Campfire cooking-Why does it taste so good? 

Why is it that meals prepared outdoors taste so different from those made at home?  If you're dining at your campsite, even  an MRE (meal ready to eat) tastes different than it did when you made it in your kitchen for the first time.  The flavor seems so much more enriched and hearty and filling than it did then. 

If its breakfast, maybe its the anticipation of the days hike and the wonders that you'll see, or if its dinner the long awaited rest and leisure after witnessing those wonders.  A peanut butter and jelly sandwich has a whole different taste after its been in your backpack all day, but what a lunch it makes as you watch those huge puffy pillow white clouds roll past while sitting in an open meadow full of wild flowers.  

It seems that even someone that has no cooking skills can be a culinary master on the trail.  Even the simple hotdog tastes great cooked on a spit over an open campfire.  And who eats burnt marshmellows at home? Yet, we all love them roasted over the coals or at least like watching them catch fire.   A can of baked beans heated on a campfire grill or a pot of chili bubbling on a propane stove is savored as much as the best a five star restaurant can offer.  I don't think they could offer anything  better than a freshly caught brook trout still stream cold sizzling in a tin foil wrap.

You don't hear many complaints around a campfire kitchen, even if the toast is black and coffee is full of grounds.  Its accepted as another part of the experience and the gratification of being outdoors.  Maybe grumpy people just don't like to hike or fussy folks don't like to camp...or maybe they just don't mind anymore when they're hiking or camping.