Gold Camp Cook

[libertydave]

Now this has nothing to do with finding gold nuggets except for the "tater nuggets" we had on the camp menu but during my years of mining I recall that the most under appreciated person in our mining crew was usually the guy that got designated as the 'camp cook'. Maybe you did not have one...but if you did not bring along store bought, prepared food or went into the nearest town for a pizza, someone had to usually took the lead in arranging or preparing meals for our team of guys during the time we were off mining and dredging for several days.

Back then we usually ate well and food was always plentiful. Breakfast was stacks of hot cakes and syrup or scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, a dutch oven of fresh biscuits. Always there was pots of hot fresh coffee in the morning. Most every evening our dinner was a simple main course along with some potluck 'things' others brought to the table. Our mining group was usually included five, six or eight guys. Most brought along something to include with the main course. Decades of gold dredging, often into remote locations, we always had someone that was designated to handle the meals for a week or so. For the crew I mined with that person was usually ME.

I'd get back to where we camped and got to fixing the basics for our dinner's main course. As I got better in meal planning and basic cooking I accepted the job as camp cook because most of the others hated to cook, and I liked my food better than the other guys attempts at cooking. My mining friends appreciated having some good tasting food after a long day crammed into in a soggy old wet suit. i recall twenty years ago and the Dredge Earth First events in Oregon and the great food and beer shared with the others in our camp at RiversWest RV Park. No one ever went to bed hungry.

Wondering if any of you had a designated cook or was it 'food-on-the-fly' for each?

Last night I made dinner for four of my grandkids that included 'Liberty Dave's' pulled-pork 'Super-Duper' gold camp burritos...oversized 12" tortillas, homemade refried beans, fried rice, assorted peppers, onions, green chili's and LD's famous secret-sauce...not overly spicy but just a little heat. They all liked the meal.

Anyone of you want to share some of your camp recipes? Thanks!

Liberty Dave

[golden optimist]

Here's a sample of the CCC camp cooking. You can see the menu at the end of the video.
Leonard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rknux_3N-8

[russau]

Super video Leonard ! I sure miss those days with the CCC boys Geno , Ed , Corky and of course GO with your Jalapeño Mac n Cheese !

[libertydave]

During DEF 2002 I was camped next to Grivy and Kimmy Poo. Seems there was always lots of good Mexican food around. Billbrew brought his homebrew beer (someone call it 'dredge fuel').

We were camped just across the road from Grivy's camp. One night we went over to there camp and cooked 50 burritos. We sure had a great time. It was good as we have all the memories.
Leonard

[golden optimist]

Messed up your post so I'm repeating it.



Re: Gold Camp Cook

New postby libertydave » Wed Mar 23, 2022 3:59 pm
Thanks Leonard. Good video! I bet there were lots of similar camp layouts like that one and the food was mostly hearty, good and plentiful. During DEF 2002 I was camped next to Grivy and Kimmy Poo. Seems there was always lots of good Mexican food around. Billbrew brought his homebrew beer (someone call it 'dredge fuel').

I built a compact 'chuckwagon' that sat atop a much modified 4'x6' Utility trailer frame with off-road tires that I towed behind my truck. Had a propane stove, coolers, two cooking tables, lots of food and cooking gear storage. The trailer also had a Tepui pop-up camp tent built atop the storage and cooking box. Climb the outside ladder and that is where I slept. All my dredge mining gear was stored in back of my pickup. My second generation "Chuckwagon" is sitting today unused in my garage.

We had a similar set up that was used for over a dozen years while dredging the Yuba, Illinois, Scott and Klamath Rivers. I'd make up a week's menu for our gang (no special orders accepted) I'd ask around for a 'volunteer' who'd me help with prep and cleanup work. The food was a lot like 'Cowboy Kent Rollins' selections featured on his Youtube site. Suggest checking it out as he has a great website and is famous for his hearty recipes and great cookin'.

As for cooking we'd begin with Sunday night dinner and then offered a week's worth of food until we had to resupply. Every day we'd cook breakfasts and dinners also putting together sack lunches with sandwiches, chips, slice of pie and bottled water) for those working on the river. Always had fresh biscuits with butter/honey/jam, hot coffee and cold beer around for snacking. Must have baked several thousand biscuit in all those years.

One favorite I recall was a chunky chicken sourdough biscuit and pasta casserole with a crispy crust that I baked in my cast-iron dutch oven. Never had any leftovers around so it must of been well liked. Anyone want to add their favorites?

Regards, LD

libertydave

Posts: 251
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:09 pm

[Joe S (AK)]

About 10 or 12 years ago my mining buddy, Dan, was given a bunch of claims from a friend who was nearing the end of the trail. Dan, a Newbie back then, asked me to come help him get started. 5 of us one weekend arrived and opened up the camp and, as part of that, unloaded the foods we had each brought. Since none of us had co-ordinated our efforts we ended up with many JUMBO packs of pork chops along with some veggies.
WOW! did we have pork chops. The next weekend a few families from where Dan worked came in, as well. Yep, lots more jumbo packs of pork chops again.
Well, Dan and I traded off cooking and pretty soon some sort of "Inventioning / Fabricobbling " had to come about. Bar B Que sauces came and went. Frying and Broiling too.
Then, on my cooking shift I came up with an idea. BIG covered skillet with some oil and 3/4" of water to start boiling while I sliced up a dozen potatoes. Potatoes in first to start cooking and very soon after that pork chops joined them. Everything slowly cooked on then lowered heat and while that happened I peeled and sliced 10 or so large onions. At 10 minutes until kick-off in went the onions and a little powdered garlic, some Ginger and black pepper. Of course the water had, by now, boiled off and the stove turned way down. Just before the milling crowd invaded I salted everything and stood back. You'd think nobody had eaten a pork chop in a long time.
That set the standard on how to eat dinner that summer. Never any problems with leftovers.

- Joe -

[russau]

That sounded good Joe !! I found that what ever a person cooks there's ALWAYS someone eager to eat and the open air cooking over a wood fire will make everything taste great !

[libertydave]

Russ, I agree! After a day spent underwater rolling around rocks and tossing cobbles most any food tastes great. I still have a three-ring binder with the recipes.

Joe: On one of our outings nobody planned for the food and we too had a meat surplus like your pork chops...except it was ground beef. And nobody brought bacon...WHAT, NO BACON??? Terrible! For an entire week everything we cooked had ground beef. Even the morning "Miner's Scramble" had ground beef. Even the sandwiches were meat loaf.

Leonard...During DEF 2002 at RiversWest RV Park we were camped next to Grivy...southward side...and you were right across the campground road on the Highway side near the gully with the rattlesnakes. There was a couple of tents with big sign in front of one tent with a land shark.

LD

[russau]

Yep I remember the the shark outfit , Leonard wore it at the Oroville Washington Rally ! I have a picture of it somewhere !

[golden optimist]

Grivy made the shark and gave it to me. I still have it here. I made a harness and put it on and the fin stuck up out of the water and I swam around doing the dadum, dadum. up throuh the snorkel and I swim around terrorizing the kids. The land shark even did a canon ball off of the big rock at Rivers West.
Leonard