How to Cook Bacon While Camping

There are lots of great foods to cook while camping. While you might be accustomed to your typical meal of hot dogs on a stick with a side of s’mores for dessert, it’s actually possible to up your culinary game during an overnight trip in the great outdoors. Breakfast might seem like the trickiest meal to pull off, especially if you’re craving bacon. But we’re here to prove you wrong. It’s really not all that difficult to cook up those long, slinky strips of meat in the middle of the woods after all.

1. Always use a cast-iron skillet.

Obviously if you have a camping stove powered by propane or butane, you can fry up bacon just like you would at home. This seems like kind of a no-brainer! But even so, you should still use a cast-iron skillet for the most ideal results. Because it conducts heat strongly and evenly, it’s one of the most dependable pieces of cookware around and transitions well from stovetops, to ovens, to campfires alike.

But what if you’re without fancy ovens and need to make bacon like your cavemen ancestors? (Okay, so cavemen probably didn’t have bacon or skillets or whatever, so just ignore this ill-conceived comparison.)

2. When cooking over an open fire, a grilling grate is your best friend.

When cooking bacon over an open fire, a cast-iron skillet is still the way to go. However be sure to put a grilling grate over the campfire first. By using a grate, you create an even surface for the skillet to lie on. This makes it much easier to cook anything, especially foods not suited for skewers and sticks.

While you can set the skillet directly on the grate, it’s best to monitor it at all times, since the flames will vary in heat and size. Because of the uneven heat levels, it may take a few tries to get the bacon just right, especially if you’re looking for sizzling results. Be sure to flip the strips frequently, as well. Just to make sure they’re cooked properly and to your liking on all sides.

3. Save that grease for cooking other foods.

Also once the bacon is cooked, don’t empty the grease from the pan. You can use the excess fat to help cook eggs or fry potatoes. That way they’ll be less likely to stick to the skillet and they’ll have an additional savory flavor. And if you’re looking for a caffeine boost, read our guide to making coffee while camping. Before you know it, you’ll have a complete breakfast to start off a day full of hikes, swims, and whatever else you nature lovers tend to do.

Related Video: 10 Delicious Facts About Bacon

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How to Roast a Marshmallow

There’s a lot to love about camping, but dessert might be near the top of the list, because sweet campfire treats means s’mores. The chocolate and graham crackers in the classic ooey gooey trio are both essential, but the sublimity of the miniature sandwich really hinges on the perfectly roasted marshmallow, which is both an art and a science. So how do you get that evenly golden-brown, crisp shell and warm, molten center?

One of the key factors is patience—this is not an endeavor where shortcuts yield an acceptable result. Thrust your marshmallow directly into the flames and it will catch fire and carbonize. Hold it just above the flames and the same thing will probably happen, though it may take longer, and you may be lulled into a false sense of assurance before the gentle bubbling and browning flashes over into bitter black immolation.

Allegedly, some people enjoy this style of charred marshmallow—cold, uncooked middle and all—but for the rest of us, a more measured approach is in order. Steps 3 and 4 are the most important, but it’s worth paying attention to all parts of the process for the perfect bite.

1. Choose Your Stick

This can be a metal skewer, multi-pronged or otherwise, with a wooden handle, or better, an actual stick you’ve sharpened and shaved the outer layers from (at least at the top portion where you’ll be impaling your marshmallow). Skewers may seem more sanitary, but they’re also more annoying to clean. Sticks are in keeping with the rustic spirit of camping, and can simply be tossed into the flames at the end of the trip. Plus, it’s more fun to hunt for the perfect one. If you want to put some more thought into it than simply searching for the stick that looks right, this guide covers different types of wood for roasting, but it’s usually an instinctual thing with the feel of ritual to it. The stick should, of course, be long enough to keep your hand comfortably away from the fire, and should not be flimsy or floppy. If it starts splintering into shards when you whittle the tip into a tiny spear, toss it and find a more suitable specimen.

Chowhound’s Campfire Fondue S’mores

2. Impale Your Marshmallow

Yes, it pays to take care here too. Stab it through the center since the marshmallow will sag and slide as its innards melt, and go all the way through the length of it so it doesn’t slip right off the tip of your stick as the airy, sugary puff heats up—but don’t thread it too far down or you’ll lose more of the melty goodness at its heart when you slide it back off to eat.

3. Find the Sweet Spot

Your fire should have burned down quite a bit by the time you’re ready to roast your marshmallows, and you want to find a natural concavity in the pile of logs where there are glowing embers but no active leaping flames. Hold your marshmallow about 5 to 8 inches above this spot—if you can rest the stick on the edge of the fire ring or on a rock to keep it steady and an even distance from the coals, all the better.

4. Rotate Frequently

Frequent rotation paired with the more consistent heat of glowing coals (as opposed to flames) is what gets you that delicately crisp and caramelized outer layer, like a thin crust of earth over the liquid magma center. Be vigilant and give your stick a quarter turn every 20 seconds or so—or more or less frequently, depending on how fast you see toasting happening. Keep turning your little spit until the outside of the marshmallow is evenly browned and crisp and the whole thing sags somewhat away from the stick.

5. Cool It

It’s hard not to chomp into your perfectly roasted marshmallow right away, but remember how it’s like magma? Yeah. Blow on it a bit to cool it down somewhat before biting in, lest you scorch your entire mouth and toast your taste buds in the process.

Chowhound’s Homemade Chocolate Graham Cracker S’mores

6. Enjoy!

A roasted and slightly cooled marshmallow is divine eaten on its own, nibbled straight off the stick (although if you use a metal skewer, be careful, since those stay searing hot and will be like a fire poker straight to the lips), but its greatest application is probably squished between chocolate and graham crackers. To dress it up a bit, try making bacon s’mores, or use chocolate graham crackers and peanut butter. True connoisseurs who prefer their marshmallows unadulterated can slip the toasty skin off to savor, and then roast the gooey inner core again—or stick it straight into the fire against all advice, because it is really hard to wait.

No Campfire?

No problem. You can fashion miniature marshmallow roasters from terracotta pots, or turn your sticks patiently above the flames of a propane stove if you must, even over a regular kitchen stove burner if you’re stuck at home—or broil them in your oven if that’s your best option. There is, of course, no better marshmallow than the one roasted over a glowing campfire under the stars, but any toasty, gooey marshmallow is better than none.

Related Video: How to Make Marshmallows

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This Award-Winning Intelligent Mug Could Be Yours!

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Grilled Tandoori Chicken Patties with Jalapeno-Mint Yogurt Sauce

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How to Eat So Well While Backpacking, It’s Like You’re Glamping

You’re more hardcore than those sissy campers who require all the regular luxuries and a vehicle within arm’s reach when they’re outdoors. When you’re backcountry backpacking, there’s nothing with you but what you carry on your back. But that doesn’t mean you have to eat MRE-type food (which isn’t that bad after a few days in the wilderness, truth be told). You can eat pasta with meat and vegetables, pancakes, and other dishes you wouldn’t expect. Here’s how.

First, bring frozen meat for your first couple days on the trail. Pre-cut or ground rock-solid beef, pork, or chicken can stay cold that long, especially if you’re hiking in high elevations. Save other proteins for later, like smoked meats, packed tuna, and beans. Then finish your journey with some delicious (no, really) freeze-dried meals. Brands such as Good to Go Foods and those found at R.E.I. and other outdoor-sports stores have high reviews.

Keep in mind, you have to carry everything you’re eating the next several days on your back. Everything. You want your food to be lightweight, compact,nutritious, require little more than adding boiling water, and be able to fit in a bear barrel. That is, unless you enjoy close encounters with hungry bears in the middle of the night when you’re peeing.

Fresh is best when the food is hard already, especially when it doesn’t need refrigeration anyway, such as apples, nuts, bell peppers, and corn on the cob for instance. Pasta and rice? So easy. Depending how long you’re trekking through nature with no stores in sight, you could even get away with no freeze-dried meals and still eat like a queen — if your journey isn’t longer than three nights or so. Five nights or longer, and you won’t want to load your back with too much weight, and those Good to Go Foods meals will taste amazing by that point.

Check out some of our favorite ideas, plus more on our Campsite Cooking page.

BREAKFAST

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

Dirty Gourmet

If you have a relaxing morning planned, in which there’s no need to pack up camp and head on the trail right away, make some ‘cakes. They perfectly with coffee (which you can also make while camping, trust us and check out our guide.) The ingredients are shelf stable, and it feels amazing to have a pile of flapjacks as you sit among the trees. Flannel not included. Get the recipe.

Breakfast Scramble with Sun-Dried Peppers and Spinach

Fresh off the Grid

Use OvaEasy egg crystals, the closest-tasting dried eggs to the fresh thing and available at REI and Amazon. Add some spices to the eggs before you head out, and then all you need to do is add hot water and the vegetables. Some whole wheat pita or wraps would be good with these eggs too. Get the recipe.

Figgy Fuel Bars

Chowhound

You need to fuel up for your day. It’s no joke on the trail. Use these jam-packed bars full of almonds, brown rice cereal, Medjool dates, and sticky-sweet black Mission figs to get you going in the morning, or as a snack along the way. Get our Figgy Fuel Bars.

LUNCH

Pepperoni and Cheese Quesadilla

Trail Recipes

This seems so easy, it’s a no-brainer. Add some bell peppers, olives, artichokes, or whatever else you can carry that can keep well a few days if you want more vegetables on your pizza-dilla. Get the recipe.

Apple Cinnamon Peanut Butter Bagels

The Spiffy Cookie

Bagels are a good bread to bring because they’re hardy and won’t smush in your backpack. They do take up more space than say, pita or tortillas, but they’re arguably more filling too. Add apple slices and your favorite nut butter or cheese for a well-rounded meal. Get the recipe (if you need it).

DINNER

Campfire Couscous with Zucchini and Pine Nuts

Chowhound

With fresh zucchini, you’ll want to eat this in the first few days of your backpacking trip so your green squash doesn’t get too beat up. But that’s no problem. Couscous cooks in less than five minutes. Add some frozen meatballs or chicken chunks, some packaged tuna or salmon, or beans for a hit of protein. Get our Campfire Couscous with Zucchini and Pine Nuts recipe.

Smoked Sausage Jambalaya

Seattle Backpackers Magazine

You don’t need many ingredients to make this filling, Creole-spiced dish a reality on the trail, and it can last until your final couple days. Get the recipe.

Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas

ThruEat

The trick here is either to use dehydrated spinach and peas or bring the vegetables along another way. You could always take it frozen and make this your dinner on evening one or two. Get the recipe.

DESSERT

Fudgy Toffee Pecan Cookies 

Chowhound

While these cookies meet the rich, gooey, crunchy requirements of awesomeness, any cookie can work, or candy bars, or a treat that makes the evening feel special as you reflect on all that you’ve seen so far that day. Oh, the places you’ve been. Get our Fudgy Toffee Pecan Cookies recipe.

SNACKS

Chowhound

It’s always a good idea to carry a snack or two in the cargo pockets of your pants or in an easily reachable pocket in your backpack — you know, trail mix, granola bars, and the like. You can make them, buy them, or try less typical snacks, like these Biena Chickpea Snacks in Rockin’ Ranch, our favorite flavor, or these Nutzzo single-serving packets of butter made from seven nuts and seeds. (Don’t tear the Nutzzo packets with your teeth. Your lips can get cut. Don’t ask…)

Related Video: 12 S’mores Recipe That Put a Twist on the Campfire Classic

— Check out my own menu when I went backcountry backpacking for six days, five nights in Yellowstone National Park.

— Head photo: Thermarestblog.

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6 Make-Ahead Casseroles for Back to School

Cheesy casseroles for the win! From Buffalo Chicken Lasagna to Tater Tot Casserole, we’re lining up a few of our faves in partnership with Castello Cheese.

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Zucchini Lasagna Roll-Ups

Think of these zucchini roll-ups as like lasagna, but without the pasta! Precooking the zucchini softens it enough to roll it up with some cheese and herbs. Top with a quick fresh stovetop tomato sauce, bake, and serve!

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