Camping Food Troubles - 7 Major Causes

Technorati tags: camping, camping recipes, camping food.

When camping, good food has the power to make breathtaking sunsets more beautiful, rainy days less of a drag and good friends even more fun to be around.

Take care to avoid these camping kitchen mistakes

#1. Not Keeping Hot Foods Hot

If you like your meats at the borderline USDA approved internal temperatures, don't forget to bring your meat thermometer. It doesn't take a lot of room:

• Steaks and fish - 145 °F
• Pork - 160 °F
• Ground Beef - 160 °F
• Egg Dishes - 160 °F
• Chicken - 165 °F

#2. Not Keeping Cold Foods Cold

Your camping cooler is your best friend, if you treat him right. For example, it baffles me how people put coolers under direct sun for hours, or expect a cooler to still keep food cold and safe when the ice packs have completely defrosted.

The other mistake is not packing foods in reserve order (first foods packed should be the last foods used) so they're opening the cooler ten times each meal rummaging from top to bottom.

#3. Attracting Bears and Other Critters

We all know to toss that garbage away from the campsite at night. But don’t forget to clean the barbecue grills, pick up fallen tree fruit, and to put away your pet’s food.

If you think burying or burning your excess food takes care of it, don't. Bears can still smell the inviting residual aromas.

#4. Not Washing Your Hands

There’s something about being in the outdoors that make us feel tougher, hardier that we can bend a few rules. Don’t bend this one. Bring lots of wet wipes – baby wet wipes work well – and leave them around in the camp kitchen.

#5. Drinking Contaminated Water

Don’t get fooled by the sparkling, crystal clear, fresh water in that beautiful lake or stream. There is no way to know what pathogens thrive in that lake or what might have fallen into the water upstream. Bring bottled or tap water for drinking.

There are things like tablets, purification systems, boiling techniques, etc. - leave that to the backpackers who have no choice. If you drive to the campsite, just pack a few of those 5 gallon water jugs with built-in spout that you can get from the grocery stores.

#6. Mess and Clutter in the Camp Kitchen.

Reusing plates and utensils that have been used for raw meat; juices dripping from meats you didn’t double-wrap; unclean surfaces cross-contaminating other foods. Keep your camp kitchen clean and clutter-free to prevent mix-ups and accidents. By the way, do you know a big cause for disorganized camp kitchens? It’s from trying to make complicated chicken-cordon-bleu menus. You’ll find simple but delicious 2-step camping menus here.

#7. Not Having Enough Food

We usually camp with a bunch of kids. Did you know that appetites double outdoors? Running out of food can cause big troubles, believe me. Whatever food you run out, don’t run out of ingredients for s’mores. Click here for interesting twists to this camping favorite.

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