Options for 3 day River Campout

[petehalsted]

The family is doing a 3 day river campout after July 4th, and of course everyone wants me to smoke for the meals. Problem is I do my smoking on a MES30. I know stickburners, I am learning my lesson, but what can ya do when you live in an RV.

We want have electric other than one of the small Honda Style 2000 Watt quiet models.

I guess since the MES 30 only uses 800 watts, I could run it off my generator, which runs about 8-10 hours off a gallon.

But I was also thinking about "par-smoking" some stuff and vacuum sealing it, to finish it at the river on the grill/griddle.

Figured I could do some 3-2 (hold the 1) ribs. And some pulled pork and chucky beef for some street (er river tacos).

Breakfast is covered by the griddle, as well as lunch - phillys and cubans (from my pre-smoked/sliced loan and ham).

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

 

[dcecil]

This is not a smoke cook but whenever I’m campin I gotta do some steaks with butter on an open grate over the coals from the fire pit and toss some taters in the coal bed as well. Here’s a picture of my camp grill. You can use it for setting your coffe pot on as well. Maybe not the suggestion your looking for but it reminds me to get my but camping

PS. No electricity needed lol

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I'd just smoke them eat in advance and bag it unsauced, I assume you can keep it cold/frozen until needed. Sans Ribs; you probably got the right idea there, you might not need the full hour even after they've been resting bagged up, but every thing is to a point, a guessing game when cooking..

Remember to post up pictures of the river!

 

[LanceR]

Good morning, Pete

Fortunately, BBQ in general reheats very well (like lasagna, many like BBQ better the second day...) so you have lots of easy options.

In fact, I have the butt end of a whole bone-in pork loin in the smoker as I type this and with just two of us the leftovers will get sealed in meal size portions and frozen for future dinners and camping trips. That will join roast beef and pork, pulled pork, sliced smoked pork, double smoked ham, pastrami, smoked pork and beef ribs, roast and smoked turkey etc all in meal sized bags in the big freezer....

Since we have a chamber vacuum sealer I even make concentrated stock or gravy base with everything but the thickener and seal some of that in a pint bag to place in with the roast meats before sealing.

For my wife and I, BBQ was made for cooking ahead! There's nothing like a home cooked ready-in-fifteen-minutes traditional BBQ meal.

Ribs, either beef or pork, taken all the way to done at home and warmed on the cool side of a fire and then crisped up a bit on the hot side are a piece of cake. So is brisket or any other moist beef or pork done at home, sliced and reheated at camp. Chicken leg quarters or thighs reheat well and once warm can be crisped up on the hot side too although they are easy to do over a fire or on a grill at the campsite.

To the extent practicable I'd advise finishing BBQ at home and planning on just warming it (and maybe crisping up the bark (AKA Mr Brown) at the site. You don't know what the weather will be like so it can be a real dinner saver to just need to reheat your main course instead of keeping a fire going for hours in the rain.

Of note, freezer weight Glad brand zip-lock storage bags and all common vacuum sealer bags can be used as boiling bags or to reheat in hot water so a vacuum packer is not essential for your camping purposes. I can't speak to other brands or weights of zip-lock bags. I would avoid rally wet things like stew or greasy foods in a zip-lock bags thoug-they can become easy to tear if kept hot for too long.

Jamestown Advanced Products in New York makes a wide range of campfire ring and grills at reasonable prices it you are looking for something more substantial than the typical campfire ring. State campgrounds and parks etc are their main market so you woun't find any flimsy tin can sheet metal there..... Shipping might be spendy, though so ask if they have a dealer near you. Their "ground stove campfire ring" might be just the ticket for long lasting camp cooking...

And you can't go wrong with either a Weber Kettle or Weber Smokey Mountain smoker for producing great BBQ and portability, especially with Father's Day sales ramping up.


Lance

 

[cmayna]

Bring a weber with indirect heat and smoke your foods that way. You're roughing it. Your guests have to expect that.

 

[millerbuilds]

You can either reheat or I would do as Craig states above and bring a weber kettle use it.

Smoke ON!

- Jason

 

[petehalsted]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lance was pretty spot on, that is how me and the wife do most of our meals now, using food saver bags as boiler bags with pre-smoked meals. I think I was over complicating it, and for some reason didn't occur to me that same technique would work good at the river.

As I said I will have a Grill and Griddle so we are covered for breakfast, burgers, brats, heating the water, etc. I have just spoiled the family and at any big get together they either expected smoked food or saltwater fish from me. Since I didn't get to do any saltwater fishing this year the freezers don't have any fish.

I think a few racks of ribs in foodsaver bags, and then a big batch of pulled pork and pulled chucky that I can turn into street tacos on the griddle, will suffice for my contribution