Cook outdoors; It鈥檚 simpler than it sounds
The April outdoors beckon with lots of options. Tomorrow is Youth Mentor Day for trout fishing, the trout season for everyone opens April 13, and spring turkey hunting starts two weeks later. Also, with mild temperatures and often brilliant sun, April is a great time for a hike on a trail or a canoe paddle on a stream or lake.
These pursuits offer their own justification, but there鈥檚 a way to add novelty and a sense of mild adventure to any fishing, hunting or hiking trip鈥搘ith food.
Food in some form is almost always a part of outdoor excursions. But, although convenient, a cold, store-bought hoagie crammed into a backpack falls short of an outdoor meal鈥檚 potential to make a day in the woods unforgettable. To make the most of outdoor meals, consider putting together the simple equipment needed to prepare hot, appetizing, and creative feasts in the outback.
It鈥檚 simpler than it sounds. Years ago, I bought one of those durable plastic storage bins stacked up by the hundreds in big-box retail stores. Mine is roughly two feet long, by a foot wide and 18 inches tall, and the lid just snaps into place. Inside, I can easily snug a coffee pot, some paper towels, a roll of foil, skillet, a nested set of pots, forks, cups, plus my spatula, various knives, can opener, and serving spoon rolled up in their canvas tote. Incidentals tucked into corners include some dish soap and scrub-pad, a fire-starting-kit in waterproof bag, and plastic vials of salt, pepper and鈥搊f utmost importance outdoors鈥揷hili powder.
Just last month I won a nice, hard-sided backpack in a raffle and am considering moving my 鈥渒itchen鈥� into it for even simpler transport.
Once you have the basics assembled, it鈥檚 convenient to grab and pack any time the impulse strikes. My bin fits easily into a canoe, the bed of a pickup or even on the back seat. With the basic gear in place, all you need is a heat source, a cooler to store the food itself, and some potable water for cooking, cleanup, and making coffee. Think of it as tail-gaiting in the woods.
Summer-time flea markets are a great place to find pre-owned and inexpensive cookware for outdoor use. This also saves on domestic strife likely to follow your pilfering the 鈥済ood stuff鈥� from the kitchen at home. At flea markets, I鈥檝e gleaned skillets, griddles, coffee pots, utensils, and hot-dog-roasting forks. Finding such 鈥渢reasures鈥� is nearly as enjoyable as the meals they鈥檒l later produce.
For a heat source, it鈥檚 hard to beat the modern camp stoves that burn propane. They鈥檙e more convenient than the older liquid-fuel models, but you do face the responsibility of finding a way to recycle spent bottles. The stove doesn鈥檛 need to be bulky or heavy. Today鈥檚 multiple-burner models fold up slim, and give you lots of flexibility, but the one-burner types are better than nothing, they screw right into the fuel bottle鈥檚 threaded cap, and take up about as much space as your fishing hat. Also, where it鈥檚 legal, permitted by landowners, and conditions are safe (early spring is prime time for wildfires), you can sometimes make an open fire to cook over.
I enjoy surprising companions during a mid-day break by firing up the camp stove and frying fresh-caught fish, venison burgers or grilling a steak over coals on occasion. This has gotten easier to do in later years when I became less obsessively focused on shooting a deer or catching my limit, which frees up time for kitchen duty and basking in companions鈥� appreciative praise. We鈥檝e even crammed the essentials into a daypack and enjoyed venison steaks with saut茅ed onions along cross-country ski trails in the mountains. There鈥檚 something about sharing food in the open air that cements an ancient human bond.
But an important point to remember is that outdoor meals don鈥檛 need to be complex to be a hit. Even some kielbasa steamed with sauerkraut on the tailgate of a pickup, then nestled in a bun, adds novel enjoyment to an outing.
Cooking outdoors may seem daunting, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Start simple and work up to more complex repasts. You never know when the fish will refuse to bite. If you can serve your mates deerburgers with mushrooms and bacon, nobody will care.
Ben Moyer is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America.