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Cooking while camping is a fun challenge compared to cooking at home. You have fewer appliances and ingredients to work with but just as much need for delicious and hearty food.
Choosing what to bring on your camping trips is as much a choice of space as necessity–you only have so much room in your car and camper to pack things for cooking, and they can often come second place to gear for sleeping, swimming and exploring. Finding the right balance between what you absolutely need to bring and what is a luxury is crucial!
This list of camping cooking essentials is a great place to start when planning your next adventure, although you may like to add or remove gear to suit your style of cooking. Let’s dive into the must-haves that will allow you to cook a great variety of meals without taking up too much space.
Camp Oven
Source: Camping Adventures Campfire Quart Camp Oven
If you want to make the most of your camping experience, an absolute must-have for outdoor camp cooking is a cast iron camp oven. These amazing ovens cook food over your campfire, and the seasoned cast iron material ensures your food is always cooked evenly.
Camp ovens are usually large enough to cook a roast in, but they come in smaller and larger sizes. Their lids are flanged (meaning the edges are turned up), which allows you to place hot coals on top of the lid so heat is coming at the food from all sides. There will also be a carry handle you can use to move the oven around, although this should be handled with an iron poker and oven gloves when removing the oven from the fire.
Some camp ovens will come pre-seasoned, and some will not. Make sure to season your camp oven before use if it needs it. You can do this by heating the oven over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, then coat the entire inner surface of your oven with a thin layer of cooking oil. Basic oils you’ll have in your pantry, like vegetable or canola oil, will work well. Take the oven off the coals and let it absorb the oil for 45 minutes, then remove any excess oil with a paper towel. You can repeat these steps a few more times if you feel your oven needs it.
You can cook roasts, like a whole chicken or a leg of lamb, in a camp oven. You can also use it to make more unusual camp meals, such as bolognese, beef stew, seafood chowder, steak, lasagna, ramen and paella, or go traditional and make the classic loaf of damper!
A camp oven is one of the largest camping cooking essentials you’ll need, but its utility is worth finding the space to bring it with you. You can also store smaller bits and pieces inside them while you travel, such as bowls, food packets or washcloths, which will help you save space in other storage areas.
Camping Toaster
Source: Camping Adventures Companion Fold Down Stainless Steel Toaster
There’s nothing as tasty on a cold camping morning as some fresh, hot-buttered toast. But you can’t pack your toaster from home, nor can you just chuck your bread straight onto the fire–you need a camping toaster!
These unique cooking tools consist of a wire or gauze mesh plate fitted to a grid, which has a long handle extending from it. The entire piece is made from stainless steel, making it easy to clean and also able to resist high temperatures—which is needed because you’ll be cooking your toast over an open flame.
The long handle of this toasting device allows you to safely hold it over a fire while you cook your toast. Simply place the toast on the grid side (the mesh side should be on the bottom closest to the flames) and hold the device over the fire. The closer it is, the faster it will cook, and the more char your bread will get. Of course, you can also use this over a gas stove if you have one - you can usually rest the toaster on the stovetop without holding it the whole time, but you won’t have as wide a flame to work with.
Be careful when holding your camping toaster very close to the flames, as this can cause the mesh to become very hot and sometimes break. If this happens, don’t worry—you can easily buy replacement mesh refills that will slot into place of the old.
When done with your camping toaster, let it cool and shake out any crumbs from the mesh before giving it a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth. This small device is easy to store, as it is small and flat. Some even have a handle that folds up next to the grid, making them very easy to store in sliding drawers if needed.
BBQ Tongs
Cooking over an open fire is all fun and games until the time comes to remove your meal from the flames. Your everyday tongs are too short to help you do this safely, so it’s important to invest in a sturdy pair of BBQ tongs to get the job done.
BBQ tongs are very long and won’t feature any materials that can be easily damaged by fire. This allows you to safely use them over flames without burning yourself or having hot oil spit up at you. Stainless steel is the favourite material for these, and there will usually be some sort of handle with a wood or silicone grip to make it comfortable to hold and prevent any slips.
BBQ tongs can be used to move and flip food as it cooks, but they should also be strong enough to lift things like cooking trays and racks safely. Be very careful when using BBQ tongs to lift anything, and ensure the ends of the tongs have a firm grip before lifting, as you don’t want to drop anything in your fire!
These tongs will be easy to store in your utensils drawer, or you may like to hang them on a hook or clip to keep them within arm’s reach. Make sure your tongs have a working locking mechanism to keep them shut when not in use, as this will prevent them from jamming your drawers or getting tangled up with other cooking utensils.
Grill Gloves
An important piece of safety gear for cooking while camping is heatproof grill gloves. Like oven gloves at home, these gloves protect your hands from burning when handling gear like camp ovens, grill plates and trays.
Grill gloves are similar to oven gloves in the materials they are made from. The most popular combinations are heat-proof silicone or rubber and a bit of cotton for comfort. The cotton gives the gloves some flexibility and makes them comfortable to wear, while the rubber or silicone protects your hands from the heat.
You may want to use your grill gloves to reach directly into the fire to lift a lid or move some logs about–if this is the case, then make sure to choose gloves with extra-long cuffs to protect your wrists and forearms from the heat. When testing potential gloves you should also make sure you can flex your fingers properly in them, as stiff gloves will make it difficult to pick things up.
While a good pair of grill gloves will make it possible to hold very hot objects–such as flaming logs or hot pan lids–this should only be done for a very short period of time.
Never try to hold or carry hot objects with grill gloves for more than a few seconds, and make sure to check them after use to ensure there has been no discolouration or melting you need to be concerned about.
Utility Knife
Source: Camping Adventures Campfire 3pc Premium Knife Set
A high-quality knife is a must-have when camping, preferably one that can serve multiple purposes. You’ll want a knife that can slice veggies, cut through meat and carve up bread when you need it–all between washes, of course.
A type of knife loved for its utility is the humble chef’s knife. A chef’s knife has a blade that has a sloping top edge that ends in a sharp point, then a flat bottom edge. This sloping shape allows you to ‘rock’ the blade back and forth as you use it, making it very comfortable to use for long periods of time if needed.
You can use a chef’s knife to slice, dice, chop, mince and cut almost anything effectively. They are a bit heavier compared to smaller knives, but this also makes them better for chopping through larger food, as gravity can help you force the knife through.
The only thing chef’s knives aren’t great for is skinning and deboning - choose a small, sharp paring knife or a boning knife if you plan on cooking proteins that will need this type of preparation.
Avoid using knives that fold up for cooking, as germs can make their way into the crevices and gaps in these blades and become very hard to clean out. You may also like to take a knife sharpener or a whetstone with you if you only intend on using one knife to prep, as it may become dull over time with so much use.
Lighter
Source: Camping Adventures Soto Pocket Torch
You won’t be able to cook while camping without a fire, and you can’t start a fire without a good-quality lighter. While the classic pocket lighter can get the job done, it may be worth your while to invest in a better-quality camping lighter, depending on where you will be camping and what weather conditions you could experience.
Lighting campfires requires you to really reach in and light your firestarter - whether that’s a literal firestarter tablet or a few scrunched-up balls of newspaper. Choosing a lighter with a long barrel makes this much easier, and they are also safer if you need to relight your fire while it still has embers around the outside.
If you are camping in a place that is wet or windy, you should also look for lighters that can resist water and are windproof. Some lighters may refuse to spark if they are damp, while others won’t be able to sustain a flame. You may even like to find a lighter-torch combo that can make it easy to see what you are lighting in the dark!
Make sure to bring some extra fuel cartridges along with you to keep your lighter topped up at all times, and have more than one available in case you happen to lose or damage your lighter.
And More!
There are so many more camping cooking supplies that we couldn’t fit into this list! Food prep items like coolers and chopping boards, appliances like kettles, billys and gas stoves and, of course, the humble washcloth for drying. If you have space, we recommend bringing along your favourites of these to use while you camp too.
Look for hardy materials that are easy to clean and can resist the open flames of a campfire, as well as supplies that are easy to fold, roll and slide away for storage. Build a collection of your own camping cooking essentials you can take anywhere, so you can always cook your favourite meals on the go!
Do you need camping cooking equipment in Australia? Check out Camping Adventures for a wide range of quality camping cooking essentials.
Find All The Camp Cooking Supplies You Need At Our Camping Store in Melbourne
Camping trips don’t mean you have to forgo your favourite foods when you choose the right camp cooking equipment. And if you need a place to choose your gear from, Camping Adventures has you covered.
Camping Adventures Oz has been offering high-quality camping gear to our customers since we opened in Clyde North, Victoria, in 2015. Our team has travelled all across Australia, so we know what works best for cooking in our gorgeous outback landscapes. From boundless deserts and beaches to dense forests and rocky gorges, our camping gear can keep you safe and comfortable while you explore.
Contact us at 03 9708 2946 or fill in our online enquiry form with any questions you have about our cooking supplies. The team at our camping store in Melbourne will do their best to get back to you as soon as possible.
We’re keen to supply you with everything you need to get on the road–from quality gear to expert advice. You can rely on Camping Adventures to make your next outdoor adventure one to remember!
