As summer comes to a close and cooler weather plays peekaboo, many of us may be putting away our camping gear.
Don’t do it just yet – because now is the perfect time to camp!
It’s not too hot, not too cold, and the mosquitos are fat and full from feasting on others. But why are we talking about camping? Because we are interested in camp foods and cookware of course. So let’s start at the beginning.
Camping for fun
Surprising, maybe only to me, camping became a recreational activity in the late 1800s. Published authors Henry David Thoreau, William H.H. Murray, and Charles Dudley Warner inspired people to get out and explore. In 1869 William H.H. Murray published the first recreational camping guide, Adventures in the Wilderness, with a meal for campers to try :
“…up in the woods you take a pancake, twelve inches across, (just the diameter of the pan) and one inch thick, and go conscientiously to work to surround it. You seize a trout ten or fourteen inches long, and send it speedily to that bourne from whence no trout returns…You lay hold a quart pan full of liquid which has the shmack of real Java to it; made pungent with a sprinkling of Mocha; and the first you know you see your face in the bottom of the dish.” (pg 127, Murray)
Another example of a hearty camp meal was provided by Ernest Hemingway for his 1920 article, “Camping Out,” published in the Toronto Daily Star. Hemingway’s recipe calls for a breaded trout cooked with lard underneath and bacon on top. Serve with skillet pancakes and coffee. Serve the pancakes as an appetizer, with apple butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Use your stew kettle to soak dried apricots, and boil water for dishes. Hemingway’s recipe is a jazzed-up version of Murray’s. People really liked pancakes and fish.
What I noticed about Hemingway’s article is that one must pack at least 2 skillets, a coffee pot, stew kettle, and utensils to create 1 meal.
Once the car was invented and people could afford them, campers would take their cars into the forest and camp wherever they pleased. This became a real problem.
Creating a Campsite
In the National Sequoia Park, 1925, there were no restrictions when visiting the forest and people were driving their cars all over the place, literally, “loving the trees to death” (E.P Meinecke as quoted in Young, 2014). E.P Meinecke was hired by the US Forest Service and National Park Service to fix this problem.
In 1932 he published his report, A Camp Ground Policy, which created the design of a campsite. The campsite we know today (a place for your tent, a picnic table, and a fire pit). A design known as “Meineckizing” a campground when National parks across the US were developed.
What I love about this, is it tells us how they carved space for 3 important areas (sleep, cook, and gather). The space where we eat is just as important as the utensils used and foods eaten.
More Than Pancakes and Trout
So what did people eat besides pancakes and trout? Turns out, they were eating the same favorite foods we eat today when we camp. They roasted foods on a stick, cooked quick breakfast hashes in a skillet, and baked stews/pies in dutch ovens. Heavy, oh so heavy, castiron cookware was used until lighter pans were developed.
One classic camp dish that arrived early was the S’more. The first known recipe for Some Mores is in the 1927 Girl Scout book called, “Trampling and Trailing with the Girl Scouts” (Girl Scouts Inc., pg 71-72). I recommend visiting the link for more 1927 girl scout recipes.
The name change didn’t take place until 1956 when Some More became S’more. The original recipe uses double the marshmallow to chocolate and graham. I’m not sure if this means they were extra gooey or just right. How big were marshmallows in the 1920s?
Camping Craze
Since its early start in the late 1800s, camping as a recreational activity has grown immensely. Spawning an industry of camp gear, cookware, and foodstuffs. The number of North Americans camping went from 300,000 in 1915 to 57million in 2021. With more people camping we’ve seen a recent shift in who is camping. According to USA today in 2019, “And for the first time in the study's history, the percentage of new campers from nonwhite multicultural groups (51%) outpaces that of Caucasians (49%).” This trend continues in the 2022 KOA annual report, stating 54% of campers were non-white (KOA, pg 8).
As more cultures camp, we will see new contributions to camp cookware and menus!
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