Cooking While Motorcycle Camping

One of the great joys of camping is cooking your own meals over a fire or grill. When you’re motorcycle camping, you obviously want to make cooking part of your routine. Compared to camping via recreational vehicle or car, though, you’re limited when it comes to space. The amount of supplies and food you’re able to carry is greatly reduced when you’re riding a motorcycle due to space and weight concerns, so it’s important to prioritize and determine what tools are essential and what you can go without when you’re tent camping.

Indian Motorcycle® of Orange County has created this guide to cooking while motorcycle camping to help you make the most of your two-wheeled camping experience. This way, you’ll have some delicious hot meals as fuel for the next day’s ride. Come by and see us in Westminster, California, for some more tips on how to prepare for a motorcycle camping trip! We serve Los Angeles and the entire Inland Empire.

Locate A Lightweight Camp Stove

It is possible to cook food over open flames if you’re careful. However, this isn’t always practical since there are sometimes burn bans in certain locations that make this unfeasible. Rainy weather can make starting a fire impossible. High winds can make an open fire more dangerous. Also, your cooking is much more limited over an open fire than it would be with a stove. Fortunately, there are plenty of lightweight camping stoves out there that are easy to pack on your motorcycle to make cooking your meals so much easier. Gas or butane canister stoves are widely available, and some stoves can burn multiple types of fuel for versatility.

Combine Utensils

While your home kitchen might have everything from tongs to lobster forks, you’re not going to need most of these items when camping. To get away with carrying as little as possible, make sure you get utensils that serve double-duty.

Get one durable camping plate with raised edges that can also hold liquid foods and be used as a cutting board. Use your cutlery to help with your main cooking dishes; get a serrated, sharp knife that’s capable of cutting vegetables or meat and use it while cooking and again when eating after you wash it. A large, sturdy fork can be a whisk or makeshift spatula.

A large spoon will be sufficient for stirring soups as well as eating them. You could carry a collapsible travel cup or mug for drinking. Get one versatile pan that can be used for a variety of dishes and modes of cooking. A small army can and bottle opener will fit anywhere in your bag. Having a few tools that serve many purposes will lighten your load significantly!

Filter Water

Cooking requires a lot of water, generally. But since you also need to be drinking water to stay hydrated throughout the day, you often won’t be able to bring enough extra water with you to cook with. That’s where water filtration comes in. Make use of the water sources around you when you’re camping by getting filtration tablets and straws to clean the water for use in cooking. Iodine tablets can work in a pinch, but can impart an off-taste to foods. Your best bet is a compact microfiltration system that will quickly and safely filter all the water you’ll need for cooking, drinking and washing up after.

Condense Ingredients

You’ll want to carry a few staples for cooking, such as salt, pepper, vinegar and oil. Use travel toiletry bottles to hold these or small screw-top jars for any spices you wish to carry. Carry some lightweight dry staple goods in reusable bags or containers, like oats, rice, instant coffee, pasta, nuts, potato flakes and beans. Get your fresh produce, meats and eggs at a roadside market or grocery store along your route and only get enough for one meal at a time so you don’t have leftovers to store or carry. A collapsible cooler that you fill with ice could keep your eggs and meats fresh for breakfast if you purchase them the night before.

When it comes to cooking while you camp on your bike, a little preparation and some space-saving tools can go a long way towards making your life easier. If you’re after a great touring bike for your next long-distance ride or camping trip, come to Indian Motorcycle® of Orange County in Westminster, California, serving Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.