BOB KORNEGAY: Camp cooking leaves much to be desired

Is there anything more gastronomically satisfying to an outdoorsman than a meal prepared in his own element? Be it a far-removed woodland or a full-facility campground, food cooked in camp can be pure manna, a veritable godly feast.

Now, my friends, I unequivocally stand by what I just wrote. However, I have one request. I need you to note before reading further that I distinctly said, “Can be.” While I consider Nature perfect, she is, I’ll admit, often apt to make one’s outdoor culinary endeavors less than such. Maybe that’s just the price paid for being human, but it’s no less vexing.

Nature can, for instance, get herself a sudden urge to drop the overnight temperature to just above freezing. FYI: when she gets this notion, it takes approximately 40 years for coffee and eggs to boil on a portable camp stove. Frostbite and hypothermia arrive much sooner.

Ever been cooking in camp, proud of the goulash you’re creating, when a freak wind gust appears from nowhere? It is the only wind you’ve felt all day and it lasts only a few seconds, but, wouldn’t you know it, you’ve just that instant removed the lid from the stewpot. The breeze abates and your smoke-closed eyes reopen to discover your entr