Setting Up Your Hunting Camp “Kitchen”

Depending on what and where I’m hunting,I set up my camp’s “kitchen” differently,according to location,and means of transportation.
I’ll start with a camp you can drive to by truck or ATV.
I use the fire for a lot of the cooking,and also take a propane and/or a Coleman stove that will work with Coleman fuel,gasoline, diesel, or kerosene.
I take a 5 gallon water jug-the kind you see on the back of guys work trucks,an old enameled coffee pot, an assortment of cast iron skillets,dutch ovens,a griddle,cutting board,good sharp kitchen knives-(the same Henckels and Wusthof knives I used when I was working as a professional chef)-a pair of long tongs,a couple of spatulas,a rubber spatula,whisk,meat fork,and a set of 3 stainless steel mixing bowls that fit inside each other,the bowls are great for mixing pancake batter,making beer batter if we catch some fish during our down time,whisking eggs to make a big skillet of scrambled eggs,or a bunch of omelettes,plus
the steel mixing bowls,along with a larger enameled one are used to wash dishes.
All this is stored in plastic bins,as is all food that doesn’t need to be in coolers.
We use 3 folding tables. One is 2’x2′ or so,the other two are  about 4’x 2 1/2” each. The stove goes on the 2×2 table,the others are used to chop vegetables,potatoes etc. during actual cooking,and used to set up buffet style for meal times.
This set-up goes under a 10’x10′ pop-up “gazebo” thing the wife found at a local discount store for $50.00,or under an old-school dining fly-the kind that has one pole that rests on the middle of the table. If the location is in an area that’s full of bugs-like the black flies in Canada on spring bear hunts-I use an old Coleman brand screen house that’s 10’x10′.
The reason for bringing all this along is that it not only makes cooking meals faster and easier-if it rains,or is snowing hard-you are sheltered from the weather while cooking.
Plus the tables can be set up as one big card table if everyone’s stuck in camp due to weather.
I have a grill that’s 3’x5′-the kind you find in some campgrounds and public parks,got it when a local campground closed down about 10 years back. It’s just some heavy gauge steel diamond shaped mesh welded to black steel pipe like the type used for gas lines.
Also have a couple smaller versions of the same thing,except I used angle iron in place of the steel pipe to cut down the weight.
These are great for cooking over fires for a lot of people and/or cooking a lot of different foods,in different pans at once-like making bacon,eggs,pancakes,and sausage for breakfast.
When hunting in places we ride in on horseback,the cookware gets cut down to one 18″ steel skillet,one griddle,one dutch oven,1 enameled steel coffee pot,cutting board,1 chef’s knife,1 spatula,1 large fork,1 pair of tongs.
When backpacking in to hunt-all that changes to a backpacking stove,my old Boy Scout mess kit,along with canteen cup that is carried with canteens on my belt,I despise “Sporks”,so I’ll put up with the extra few ounces to carry a fork and spoon in my pack.
Since there’s not much actual cooking,mainly boiling water is all that’s involved when using freeze dried food-Mountain House type, MRE’s ,along with some good quality dried soups,instant coffee,teabags,and hot chocolate packages,I use the backpacking stove that uses a fuel bottle you pump up when using it,as it works better than the type that uses butane canisters. The canisters tend to work poorly in extreme cold,and at high altitudes.
The pump-up fuel bottles work at any temp. and at altitude,plus they can use Coleman fuel,gasoline,diesel, or kerosene. These stoves also are great to have for survival situations,as are the bigger 2 and 3 burner Coleman type stoves that use the same fuels in a tank that you also pump up.