Since the day starts with coffee, we should also start with coffee

Back in the 1980s, my parents used plastic milk crates and cardboard boxes filled with kitchen supplies to load cars for camping trips. There are about 207 spoons and a fork, a spatula, and something sharper than a butter knife to prepare vegetables. My camp kitchen has always been just a pile of mismatched tableware, old plastic plates, and deformed pots and pans. This casual kitchen occupies 90% of the luggage space, ensuring that our sleeping equipment and entertainment equipment are always full of us.
When I started taking my kids to car camping, it was imperative to create the indispensable mobile kitchen so that we could pack lightly, order food at the tent site, and prepare meals without fussing.
Since the day starts with coffee, we should also start with coffee. Any equipment similar to a Russian doll is ideal because it takes up much less space in the car. Eureka! Selling an upside-down Camp Café with five pieces sandwiched between each other. This system is no joke: it can brew 2.5 liters of liquid and is designed with Flux Ring technology to boil water at twice the speed, allowing you to save fuel-another space stealer in the car. This is also useful if you boil water for multiple meals and tea later in the day.
Soaking and grinding or using a common pot to heat water are also good methods. However, if this is your method, please obtain French media. Many outdoor adventure companies provide individual French filter cups, which are ideal for families with only one coffee lover. You can also skip the fancy stuff and use Nalgene or other sturdy jars to create your own coffee system. Simply mix the abrasive and water, and then place it in the cooler for 24 hours. In the morning, you can filter the coffee with cheesecloth (or some shabby fabric that allows the liquid to pass through easily), and voila: simple cold brew, no additional equipment.
Of course, most of the luggage space will be used for food for camping trips, but you can still reduce items by planning meals in advance. If your chef game is high and you use various spices for cooking instead of packaging individual jars, please mix your seasonings into a small container or bag beforehand. Similarly, putting the butter stick on the oil container is not so troublesome. Repackaging condiments and other foods that you won’t eat during the trip is also a professional move. Although some people may think that not eating meat on a camping trip is a sin, eating vegetarian food can be more efficient to pack: you can carry a smaller cooler and fewer ice cubes. If animal protein must be used, please bring a fishing rod to catch fresh fish.
When I was a kid, the Coleman stove my family dragged on a camping trip is still in use today. Decades of durability make it an unbeatable product, but if you want to reduce the size of your stove, Eureka! There is a single burner option for butane fuel, with a suitcase half the size of most competitors on the market.
In terms of enjoyment and taste, better than a stove is to cook on a campfire. To use this classic method, you need supplies such as a Dutch oven, pot racks, and lid lifts to remove the metal from the flame. When you don’t want the pot to be placed directly on the coal, you also need a small shovel to move the coal and a stand to create space. Although many campsites have fireplaces with grate, they usually have a lot of space between the metal strips that the burger can’t span, so bring your own. (I always grab the one that comes with my outdoor fire pit.) It can easily be placed at the bottom of your suitcase, allowing you to cook without losing half a meal in the fire.
For those who want to cook slowly on hot coals for a long time, you can choose a cast iron or aluminum Dutch oven. As a compromise, GSI Outdoors sells Guidcast Dutch ovens made of cast iron but weighing less than 10 pounds. Note: Do not bring the Le Creuset you like from home-it has no lips to hold coal and will only be destroyed.
If you have enough space, in inclement weather and damp wood, it is also wise to carry a small backpack stove.
For many years, when I was just a hiker alone, I would piece together a set of kitchen supplies so that everything is light and one appliance can provide multiple functions. But cars allow you to carry enough comfortable equipment. In order to save space for cooking utensils and tableware, nothing is better equipped than Stanley Base Camp cookware. Lift the ventilation cover and find a frying pan, four plates, four bowls and four forks, as well as a drying rack, tripod and cutting board. The set also includes a spoon and spatula (both with extension arms) and a stainless steel pot.
Oh, and don’t forget your multi-tool when camping. The king of this category, Leatherman Signal, fills in all the kitchen supplies missing from the Stanley chef’s set: cans and corkscrews, knives, sharpeners, and tongs, used to grab hot pots from the campfire—but Not a Dutch oven. For those chefs who are more demanding on knives and cutting boards, GSI Outdoors offers three knives (with wooden handles for aesthetics or rubber handles are also suitable). Chef’s knives, serrated knives and paring knives are also equipped with smooth bamboo cutting boards and sharpeners, which can be packed in a box about the size and weight of a hardcover book.
Although it’s usually best to drink canned beer directly, anyone who wants to reduce waste should fill the brewery with stainless steel, vacuum-sealed growlers before camping adventures. On the other hand, wine presents different challenges: bulky, awkwardly shaped glass bottles have no place in nature, and easily punctured bags may make a mess. (In addition, manufacturing and shipping wine bottles can lead to a large carbon footprint in the industry.) Instead, try Bandit Wines. It adopts a boxy design, is mainly made of sustainable paper and thin aluminum coating, and is easy to pack. For a lighter choice in the spirits world, Stillhouse offers a variety of bourbon, whiskey and vodka in stainless steel rectangular tanks. Or, if you just want to have a few sips on the go, VSSL has a flask light, which can be used as a normal flashlight, but hidden in the long battery pole are two collapsible small wine glasses, a corkscrew and a nine-ounce bottle liqueur. There is even a compass on the other end, in case you trip over the campfire and need help to come back.
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