What’s a Good Camping Cheese?

I’m going on a weeklong camping trip this summer and would like to take along some good cheese that does not require refrigeration. Got any recommendations?

Nothing is quite as lovely as dining al fresco, except of course dining al fresco underneath a sea of stars out in the wilderness. There are a few things to consider when selecting some provisional cheeses to accompany you on this getaway. You want cheeses that do not require refrigeration, are versatile enough to be reinvented over the course of a few days in several dishes, and are aged—but not too much so, since a really hard-aged cheese would be difficult to cut. (Let’s face it: sometimes we misplace our 42-in-1 limited-edition Swiss Army knife and are left only with a used spork from KFC.)

Some good cheeses that fit these criteria are a nutty alpine-style, such as a chunk of one-year-old Gruyère or a slab of Hoch Ybrig; a clothbound cheddar such as Montgomery’s or Cabot; and an aged Italian goat such as Caprotto or Pantaleo. The alpines are perfect to grate over that frying duck egg you just foraged from a mallard’s nest next to the creek. The cheddar is excellent sliced with a fresh apple, wrapped in Canadian bacon (because who goes camping without some sort of cured pork product?), and fried up in a good ol’ cast-iron skillet. And the aged Italian goat cheese is fantastic shaved over the grilled trout you caught grizzly-style in the babbling brook. Of course, for the lazy naturalist, all of these cheeses are ideal for just plain nibbling.

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