps that seal tightly. It's a good idea to put all these small bottles in a resealable plastic bag so that if the bottles leak, they won't spill on food or your pack.

eatfreshvegetables
Some things like tomatoes and fresh fruit should be eaten in the first couple days otherwise they'll get crushed and messy over time. Some vegetables add another dimension to your backcountry cooking repetoire because of their light and durable qualities. A few are broccoli, zuchini squash, and onions.

Bring foods that you just add water. That's simple things like pancakes, instant rice, and falafel . Powdered eggs are actually quite good, and super-easy to make in the morning. Powdered Milk can be bland, but if you add some dry fruit or candy to your cereal, you'll never tell the difference. Plus, powdered milk makes some alfredo sauce mixes an option for the backcountry.

If you need to conserve fuel for your stove, foods like cous cous and instant oatmeal are great choices because you simply bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat off. You'll also want to have a lid to put on your pot so that you can boil water faster and steam vegetables quicker and better.

Dehydrate food yourself. You can buy a dehydrator for less than $30. Dehydrate fruit like plums and kiwi that retain all their taste when dehydrated, and shed all their water weight. Mushrooms are mainly water weight anyway, so they are perfect candidates for dehydration. They add visual and flavor appeal to any meal when allowed to rehydrated shortly in water.

Cleaning

Cleaning can be the last thing you ever want to do. But you can't put it off in the backcountry like you can at home. Bring a water bag. If you're out with just a few friends, then a 4-liter bag will be plenty. However, you might want a 6-liter bag for more than 4 people on a trip. Fill it up with filtered water only so that you can drink it as a camp water supply AND rinse off your dishes with it later.

advice: bring one paper-towel per person per day to wipe the food scraps off of your dishes. This accomplishes 2 things. First, you make it easier to clean your dishes without using a lot of water and soap (and elbow grease). Secondly, you gather all the big food scraps and pack them out in a plastic garbage bag instead of leaving them in a puddle of dish water for the squirrels and bears to raid.

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