Calling all "No Refrigeration Required" Recipes

[Gilda]

A number of years ago there was a popular FGRV forum topic and questionnaire titled "Does Your Camp Food Resemble Your Normal Fare?". It became clear that people fall into one of two camps, "I live to eat" or "I eat to live". Among the many responses, of the latter sentiment, was from ZachO from Montana who said, "I pretty much eat either rice or noodles with fried or steamed veggies. Pretty easy on the road or at home. Oatmeal for breakfast. If I'm hiking, pb&j for lunch. Nuts, nut butters etc. for snacks. Occasional meat but it's so easy to contaminate the camper and so much more cleanup that I don't usually bother. If I'm on the road, I'll probably eat "out" at least once a week, so if I'm craving meat, I'll have it then."

No Refrigeration Required - I'm wondering what favorite recipes folks have for "No Refrigeration Required" meals. Sometimes we have a refrigerator while others have an ice box or cooler to keep our fresh items properly cooled. When we get to the end of our extended trip we may run out of fresh food or we may intentionally plan a trip with foods that do not require refrigeration. Whatever the case I'll assist you in thinking about non-refrigerated meals, but for now, will not give you recipes (see below).

While I am not a sailor, I've been mesmerized by books such as "The Boat Galley Cookbook", 2012, by Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons in which the authors catalog so many amazing recipes with or without refrigeration on a boat when there is nowhere to restock in the ocean!

Following are some prompts to help you think of meals made without refrigeration. Yes, I realize they all involve an animal protein. Please contribute to this thread by adding some of your favorite recipes, whether you are an omnivore, vegetarian, vegan, etc. Could you, kindly, indicate if the recipe is best for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Ham (canned or pouch):
• Pasta Alfredo or pesto
• Ham cakes (basically, crab cakes made with ham)
• Scrambled eggs with ham (good with onions, green peppers, cheese, tomatoes, etc., too)
• Ham loaf
• Ham salad sandwiches
• Pasta Primavera
• Jambalaya
• Hobo dinner
• Rice or pasta salad

Chicken (canned or pouch) or turkey (canned or pouch):
• Enchiladas
• Chicken paella
• Stir fry
• Hobo dinner (sautéed with potatoes, carrots and onions)
• Pesto pasta with mushrooms
• Soup
• Pasta Primavera
• Chicken or turkey salad sandwiches

Tuna (albacore cans, albacore pouches, chunk light cans, chunk light pouches):
• Tuna cakes (variation on fish cakes)
• Pasta Alfredo
• Rice or pasta salad
• Tuna casserole
• Tuna salad sandwiches

Crab (regular, lump):
• Crab cakes
• Pasta Alfredo (particularly if you get lump meat)
• Stuffed tomatoes
• Crab Rangoon
• Crab dip

Shrimp:
• Pasta Alfredo
• Shrimp cakes (like crab cakes but made with tiny shrimp)
• Stir fry
• Pasta Primavera
• Stuffed tomatoes
• Shrimp paella
• Rice or pasta salad

Corned Beef:
• Meat cakes
• Sandwiches (if you can’t refrigerate it and slice it, try mashing it up with some diced onion and ketchup)

Roast Beef:
• Chili
• Goulash
• Spanish rice
• Beef enchiladas
• Hobo dinner (sauté carrots, potatoes and onions, add roast beef)
• Stew or soup
• Meat pie
• Sandwiches — hot or cold
• Also good just heated up!

Clams:
• Clam chowder
• Linguine with clam sauce
• Paella

Oysters:
• Jambalaya
• Oyster stuffing
• Paella
• Pasta with oysters
• Oyster stew

[sharon_b]

I went down the rabbit hole of 'make your own camping food' a while back. Dug up many recipes that involved baggies of dried rice/noodles/pasta, dehydrated veggies, dehydrated chicken, spices, etc. All you had to do was boil water, pour it in the baggie, wait 10 min & eat. Except when you're that tired & that hungry you will eat it too hot & still crunchy. yuk! The meals were better than mega-salt commercial camping food, but i wouldn't do it again. good luck on your quest!

[Old Macdonalds]

I know this is about non-refrigeration food but I make a lot of varieties of homemade soup/stew at home and freeze it. It is convenient at home, for my husband and myself, if I get stuck into a project or don't feel like cooking. When we camp, we often take a cooler with fresh stuff but instead of icepacks will put containers of soup or chili in the bottom. It keeps the fresh stuff, cool for a few days and by the time we run out of the fresh, the soup/chili is thawed. Being precooked, it doesn't go bad as quickly as raw meat and is often still reasonably cool having been frozen solid. It keeps even longer if it is two layers and one layer is wrapped in one of those cheapy foil cooler bags. I like it because you don't lose cooler space to useless icepacks and don't end up with a swamp in the bottom of the cooler like you would if you pack with ice. And I can keep our diet healthy by not eating prepackaged, processed stuff. I will also freeze eggs in a container but they must be slightly beaten and it works better if you add a pinch of salt.
They can then be used for omelets or scrambled.

[Hazel in Sk]

If you own a pressure canner your problems are solved. Just can your meats, stews, soups etc .and heat as required.

[Darwin Maring]

Popcorn

[Jon in AZ]

For breakfast, quick oats with dried fruit and nuts. For lunch, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips and apples. For dinner, spicy Korean ramen (add Spam if desired), mac and cheese from the box (made with vegetable oil and powdered milk, add canned tuna if desired), or canned stew/ravioli.

We carry all of the above as back-up, but our normal camp diet is heavily dependent on refrigeration for fresh meat and seafood, dairy,, eggs, and produce.

[Hazel in Sk]

I really like having a fridge after many years of tent camping. If we are planning to be away for some time I pack a lot of the old, familiar staples that don't need a fridge. We cook on a propane stove or the fire.
Oatmeal, rice, macaroni, flour, baking powder, sugar, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, fruit, canned fish, meat and soup, plus a few seasonings. A bit of imagination creates some yummy, and frequently healthy, food.

[Alex Adams]

Mountain House Beef Stroganoff, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and dumplings, etc. It's how I rotate my emergency provisions.

[EllPea in CA]

Originally Posted by Old Macdonalds

I know this is about non-refrigeration food but I make a lot of varieties of homemade soup/stew at home and freeze it. It is convenient at home, for my husband and myself, if I get stuck into a project or don't feel like cooking. When we camp, we often take a cooler with fresh stuff but instead of icepacks will put containers of soup or chili in the bottom. It keeps the fresh stuff, cool for a few days and by the time we run out of the fresh, the soup/chili is thawed. Being precooked, it doesn't go bad as quickly as raw meat and is often still reasonably cool having been frozen solid. It keeps even longer if it is two layers and one layer is wrapped in one of those cheapy foil cooler bags. I like it because you don't lose cooler space to useless icepacks and don't end up with a swamp in the bottom of the cooler like you would if you pack with ice. And I can keep our diet healthy by not eating prepackaged, processed stuff. I will also freeze eggs in a container but they must be slightly beaten and it works better if you add a pinch of salt.
They can then be used for omelets or scrambled.

When I was tent camping and had no refrigerator at all, I became really dedicated to dry ice. It can be a bit expensive, but there is a payoff. I usually had one medium/large chest with items that needed refrigeration. Dry ice in the bottom covered with several layers of cardboard (otherwise, the stuff would freeze).

Another small chest with just the dry ice... this is the "freezer". Important to keep the ice wrapped and the air space in the container filled up, otherwise the ice sublimates quickly. I discovered I could keep that space filled with containers of water (squares and rectangles fill the space best), which would continue to freeze throughout the weekend, so I could cycle those out to supplement the cool chest, putting melted water back in. Blue ice would also fill the airspace and freeze.

With the appropriate amount of dry ice on Friday, I was still getting ice made on Monday. (and no messy ice melt on the bottom of my main chest either). And if you wanted ice cream on your outing, you could definitely keep it frozen... SOLID!