Foil Proof Camping Meals

The first organized “camp” was established in Washington, Connecticut in 1861 by Frederick Gunn, a teacher, abolitionist and outdoorsman who is credited as being the Father of American Camping. Together with his wife, Abigail, Gunn founded the Gunnery School a decade earlier, a private school originally for boys but which became coeducational in the late 1970s and remains so to the present day.

This “first” was followed by the first women-only YWCA in Pennsylvania in 1874. For some unknown reason, it took another decade before men got into the act and the first YMCA for men was established on the shore of Lake Champlain in Westport, New York. Like the Gunnery, Camp Dudley is still in operation today. By the early 1870s, however, the usual sportsmen had to make room for the men, women and children who began to flock each summer to the Adirondack Mountains of New York, particularly to the Saranac Lake area.

The sudden boon in popularity of this otherwise quiet, remote destination was driven by a collection of essays on the powerful impact of nature upon the spirit penned by a young minister named William H.H. Murray. Published in 1869, Murray’s Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks, was the first camping guidebook and it was wildly successful. Within just a few months, tens of thousands of copies were sold, making Rev. Murray a very wealthy man and the Adirondack region the launching site of American’s newest post-Civil War recreation — camping.

Traditional campers who hike to their destinations carry the essentials on their backs in carefully organized packs. Obviously, items that are compact and light in weight are the most practical. By the mid- 19th century, there were a variety of portable cooking stoves available to hikers and campers. One of the earliest and most enduring was a ceramic charcoal stove original to Japan called a Shichirin, the modern version of which became known as the hibachi in North America.

In 1943, a new type of portable stove emerged as an important piece of equipment to aid American field soldiers during World War II. First produced by the Coleman Company, the “army stove” is now manufactured by a variety of different companies.

Are you a glamper? Glamping is a relatively new term in camping vernacular and is an example of a portmanteau—the blending of two words to create another, such as “brunch” (breakfast and lunch). In this case, glamping is formed from “glamorous” and “camping.” The first thing that comes to mind is hitting the road in a restored 1950s aluminum Airstream trailer or a modern touring coach or motor home complete with electricity, refrigerator, toilet, shower, stovetop and a small oven powered by a generator and propane tank or via hook up at a campground. But glamping offers some exciting and unique destinations sans the amenities but still considered glamorous, like a rambling treehouse nestled among the forest canopy, or a spacious yurt perched lakeshore or on the crest of a mountain. Don’t forget the hibachi.

Aluminum foil, sometimes referred to as tin foil because it was made from tin sheets until 1910, is one of the most important items to have along when camping when it comes to food preparation and storage, whether you cook on a stove or an open fire.

It’s not by accident or coincidence that aluminum foil is widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Used correctly, foil is an aseptic material. That is, it forms a barrier to moisture, bacteria, oxygen and light. The shiny side, made so by passage through rollers in production, is 88% reflective and an effective insulator. If you’re wondering….it doesn’t matter if you use foil with the shiny side in or out. Unless you’re trying to contact aliens. (Just kidding.)

Aluminum foil is another product that was in high demand during World War II because it was dropped in strips by bombers to thwart enemy radar tracking systems. But foil first advanced into commercial use in 1913 when it was used to make the leg bands used to track racing pigeons and, in the same year, to package the round hard candies still sold today as Life Savers.

Since then, foil has given us TV dinners, Christmas tree ornaments, electrical insulation NASA, upon realizing that Jupiter’s magnetic and radiation fields were much stronger than anticipated, wrapped the twin Voyager space probes launched forty years ago in the same aluminum foil found in your kitchen to shield critical components as the probes explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It’s a sure bet they used heavy duty foil, and so should you.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and corn-on-the-cob represent typical camping fare. For breakfast, scrambled eggs and sizzling bacon or sausage cooked in a cast iron skillet and the challenge of toasting bread over the fire without burning it to a crisp is the morning standard. Of course, we aim to lure you out of your culinary comfort zone with innovative meal-in-one foil-packets that, with a little advance preparation, can go from the refrigerator or cooler to the fire. But who could forget Jiffy Pop Popcorn, the "as much fun to make as it is to eat" treat introduced in 1959? Keep reading to learn how to make your own version of campfire popcorn.

Still, there are some classics that can be improved upon in terms of ease in execution. The graham cracker sandwich featuring gooey melted marshmallow and chocolate in the middle came into notoriety when it was published in a 1927 Girl Scouts manual titled “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” The recipe was originally called “Some More,” but since the 1950s the name of this ubiquitous campfire dessert has been condensed to simply S'more. Recipe follows!