camping cowboy meals

[Highwall]

My dad and I would take trips to Wyoming to fish when I was young. Our favorite spot was Keyhole lake.

With a well seasoned cast iron fry pan, dad would fry up some bacon with onions and potatoes and carrots.

It tasted so good, I forget what fish we caught.🙃

Then for breakfast he would open a can of cornbeef hash and mix it in with eggs and top it with grilled buttered toast.

Steak and beans was another favorite of his. He always started his outdoor cooking with butter and onions.  

Deep fried thin Spam slices was another favorite of mine with northern beans. 

Fried trout filets with lemon pepper was enjoyed too! 

In rare occasions he would down a rabbit and roast it over an open fire with just salt and pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

[Yul Lose]

When I lived up in Sheridan we’d fish Keyhole Reservoir for walleye, sauger and norther pike so good chance some of the fish your dad cooked were some of those.

[Highwall]

Yep, savory walleye sauteed in butter! Good stuff Maynard!

[watab kid]

sounds fun and appetizing , we [my childhood friends and i] had variations of those meals when camping , we added wild asparagus and crayfish when we could find them as well as butter fried morels 

 

oh and a nice slice of raw sweet onion on that fried fish sandwich 

[Pat Riot]

I used to camp a lot and I camped alone - hunting, mostly. 
I got really good at camp cooking and a fire pit, my camp stove and my cast iron were my kitchen. 
My idea of eating while camping was a bit different from other folk’s and traditional camp food. 
I would make things like:

- Steak with steamed veggies and rice and Dutch oven biscuits.

- Roasted chicken with onion, carrots, potatoes and peppers in my Dutch ovens.

- Chili and biscuits

- Biscuits and gravy

- Ground meat with onions, peppers mixed with wild rice with lots of butter, salt & pepper

- Cheese omelettes with bacon and sausage.

- Dutch oven chicken wings.

Stuff like that ^^^ and more. 
 

When I took my wife and daughter and usually a friend or two of my daughters I would impress them with my camp meals.  
Truth be told I started to get creative with camp cooking to impress my wife. 
 

Back in the 80’s I was an avid rock climber. All the guys I climbed with had this thing where everything you would need for the weekend, including food, must fit in your backpack. 
That was fun for exactly 3 weekend trips then me and a good friend changed the rules. We started bringing a camp stove and a cooler and a little creativity. 
On rock climbing trips we would have dinners like:

- Chicken Fajitas

- Chicken or beef stir fry

- Steaks with roasted potatoes and salad

- Street tacos

Mostly things you could make on a camp stove or over a fire pit. 
Years later I incorporated cast iron cooking. 
 

There’s no reason to camp and eat dehydrated cardboard for your meals. A little creativity can go a long way and DO NOT forget plenty of water and soap for cleanup. 

[MizPete]

Gourmet campers!  Who knew?

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

On successful big game hunting trips, we always celebrate with some fresh game backstrap. We also fry up some fresh game heart steaks. None of us are liver eaters, so it stays in the gut pile. 

 

Fresh fried potatoes with onions goes along with it. Bacon wrapped backstrap that is still pink from the grill, nothing better. The breaded, fried heart is wonderful for sandwiches for a trail lunch when hunting. 

[Sheriff Dill]

16 hours ago, Highwall said:

Yep, savory walleye sauteed in butter! Good stuff Maynard!

The small scallop cheek meat is the best. I used to fish walleye on lake Champlain and the rivers here in VT. My biggest was 8 lbs and won a fishing derby with it back in 95 when I was 12

[Sheriff Dill]

1 hour ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

On successful big game hunting trips, we always celebrate with some fresh game backstrap. We also fry up some fresh game heart steaks. None of us are liver eaters, so it stays in the gut pile. 

 

Fresh fried potatoes with onions goes along with it. Bacon wrapped backstrap that is still pink from the grill, nothing better. The breaded, fried heart is wonderful for sandwiches for a trail lunch when hunting. 

Smoked deer heart was a staple at camp growing up. 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

Good topic!  

 

Thinkin' back to my teen days - don't recall if the tip came from some old timer or if I read it in Field & Stream (anyone remember "Tap's Tips?")... but on the topic of cleanup:  "See that hole in the skillet's handle? Tie a line to that handle and toss that skillet into the lake.  But be sure to tie the other end to something first!  Anyhoo, when ya reel it in to cook breakfast, it'll be clean!"

 

Danged if it wasn't!  Dunno what "grazed" on the scrapings; don't know if I want to know ~ but it sure made skillet cleanup easy!  

[Rip Snorter]

That hole is also a rest for a wooden spoon!

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

20 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

That hole is also a rest for a wooden spoon!

 

I've heard that... mine don't fit!  

[Rip Snorter]

2 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

I've heard that... mine don't fit!  

Nearly all my iron is family stuff, some handed down several generations, but the trick even seems to work on a relatively new Wagner.  Some of the wooden spoons are pretty ancient as well.

[Stump Water]

20 hours ago, Highwall said:

He always started his outdoor cooking with butter and onions.  

 

Good way to start a LOT of meals/dishes, outdoors or in.

[Highwall]

Baked beans with chopped onions and sliced up brats fried with bacon and topped with mild cheddar!

Good sopping up leavings for biscuits.

 

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Dad and I used to take eggs along, too.  He had a trick: He had about four dozen of the old Alka-Seltzer bottles. (I'd love to find a cache of those bottles.  I have no real use for them any more but I'd still like for the nostalgia) He'd crack  six eggs and put them one at a time in one of those bottles, put a piece of wax paper over the top and screw the lid back on.  He had a few net bags that held six or seven of those bottles and we'd put them in those ice cold Rocky Mountain streams and they'd keep for a week or so.  He did he same thing with butter in half pint Mason  jars,  and a canteen or two full of milk.  

Mother Nature's fridge.

 

He always made a mix of flour and seasonings for the fish (generally one of three types of trout), and a flapjack mix with a jar of maple syrup.  They were kept in some cotton canvas string top bags.

 

We also used the skillet in the stream trick, too.

 

Heavy load but we were seldom more than a few yards from the car and it all fir in a couple of war surplus gas mask bags.  We ate well.

 

Hunting was a different story.  We took along home made jerky or pemmican, apples, sour dough biscuits, carrots, candy bars, and other things that would fit in our pockets.  Add canned beans, chili, soups and a few other things that were left in the car.  Refrigeration was suppled by snow or what Dad called "wild ice" busted out of streams or ponds...or frozen puddles.  Ate well then, too.

[watab kid]

9 hours ago, MizPete said:

Gourmet campers!  Who knew?

when my wife and i camp we eat well , she is that gourmet cook and we spent years camping so it doesnt matter i=f we are at home or over a wood camp fire , we eat well , sometimes too well , ive been known to gain weight when traveling with her and thats not my norm , im usually very stable within a few pound's