How to Cook in the Wilderness

Heading out into the wilderness doesn't have to mean you're condemned to eating nothing but granola and cold cheese. Here are some tips for locating your cook site and firing up the stove for a hot meal.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Waterproof Matches
• Dehydrated Foods
• Aluminum Cookpots
• Plastic Bags
• Spoons
• Water Containers
• Water Purifying Tablets
• Camp-stove Fuels
• Camping Mugs
• Camping Stoves
• Lighters
• Lighters
• Plastic bags
• Spoons

1. Use a stove instead of a campfire to prepare food. Stoves are faster and more convenient. Also, they don't damage the wilderness and won't blacken your pots.

2. Confine preparation to areas that are already worn at established campsites.

3. Set the stove on a level surface away from anything that will burn - including fuel, clothing, nylon, twigs and grass. Find a suitable existing spot rather than clearing a new spot.

4. Be sure to cook at least 200 yards away (and downwind) from your tent site if you're in bear country.

5. Keep matches and lighters in plastic bags to keep them dry. Even "waterproof" fire-starting devices will not work when truly wet.

6. Use your stove's windscreen, if it has one.

7. Have enough purified water on hand to make the entire meal.

8. Make sure the fuel valve is fully shut when you turn off the stove.

9. Take uneaten food with you when you leave a campsite so that wildlife won't become dependent on human food.

Tips & Warnings

• Exposed sand or the top of a big, flat rock are ideal spots to set up a stove.
• Water contamination from human use and pack animals is a big problem throughout the American wilderness, so avoid dipping dirty pots in a clean water source.

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on 9/2/2008 a- pick up cell phone b- order pizza c- enjoy!!

on 8/20/2006 Cleaning dishes and pots is a snap with sand. Collect water along with sand and wash your dishes, don't forget to clean up and discard water away from campsites and water sources.

Don't forget to rinse eating dishes and utensils with filtered water to avoid contamination!

on 11/22/2005 Coat the bottom of your pots with bar soap. It saves time on cleaning too!

on 11/22/2005 Naturally blacken your pots, or paint the bottoms with black stove paint. This will radiate the heat better, cook your meal faster, and conserve fuel.

on 11/22/2005 If you are cooking on a wood fire washing up liquid on the bottom of the pan will make getting the black off dead easy