Cooking Over a Fire

The earliest form of cooking.

Hey, a little ash ain't gonna kill ya! Cooking over a campfire is one of those things in life that you just can't explain to someone that's never done it. Everyone knows of the toasted, melted, burned, dropped in ash and wiped off marshmallow treat loved by kids of all ages. But, even better is the smell of bacon or cobbler or beans mixed with the smoke from burning oak or pine. You can't bottle that smell! And, the taste! Stuff that you'd dump in the trash at home is a delicacy in the wild. How do you do it? Well, here's the more common ways to cook on a campfire. Each method has its place and anyone you ask will tell you their favorite. Try them all and broaden your culinary delights.

Cooking Methods

On a Stick

Stick a hotdog on a stick, give it to the kid, and let him cook. It's a great way to warm up simple food like that, but it is also a useful way to cook individual servings. It is simple cheap, requires no tools other than a stick, and you can easily regulate the cooking by shifting positions of the food. The drawbacks of this method is that only a few foods can be cooked this way. There is often a lot of wasted food due to dropping and burning. And all those hot, pointed sticks can be dangerous.

Other than s'mores, one of my favorite things to cook over the fire on a stick is bread dough wrapped evenly around the stick and cooked until the outside is golden brown. Hot, fresh baked bread. That is the best!

Another well known open fire cooking method is in foil. I have heard these called, hobo dinners, boy scout dinners, tin foil dinners. They are one and the same. Just wrap up your food, toss it in the coals, and wait awhile. Everyone gets to put their own meal together just the way they want.

You can cook pretty much anything this way. It is simple, individuals get just what they want, and it is lightweight. Great for backpacking. Some of the drawbacks to this method is it is easy to mix up who's is who's, and it can be a challenge to remove meals from the coals. A few times I have made dinner this way taught me a few things. Just like every form of cooking, it takes practice. It is hard to tell when the food is done and burned food happened more often than not.

Another form of cooking over coals is with a Dutch Oven. With a little practice you can cook anything you want with this method. You end up with great tasting food that is hard to really mess up. I also like this method because you can cook for a large group. The one drawback is that Dutch ovens tend to be really heavy, especially when filled with chicken and potatoes. Recipes for Dutch Oven Cooking

Tin Foil Recipes

Hobo Dinner

Required: aluminum foil, paper towels, long fire tongs

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. hamburger

ketchup or BBQ sauce
1 potato

1/4 onion, optional
1 carrot

salt, pepper, ...

Instructions: Wash, peel, and dice the vegetables. Pull the hamburger into bits and place on foil wrapper. Season hamburger and add vegetables and sauce as desired. Fold foil into a flat package sealed well. Place the dinner on coals. Cook for 10 minutes, then flip and cook 10 more. Unwrap and check one dinner to see if they are done.

Chicken Foil Dinner

Required: aluminum foil, paper towels, long fire tongs

Ingredients: 1 chicken breast, 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1/4 onion, optional, salt, pepper, ...

Instructions: Wash, peel, and dice the vegetables. Cut the chicken into strips and place on foil wrapper. Season chicken and add vegetables as desired. Fold foil into a flat package sealed well. Place the dinner on coals. Cook for 15 minutes, then flip and cook 10 more. Unwrap and check one dinner to see if they are done. Make sure the chicken is white and firm, completely done.

Pocket Pizza

Required: aluminum foil, campfire coals, long fire tongs

Ingredients:

1 pkg pita bread
1 can spaghetti sauce
1 cup grated cheese
1 pkg sliced pepperoni
optional: sliced black olives, pineapple chunks, diced peppers, ...

Notes: Use precooked meat since you are just heating it up.

Instructions: Cut each pita in half and spoon spaghetti sauce into pocket spreading it evenly.
Add cheese, pepperoni, and other toppings. Wrap in foil and place in coals. Cook for a couple minutes, flip, and cook another two minutes.

Banana Boats

Required: aluminum foil, knife

Ingredients:

1 banana per person
mini-marshmallows
chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
M&Ms
Reese's Pieces
brown sugar
other optional bits

Notes: If you can peel back the peel and leave it attached at one end, it works better. Eat the sliced out banana piece as a taste of things to come.

Instructions: The 1/4 of the peel that is on the inside of the curve needs to be peeled out of the way. Leave the rest on to hold the banana together. Try to leave the top peel attached. Cut out a groove of banana to make your boat. Fill the boat with whatever cargo you want - chips, marshmallows, brown sugar, ... Lay the peel back on top. Wrap it tightly in tin foil. Cook in campfire coals for 4-5 minutes.

Dessert Burritos

Required: knife, aluminum foil, spoons

Ingredients:

tortillas
pie filling - blueberry, cherry, apple,
chocolate chips
mini-marshmallows
peanut butter

Notes: It is very sweet, easy, has very little clean-up.

Instructions: Open the cans and put a spoon in each one. Tear off squares of aluminum foil.
Put a tortilla on the square of foil. Add peanut butter or pie filling. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and/or marshmallows. Roll up the tortilla and fold the bottom edge in. Wrap foil around tortilla and place on grill above fire or on ash around edge of fire. Wait for the ingredients to melt.

Hints:

Main problem is putting too much stuff in the burrito - try using smaller amounts.
Put all the tortillas in a foil wrap and carefully heat them before so they are more flexible.
Putting tortillas directly into the coals will burn them - keep them away and rotate often.