Camping is all about spending some quality time with your loved ones nestled in the lap of nature. Away from civilization, you enjoy quality time with your loved ones with fire, stories, and food.
Therefore, to make sure that the experience is enjoyable for all, it is undeniably important that you manage the food department of it well.
And one of the most enjoyable things you can enjoy on a camping trip is barbecue! Something that is delicious no matter what, but is even more memorable when it’s in the lap of nature.
However, it’s not going to be as easy as doing it at home. Veterans of camping are very well aware of it.
Hence here we are with all you need to know about arranging an enjoyable barbecue while camping in the woods!
1. Get the right equipment
Barbecuing in the woods will need a lot of equipment. BBQ enthusiasts know how painfully preparation dependent this process is.
But when you are about to be out in the woods, you cannot and should not carry everything that you use while barbecuing at home.
Careful and methodical planning is always necessary because you don’t want to be weighed down by your stuff. Therefore, spend a liberal amount of time in picking up the right equipment as it’ll be worth it.
It’s a no-brainer that a grill is the most important one of them. Therefore, you should take a look at www.grownupthinking.com to know what’s the best grill for your next camping trip!
2. Choosing the right location
Even if you plan to just roast some marshmallows and call it a night, scoping out the location first is important. But when you plan to barbecue on a camping trip, then it is quintessential!
Not only it is important to see if the place is free of insects and pests, but it should also have a nearby water source and clean and open land space. It’s important for safety reasons and it’ll also make barbecuing extremely easy.
You should also be aware that there are no predators or scavengers nearby because you won’t be the only one who can smell the delicious smell of barbecue dishes.
Remember that location scoping is necessary for the smooth sailing of your trip.
3. Adapt your cooking
While the secret to a great barbecue will always remain to be patience, it is even more important while cooking in the woods.
The lack of ideal atmosphere, all the resources and ingredients will slow down your cooking. Also, the meat and veggies will change their flavors because you wouldn’t be able to manipulate the wood as often and precisely as you’d be able to at home.
So, adapt your cooking. Be more patient and try to mess with the fuel as less as possible. Plan out your cooking prior and understand what order of ingredients on the grill will give the best results.
Don’t shy away from looking for and learning from different resources. There are always more camp cooking tips that will definitely make your trip better and easier.
4. Hunt and forage wisely
People who got out on camping want to have as authentic of an experience as possible. So, they try to hunt and forage the ingredients.
While it is extremely fun and exciting to do hunting and foraging, people tend to forget how one wrong decision can ruin the entire trip.
Therefore, if you plan on to do hunting or foraging make sure that either you or someone in your group know about the flora and fauna of your camping site.
It’s not enough to just have a person who knows about hunting or foraging in general, but someone who has had experience in that specific location.
If that’s the requirement you can meet, only then proceed to use the ingredients fetched during the trip.
Turkey being one of the most reliable, delicious, and safe meat sources is surely one of the best meats to seek. But hunting turkey is an art, so, we definitely recommend you to look up for some Turkey hunting tips.
And in any case, do bring enough ingredients that are safely stored with you (more on that in the following section) from home that can feed your entire group. Don’t completely rely on your collected food items.
5. Keep your ingredients safe
It’s a no brainer that keeping your food safe is the most important job while camping. But if you plan to barbecue, then you’ll have to be a lot more careful because almost all of your food items are going to be perishable.
Moreover, fresh meat and vegetables are the most vulnerable to parasites and pathogens. Therefore, plan out your storage beforehand so that you don’t spoil your food.
Pack the meat and veggies separately in airtight containers. Once packed, don’t take it out before the point it’s ready to cook. Also, store the containers in an ice case and fill it up with freezer packs or blocks of ice.
One pro tip is to freeze the meat the night before you leave to camp. That way the meat will have the least chance of carrying pathogens before getting stored before the trip.
6. Pack your meds right
While you’ll, of course, pack a first aid kit for your camping trip, make sure that you don’t forget to include all the medicines related to indigestion problems.
It may not be very important in regular camping trips but if you plan on barbecuing, indigestion problems have higher chances to show up.
So, remember to pack diarrhea medicines, nausea medicines, vomit inhibitors, and acidity medicines.
Conclusion
So, that’ll be all for this guide.
We tried to include the fundamentals and more to barbecuing on a camping trip. While some of our advice dealt with cooking practices and ingredients, most tackled with the preparation.
And that is the key to an enjoyable barbecue in the woods - management. Planning and precautions will make sure that your trip remains enjoyable even if adversity hits.
With that, we hope this was helpful to you and thank you for reading.