As much as I love camping, little is more frustrating than trying to make food in the middle of nowhere only to find you don’t have the right equipment. It’s like cooking in someone else’s kitchen: it’s really hard and the food doesn’t taste as good. Unless you are prepared and comfortable with your equipment, that is.
We’ve taken about six years to build up our camping kit, so this isn’t a shopping list of must haves – rather, it’s a ‘nice to have’ list to give you an idea of how camping with a babe in arms can be made simpler.
This also varies depending on where you’re camping and for how long. A weekend music festival will have different needs to a month long touring holiday. This is our full kit, geared towards a longer, low budget (i.e. less restaurants) holiday.
- Gas stove and gas cylinder
- You don’t have to have these. You could build a fire each time you wanted to cook, but that is such hard work and it is quite time consuming. Also, not all camp sites allow open fires. We have a two ring stove with a grill, but a single burner will do the job just fine too.
- Pots and pans
- These are next on our shopping list – at the moment we bring a frying pan and a pot from home. We like pasta, so we also bring a colander. There are much more space efficient options like the mess tin sets.
- Your camping kettle. I love the old fashioned ones that whistle when the water is boiling.
- Matches
- As a non-smoker, matches never enter my thoughts, until I have a pot of water and no way of heating it! I’ve had to beg around many a camp site for matches! Now we keep two boxes in our picnic basket so that we’ll never be without again.
- Utensils
- Depending on your food choices, this might vary, but to us the essentials are knives, forks, spoons, a heat resistant mixing/serving/salad/stirring spoon, spatula, bread knife and a sharp vegetable knife. Make sure to get einweggeschirr bio for an eco friendly choice.
- Crockery
- A plate, bowl and cup for each person. We also have pyrex wine glasses which slot in to each other when the base is clipped off.
- A mixing bowl is also quite useful. You can use the pot or one of the bowls, but that can b++e troublesome.
- Miscellaneous
- A roll of tinfoil lives in our picnic basket. It comes in so useful with outdoor cooking, either as a wind shield, or as an additional pot. For years we wrapped veggies and fish in tinfoil with a splash of olive oil and herbs and put it on the fire for our dinner.
- A pair of scissors – otherwise you may find yourself hacking at packaging with your car keys.
- A bottle opener, and a tin opener.
- A wash cloth and small bottle of washing up liquid
- Serviettes or wet wipes
- Portable or compact scales in case you need to weigh your ingredients. Shop now and get the best deals.
- Cool box
- Useful, but not for long periods and not on especially hot days. Once the ice has melted, the cool box becomes as warm as everything else, unfortunately – although adding newspaper to your cool box will extend the life of the cold.
- Food
- Salt, pepper, sugar and a jar of mixed herbs all in leak-proof, ant-proof, sealed containers.
Is there anything else that is an essential in your kitchen camping kit, or do you think I’ve missed anything out? Please let me know in the comments below!