CSR Menu Plan

Hi Jude and Co, If its dual fuel....lots of baked beans.... :))
silverback

Give yourself 3 weeks worth of dinners.....Ive never done CSR but in the process of planning it....

Lots of rump steak (or whatever) cryovaced of course.....lots to do either as steak or stews or stirfy, chicken breasts, which dont last as long, to have as stirfry , rolled and stuffed, snags. chops with bones can have a tendancy to break through the seal so try to avoid boney meat. Sandwich meat I have found is great cryovacced....we had 6 lots of 6 slices of meat....lasted 6 weeks...still had some when we got home.

cryovac is the main word! Think what every you would have at home....just do it as that you can keep in fridge in desert for 3 weeks or more! The more surface area the meat has the longer it will last, ie, dont cut meat up into strips before cryovacing...also a hint...if the meat is starting to look green a little, its actually ok...it goes this colour when there is no air on the meat surface.

also things like pancakes, corn fritters , potato fritters etc make a good "cooks night off" type meal.

lots of dehydrated veggies, potatoes, pumpkin, s/potato last well in dark box. our local food supplier has dehydrated everything when it comes to veggies and its all cryo'ed for us.

take back up like tin soup / pkt soup and make damper......

hope this helps......this is the menu type thing that i thought of for our 6 week trip nearly 2 urs ago (boy time flies!) .... I ordered meat and had it cryocaved....ordered enough for 6 weeks....it lasted well and tasted great!!

Good luck!!!

If you get a copy of the Garde's book on the CSR (Canning Stock Route - a travellers guide) they have suggestions and ideas in there.
It is virtually required reading before and during the trip and has all the info about the CSR in general.

Jude,

Doing a lot of remote stuff, I usually plan a menu out on an excel spreadsheet but any old piece of paper will do. I have the luxury of using my Engel as a freezer so I can store up to 60 days meals for two people with a bit of thought and careful packing. Using the fridge, I'd cryovac and concentrate on red meat as most butchers recommend that you use white's like chicken don't last within a week or ten days.

As for vegies, I take frozen or concentrate on things like sweet potato's and unwashed and brushed spuds. They'll last for three weeks comfortably if kept in a box and not allowed to sweat too much. Carrots and cauli will last well in a fridge for a week or more. Otherwise tinned and dehydrated vegies are the go.

There are a couple of good camp cooking and trip preparation sites I've stumbled over in the past so I'll try and find them and post a link later.

Cheers. Mick

Jude

We've found advice on this site to be excellent.

EO food storage advice

Cheers JD

Plan to eat as well on the last night of the trip as the first.

We had a week long menu that we rotated through 3 times.

Take flour make bread, damper and bread and butter pudding. We also find taking mexican tortilla bread is great.

Cryovac meat, we found roasts were good for lunch sandwiches as well as dinners.

Ration things like beer and treats over the full 3 weeks.

Obviously use fresh food first and then canned food.

Have fun, it is a great trip.

Michael A

Jude

We get out into the Never Never quite a bit. Multiply one week by three.

When we did the full Canning it was a 4 week trip. 99% cooking is done on open fire

To keep vegies for a long time wrap them individually in a couple of sheets of newspaper and then store in a Banana Box

Carry 100litres of water and top up at every waterpoint

Here is our TRIP TUCKER


Tea
Coffee
Milo
Sugar
Powdered Milk
Weetbix


Tins of:

Fruit
Mushrooms
Sweet corn
Baked Beans
Oysters
Mussels
Spaghetti
Raguletto Sauce



Packets of:

Pasta
Instant Soup
Instant Rice
Self-Raising Flour

Margarine
Bread
Sweet biscuits
Dry crackers
Vegemite
Marmalade
Dips
Cheese

Meat:

Bacon
Rissoles
Mince
Sausages
Steak (pieces)
(long trip…cryo-vaced meat)

Fresh fruit:

Apples
Oranges
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions

Condiments:

Salt
Pepper
Mixed herbs
Curry powder
Gravox
Cornflour
Tomato sauce

Drinks:

Water
Cordial
Muscat
Beer
Scotch

Extras:

Spray on oil
Matches
Gas lighter

We break our list into SEVEN groups (each with its own requirements for storage)

Dried - eg Apples Rice breadmix Sugar Flour
Tinned -
Condiments - eg Oil Tomato Sauce Vegemite
Drinks -
Fruit & Veg -
Perishables - eg Bread Cheese Yoghurt
Meat -

We have the luxury of using an Engel as a freezer for meat and cryovac

Large Autofridge for perishables

Hi Jude,

Well hopefully our paths will cross as we will be doing the CSR in June/July from South to North. We have had the same topic in our household. At this stage I am actually taking a lot of tinned foods and aiming to supplement them with some Cyro and frozen veggies. Our tinned food will mainly used as back up food in case we need to be out longer than our 15 planned days from Wiluna to Halls Creek. As we are travelling with a group we will be able to shake up our meals by swapping if things get to boring.

Have fun and I will keep an eye out for you. Can't miss the Patrol with the ExpolrOz wheel cover.

Cheers

Hey Jude ,

We pack every piece of fruit and veg. individually in newspaper .

Brussell sprouts and cabbage last really well . Sometimes the outer leaves go yuk , but they are still fine inside .

Take tins of corn niblets - they don't taste like tinned veges at all . You can heat them on the side of the fire - no washing up !

Take heaps of small tins of the tuna or salmon with the various sauces. Great for lunch .

Take that narn type bread for roll ups at lunch . It keeps for ages in those packs .

Take low fat long life milk - it doesn't taste like it's been boiled .Try to get it in the plastic bottles - the cardboard can wear through on corrugations - especially in a trailer .

I take those little individual salamis - for lunches - olives too .

Cheers ,

Willie .

Hi Jude ... I have a camping cookbook that I have accumulated over the years (in fact some are from this site) ... I am happy to share it ... email me on djenterprises@optusnet.com.au if you want it. Otherwise my advice is just wrap f and v in newspaper & put in banana box located low down out of the sun; freeze and cryovac meal size portions; lots of stirfrys and long life noodles, visit the asian shops and see what you can get dried, dried peas/beans/corn are great to add to stews, do a roast at least every 4th night, giving you lots of cold meat if there is just the two of you - there are so many different types - rolled pork, stuffed chicken, 1/2 leg lamb, stuffed and rolled beef, whole chicken etc. and most importantly, stop while it is still light so that you can get set up in daylight and enjoy cooking tea over the fire as the sun sets. Magic. You can of course make most things that you would at home .. so simply adapt the recepie to the outside conditions, remove coals from the main fire so that it is much more gentle, and off you go. Enjoy your trip ... we are going up the CSR in early July so we may see you there.