CHAPTER NINE

Cookware

When it comes to your camping kitchen gear, it’s all about buying smart and taking good care of your investments. I’ve never seen or heard of catastrophic pot failure of any sort, so you really don’t need to worry about repairs. For that reason, this chapter will focus on caring for your kitchenware, as well as a few tips on buying the stuff that’s best suited to your needs.

Choosing Your Weapon

You can spend as little as 15 bucks on an aluminum Boy Scout mess kit or you can drop hundreds on nonstick-coated titanium pots and pans—and there are dozens of options in between. Use this table to help identify the best type for you.

TYPE	IDEAL USER	PROS	CONS
Aluminum	Thrifty shoppers	Extremely affordable	Prone to denting and sticking
Stainless steel	People who are hard on gear, use it frequently, and want it to last	Extremely durable	Heavy and prone to sticking
Nonstick-coated aluminum	Gourmet backpackers	Light and great nonstick performance	Needs TLC; nonstick coating prone to wear and scratching
Hard anodized aluminum	Typical backpackers who want a good balance of weight, performance, durability, and price	Light, fairly nonstick, easy to clean, and affordable	Slightly less nonstick than coatings
Titanium	Ultralight freaks who only need to boil water	Extremely lightweight	Expensive and prone to sticking
Nonstick-coated titanium	Ultralight freaks who also cook food	Extremely lightweight and nonstick	Very expensive; nonstick prone to wear and scratching

Caring for Your Pots and Pans

PACKING

Unless you opt for stainless cookware (which is practically immune to dents and dings), take care when packing your cookset into your backpack. Don’t lash it onto the outside or pack it near the outer edges of the pack’s confines. Why? Because if you’re like me, you often drop your hefty pack with a thump at rest breaks and use it like a chair. If your cookware is nestled safely in the inner sanctum, surrounded by clothing, sleeping bag, and other padding, it’s far less likely to dent or fall out-of-round.

It’s always wise to use the space inside your pot as storage. Not only does it economize on space, but packing the pot full supports the sides of the vessel and can help prevent dents and bends. I often pack my stove, cup, bowl, and eating utensils inside, along with a little sponge and a small bottle of dish soap. Sometimes, if I’m packing in fresh vegetables or crackers, I’ll use that protected space to store those items and prevent them from bruising and breaking.

Don’t waste that space! The inside of a cook pot is a great place to store your kitchen stuff.

Another tip: If you use pots with nonstick coatings, a little extra care is required. Don’t pack any sharp items inside the pots, as they can scrape off the coating. Place stoves in little stuff sacks and layer a sheet of fabric between the nesting pots (I use a square of absorbent polyester pack towel, which also doubles as a dishcloth).

Protect your pots from scratching in transit with a piece of fabric layered between them.

CLEANING

Ah, dish duty. If given the choice between cooking and doing the dishes, I’ll choose cooking every time. But that’s just me. Luckily, lots of my trip partners gladly step up to the basin at the end of the meal.

It’s an important chore, too. Not only is it hygienically incorrect (and just plain gross) not to give your cooking pots a decent wash after the last bite of chili-mac is consumed, it’s important that you do it correctly to preserve the life of your pots.

If your cookware is uncoated stainless or aluminum, you have no worries. Food will certainly get crusted on the surface, and you can scrape it off with metal utensils and scrub away with steel wool—all with no ill effects.

But if your pots have a nonstick coating, you’ve got to go easy. Here’s the right way to do it:

Step 1: You’ve just finished eating, and the dishes need doing. Get your soap and wash rag ready. Use a camping-friendly, biodegradable soap, such as McNett Smart Suds, shown here.

Step 2: Begin by choosing your largest pot and filling it with water or, in the winter, snow.

Step 3: Heat the water over your stove until boiling. If you’re melting snow, add a little water to the bottom to prevent the pan from scorching and to help it melt faster.

Step 4: Split the heated water between two pans and add a small amount of soap to one of the pans. Let the water cool enough that it won’t burn you.

Step 5: Wash each dish with the rag in the soapy water and then dip it in the second pan to rinse.

Step 6: Strain out any food particles and carry them out in your trash bag. Scatter the used water at least 200 feet away from streams or other water sources.

Step 7: Voila! Clean dishes drying in the sun.

A LITTLE HELP FROM NATURE

If you forgot the sponge, look around you. There are lots of items about that make perfectly fine scrubbing implements: a pinecone, horsetail (my favorite), sand, and snow.

But don’t wash your dishes directly in a pond or creek: Human food and soap residue don’t do the fish any favors. Don’t dump leftovers behind a stump either. Pack out what you can’t eat, and if there are food remnants in your dishwater, strain them out and add them to your trash bag.

Horsetail is almost too pretty to be used as a pot scrubber, but it works great. It’s found in many parts of the United States, usually near water in wet, sandy, or clay-like soil.

Caring for Your Knife

Gooey peanut butter, greasy salami, ripe cheese, campfire tinder. These are just some of the items that your pocketknife faces, so it’s bound to get gunked up and dull.

A sharp knife is a good friend.

CLEANING

Knives are pretty tough. Wash ’em with soap and water and toss them in the dishwasher when you’re back home. Dry them well before storing to ensure no rust creeps in. And check all the tools. Do they fold in and out smoothly? If not, add a dab of cooking oil to the hinges and you’ll be back in business.

SHARPENING

A dull knife is a dangerous knife, so keep yours in good shape with periodic sharpening. There are several different methods.

Straight-edge knives

You’ve got two options when it comes to straight edges: either a honing stone or flat file (which requires a bit of technique) or a no-brainer guided sharpener (see figure 2).

Honing stones and files (see figure 1) are actually quite easy to use. Simply hold the knife’s blade at an angle that matches the beveling of the blade (for most knives it’s 20 degrees). Stroke the blade lightly down the stone, moving away from your body. Don’t apply pressure—the weight of the blade is enough, and lighter strokes produce a finer edge. Make an equal number of strokes on each side of the blade.

1. For best results, some whetstones and files need to be lubricated either with oil or water; others should be used dry. Check with the manufacturer of your tool.

2. So easy, it’s practically cheating. Just pull the knife along the fingers. Don’t try this with serrated knives, only smooth blades.

Guided knife sharpeners come in many forms, but the idea is that the position of the file(s) eliminates user error in terms of angle. Simply lay the blade in the guide and pull back gently, repeating the movement until the blade is sharp.

Serrated-edge knives

Serrated or partially serrated knives can be easily sharpened, provided you have the right tool and a bit of patience, as you have to work on each serration individually. Serrated sharpeners look almost like chopsticks with handles. The filing surface is rounded and tapered, with a skinny tip (for tiny serrations) that gets thicker up toward the handle (for larger serrations). Just hold the knife against a flat surface, with the serrations tilted up. Hold the tool parallel to the work surface and place it into the gullet (the valley in between the teeth) of the first serration. Use short (½-inch) back-and-forth strokes and rotate the file as you stroke. Ten or so strokes on each gullet should do the trick. Move down through the gullets, sharpening each one equally, and positioning the tool so that the diameter of the filing surface matches each gullet.

Don’t worry about sharpening the tips of a serrated blade’s teeth; it’s all about the sharpness of the gullet.

Dutch Ovens

I prize my big old twelve-quart dutch oven for campfire cooking. It weighs about as much as my fully loaded weekend pack, but for car camping with a big crowd, nothing beats it. I’ve made roasts, lasagna, cakes, crumbles, pizzas, biscuits, and stews. A good dutch oven is an heirloom. If you take proper care of it, you’ll be passing it down for generations to come.

Some dutch ovens come preseasoned, which is great, and means you can start cooking in them immediately. But seasoning is an ongoing process: Do it a couple times a year to keep your oven forever young. Here’s how to do it:

Dutch ovens are all about campfire cooking, cowboy-style. Build a nice hot bed of coals, place the dutch oven on top—get the type with little legs—and layer hot coals on the flat lid to create even, all-around heat.

1. Wash your oven in hot, soapy water. (Note: Unless you’ve got serious grease to contend with, this is the only time you’ll want use soap on your dutch oven. After this initial washing, it’s all about hot water and elbow grease, because soap washes off the seasoning.)
2. Rinse and dry it completely.
3. Using a paper towel as your applicator, rub a thin, even coating of melted shortening (like Crisco) all around the inside and outside of the oven. Don’t forget the lid.
4. Preheat your home oven to 350 degrees. Place your dutch oven upside down on the top rack and the lid beside it. On the bottom rack place a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil to catch the drippings. Bake for one hour, then turn the oven off and let your dutch oven rest inside until it’s completely cool.

More dutch oven tips:

• Never put it in the dishwasher.
• While on a trip, always wash it immediately after use, when the cast iron is still hot. Just use very hot water and a stiff scrubbing brush or a steel wool pad. If it’s still greasy, use an SOS pad (with its embedded soap), but be sure to reseason immediately.
• After washing, dry it thoroughly and give it a light spray with vegetable oil (like Pam). Then wipe it with a paper towel and store it with the lid off (so air can circulate).

Utensils

True gear wonks love their sporks. (Some call them foons, but the gist is the same: a combination of a fork and spoon so you can twirl your spaghetti and shovel your oatmeal with the same tool.) But whether you choose a spork, a foon, traditional cutlery, or chopsticks, you’ll need to pick your material:

• Titanium: ultralight
• Stainless steel: ultrastrong
• Plastic: ultracheap
• Bamboo: ultrahip

Eating utensils come in a rainbow of materials, each with its own pros and cons.