In his camp cooking seminars, Cee Dub teaches his students to use anti-bacterial soap for both hand washing and dishwashing. He also recommends that camp cooks use paper towels instead of cloth towels.
Bakin' Bill advocates the use of disposable gloves whenever Dutch oven cooks work. He would like to see more Dutch oven cooks use disposable gloves. He also expresses his displeasure with cooks who set Dutch oven lids on the ground.
Cee Dub and Bakin' Bill make good suggestions. They raised important questions that I neglected. Should anti-bacterial soap and disposable gloves be part of the camp cook's food safety arsenal?
Hand washing and anti-bacterial soap
"Bacteria use your hands to move about the battlefield," I said in my article. "Only by washing your hands often can the camp cook blockade against marauding bacteria." Cooks must have hand washing constantly drilled into their heads.
This is a particular problem for Dutch oven cooks because we usually cook outdoors away from bathroom facilities. Cee Dub stresses to his students that they use "anti-bacterial soap both for dishes and hand washing." Cee Dub's idea is good when you don't have any other choice. I keep hand sanitizer wipes in my chuckbox for such occasions. (Restaurant supply houses like Smart and Final carries them.)
I set up a hand-washing station when camping. A Coleman 5-gallon water jug with a spout goes on the picnic table bench right next to my kitchen. The water jug is only a step away. To wash my hands, I step over to the water jug, soap up, scrub and rinse.
Disposable gloves
"Whenever we prepare our food we use disposable gloves to prevent contamination and the spread of bacteria," writes Bakin' Bill. "That is in our classes, demos, dinners and at home for any meal."
I agree with Bill when they're used judiciously. It's best to discard the gloves and don a fresh pair every time you would normally wash your hands. And remember that the camp cook doesn't need to wear gloves all the time. Ideally, the cook and helpers should wear gloves when:
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