Backcounty cooking for a large group

“What meal ideas, or items would you use if leading a group hike of 12 people. I want to keep the number of stoves down, and cook a meal for the group.

I don't want to go potluck, but we can split the weight. It's also a first night meal, plenty of water at camp, and short hike in.

I'll have a small wire grate for over the fire grilling also.”

“I always cook for my lazy brothers. Since I am kind of lazy too I buy round steak and veggies.

Onion
potatoes
mushrooms
acorn squash
celery

I cube everything at home and season with salt and pepper, double wrap individual meals in foil. Cover with coals for 45 minutes.

No mess, no cooking, no fuel and the best meal around the campfire.

I don't backpack in the Summer, but stuffed in a backpack it should be good for the first night except in extreme hot weather.”

“Sounds good, Bacpac.”

“I've always thought the NOLS Cookery method looks like a good way to go. The book makes sense, has directions and recipes for bulk ingredients. I've tried some of the recipes for solo, and like them.”

“Tortellini and sauce and Italian sausage and grated cheese.

At home I make a sauce of canned crushed tomatoes with lots of garlic and onion and extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil. It should simmer for at least an hour with more fresh basil thrown in near the end.
The sausage is cooked at home and sliced into coins.
The sauce and sausage can be combined or not and (double)bagged in freezer zip bags and either frozen or just refrigerated.
My favorite is Asiago cheese grated and bagged.
Any of the various brands of tortellini take about 18-20 minutes to boil.
The sauce and sausage are heated in another pot(s).

I did this on a solo trip with an eight ounce package of tortellini and could only get 2/3 of it down......thought I was gonna die!!
Half the tortellini is plenty for one person.

If you have plenty of water available this mess can be cleaned up easy enough.”

“i figured 12 foilpacks in a fire would require a damn big good coal bed.”

“I forgot about the NOLS Cookery book.   I need to dig that out.


Hmm... 1.5 gallons of cheese grits!

How many confirmed victims you got, MarKo?   (grammar software crashed --- I think it was the grits)”

“Do like I do sometimes for the first night I usually bring a footlong sub from Subway!”

“When we went out with the kids, we had 2 instructors and 6 kids. We usually took various noodle dish's. Things like angel hair pasta, beef stroganoff and occasionally macaroni and cheese. We put the noodles and the flavor pouches in zip locks. We added various dried items we had dehydrated the week before, like beef and various veggies. We had a very large pot, so it was usually a one pot meal. Occasionally we would fire up two stoves to get the dehydrated stuff started.

When I had a bunch of clients, I would use Ramen noodles, butter, fresh garlic and basil, cheese, etc. A couple loafs of french bread and you got a meal.

If you really want to do it with style, take in some frozen shrimp or lobster to add to it.”

“Frozen lobster on an outdoor trip?!? What's next? Salted crackers with Beluga Caviar?
Can I get invited?”

“LOL....first time I did it was on a winter trip. I told everybody that dinner was going to be special... I don't know what they were expecting but it certainly wasn't rock lobster tail with butter, steak and french bread.

I got the lobster tails from the Schwans truck, you just drop them in boiling water for a few minutes. The rest was easy. I did hate to heat the steak up on the frying pan, but nobody complained.”

“Tilt, WTF?

Cheese grits??

Fake cheese, no doubt.

Ya bozo!”

“Aged cheddar! ya Ronald McDonald wannabe!”

“Well.. If its a one time thing. Like you are only doing one dinner, I've had pretty good experience with gumbo. You can go pickup zatarains gumbo mix, dehydrate all the additives. I haven't messed around with dehydrating shrimp, and I'm not really sure I want to though. You can make a ton of it, easily and its filling.”

“Cooking for such a large group is difficult because you will not please everyone. You may want to make a big simple dish like chili where people can help themselves. You can make is special with toppings like cheese, onion, jalepeno peppers, sour cream, etc.

I saw two experience people on a canoe trip try to cook surf and turf for a dozen people. From start to finish, it took 4 hours, way too long for a backpacking dinner.”

“we aren't thinking about anything too fancy. possibly cooking hot dogs or brauts over the fire and some sort of side. something that is easy to please everyone, easy to clean up, and inexpensive.”

“"I saw two experience people on a canoe trip try to cook surf and turf for a dozen people. From start to finish, it took 4 hours, way too long for a backpacking dinner.”

They shouldn't have brought the whole cow. It only took me 30 min. But perhaps I'm not experienced enough, LOL.”

“Right now I'm picturing lobster tails on sticks over a campfire, VBG”

““Right now I'm picturing lobster tails on sticks over a campfire, VBG”

...and wash it down with some french champagner?”

“"1.5 gallons of cheese grits!"

LOLz at Tilt. There's a lot of choices. I like all the ideas presented so far. You might also try a theme?.. That way everyone's entry would go together?”

“Ab solutely, Euro!”

“Stone soup??”

“My daughters favorite 1st night meal is soft tacos. I cook the taco meat the night before. Wrap it in foil and freeze it. Buy a package of shredded cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you like) and a small tub of sour cream, pre-cut some tomatoes if you like. (I don't bring shredded lettuce because she doesn't like that on her taco) You can pack the cheese, sour cream and diced tomatoes with the frozen taco meat to keep them "refrigerated" in your pack. The flat, round soft tacos fit perfectly in the bottom of your cook pan.

Just cover the taco meat in the foil with coal and heat it up. I use a little oil in my pan and heat up the soft tacos briefly on each side.”