Where do you cook when camping?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Interested to know where other campers do their cooking, especially when it's raining.

I am too scared to cook inside the tent and the doorway doesn't seem much more sensible either, so we ended up cooking outside in the rain

We saw one group of people with a beach shelter set up as a kitchen, which seems like quite a good idea.

What do you do?

in our old tent we had a long porch so cooked in there if the weather was bad. In the new tent we are getting it has a kitchen area which can be closed off from the rest of the tent. You could also get a gazebo but you may get charged by sites for it.

Ooh, a kitchen area. Is it flame retardant?

I cook in the tent if its raining. I figure as long as you are there by the stove all the time and you are enough of a distance from the walls then its safe enough.

Last week I cooked outside as it was nice and managed to set the grass on fire, it was dry like hay and went up very fast!

I think the whole tent is flame retardant to a point and it sort of has a vented bit. I think a lot of the bigger tent have this. We like it because you can shut it off from the rest of the tent and use a different exit. The kitchen bit does have a porch/door on it too.

That sounds good, Lailasmum.
My tent has only the one exit, hence me being a bit reluctant to cook in the doorway (though it doesn't have a sewn-in groundsheet so you could always escape under the flysheet).
It also has big warnings stamped onto it about not having a flame-retardant cooking area.

IMO it's not safe to cook inside any tent - flame retardent area or not. If it's a nylon tent it's even more dangerous as HOT molten nylon sticks to eveything - especially skin!

Cook outside. We take a windbreak and set that up around the cooking area. If it's raining much, then an umbrella keeps that off if the site doesn't allow/charges for/you don't have a pergola.

Wherever you cook, don't allow young kids in the area, as camp stoves aren't the most stable of items.

I saw people with a gazebo for cooking. and also awnings attacthed to their tents

we have a detachable canopy (will link- would fit any tunnel tent imo) that we cook under,a lso fab for being able to sit out even on rainy evenings

woudl newver cook nside tent unless tent had (as a few do) a special area

Tent camping? Used to have a wee metal table and one of those nice canopies. Perfect for cooking and eating. Could set up my stove - even had a camp sink I could put on the table afterwards for washing up.

I've only cooked in tent vestibules as a last resort during a storm.

Carbon monoxide.

there

bloody amazing addition imo

we saw loads of those and bigger opnes Peachy - great idea. for storing all that stuff that for cooking too - makes it pretty tidy

ours is pretty massive but you cant see it in the picture- the Nago ones ahuge though aren't they?

next year we would like this, partly because its the only tent that was totally unfazed by a bad night in Cornwall, but also the windbreak attaxches to the tent by one of the doors, thereby forming an enclosed 'garden' bit for cooking that the kids can't access. Excellent for safety!

ooohh Peachy, just read this thread, got out my flexi friend and just ordered a canopy for our ontario .... now gotta cross fingers it'll be here for our camping trip leaving saturday ...

Hey Peachy, that canopy thing does look good.
I don't think a campsite would charge extra for our beach/fishing shelter, though, so we might just use that nex time to save buying something new.

MrLSG - I find the idea of melting nylon quite alarming. My parents used to cook happily in their old canvas tent, but I'm guessing that wasn't quite as much of a fire risk, especially when soggy.

we have one of theseas a kitchen tent.

debbie you'll love it, we have the canopy, footprint and carpet- and they're all fantastic and make a real difference (carpet only available on outdoor megastore though)

We have a canopy on our tent and cook under it. However as it does not go all the way to the floor we do put a windbreak round it to keep out draughts and the kids

Don't do what we did before we bought our kitched stand thingy - put the stove on the floor outside the tent but then once finished, DH moved it to nearer the doorway. Unfortunately as the bottom was stil warm (as we have been grilling bacon), ended up burnig a small hole in the groundsheet Grrrrrr - fortunately though, not in a crucial place & repairable

How do you repair holes in groundsheets - can you sew it together or can you buy a patch to glue/sew on?

DH also melted a small hole in ours with a hot saucepan!

LOL - must be DHs !!
We were going to use the thick gaffer tape type stuff

our cooker never gets hot on the base because of the type it is- it mounts onto a large calor gas canister whcyh is pretty fab imo

gaffer tape'll do it, though you can actually get repair kits iirc. i'd go gaffer though

My dh loves mending things with gaffer tape - I hope he doesn't see this thread or he will be melting holes in our groundsheet specially, just to give him something to mend.

It's funny about canopies for cooking - I had never even noticed they existed before.

Gaffter tape all the way. If you can't duck it, fuck it.

Also, I bring dental floss or fishing line to use instead of regular thread along for repairs. Both are far stronger.

good idea about dental floss.

do not think you should cook inside a tent OR a gazebo. I know people DO but if it went wrong you would be utterly buggered, tbh. It would go up massively fast, the fumes would be vile and the nylon could spit and burn you.

So I don't

I have a smallish, flattish stove and put it in a stainless steel box with the box on its side. The box insulates and acts as roof. It doesn't seem to get that hot, tbh, I don't think you could burn yourself off the box and the grass is always absolutely fine. Also the top of the box acts as a roof in the rain.