General advice on camp cooking

Soaking beans and peas

Always soak them overnight, most of them need 12 to 24 hours of soaking. And don't use the soaking water : when you soak beans and peas, most of the gasforming elements will go into the water which then of course should be thrown away. Most of us don't like this gas to develop inside our digestion system.

Red kidney beans : have a lot of this gasforming element. So it's good to change the soaking water 2 or 3 times while they are soaking. Also rinse them when you change the water.

Only lentils don't need to soak.

Beans and peas grow while soaking. So, fill only halve a container with the beans/peas and fill it up with water then.
If you fill a container up to the brim, loads of beans/peas will escape.

Vegetables

Salt and herbs and spices

A basis of herbs and spices we put in as early as possible, e.g. after frying the basic onions. The longer most herbs are in it, the more taste they give. Don't put too much in it in the beginning (especially with hot spices : it's easier to add some later than to take some out if you've put in too much.

However, some herbs and spices should be added in the end because they shouldn't boil. Then they lose taste and/or much of their nutrition value. Garam massala, parsley (SV persilja, SF ) and horse radish (SV peppar rot, SF pipparjuuri) are some of them.

Watch out when you add garlic. It's good to fry it in the beginning, when the onions are already fried. Garlic fries very fast (much faster than the onions) and it easily burns and then gives a bitter taste.

• if there isn't enough salt in the food and you have to add salt on your plate, you'll need much more of it to get the same effect
• salt binds the taste of the vegetables, so the taste doesn’t escape with the vapour or if/when you have to throw out the boiling water.

Salads

Salads are best prepared at the end, so they stay as fresh as possible. Don't however underestimate the time for cleaning and cutting or especially grating the salad veggies.

Watch out when adding vinegar : often you come across somebody terribly allergic to vinegar (look at the allergy list). The best solution is the to take out a portion for the allergics and only then add the vinegar for the rest. Vinegar however helps to keep the veggies fresh for a longer time.

Leftovers

Labelling

Always mark/label leftovers. Write on it what is in the container + put a DATE on it.
Don't use leftovers older than 2 days, certainly when the storing place is not very cold.

Porridge

• Porridge leftovers can easily be mixed in / used for bread dough later.
  You can also bake wonderful cookies from it, especially if the porridge already contains some coco, raisins, nuts, ... A
  nd nobody will mind if you use leftovers like this, except maybe if you want to do this while the dinner is being prepared and the fireplace isn't big enough to handle both project.
• Porridge leftovers can easily be mixed with new porridge.
  When the new porridge is almost ready to take off the fire, you can add the old porridge.
  Break the lumps into small pieces or squeeze them through you fingers and stir well.
  However don't do this every day, because otherwise you got some 5-day-old porridge which went into the porridge again 4 days ago, of which the leftovers went into the porridge 3 days ago ...

• Porridge leftovers can easily be mixed in / used for bread dough later.
• Porridge leftovers can easily be mixed with new porridge. When the new porridge is almost ready to take off the fire, you can add the old porridge. Break the lumps into small pieces or squeeze them through you fingers and stir well.

Don't do this every day, because otherwise you got some 5-day-old porridge which went into the porridge 4 days ago, of which the leftover went into the porridge 3 days ago …

Rice/grains/millet/quinoa/...

• These can, in small quantities, be mixed in stew, soup, … the day after. It will make the stew/soup thicker (and easier to burn !!!).So add this only in the end !
• Warming up : Boil a large quantity of water (with a bit of salt) and then put in the ready rice, grains, … from the day before (break / crush the lumps if necessary).
  Keep on the fire for a few minutes, but don't stir too much. Throw out the water.

Pasta/couscous/bulgur/...

• Pasta leftovers can easily be used in salads. Also couscous and bulgur leftovers could be added to salads or bean-salads. Don't use it in stews or soups, because to be in it for half an hour or more is not a good idea for pasta.
• Pasta, couscous and bulgur can also be warmed up :
  • Boil a large quantity lightly salted water, let the pasta, couscous or bulgur soak for 1 or 2 minutes, and the throw out the water.
  • Pasta, couscous and bulgur can also be fried for a short while or baked in the oven, with mushrooms, seitan, onion and some veggies. Use them only in a frying dish that doesn't need any water or other liquid. Watch out: if the frying oil isn't hot enough, they might suck up quite a lot of oil and you get very unhealthy, badtasting oily lumps for food !!!

Salads

One day old salad can easily be used into the next day's stew or soup.

Munchies

One day old food can easily be used in case some children or other people get extremely hungry during the day (especially if breakfast was too early for them, … or they were too late for breakfast).
It might save the food store from hungry wolves crawling around and it avoids problems/arguments with people who feel they have to guard or even hide the food from looters and munchers.

Add a serving spoon.
Otherwise everybody will use his hands or his own spoon. Also for one-day-old food, it is as unhygienic as for fresh food in the circle.

Tricks: never/always do...

Salt

As has been mentioned earlier on this page, please don't forget salt, especially some in the beginning of the cooking process.

• if there isn't enough salt in the food and you have to add salt on your plate, you'll need much more of it to get the same effect
• salt binds the taste of the vegetables, so the taste doesn’t escape with the vapour or if/when you have to throw out the boiling water.

Stirring

Try to avoid as much as possible stirring rice, pasta, bulgur, .... You will break the structure and you will probably end up with a whitish blubber, which will burn in the bottom anyway.

Be sure to have enough water in the pot (not too much, because it is hard to pour off a hot pot of 50 litres, especially with a small strainer). It's better to bring things to a boiling point, keep it on the fire for a short while (especially pasta and rice a bit longer) and then take it off the fire. Put the pot in some corner with a lid on it, and things will swell, take up the necessary water, and get ready. Check once in a while if there is enough water in it.

Boiling water

You should always have some boiling water around to add if necessary.
It's never good to add cold water to any hot boiling dish. If you would add cold water to porridge, pasta, ... you might have to wait until things start boiling again, but on the other hand, your grains will be soaking for a longer time. This makes timing really complicated.

You could use some of the boiling water to quickly make some coffee or tea if needed in the kitchen.
If you have a big pot of boiling water, you can always take some out if you need to wash up some kitchen tools in between (don't forget to mix it with cold water, please).

If you have been boiling water and you haven't needed it for the meal, leave it on the fireplace, preferably with a lid on it. Then you have hot water for the washing up afterwards, which is nicer, and so much easier to clean especially oily plates and pots.