Questions about cooking meat and enemy encampments

Two questions -

1. It seems like I automatically cook/grill any meat I have (fish and malefact meat) when stopping at a camp. This seems counterintuitive because it's typically better for me, at least how I play, to save that meat for recipes at the cleanse walker. I know I can use it for hunger in the world but I just don't ever run out of other food usually. Is there a way to avoid cooking meat at the camp? It seems to make more sense to go back to the cleanse walker after finding a new camp so that you don't lose like exploration progress but it's a bummer your meat cooks automatically at a camp and can't use it in recipes.

2. Is there a way to complete enemy encampments? I'm not using the right term probably but the squares/diamonds on the map with the crossed swords. I feel like I kill all the enemies and nothing happens? Am I missing something or is it just an indicator to show there are enemies on the map?