Thread: Basic kitchen & food stuff list

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

....I want to get semi-dried and pack in oil. I did one lot in olive oil but it goes solid in the fridge....

there is a trick to this

try heating the oil to about 60 degrees and filling similarly pre-heated jars up, slap the lid on and the cooling down produces a vacuum... no need for fridge storage then

same can be done for jams, chutneys etc etc

those little pop-up buttons on jam jar lids indicate if the seal was sucessful or not.

We love cooking properly when camping. We start discussing menus on the UHF at about 10am and don't tend to stop until we pull in and set up camp. Sad but true.

My Must Have list:

Peugeot pepper grinder. - Ive heard of people living without them but they can't be happy. I take this everywhere, not just camping but to restaurants, friend's houses, holiday shacks etc. Sad but true.

Kiwi Brand cooks knife from, Thailand. Cost $3.95. Put your Wusthoff Trident knives away, you no longer need them.

A handy thing we have is a cook rack a mate made which folds up for travel (pic attached). Provides and shelf over the fire for pots and pans. Camp ovens can go on top in in the coals at the side

I dont worry about glasses as I never seem to pack them properly and they break so I bought a backpac picnic kit which all our cooking stuff other than billy, camp oven and frypan which goes in the box with the fold out grill which the hotplate sits on as well.

I also add my mate Jeff to cook the steaks and chops because they allways taste better when he does and the kids to do the washing up.

As for food, I get the butcher to vac pack meat in meal sizes for me at $1 extra per pkt and freeze it flat as I can so when I pack it in the weaco it doesnt take up extra space than what it needs to.

As for the weaco, I separate the top non frozen stuff and the bottom frozen stuff with a thin piece of poly styrene foam so it doesnt have to be working so hard and drawing a lot of power.

I try to pack as much tinned stuff as we will need to keep away from fresh fruit and veg that goes off quick unless were not away for long and I buy all the canned stuff when I get to the last place that I can so that Im not carrying it for hundreds of kms before I need it.

1 thing I have come accross that was a good idea was water purification tablets that you can get at places like Aussie Disposals or the like, they make water taste terrible but in a stretch it's better than getting sick from drinking contaminated water.

Water proof matches and some news paper and dry kindling I normaly put in the box of tools/parts etc just incase you have to get a fire going and there is nothing dry enough to start it.

The list is never ending and you allways change it depending on where you go and how many people are coming or how long your away for and if its summer or winter.

Great thread

Its the same with Coca Cola Im glad they have reintroduced the glass bottle Bit on the exxy side but tastes damn good with a burger n chips mmmm Burgers

Thankyou ladies u r correct we men can be a little remiss when it comes to bush tucker and how to process the meat not incinerate it.
When I pack to go camping I allways win points by packing the following secretly.
Powdered Milk.
Custard powder.
4 cans of either mixed fruit, pears,rice cream or apricots.
Also pack mixed nuts,dates,chocolate,milo,dried fruit.
Wheat bix, porridge.
Sometimes when I remmember I also pack curry powder,cinamin for cinamin toast oops nearly forgot fruit loaf to toast,
Well I hope u all have a sweat tooth?

Originally Posted by 100I

Coffee, tobacco, meat, beer and..
no that's it

Hear hear!!

With many years of outback living and camping under my hat u really need to have a good think, Read all the lists these guys and gals will offer, then think real hard will I use it?, I tend to carry only the absolute essentials and we never go with out, I personally am a very basic eater and I dont carry an Engel, I carry and old insulated tuckerbox esky for my tinnys, I carry enamel plates, bowls, mugs, dutch oven, cast iron pan, teapot billy, tripod, KFC sets a butchers roll with the essential knives and steel, army tin openers referred to a Freddys which is ****en rediculous eating device, some common utensils like egg flippers, long handled tongs etc I carry an old army hotbox which also doubles as a very good esky for keeping stuff cold for short periods and another big esky to pack the odds and sodds, dont forget tea towels, scourers, cooking spray or oil, detergent, a washing basin, dont clean your kit in the rivers,
Dont forget plenty of matches, firestarters and a bottle of kero for the stubborn fires, dunny paper, paper towel.
Tucker wise everyone packs differently, some like to eat 3 course meals under the stars, others not so adventurous and then theres me who eats everything out of tins,
But for some essentials I carry and this is all tinned stuff first , braised steak and onions, spag, beans, shoulder ham, spam, soups, butter, cheese, yes u can get tinned butter and cheese if u look hard, jam, golden syrup, condensed milk and coffee milk, there is a huge range of tinned food around u can eat quiet well, for the first couple days I have bacon, steak , snags, once the eskys wont cool it good enuff t keep I eat, I should really get an engel one day, I carry alotof flour I am talking a a new 20 litre paint drum with a airtight lock ring lid lined with a plastic garbag and full of bags of four, yeast, sugar, tea, coffeeif u drink it, I always carry lots of staminade for the water, I also carry plenty of powdered milk and some uht milk, I also have a smaller tin with bickys both sweet and dry, they will keep for a while , I dont mind stale bickys myself, I dont mind fried spam on fresh bread with sauce either, dont forget lots and lots of water, U will at least get an idea of what we carry, after each trip I work out what we didnt use and dont take it again, its always hard with kids to cater for them, let alone the missus, U will no doubt already have your own ideas of what u will take but theres always something that gets forgotten or just not thought about until u need it, far as actually cooking I always use woodfires where I can otherwise good old gas portable stove.

Who said we males incinerate everything? I will let u know I am a very good chef both at home and in the scrub, my missus and kids cringe and run off when I am defluffing rabbits or a goat etc, its gotta be done, My missus rarely cooks I do the lot, they come from miles around for my golden syrup pudding.