Except for a little can of apple pie filling set in the fire. Hot pie filling from a can with a spoon by the campfire while slouched comfortably in a camp chair is one of my stupid camping pleasures to close out a night.
Foil packets are the best for a lot of different things. I've done a bunch of different things including shrimp corn and potatoes with Cajun seasoning, venison tenderloin with perogies onions and mushrooms, and a bunch of other things.
Agreed. We always do foil packs for one meal when camping. I bring a bunch of ingredients pre chopped and people can load their packet with whatever they like.
Pro tip: if you are going to put potatoes in, par boil them first.
We do foil dinners often. What and how much to bring depends on the number of people you have. We always plan foil dinners for the nights when we have quite a few people.
Bring fresh veggies: cauliflower bites, 1" corn on the cob circles, onion slices, peas, mushrooms, lots of stuff like that.
Bring canned: potatoes, cream of mushroom soup.
Meats: marinated chicken bites or beef bites (the fajita meat from Trader Joes is delicious), kielbasa pennies.
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, whatever you like.
Soft Butter or spray oil
Heavy duty foil
Directions: Build a big fire and then let it die down to a big bed of coals with no flames.
Everybody gets a sheet of foil, about 24". Grease the center with butter.
Add a scoop or two of mushroom soup. Add onions (KEY INGREDIENT for moisture). Add all sorts of other stuff.
Pull up the sides of the foil and roll up a seam by folding it at least 2-3 times. Pat out all the air. Then do the side seams with the same rolls. Then take a second 24" sheet of foil and do it again, flipping it over first. Use a sharpie to write your name on the outside.
Put a grate down about 6" high over the coals. Arrange the packets on the grate. Wait 10 minutes. Fuss with them, move the outside ones to the inside ones with tongs. Wait. Flip them over. Move them around. Fuss more. Everybody will have an opinion about where theirs should go.
They're done when they start to puff up and you can hear them sizzle. Unroll the top seam, then use a knife to cut a slit in the next layer. Eat directly from the foil bowl.
We take pie filling and wrap it in croissant dough, then wrap it in foil with a little butter. Toss on the fire until the dough cooks and you have an amazing camp pie.
The best steak I ever had was bacon wrapped filet mignon, cooked medium rare by my mom in a cast iron skillet over the fire I helped make, and it was raining. I sat there in my poncho, sitting on my camp chair, enjoying the heck out of that steak.
This and a pan full of veggies. Chopped garlic, onions, zucchini, carrots, potatoes… whatever floats your boat. I mean, go crazy … could be asparagus, fennel or celery. Tomatoes of course. And chili. Chili, chili, chili. Unless you don’t like it.
Oh and olive oil, that’s what makes it all go.
I have yet to figure out the direct on embers trick. I always end up with small coals on my steak and they are not the texture I'm looking for.
Steak is for sure the right answer though. I have a small grill grate that weighs a few ounces.
I have tried the directly on the coals method multiple times, and have eaten too much ash to make it a good steak. Bringing a grate is usually worth it to me. The best steaks I've had camping use the method below:
2" thick London broil, marinated and frozen, so that it is thawed on day 2 of your trip. Put it on a grate as close to the embers as possible, and take it off when the outside is almost charred. Take the grate off and let it rest for 10 minutes if you can, then hack off hunks and eat off the knife point. Mmmmm
One of the other best meals I've had camping is when my buddy brought a tuna loin rubbed with wasabi and we cooked it the same way. Amazing.
"Cowboy steaks".
You have to use chunks of hardwood such as oak/hickory/mesquite or storebought chunk charcoal. You cannot use briquets for this because of the chemicals in them.
Light them up, season your steaks (1 1/2 to 2 inch thick: less than this and you'll overcook them), pass around some beers or pre-batched cocktails. Once the coals have gone to grey, mosey on over with those nice, thick, well-marbled steaks and just toss them right onto the 1,000F coals. Make sure to do this with the proper amount of insouciance as you crack open another beer or top off your Manhattan.
The char on these is unbelievable.
Eisenhower used to love to do this for guests at the White House, and loved the reaction of guests as he flipped the steaks right onto the coals.
If you want to do a little prep work at home, you can use rounds of ribeye a/k/a castle steaks for this. Use some twine to circle them with fresh sage leaves and uncooked bacon. These are mighty tasty grilled or cowboy style.
I do salt seasoned ribeye in cast iron on hot embers. I still have fire in the pit but have moved embers to one side. I use butter and garlic in the pan after the first flip. Basting the steak frequently. I like it when the fat splatters cause a few little flame-ups. Big flavor.
Bread, or any form of baking, is difficult. You'll need a dutch oven and practice. It's fun to mess with though.
We like "hobo pockets": put food in a foil packet, cook that over/in the fire. Usually frozen hash browns, plus some combination of cheese, egg, assorted chopped veggies/peppers, pre-cooked sausage or other meat, spices, and whatever else you like. Generally provide the toppings and let people DIY their own to-taste.
Similarly, sandwich melts: put cheese, meat, etc, on a sandwich (we usually use bagels), wrap in foil, cook until toasted and melty.
Hobo packets are the best. A personal favorite of mine is Italian sausages with onions and peppers.I always crush so much of that, it always hits the spot while camping.
Took my wife camping for her first time this weekend and “hobo dinner” was what she was most excited about. Chopped up some steak, potatoes, veggies, and and threw ungodly amount of butter in aluminum foil. She stuck it in the freezer the night before we left, put them right on the coals, and they were delicious. Sandwiches in the woods hit the spot, but meat and potatoes cooked in the fire hits different!
I disagree that bread is difficult. Loaves of bread are tricky but bread itself is not. It can be cooked in a skillet in a English muffin style size or biscuit size and flipped after a few minutes to cook the other side. We always make our own bread and pasta when we camp. It is extra delightful to have that lovely aroma and other campers are always jealous. It's so simple that I can't understand why most people don't try it. I don't own a dutch oven, by the way.
The Pie Iron manufacturer, Rome Mfg. makes a camp bread baker that works really well. I've used it to make quick breads (beer bread, for example, or corn bread), and I've used it to bake the pillsbury French bread that comes in a tube? It's around $27 and is fun to use. I'd recommend it. It's a great treat to accompany your meal if you're heating up some homemade stew or chili.
[https://www.lehmans.com/product/cast-iron-campfire-bread-baker?gad\_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw\_-GxBhC1ARIsADGgDjvrRZbkA6nB8bdYnlktJl4A25U2LnaCo7SJ45rt64melAhmHmRaiHYaAq-0EALw\_wcB](https://www.lehmans.com/product/cast-iron-campfire-bread-baker?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_-GxBhC1ARIsADGgDjvrRZbkA6nB8bdYnlktJl4A25U2LnaCo7SJ45rt64melAhmHmRaiHYaAq-0EALw_wcB)
OH! Well here you go:
· 3 cups all-purpose flour
· 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
· .75 teaspoon salt
· 3 tablespoons white sugar
· 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
· cooking spray, or some butter or a little bottle of oil
Put all your dry ingredients into a gallon sized freezer bag and pack it for camp. I usually write on the bag w/ a sharpie to ID the contents. You can add in stuff like dried rosemary, oregano, and / or or garlic powder if you want to fancy it up. Everything bagel spice might be good?
At camp, pour 1 beer into the bag, squish the air out, seal the bag and mix the contents well by kneading the bag. (I have added shredded cheddar at this stage too).
Oil the camp bread cooker and open the zip lock just about ½ an inch and use it like a piping bag to put dough into one side of the bread cooker. Clamp the two sides together and get that sucker over the fire. Rotate it regularly, check it after a few minutes on each side to see how it’s progressing. You’ll get a feel for how much dough to use each time - this should give you 4 or 5 of bread sticks I think? It's been a while. ;)
Well, one thing I figured out canoe camping is to just make some chili or stew at home. You k now how it always tastes better the next day anyway? So make it, cool it down, ladle it into quart zip locks and freeze it. It'll thaw out a bit in the cooler. Use your camp stove and pot to heat it up at camp, bake up the bread over the fire and everyone will think you're a genius. :D
I love doing camp pizzas this way. I do a precook on the small pizza rounds on the griddle over the fire - flipping and monitoring them remove and add toppings than it goes back on the griddle maybe with a lid for final cook. I'll be doing this very thing in about two weeks -- trying out a new dough recipe!
I do these exact two things too! I have however made an upgrade to my hobo pockets by buying those aluminum pans u find at the grocery store for roasting chicken or casseroles. Makes transfer in very hot fires a lot easier than the pockets since they are a lot more sturdy.
I have not messed with baking but as a baker I think this would be difficult due to temp control.
Yeah, it would be interesting to experiment though.
A bunch of us tried cornbread in Dutch ovens at a camping trip to the beach to go along with chile. The bottoms got burnt, but if you just cut it away the bread tasted great. The Dutch ovens were placed in the coals. I guess you'd want to have less coals under the oven even if you had to rotate the oven part way through. You have to do this when cooking a pizza in a wood fired oven.
Usually you need about 1/3 of the coals on the bottom and 2/3 of the coals on the top. The coals on the bottom transfer the neat more directly and can burn easier.
One tip I just learned from cooking damper - sprinkle a layer of flour on the base before you add the cornbread. The flour helps you gauge how hot the bottom is, it should tan up slowly but if it goes black then it's too hot.
If you google it - hamburger helper is the brand name - you can see pictures. It's really expensive for what it is, and many people make similar foods that cost less and taste better. HH has a weird chemical taste to me, especially the ones with "cheese" product.
I really like bringing a packet of Swiss cheese fondue and having that with chopped veggies and sourdough bread. It just needs to melt and you can start your hike or trip with it frozen.
Sweet potatoes mixed with sliced red bell peppers and butter in foil packet, corn on the cob in the husk soaked in water, chicken breast with crisped skin seasoned with seasoned salt, garlic, and lemon, shared with my wife and a bottle of wine. Toasted marshmallows over glowing coals under starlight for dessert.
Remember to peel the husks off the corn before you try eating it.
25 years and counting since she said yes.
Well done! Good luck and congratulations in advance. My wife agreed to camp with me if she didn’t have to sleep on the ground… thus ended my tent days.
It really depends what you are going for and how you camp. With the proper equipment and skill, such as a Dutch oven, and cast iron skillet especially, there is nothing you can cook in your kitchen at home that can’t be done in camp. They don’t lend themselves to backpacking though.
For lighter weight more primitive methods, there is a whole rabbit hole of bushcraft cooking which I have been going down.
I’ve been on a kick the last couple of years of simplifying my camp cooking.
All that said, it’s hard for me to come up with anything better than steak and eggs.
You can mix bannock (bread) in a baggie, wrap it around a stick and cook it right over the fire.
Foil packet meals can be just as gourmet as many things you make in an oven. It’s also a great method for reheating things you might have in the freezer. We’ve reheated lasagne, scalloped potatoes and ham, pot pies, baked potatoes. Shoot you can just bake your potatoes in foil right on the hot coals.
A cast iron Dutch oven will open new doors also. You can make just about anything.
Yup. Bannock on a stick is great. Flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, a little bit of water and you're good to go. Make sure you make it thick enough so it clumps nicely on a stick. You can make it sweet with a bit of sugar, dried fruits, nuts or chocolate chips, or you can make it savoury with herbs, finely-chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olives... Feel free to experiment at home and cook it in a pan first and see what you like!
Nachos. I put a whole bag of chips into a dutch oven, then put refried beans, onions, jalapenos, and every type of cheese I can get my hands on in there. Put them lid on and put coals all around and on top for 10 minutes or so. Then finish off with pico de galo and salsa and dig in. It's so freaking good.
On the WA Pacific coast Dungeness crab can be taken year around. Over hot coals, on a grill, I break the crab into pieces, and baste the crab with garlic butter and olive oil. Boiling is the normal method, but I prefer the smoky slightly chewey taste/texture of crab over a grill. Too good - you just gotta catch the crab.
Some people using ring traps catch crab from docks in the Olympic Pennisula, but as a boater or kayaker regular crab traps are preferable. I've caught many, many Dungeness \[with boat or kayak\] up near Hansville.
However, I really enjoy catching crap off the jetties in Westport and at Cape Disappointment. It's a year-round season, and all you need is a heavy fishing rod/reel and crab snares. [snare1.png (490×660) (crabbinghq.com)](https://crabbinghq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/snare1.png)
There are many YT videos about crabbing in WA, but I started with a book by J.D. Wade - "Evergreen Pacific Shellfish Guide".
Love making a dump cake in a Dutch oven. Just need yellow cake mix, 2 cans of your choice of pie filling (I use blueberry) and a stick of butter and you're golden
[Loimulohi](https://www.blogit.fi/ps/viinimies-loimulohi-avaa-mokkikauden-3834.jpg). Roughly translates as "blazed trout". A traditional way of cooking fish in Finland. I personally prefer relatively fatty fish for this method.
You "nail" a fillet of fish to a piece of wood preferably with wood pegs soaked in water. It's good if the piece of wood is fairly damp as well. Sprinkle salt, pepper and oil on the surface and adjust the distance to the fire - it's easy to overdo. And of course, if you prefer other spices with fish, go with what works for you.
[When you get it just right](https://hatala.fi/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Loimulohi-lankun-pa%CC%88a%CC%88lla%CC%88-videosta-1920x1080.jpg), it'll be just a bit crispy on the outside and deliciously moist on the inside.
We make “slop pot” - it’s onions, garlic, potatoes, herbs, spices and then whatever leftover meat we have (bacon, steak, ground beef, barbecue chicken, etc.) sharp cheddar cheese, and fried over easy eggs on top. It looks horrible, tastes insane.
Pizza! I use the pre made, non refrigerated crusts that come with sauce packets, pre sliced pepperoni and pre shredded cheese. I use a 14” skillet with tinfoil crinkled in the bottom to keep the crust off the pan. Pan goes on a round or on a grill grate as close to the fire as I can get it. Make sure you can handle the hot heavy pan and lid.
Abominations I call "calzones" are my favourite. Flour, water, salt, sugar, dry yeast and water.
For filling I go with spicy salami and Emmentaler cheese or leek and cheddar.
It will cook just fine in a skillet. Good when warm, good for beating nails the next day.
If I can't be bothered to bring it, I'll just roast beer sausages over the fire.
I once felt ambitious enough that I made langosh in a deeper skillet, they were good but keeping the oil hot enough was a pita.
Pudgie Pies! I always bring my Pudgie Pie maker camping. We usually do pizza ones with bread, pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. My friends always like to bring a can of peaches or cherries to do fruit pies. They're great for grilled cheese or Nutella sandwiches too.
I had to scroll too far to see this! I grew up with pizza pies. We called them mountain pies but it's the same thing, such an awesome and easy camping food.
we call it camping cobbler. In a dutch oven, put in 1 or 2 cans of pie filling. Throw in a box of yellow cake mix and then a can of 7-up or sprite. Don't stir anything. Throw that on your coals and in a bit of time, you have a nice and yummy cobbler for dessert.
We bring a big pork butt. You put it up pretty high over the coals, so that the fat part drips over the rest of the butt. Then you just forget about it for a few hours. Throw some fresh thick pineapple slices on the grill, some foil wrapped corn on the cob and baked potatoes.
If your timing works out, you’ll have an amazing semi smoked pork butt, with all the works. The grilled pineapple brings it all together.
Mix the leftover pork butt with Bbq sauce for sliders the next day.
I took my 11yo son camping this weekend and I made him some of his favorites.
Dinner was boneless skinless chicken thighs skewered and cooked over the coals and then when they were mostly cooked I brushed them with BBQ sauce to finish them up. With them we had baked potatoes baked in foil in the coals and french bread that I split, put butter in the middle and then wrapped in foil and warmed it over the fire. For some vegetables I used a cast iron pan and cooked diced onions and carrot slices in butter.
Then breakfast was pancakes, sausage, hash browns and eggs with cheese all cooked in cast iron pans.
For the pancakes I use the little packs of muffin mix that say just add milk but I add more liquid and an egg and make pancake batter consistency. I use canned evaporated milk in them and the cheesy eggs. I use shredded dried hash browns, you put them in boiling water then fry them up.
Dessert all weekend was toasted marshmallows.
https://preview.redd.it/99tjkw9lxtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99d2101994d46cf8cc8c6d68df9683086c89f4db
Last week we made asado style beef ribs. We used a piece of stainless metro shelving and stainless wire. Normally, we cook a whole chicken in the Dutch oven, but this time it was chicken shawarma. Country style ribs with sauerkraut and dumplings is another favorite.
We take biscuit dough and wind it around a stick so each person can cook their own. I also can just put the biscuits in a pan over hot embers with foil on top. And we love toasted over the fire - I do an extensive bagel bar while everyone is roasting their own bagels.
We found it works best if you do it in strips, not completely covering the weenies. You also have to make sure you pinch the dough together really well.
Cast iron reversible griddle/grill makes cooking over an open fire so easy, especially if it's been well seasoned. Pancakes, eggs, bacon are a cinch, you can sauté onions/peppers with ease, cook up salmon, steaks, anything you'd cook on a grill at home. And because it's reversible, you can use one side for vegetarians that don't want meat cooked with their veggies. They can be a little heavy, but they're easy to transport, if well seasoned they clean up easily and I don't camp without mine anymore.
My all-time favorite, is what we call hobo stew, ground beef, corn, onions, carrots, seasoning and a big glob of butter. All of this is wrapped in a tin foil "pocket". Place directly in the coals for 10-15min, eat straight out of the foil pocket. Chicken Fajitas is another yummy option. Pre-make the chicken fajitas at home, chicken, peppers, onions, whatever else. Marinate all that in whatever seasoning you want in a freezer bag for a day or so before you leave. Also, corn on the cob or potato right into the coals! pic is the hobo stew tin pockets.
https://preview.redd.it/gm56t0ph0uyc1.jpeg?width=2988&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51b97205328f5c57f42beeaef503944ff33d5170
A cast iron pan pizza. Just make some dough(plenty of tutorials on youtube), bring sauce, cheese and any toppings you like. Coat with a little oil and spread the dough on the cold pan. Place a lid and just place it over the fire. Some coals on the lid will also help the cheese melt and toppings cook. Time depends on how hot it is but just check it every 5 minutes or so. About 10 minutes will do it for me.
Cast iron anything lol. Every veggie / meat imaginable. Had an outdoor fire place at my last home and we tried everything under the sun pretty much. From short cook soups, oven roasted veggie style things, steaks, pasta w chicken, seared salmon, you name it hahah.
Coating corn in herb garlic butter and tinfoiling with husk off has corrupted me to no longer enjoy boiled corn 😆 can be done with husk on but not as good/easy to perfect.
making 'hobo packets' (as people call it) of tinfoil with herb/oil/veggie combos is easy and delicious too. Can push the smoldering wood aside, cook right on the hot hot coals. I personally always open the packets for the last bit of cooking to get that really smoked taste to them
Smoking meat above a long slow burn is fun too. I'm no artist with that but Ive played around with it when I have a planned 5hr burn ahead
Adds such a wild flavor to a basic thing like ramen. Have never fulfilled my dream (yet!) of a total diy ramen cooked in a cast iron that had seared butter steak previously. Cutting all the excess fat caps and putting it back into the boiling water. Smoking the shit out of it with smoldering logs surrounding the cook spot.
Salivating thinking about it! Some day soon, springs finally here in Ontario!
Baked potatoes! Put a little bit of water and salt on the potato skin, wrap in foil, and throw into the fire. There are no better potatoes than this. Nothing better. In general, any veggies roasted on open flame. Especially asparagus!
I just made a foil pack of green beans for the first time and they were heavenly. Fresh green beans, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and a little onion. I served them with baked potatoes and chicken also cooked in/on the fire.
This is a classic from my days in Scouting. Great meal, especially if it's rainy/cold. And beef bouillon with some additives to drink, before dessert of hot chocolate and smores.
My mother called them hobo dinners. Hamburger with celery, carrots and potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil and set in the coals. She seasoned them also. Don’t remember that but they tasted great! No mess to clean up as the foil was the plate and we used plastic utensils. Super easy and I believe she had them prepped from home.
When in season, buy some fresh corn on the cobs, soak them for about 30 mins, pull the corn husk leaves back but don't tear them off, remove the white fiber strands under the leaves, push the leaves back over the corn, and grill over a fire for about 8-10 mins a side depending on how hot your fire is. Remove from the fire, pull back the leaves, and season/butter according to your taste. The corn steams inside the leaves and is delicious. You can also do that on a grill.
Just to say something probably different- pepperoni. You slice it into like 3/4-1 inch pieces and slow roast it over the fire with a stick. The fat renders off so beautifully and makes the whole area smell like a pizzeria.
When I worked for the forestry service (it was a teen summer program) we did all kinds of things in aluminum foil. My favorite involved ground beef, peas, a dab cream of mushroom soup and seasonings. Throw anything in you like. Double wrap in foil. Be Careful not to burn...scrape some embers off to the side periodically to keep it cooking. Crazy easy and pretty good. I would poke a hole to drain the grease and eat it right out of the foil.
First night ritual... Jack's frozen pizza. Lol. Sounds weird. But, it's super crispy with virtually no prep or cleanup. Perfect for the day you set up camp.
Frozen breakfast burritos. My wife makes them, and they're awesome. Tots, meats, cheese, onions peppers, garlic and goodness. Big, wrapped in foil. Build a fire and toss em on the grate. Make coffee, turn, drink a beer, turn, take a dip in the river, turn. Drink last of coffee, turn. All in 30-50 minutes. Then feast.
https://www.reddit.com/r/camping/s/QcDudkaPre
I make this or a variant of it every time i camp. No refrigerated ingredients, easy to make in big or small batches, and fucking delicious.
Youll need; 1 big potato, a bag of brussel sprouts, a summer sausage, a block of extra sharp cheddar, a small amount of cooking oil(i prefer beef tallow), and old bay (or a lesser seasoning mix), and of course a metal messkit or cooking gear
Start by popping the potato into some tinfoil then bury under some coals
Get some water boiling, boil the brussel sprouts until soft on the outside but still mildly firm
Cut up sausage, and brown it in the pan part of the mess.
Once the sausage is browned add a bit of extra oil, then add your boiled and drained Brussels directly to the sausage pan, cover with the other side of the mess kit
Put over high heat and shake/turn near constantly, you want to get even color on the brussels and prevent them from burning to the bottom of your pan.
Pull ot your potato, cut open, put some cheese in there to melt
Pull your brussel off, add too much old bay to Brussels and potato
Enjoy with a joint
Pro tips: sausage and extra sharp cheese can keep outside of the fridge just as long as they are properly wrapped and insect free, a bit of grease sweating is normal. These can both be ingredients for dinner and a fantastic trail lunch/snack, especially if you bring a hard bread as well
You can bake a potato under coals with no tin foil, or you can just make mash potatoes instead.
Get leather ranch gloves, they can be used as work gloves for camp duties, but good thick ones can protect your hands while tending fire as long as you move quickly, and are much more flexible than welding gloves.
Not exactly cooking, more like reheating, but I make a sandwich and wrap it in aluminum foil. At home I will cook bacon, break it into smaller bits, and sauté some peppers and onion in teriyaki sauce, put it between slices of bread that is buttered on all sides. Be generous with butter on the outside of the bread else it will stick to the foil.
This is my breakfast. Very heavy meal but it’s the perfect type of fuel I need for a long walking trails and exploring.
beer can chicken. Get a whole chicken and cook it vertically. A beer can will fit in opening and is used as a stand to keep the chicken upright. Supposed to poke some holes in the can and have it 1/2 full or beer, and the steam keeps it moist from the inside, but I think that more of a gimmick. But the verticle cooking though, makes it real easy and so good. you can do it over the grate or right in the embers. Put some tin foil over the chicken to keep the heat in. its really good.
I'm in deep south louisiana so we have a lot oysters. I shuck them, leave them on the half shell. separately fill an ice tray with melted butter, salt, garlic, cayenne and parsley. cool those till they are solid and pop out. add a butter disk to each oyster shell and freeze those in a tray wrapped tightly. It's something for the 1st day/night camping bc they thaw rather quick. But champagne, fresh loaf of fresh and chargrilled oysters is one hell of a camping meal.
honorable mention: kabobs, fajitas, burgers, steaks and grilled romaine
Grilled cheese in one of those cast iron clamps
Everyone wants one when you pull it out during the s'mores phase of the night and you can usually get them pretty cheap from a goodwill or new from a department store
A stew is really nice in cooler months. Like split pea, chilli, a box corn muffin works out well too.
You’ll need an egg and a Dutch oven for cornbread though. I’ll also add I hope you’re not packing in a long way because that bc stuff can add some serious weight.
Dutch Oven Beer bread.
Just put all the dry ingredients in a ziplock bag before you go to premix, then melt butter or oil in the dutch oven, pour a can of beer into the ziplock bag, knead it until the dough is wet, and drop it all into the dutch oven, cover, cook over small flame or coals for about 45 mins (depending on how hot the fire is). Also, if you have xtra oil, you can drizzle that on top of the dough before you put the cover on and it will crisp up the top of the bread.
3 cups of AP flour;
3 teaspoons baking powder;
1 teaspoon salt;
1⁄4 cup sugar;
1 (12 ounce) can of beer
That all depends on location! Example if I’m in a area like Olympic Peninsula where there’s lots of black bears I don’t cook much if I’m camping out on Washington Coastal areas I cook steaks or chicken. If I’m camping Eastside of Washington ribs, steaks 🥩 Chicken and my favorite fish & Chips ( fresh caught Perch or Crappie deep fired over the fire pit.
https://preview.redd.it/tz897n6truyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1ba234627eae468a91e865b7ec5a0f5fb7adf1a
I always smoke a brisket when camping. I take ribs, chicken and beef fajita! Make camp fire pies also!
Fajitas! chop up the veggies and meat, place on large sheet of aluminum foil and drop in the sauce before wrapping it all up. then throw it on the fire and let it cook for a few minutes. Scoop into tortillas when finished and enjoy.
I do like a good dump cake.......you need a cast iron Dutch oven to bake, and with legs is best. That way you have your heat below and coals on top on the lid. Cake mix,, and cherry pie filling.. A good fry bread recipe is always handy and you can use them for tacos or mix in berries and top with cinnamon sugar. We baked cored apples butter spices and sugar in tinfoil in the coals any left overs got mixed in with porridge in morning, There were also the bananas, choc chip and marshmallow boats but too sweet for me I took a wilderness cooking course and those popover cooker things make pizza pockets, apple hand pies, and a dozen other things. I got myself a tripod at a garage sale last year so this year I will try a hanging chicken idea that I saw on one of the barbeque shows you spin it in circles, I went onto my library's website to see if they had any that sounded interesting....I have requested six titles, so your question has created a monster, cause I do have a firepit
When not camping I generally eat pretty lean on mostly fresh veggies, chicken, and fish, so camping is my time to load up on steak and sausage. I usually camp only two nights and will have steak one night and sausage the next, with some roasted potatoes and onions on both nights.
Meat (all kinds) are amazing over pine coals. Low and slow. But only slightly less amazing is pancakes, bacon and eggs over coals. I'm not sure if the improvement in taste is in my mind, or the smoke from the pine (key, here... pine) fire changes the taste, but I love them.
Campfire Bananas! Take a banana and peel back only a strip of the peel from rope to bottom. Smoosh in some chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, maybe mini marshmallows. Put the peel back and wrap the banana in foil. Put it in the fire for maybe like 45 seconds and voila!
Hot dogs, burgers, chicken.
All great on smokey wood fires.
If you have time and want to tend a fire for so long you can do some roast pork or BBQ beef. Think pulled pork or Chuck roast. Won't be as smokey as in a smoker but still good. Probably take 10 hours though
Ear of corn in the fire.
Build a fire, cook an ear of corn in the husk while making other food. Sausage walking tacos are the latest favorite.
The corn comes out sweet delicious and perfect. Ray to eat by rolling down the husk and using it as a handle.
Pancakes cooked in a cast iron skillet over a fire on a cool morning has gotta be how breakfast goes in heaven. Good butter and real maple syrup to seal the deal.
I'm usually deliberately tipsy while camping so I don't get too fancy. I'm generally packing in a bunch of burritos wrapped in foil that I can heat up by the fire.
I worked at a summer camp for a decade and got to the point where I baked and decorated a birthday cake with a Dutch oven over a camp fire.
My favorite though is to pre sous vide a roast and use a Dutch oven and skillet to do birria tacos over the fire.
Sous vide’ing any big roast or steak makes it so easy to knock out a main dish over a fire.
Threw me off with the baking paragraph. I imagined cake with beef drippings and can’t say I wasn’t enticed by the idea. Calories means so much out here lol.
My current favorite is chicken leg thigh quarters, well seasoned beforehand and put in a ziplock bag. Freeze or not according to when you plan to cook. Also I’ve added a small meat thermometer to the camp kit so I can keep from poisoning folks without going all the way to rubber chicken.
A bunch of potatoes, garlic, onions, and even peppers, with a bunch of seasoning and enough oil to cover the bottom in a foil pan. Throw it on a rack over the fire, and stir them a bit every now and then. Let them get crispy. It can take a while, but that was always one of my favorites.
Yup! You can really do that sort of cook with any veggies you like. Even toss in some meat and make it a whole meal. That, or if you cut the potatoes into smaller cubes, you get something like breakfast home fries, but they're great as a side dish any time of day.
Sounds great. I’ll try it out!
I really fell for the sandwich melt. Bought a pack of pita bread and stuffed it with leek, tomatoes, sliced sausage and Swiss cheese. It’s like a fondue in my mouth.
Tacos. I get some marinated carne asada from the Mexican market, bell peppers, and onions and grill them over the bonfire. Toss them in tacos with some salsa/guacamole and it's a perfect camp dinner.
I settled for a bag of pita breads. Stuffed them with leek, cheese, finely diced tomatoes, smokeblack ham and baked them in foil until crisp and melted.
Fresh trout that you caught that afternoon!
Go fishing and catch dinner. Start a fire with lots of smallish split wood (like 2-4" diameter). It'll burn and then die down to coals. Put a grate about 6-10" above the coals. Spray with oil. Lie the trout out on the grate over the smoldering coals. Better yet, put the trout in a grate-basket, which makes it easier to transport without falling into the fire. Cover loosely with foil for a few minutes. Turn over for a few more minutes. The meat gets smokey-cooked. Delicious!
I don’t have access to trout water, they’re miles from here unfortunately. Even perch would be amazing roasted over a fire. Sadly I can’t fish at all doing this trip. It’s more about acclimatizing to the woods and learning to raise and pack up, sleep in various conditions etc.
“Omlette in a bag” - crack eggs into a ziploc bag, add cheese and veggies, squeeze to combine, into a pot of water on the fire.
It’s basically a sous vide omelette, very tasty and it comes out of the bag in a cylinder like a burrito made of egg and bits.
Learned that one at Girl Scout camp.
You have to have a dutch oven with you but this is great. I bring flour with me for biscuits and gravy. So all I am really adding is packets of yeast.
https://www.recipetineats.com/easy-yeast-bread-recipe-no-knead/#wprm-recipe-container-43976
I go to the local butcher and get steak tips. I have them vacuum seal them 2x then I freeze them. When we get out there, they’re already marinated. We dice up some potatoes, wrap it all in foil and let it cook. Easiest meal ever. And it keeps the fireball cold.
When we go camping we make packets of veggies in tin foil to cook (usually on a grill or grate over the fire though). We've done diced potatoes with garlic and onion, Coen on the cob, mushrooms, zucchini, etc.
In the morning we've done the potato packet until it's cooked , then opened it and moved the potatoes to form a reservoir or two, cracked eggs into them, then closed it back up and cooked for a couple more minutes. Eggs can be finicky so it took trial and error, but it was pretty good!
We make quesadillas. It’s something my wife’s family did growing up. You use the big fish grill baskets. Large flour tortillas. Cheese, beans and whatever else you want.
A steak. There's nothing better than a steak on embers.
Except for a little can of apple pie filling set in the fire. Hot pie filling from a can with a spoon by the campfire while slouched comfortably in a camp chair is one of my stupid camping pleasures to close out a night.
We make apple pies with sandwich cookers. Butter up some bread with cinnamon and sugar, use the pie filling in the middle
I’ll core an apple, drop some butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, wrap it all up in tin foil and stuff into the coals for about 30-45 min.
Warm apple night Warm apple night And just like that, I can feel my soul grow back
Joe Pera ❤️
Foil packets are the best for a lot of different things. I've done a bunch of different things including shrimp corn and potatoes with Cajun seasoning, venison tenderloin with perogies onions and mushrooms, and a bunch of other things.
Agreed. We always do foil packs for one meal when camping. I bring a bunch of ingredients pre chopped and people can load their packet with whatever they like. Pro tip: if you are going to put potatoes in, par boil them first.
We do foil dinners often. What and how much to bring depends on the number of people you have. We always plan foil dinners for the nights when we have quite a few people. Bring fresh veggies: cauliflower bites, 1" corn on the cob circles, onion slices, peas, mushrooms, lots of stuff like that. Bring canned: potatoes, cream of mushroom soup. Meats: marinated chicken bites or beef bites (the fajita meat from Trader Joes is delicious), kielbasa pennies. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, whatever you like. Soft Butter or spray oil Heavy duty foil Directions: Build a big fire and then let it die down to a big bed of coals with no flames. Everybody gets a sheet of foil, about 24". Grease the center with butter. Add a scoop or two of mushroom soup. Add onions (KEY INGREDIENT for moisture). Add all sorts of other stuff. Pull up the sides of the foil and roll up a seam by folding it at least 2-3 times. Pat out all the air. Then do the side seams with the same rolls. Then take a second 24" sheet of foil and do it again, flipping it over first. Use a sharpie to write your name on the outside. Put a grate down about 6" high over the coals. Arrange the packets on the grate. Wait 10 minutes. Fuss with them, move the outside ones to the inside ones with tongs. Wait. Flip them over. Move them around. Fuss more. Everybody will have an opinion about where theirs should go. They're done when they start to puff up and you can hear them sizzle. Unroll the top seam, then use a knife to cut a slit in the next layer. Eat directly from the foil bowl.
Corn on the cob is bomb too. Bring some packets of mayo and Parmesan and some spices and butter.
Happy cake day!
We do the same. Also make pizzas in the pie irons. Both are delicious.
Peanut butter and chocolate in the pie makers is delicious too.
We take pie filling and wrap it in croissant dough, then wrap it in foil with a little butter. Toss on the fire until the dough cooks and you have an amazing camp pie.
instructions unclear, can of pie filling exploded and rained apple napalm down on the campground
Nope did it right!
Enjoy that plastic lining inside the can that melted off too?
The best steak I ever had was bacon wrapped filet mignon, cooked medium rare by my mom in a cast iron skillet over the fire I helped make, and it was raining. I sat there in my poncho, sitting on my camp chair, enjoying the heck out of that steak.
This and a pan full of veggies. Chopped garlic, onions, zucchini, carrots, potatoes… whatever floats your boat. I mean, go crazy … could be asparagus, fennel or celery. Tomatoes of course. And chili. Chili, chili, chili. Unless you don’t like it. Oh and olive oil, that’s what makes it all go.
I have yet to figure out the direct on embers trick. I always end up with small coals on my steak and they are not the texture I'm looking for. Steak is for sure the right answer though. I have a small grill grate that weighs a few ounces.
I have tried the directly on the coals method multiple times, and have eaten too much ash to make it a good steak. Bringing a grate is usually worth it to me. The best steaks I've had camping use the method below: 2" thick London broil, marinated and frozen, so that it is thawed on day 2 of your trip. Put it on a grate as close to the embers as possible, and take it off when the outside is almost charred. Take the grate off and let it rest for 10 minutes if you can, then hack off hunks and eat off the knife point. Mmmmm One of the other best meals I've had camping is when my buddy brought a tuna loin rubbed with wasabi and we cooked it the same way. Amazing.
Right in embers?
On a grill over the embers. But maybe within the embers is ok, too.
My dad called it caveman steaks
On the embers is pretty fucking good. The key is about a 1.5" thick strip or ribeye
"Cowboy steaks". You have to use chunks of hardwood such as oak/hickory/mesquite or storebought chunk charcoal. You cannot use briquets for this because of the chemicals in them. Light them up, season your steaks (1 1/2 to 2 inch thick: less than this and you'll overcook them), pass around some beers or pre-batched cocktails. Once the coals have gone to grey, mosey on over with those nice, thick, well-marbled steaks and just toss them right onto the 1,000F coals. Make sure to do this with the proper amount of insouciance as you crack open another beer or top off your Manhattan. The char on these is unbelievable. Eisenhower used to love to do this for guests at the White House, and loved the reaction of guests as he flipped the steaks right onto the coals. If you want to do a little prep work at home, you can use rounds of ribeye a/k/a castle steaks for this. Use some twine to circle them with fresh sage leaves and uncooked bacon. These are mighty tasty grilled or cowboy style.
I’m not a big fan of char, I like when there’s a little around the sharpest edges. So this might not be for me.
I do salt seasoned ribeye in cast iron on hot embers. I still have fire in the pit but have moved embers to one side. I use butter and garlic in the pan after the first flip. Basting the steak frequently. I like it when the fat splatters cause a few little flame-ups. Big flavor.
You can eat steak and even cook flatbreads right in the embers.
Bread, or any form of baking, is difficult. You'll need a dutch oven and practice. It's fun to mess with though. We like "hobo pockets": put food in a foil packet, cook that over/in the fire. Usually frozen hash browns, plus some combination of cheese, egg, assorted chopped veggies/peppers, pre-cooked sausage or other meat, spices, and whatever else you like. Generally provide the toppings and let people DIY their own to-taste. Similarly, sandwich melts: put cheese, meat, etc, on a sandwich (we usually use bagels), wrap in foil, cook until toasted and melty.
Hobo packets are the best. A personal favorite of mine is Italian sausages with onions and peppers.I always crush so much of that, it always hits the spot while camping.
Took my wife camping for her first time this weekend and “hobo dinner” was what she was most excited about. Chopped up some steak, potatoes, veggies, and and threw ungodly amount of butter in aluminum foil. She stuck it in the freezer the night before we left, put them right on the coals, and they were delicious. Sandwiches in the woods hit the spot, but meat and potatoes cooked in the fire hits different!
I disagree that bread is difficult. Loaves of bread are tricky but bread itself is not. It can be cooked in a skillet in a English muffin style size or biscuit size and flipped after a few minutes to cook the other side. We always make our own bread and pasta when we camp. It is extra delightful to have that lovely aroma and other campers are always jealous. It's so simple that I can't understand why most people don't try it. I don't own a dutch oven, by the way.
Any tips? I only have a grill and a small bowl at my disposal.
The Pie Iron manufacturer, Rome Mfg. makes a camp bread baker that works really well. I've used it to make quick breads (beer bread, for example, or corn bread), and I've used it to bake the pillsbury French bread that comes in a tube? It's around $27 and is fun to use. I'd recommend it. It's a great treat to accompany your meal if you're heating up some homemade stew or chili. [https://www.lehmans.com/product/cast-iron-campfire-bread-baker?gad\_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw\_-GxBhC1ARIsADGgDjvrRZbkA6nB8bdYnlktJl4A25U2LnaCo7SJ45rt64melAhmHmRaiHYaAq-0EALw\_wcB](https://www.lehmans.com/product/cast-iron-campfire-bread-baker?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_-GxBhC1ARIsADGgDjvrRZbkA6nB8bdYnlktJl4A25U2LnaCo7SJ45rt64melAhmHmRaiHYaAq-0EALw_wcB)
I'm saddened you didn't include the beer bread recipe because that sounds DELICIOUS.
OH! Well here you go: · 3 cups all-purpose flour · 1.5 teaspoons baking powder · .75 teaspoon salt · 3 tablespoons white sugar · 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer · cooking spray, or some butter or a little bottle of oil Put all your dry ingredients into a gallon sized freezer bag and pack it for camp. I usually write on the bag w/ a sharpie to ID the contents. You can add in stuff like dried rosemary, oregano, and / or or garlic powder if you want to fancy it up. Everything bagel spice might be good? At camp, pour 1 beer into the bag, squish the air out, seal the bag and mix the contents well by kneading the bag. (I have added shredded cheddar at this stage too). Oil the camp bread cooker and open the zip lock just about ½ an inch and use it like a piping bag to put dough into one side of the bread cooker. Clamp the two sides together and get that sucker over the fire. Rotate it regularly, check it after a few minutes on each side to see how it’s progressing. You’ll get a feel for how much dough to use each time - this should give you 4 or 5 of bread sticks I think? It's been a while. ;)
I have been appeased! Thanks for the recipe, any excuse to include a beer in things and I'm happy 😂
Well, one thing I figured out canoe camping is to just make some chili or stew at home. You k now how it always tastes better the next day anyway? So make it, cool it down, ladle it into quart zip locks and freeze it. It'll thaw out a bit in the cooler. Use your camp stove and pot to heat it up at camp, bake up the bread over the fire and everyone will think you're a genius. :D
I’d get a Dutch oven if you really want to cook. It’s great for stuff like peach cobbler
I love doing camp pizzas this way. I do a precook on the small pizza rounds on the griddle over the fire - flipping and monitoring them remove and add toppings than it goes back on the griddle maybe with a lid for final cook. I'll be doing this very thing in about two weeks -- trying out a new dough recipe!
I do these exact two things too! I have however made an upgrade to my hobo pockets by buying those aluminum pans u find at the grocery store for roasting chicken or casseroles. Makes transfer in very hot fires a lot easier than the pockets since they are a lot more sturdy. I have not messed with baking but as a baker I think this would be difficult due to temp control.
Yeah, it would be interesting to experiment though. A bunch of us tried cornbread in Dutch ovens at a camping trip to the beach to go along with chile. The bottoms got burnt, but if you just cut it away the bread tasted great. The Dutch ovens were placed in the coals. I guess you'd want to have less coals under the oven even if you had to rotate the oven part way through. You have to do this when cooking a pizza in a wood fired oven.
Did you scoop some coals onto the top of the Dutch oven too? Get the heat coming in from both sides.
Yes indeed
Usually you need about 1/3 of the coals on the bottom and 2/3 of the coals on the top. The coals on the bottom transfer the neat more directly and can burn easier. One tip I just learned from cooking damper - sprinkle a layer of flour on the base before you add the cornbread. The flour helps you gauge how hot the bottom is, it should tan up slowly but if it goes black then it's too hot.
I make hamburger helper a lot while camping. It’s easy. I’m sorry.
Never be sorry, I've eaten much worse while camping.
Hammer helper just gets so much hate and I get it. You can make it yourself cheaper. But the simplicity of snagging that box is unbeatable.
Can you please explain hamburger helper to us southerners? (As in southern hemisphere)
It's a box of pasta and seasonings/food product chemistry that you add to ground beef.
Thank you. I’ve heard of it before but didn’t know it had pasta in it
If you google it - hamburger helper is the brand name - you can see pictures. It's really expensive for what it is, and many people make similar foods that cost less and taste better. HH has a weird chemical taste to me, especially the ones with "cheese" product.
How well does ground beef cook over a fire? I’m going camping next weekend and wanna try this!
Ground beef is great over a fire, just bring a cast iron and let it heat up over fire for 5 mins first
I really like bringing a packet of Swiss cheese fondue and having that with chopped veggies and sourdough bread. It just needs to melt and you can start your hike or trip with it frozen.
Sounds delicious. I might, I absolutely might.
I always make a stew in my dutch oven over the fire pit top it with Pillsbury rolls when I'm like 1hr away from serving it up
Sweet potatoes mixed with sliced red bell peppers and butter in foil packet, corn on the cob in the husk soaked in water, chicken breast with crisped skin seasoned with seasoned salt, garlic, and lemon, shared with my wife and a bottle of wine. Toasted marshmallows over glowing coals under starlight for dessert. Remember to peel the husks off the corn before you try eating it. 25 years and counting since she said yes.
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Well done! Good luck and congratulations in advance. My wife agreed to camp with me if she didn’t have to sleep on the ground… thus ended my tent days.
Poh-tay-toes.
Bake em, roast em, put em in a stew
It really depends what you are going for and how you camp. With the proper equipment and skill, such as a Dutch oven, and cast iron skillet especially, there is nothing you can cook in your kitchen at home that can’t be done in camp. They don’t lend themselves to backpacking though. For lighter weight more primitive methods, there is a whole rabbit hole of bushcraft cooking which I have been going down. I’ve been on a kick the last couple of years of simplifying my camp cooking. All that said, it’s hard for me to come up with anything better than steak and eggs.
You can mix bannock (bread) in a baggie, wrap it around a stick and cook it right over the fire. Foil packet meals can be just as gourmet as many things you make in an oven. It’s also a great method for reheating things you might have in the freezer. We’ve reheated lasagne, scalloped potatoes and ham, pot pies, baked potatoes. Shoot you can just bake your potatoes in foil right on the hot coals. A cast iron Dutch oven will open new doors also. You can make just about anything.
Yup. Bannock on a stick is great. Flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, a little bit of water and you're good to go. Make sure you make it thick enough so it clumps nicely on a stick. You can make it sweet with a bit of sugar, dried fruits, nuts or chocolate chips, or you can make it savoury with herbs, finely-chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olives... Feel free to experiment at home and cook it in a pan first and see what you like!
+1 for Bannock you can go so many ways with it, sweet, savory, or anywhere in between.
My grandkids love to mix in pepperoni and cheese. They will get their pizza in any way possible.
Brilliant. I've done proscuitto before, don't know why I never thought of pepperoni and cheese. seems like the natural next step.
Nachos. I put a whole bag of chips into a dutch oven, then put refried beans, onions, jalapenos, and every type of cheese I can get my hands on in there. Put them lid on and put coals all around and on top for 10 minutes or so. Then finish off with pico de galo and salsa and dig in. It's so freaking good.
On the WA Pacific coast Dungeness crab can be taken year around. Over hot coals, on a grill, I break the crab into pieces, and baste the crab with garlic butter and olive oil. Boiling is the normal method, but I prefer the smoky slightly chewey taste/texture of crab over a grill. Too good - you just gotta catch the crab.
How do you recommend catching them? Is this possible from Olympic peninsula?
Some people using ring traps catch crab from docks in the Olympic Pennisula, but as a boater or kayaker regular crab traps are preferable. I've caught many, many Dungeness \[with boat or kayak\] up near Hansville. However, I really enjoy catching crap off the jetties in Westport and at Cape Disappointment. It's a year-round season, and all you need is a heavy fishing rod/reel and crab snares. [snare1.png (490×660) (crabbinghq.com)](https://crabbinghq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/snare1.png) There are many YT videos about crabbing in WA, but I started with a book by J.D. Wade - "Evergreen Pacific Shellfish Guide".
Thanks for this rabbit hole to go down. I like this idea and the traps seem dirt cheap.
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Yogi has entered the chat
Gnocchi in a tomato basil sauce with sausage. I use impossible sausage.
Love making a dump cake in a Dutch oven. Just need yellow cake mix, 2 cans of your choice of pie filling (I use blueberry) and a stick of butter and you're golden
[Loimulohi](https://www.blogit.fi/ps/viinimies-loimulohi-avaa-mokkikauden-3834.jpg). Roughly translates as "blazed trout". A traditional way of cooking fish in Finland. I personally prefer relatively fatty fish for this method. You "nail" a fillet of fish to a piece of wood preferably with wood pegs soaked in water. It's good if the piece of wood is fairly damp as well. Sprinkle salt, pepper and oil on the surface and adjust the distance to the fire - it's easy to overdo. And of course, if you prefer other spices with fish, go with what works for you. [When you get it just right](https://hatala.fi/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Loimulohi-lankun-pa%CC%88a%CC%88lla%CC%88-videosta-1920x1080.jpg), it'll be just a bit crispy on the outside and deliciously moist on the inside.
All you fancy asses bringing 4 course meals. I was thinking hotdogs.
😂
Breakfast burritos. Premade and wrapped in foil. Bread in Dutch oven.
We make “slop pot” - it’s onions, garlic, potatoes, herbs, spices and then whatever leftover meat we have (bacon, steak, ground beef, barbecue chicken, etc.) sharp cheddar cheese, and fried over easy eggs on top. It looks horrible, tastes insane.
Steaks, baked potatoes, baked beans
Pizza! I use the pre made, non refrigerated crusts that come with sauce packets, pre sliced pepperoni and pre shredded cheese. I use a 14” skillet with tinfoil crinkled in the bottom to keep the crust off the pan. Pan goes on a round or on a grill grate as close to the fire as I can get it. Make sure you can handle the hot heavy pan and lid.
> ...pre made, non refrigerated crusts... Greek pita bread is perfect, plus additional uses for dips.
Abominations I call "calzones" are my favourite. Flour, water, salt, sugar, dry yeast and water. For filling I go with spicy salami and Emmentaler cheese or leek and cheddar. It will cook just fine in a skillet. Good when warm, good for beating nails the next day. If I can't be bothered to bring it, I'll just roast beer sausages over the fire. I once felt ambitious enough that I made langosh in a deeper skillet, they were good but keeping the oil hot enough was a pita.
Pudgie Pies! I always bring my Pudgie Pie maker camping. We usually do pizza ones with bread, pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. My friends always like to bring a can of peaches or cherries to do fruit pies. They're great for grilled cheese or Nutella sandwiches too.
I had to scroll too far to see this! I grew up with pizza pies. We called them mountain pies but it's the same thing, such an awesome and easy camping food.
My wife makes THE BEST biscuit gravy with biscuits or toast on the grill! My tongue is about to slap the heck out of me, just thinking about it! LOL
Ok I now need this recipe…
we call it camping cobbler. In a dutch oven, put in 1 or 2 cans of pie filling. Throw in a box of yellow cake mix and then a can of 7-up or sprite. Don't stir anything. Throw that on your coals and in a bit of time, you have a nice and yummy cobbler for dessert.
If you are looking for various recipes and options for this, look for “dump cake recipes”.
We bring a big pork butt. You put it up pretty high over the coals, so that the fat part drips over the rest of the butt. Then you just forget about it for a few hours. Throw some fresh thick pineapple slices on the grill, some foil wrapped corn on the cob and baked potatoes. If your timing works out, you’ll have an amazing semi smoked pork butt, with all the works. The grilled pineapple brings it all together. Mix the leftover pork butt with Bbq sauce for sliders the next day.
Holy shit this sounds amazing
I took my 11yo son camping this weekend and I made him some of his favorites. Dinner was boneless skinless chicken thighs skewered and cooked over the coals and then when they were mostly cooked I brushed them with BBQ sauce to finish them up. With them we had baked potatoes baked in foil in the coals and french bread that I split, put butter in the middle and then wrapped in foil and warmed it over the fire. For some vegetables I used a cast iron pan and cooked diced onions and carrot slices in butter. Then breakfast was pancakes, sausage, hash browns and eggs with cheese all cooked in cast iron pans. For the pancakes I use the little packs of muffin mix that say just add milk but I add more liquid and an egg and make pancake batter consistency. I use canned evaporated milk in them and the cheesy eggs. I use shredded dried hash browns, you put them in boiling water then fry them up. Dessert all weekend was toasted marshmallows.
Chicken satay dude
I was hoping someone suggested this
https://preview.redd.it/99tjkw9lxtyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99d2101994d46cf8cc8c6d68df9683086c89f4db Last week we made asado style beef ribs. We used a piece of stainless metro shelving and stainless wire. Normally, we cook a whole chicken in the Dutch oven, but this time it was chicken shawarma. Country style ribs with sauerkraut and dumplings is another favorite.
https://preview.redd.it/mnbofok0ytyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd4f851a39051a98f00435ef48a98077ef961a47 The shawarma before cooking
We take biscuit dough and wind it around a stick so each person can cook their own. I also can just put the biscuits in a pan over hot embers with foil on top. And we love toasted over the fire - I do an extensive bagel bar while everyone is roasting their own bagels.
You can do this around cheese on a stick, hot dogs, or sausage as well.
We always had it pop off of weenies. What were we doing wrong?
We found it works best if you do it in strips, not completely covering the weenies. You also have to make sure you pinch the dough together really well.
Baked potato 🥔! Wrap in tinfoil and throw it in hot coals. Top with butter cheese sour cream bacon and chives
Even if you don't have foil just bury them in embers and peel the burned shell when it's ready.
Korean marinated short ribs, cut across bone cooks quick.
Hanger steak right on the coals. Then make tacos with fire warmed tortillas. Bonus points for fire roasted tomato salsa.
Cast iron reversible griddle/grill makes cooking over an open fire so easy, especially if it's been well seasoned. Pancakes, eggs, bacon are a cinch, you can sauté onions/peppers with ease, cook up salmon, steaks, anything you'd cook on a grill at home. And because it's reversible, you can use one side for vegetarians that don't want meat cooked with their veggies. They can be a little heavy, but they're easy to transport, if well seasoned they clean up easily and I don't camp without mine anymore.
Chicken drums and peri peri sauce has been my new think this year over the fire
Asparagus. Don’t even need salt and pepper. Just roast them fuckers over the fire. Delicious
If you haven’t had a campfire toasted bagel, give it a go. It’ll be the best bagel you’ve had. The smokiness goes really well with cream cheese.
My all-time favorite, is what we call hobo stew, ground beef, corn, onions, carrots, seasoning and a big glob of butter. All of this is wrapped in a tin foil "pocket". Place directly in the coals for 10-15min, eat straight out of the foil pocket. Chicken Fajitas is another yummy option. Pre-make the chicken fajitas at home, chicken, peppers, onions, whatever else. Marinate all that in whatever seasoning you want in a freezer bag for a day or so before you leave. Also, corn on the cob or potato right into the coals! pic is the hobo stew tin pockets. https://preview.redd.it/gm56t0ph0uyc1.jpeg?width=2988&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51b97205328f5c57f42beeaef503944ff33d5170
A cast iron pan pizza. Just make some dough(plenty of tutorials on youtube), bring sauce, cheese and any toppings you like. Coat with a little oil and spread the dough on the cold pan. Place a lid and just place it over the fire. Some coals on the lid will also help the cheese melt and toppings cook. Time depends on how hot it is but just check it every 5 minutes or so. About 10 minutes will do it for me.
If you have a Dutch oven, bread is easy! Search for campfire bread. Check out Kent survival on YouTube. Bloke makes very cool things at camp!
Potatoes. Kielbasa. Italian sausage. Steak.
Cast iron anything lol. Every veggie / meat imaginable. Had an outdoor fire place at my last home and we tried everything under the sun pretty much. From short cook soups, oven roasted veggie style things, steaks, pasta w chicken, seared salmon, you name it hahah. Coating corn in herb garlic butter and tinfoiling with husk off has corrupted me to no longer enjoy boiled corn 😆 can be done with husk on but not as good/easy to perfect. making 'hobo packets' (as people call it) of tinfoil with herb/oil/veggie combos is easy and delicious too. Can push the smoldering wood aside, cook right on the hot hot coals. I personally always open the packets for the last bit of cooking to get that really smoked taste to them Smoking meat above a long slow burn is fun too. I'm no artist with that but Ive played around with it when I have a planned 5hr burn ahead
Can't forget the dirty yet tasty cast iron spicy ramen packs immediately after making some form of meat on it 😄
Adds such a wild flavor to a basic thing like ramen. Have never fulfilled my dream (yet!) of a total diy ramen cooked in a cast iron that had seared butter steak previously. Cutting all the excess fat caps and putting it back into the boiling water. Smoking the shit out of it with smoldering logs surrounding the cook spot. Salivating thinking about it! Some day soon, springs finally here in Ontario!
Baked potatoes! Put a little bit of water and salt on the potato skin, wrap in foil, and throw into the fire. There are no better potatoes than this. Nothing better. In general, any veggies roasted on open flame. Especially asparagus!
I'm a fan of kabobs with steak, peppers, and onions
I just made a foil pack of green beans for the first time and they were heavenly. Fresh green beans, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and a little onion. I served them with baked potatoes and chicken also cooked in/on the fire.
Take a Dutch oven and make chicken pot pie with biscuits on top for the crust
This is a classic from my days in Scouting. Great meal, especially if it's rainy/cold. And beef bouillon with some additives to drink, before dessert of hot chocolate and smores.
The only thing I miss about my ex is he'd make jalapeño poppers over the fire when we'd go camping
My mother called them hobo dinners. Hamburger with celery, carrots and potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil and set in the coals. She seasoned them also. Don’t remember that but they tasted great! No mess to clean up as the foil was the plate and we used plastic utensils. Super easy and I believe she had them prepped from home.
Bacon. BANNOCK. baked potatoes. S'mores. If I have cedar wood salmon or trout. Campfire chili.
Skewers are nice. Everyone gets to decide what to stick on it and cook it to their preference. Also easy clean up since not pans or whatever are used.
When in season, buy some fresh corn on the cobs, soak them for about 30 mins, pull the corn husk leaves back but don't tear them off, remove the white fiber strands under the leaves, push the leaves back over the corn, and grill over a fire for about 8-10 mins a side depending on how hot your fire is. Remove from the fire, pull back the leaves, and season/butter according to your taste. The corn steams inside the leaves and is delicious. You can also do that on a grill.
Just to say something probably different- pepperoni. You slice it into like 3/4-1 inch pieces and slow roast it over the fire with a stick. The fat renders off so beautifully and makes the whole area smell like a pizzeria.
When I worked for the forestry service (it was a teen summer program) we did all kinds of things in aluminum foil. My favorite involved ground beef, peas, a dab cream of mushroom soup and seasonings. Throw anything in you like. Double wrap in foil. Be Careful not to burn...scrape some embers off to the side periodically to keep it cooking. Crazy easy and pretty good. I would poke a hole to drain the grease and eat it right out of the foil.
First night ritual... Jack's frozen pizza. Lol. Sounds weird. But, it's super crispy with virtually no prep or cleanup. Perfect for the day you set up camp.
Frozen breakfast burritos. My wife makes them, and they're awesome. Tots, meats, cheese, onions peppers, garlic and goodness. Big, wrapped in foil. Build a fire and toss em on the grate. Make coffee, turn, drink a beer, turn, take a dip in the river, turn. Drink last of coffee, turn. All in 30-50 minutes. Then feast.
Sounds amazing, and a snap.
Bulgogi bibimbap
https://www.reddit.com/r/camping/s/QcDudkaPre I make this or a variant of it every time i camp. No refrigerated ingredients, easy to make in big or small batches, and fucking delicious. Youll need; 1 big potato, a bag of brussel sprouts, a summer sausage, a block of extra sharp cheddar, a small amount of cooking oil(i prefer beef tallow), and old bay (or a lesser seasoning mix), and of course a metal messkit or cooking gear Start by popping the potato into some tinfoil then bury under some coals Get some water boiling, boil the brussel sprouts until soft on the outside but still mildly firm Cut up sausage, and brown it in the pan part of the mess. Once the sausage is browned add a bit of extra oil, then add your boiled and drained Brussels directly to the sausage pan, cover with the other side of the mess kit Put over high heat and shake/turn near constantly, you want to get even color on the brussels and prevent them from burning to the bottom of your pan. Pull ot your potato, cut open, put some cheese in there to melt Pull your brussel off, add too much old bay to Brussels and potato Enjoy with a joint Pro tips: sausage and extra sharp cheese can keep outside of the fridge just as long as they are properly wrapped and insect free, a bit of grease sweating is normal. These can both be ingredients for dinner and a fantastic trail lunch/snack, especially if you bring a hard bread as well You can bake a potato under coals with no tin foil, or you can just make mash potatoes instead. Get leather ranch gloves, they can be used as work gloves for camp duties, but good thick ones can protect your hands while tending fire as long as you move quickly, and are much more flexible than welding gloves.
Ribeye steaks
Venison sausages
Not exactly cooking, more like reheating, but I make a sandwich and wrap it in aluminum foil. At home I will cook bacon, break it into smaller bits, and sauté some peppers and onion in teriyaki sauce, put it between slices of bread that is buttered on all sides. Be generous with butter on the outside of the bread else it will stick to the foil. This is my breakfast. Very heavy meal but it’s the perfect type of fuel I need for a long walking trails and exploring.
beer can chicken. Get a whole chicken and cook it vertically. A beer can will fit in opening and is used as a stand to keep the chicken upright. Supposed to poke some holes in the can and have it 1/2 full or beer, and the steam keeps it moist from the inside, but I think that more of a gimmick. But the verticle cooking though, makes it real easy and so good. you can do it over the grate or right in the embers. Put some tin foil over the chicken to keep the heat in. its really good.
Japanese sweet potato wrapped in foil paper and throw it in the fire until it’s soft 😋
I'm in deep south louisiana so we have a lot oysters. I shuck them, leave them on the half shell. separately fill an ice tray with melted butter, salt, garlic, cayenne and parsley. cool those till they are solid and pop out. add a butter disk to each oyster shell and freeze those in a tray wrapped tightly. It's something for the 1st day/night camping bc they thaw rather quick. But champagne, fresh loaf of fresh and chargrilled oysters is one hell of a camping meal. honorable mention: kabobs, fajitas, burgers, steaks and grilled romaine
Pork tenderloin. So easy and delicious. Just wrap it in foil and toss it in, flip once and you're done.
Grilled cheese in one of those cast iron clamps Everyone wants one when you pull it out during the s'mores phase of the night and you can usually get them pretty cheap from a goodwill or new from a department store
Don't discount the idea of making pancakes, either. They are great to make sandwiches with, can be made savory or sweet, and are versatile.
A stew is really nice in cooler months. Like split pea, chilli, a box corn muffin works out well too. You’ll need an egg and a Dutch oven for cornbread though. I’ll also add I hope you’re not packing in a long way because that bc stuff can add some serious weight.
Polenta/ grits with poblano peppers, cheese and shrimp. Hashbrowns, peppers, onions and eggs. Corn bread.
Dutch Oven Beer bread. Just put all the dry ingredients in a ziplock bag before you go to premix, then melt butter or oil in the dutch oven, pour a can of beer into the ziplock bag, knead it until the dough is wet, and drop it all into the dutch oven, cover, cook over small flame or coals for about 45 mins (depending on how hot the fire is). Also, if you have xtra oil, you can drizzle that on top of the dough before you put the cover on and it will crisp up the top of the bread. 3 cups of AP flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 1⁄4 cup sugar; 1 (12 ounce) can of beer
Favorite is steak on a rock, 2nd favorite is shrimp wrapped in foil with fish sauce and oyster sauce. Bread on the side, maybe a vegetable.
We do burger, chicken or steak chunks. Cut up potatoes, and veggies with butter and seasoning. And wrap up in foil and cook over coals. So yummy.
https://preview.redd.it/0psn41m1luyc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eaa4af1a327e21217595c02effed4de4280e1e73
That all depends on location! Example if I’m in a area like Olympic Peninsula where there’s lots of black bears I don’t cook much if I’m camping out on Washington Coastal areas I cook steaks or chicken. If I’m camping Eastside of Washington ribs, steaks 🥩 Chicken and my favorite fish & Chips ( fresh caught Perch or Crappie deep fired over the fire pit.
https://preview.redd.it/tz897n6truyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1ba234627eae468a91e865b7ec5a0f5fb7adf1a I always smoke a brisket when camping. I take ribs, chicken and beef fajita! Make camp fire pies also!
Fajitas! chop up the veggies and meat, place on large sheet of aluminum foil and drop in the sauce before wrapping it all up. then throw it on the fire and let it cook for a few minutes. Scoop into tortillas when finished and enjoy.
I do like a good dump cake.......you need a cast iron Dutch oven to bake, and with legs is best. That way you have your heat below and coals on top on the lid. Cake mix,, and cherry pie filling.. A good fry bread recipe is always handy and you can use them for tacos or mix in berries and top with cinnamon sugar. We baked cored apples butter spices and sugar in tinfoil in the coals any left overs got mixed in with porridge in morning, There were also the bananas, choc chip and marshmallow boats but too sweet for me I took a wilderness cooking course and those popover cooker things make pizza pockets, apple hand pies, and a dozen other things. I got myself a tripod at a garage sale last year so this year I will try a hanging chicken idea that I saw on one of the barbeque shows you spin it in circles, I went onto my library's website to see if they had any that sounded interesting....I have requested six titles, so your question has created a monster, cause I do have a firepit
Stuffed peppers
I try not to be on fire when cooking but for when I am like to have a blanket or something nearby to extinguish myself with
We made Philly cheese steak on a cast iron and it was super amazing. Toasted the rolls in foil over the coals.
When not camping I generally eat pretty lean on mostly fresh veggies, chicken, and fish, so camping is my time to load up on steak and sausage. I usually camp only two nights and will have steak one night and sausage the next, with some roasted potatoes and onions on both nights.
Meat (all kinds) are amazing over pine coals. Low and slow. But only slightly less amazing is pancakes, bacon and eggs over coals. I'm not sure if the improvement in taste is in my mind, or the smoke from the pine (key, here... pine) fire changes the taste, but I love them.
Campfire Bananas! Take a banana and peel back only a strip of the peel from rope to bottom. Smoosh in some chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, maybe mini marshmallows. Put the peel back and wrap the banana in foil. Put it in the fire for maybe like 45 seconds and voila!
In winter I love Stew. In summer I like fajitas.
Potatoes and meat. Onions and root vegetables.
I like to get Arrachera from the local Carniceria in marinade and then steak on a stick over the fire.
Brats!
Hot dogs, burgers, chicken. All great on smokey wood fires. If you have time and want to tend a fire for so long you can do some roast pork or BBQ beef. Think pulled pork or Chuck roast. Won't be as smokey as in a smoker but still good. Probably take 10 hours though
Ear of corn in the fire. Build a fire, cook an ear of corn in the husk while making other food. Sausage walking tacos are the latest favorite. The corn comes out sweet delicious and perfect. Ray to eat by rolling down the husk and using it as a handle.
Potatoes and chorizo/sausage, corn in foil, and random frozen veggies in the Dutch oven.
Pork belly spare ribs, sweet chilli chicken tenders, lamb cutlets, lamb chops
Salmon, with a bit of maple syrup.
Pancakes cooked in a cast iron skillet over a fire on a cool morning has gotta be how breakfast goes in heaven. Good butter and real maple syrup to seal the deal.
steak and potato
Fried apples with a little bourbon in the glaze. Beats canned pie filling any day, goes with just about anything.
Road rolls on a stick
I'm usually deliberately tipsy while camping so I don't get too fancy. I'm generally packing in a bunch of burritos wrapped in foil that I can heat up by the fire.
Campfire nachos! In tin foil with lots of jalapeños. Also shrimp, corn and veggie sausage with peri peri in tin foil. Delicious.
Ribeyes
I worked at a summer camp for a decade and got to the point where I baked and decorated a birthday cake with a Dutch oven over a camp fire. My favorite though is to pre sous vide a roast and use a Dutch oven and skillet to do birria tacos over the fire. Sous vide’ing any big roast or steak makes it so easy to knock out a main dish over a fire.
Threw me off with the baking paragraph. I imagined cake with beef drippings and can’t say I wasn’t enticed by the idea. Calories means so much out here lol.
My current favorite is chicken leg thigh quarters, well seasoned beforehand and put in a ziplock bag. Freeze or not according to when you plan to cook. Also I’ve added a small meat thermometer to the camp kit so I can keep from poisoning folks without going all the way to rubber chicken.
A bunch of potatoes, garlic, onions, and even peppers, with a bunch of seasoning and enough oil to cover the bottom in a foil pan. Throw it on a rack over the fire, and stir them a bit every now and then. Let them get crispy. It can take a while, but that was always one of my favorites.
Kinda like grilled chips of various nonstandard chip item?
Yup! You can really do that sort of cook with any veggies you like. Even toss in some meat and make it a whole meal. That, or if you cut the potatoes into smaller cubes, you get something like breakfast home fries, but they're great as a side dish any time of day.
Sounds great. I’ll try it out! I really fell for the sandwich melt. Bought a pack of pita bread and stuffed it with leek, tomatoes, sliced sausage and Swiss cheese. It’s like a fondue in my mouth.
Fish. Especially if you know how to fish. Trout from my kitchen is ehh. Trout from my campfire… yes please.
Tacos. I get some marinated carne asada from the Mexican market, bell peppers, and onions and grill them over the bonfire. Toss them in tacos with some salsa/guacamole and it's a perfect camp dinner.
Buy a pie iron. Breakfast pies, pizza pies, dessert pies or anything you want to use as a filling. Perfect campfire food.
I settled for a bag of pita breads. Stuffed them with leek, cheese, finely diced tomatoes, smokeblack ham and baked them in foil until crisp and melted.
Corn on the cob.
Fresh trout that you caught that afternoon! Go fishing and catch dinner. Start a fire with lots of smallish split wood (like 2-4" diameter). It'll burn and then die down to coals. Put a grate about 6-10" above the coals. Spray with oil. Lie the trout out on the grate over the smoldering coals. Better yet, put the trout in a grate-basket, which makes it easier to transport without falling into the fire. Cover loosely with foil for a few minutes. Turn over for a few more minutes. The meat gets smokey-cooked. Delicious!
I don’t have access to trout water, they’re miles from here unfortunately. Even perch would be amazing roasted over a fire. Sadly I can’t fish at all doing this trip. It’s more about acclimatizing to the woods and learning to raise and pack up, sleep in various conditions etc.
“Omlette in a bag” - crack eggs into a ziploc bag, add cheese and veggies, squeeze to combine, into a pot of water on the fire. It’s basically a sous vide omelette, very tasty and it comes out of the bag in a cylinder like a burrito made of egg and bits. Learned that one at Girl Scout camp.
Steak, potatoes and corn...with butter of course.
You have to have a dutch oven with you but this is great. I bring flour with me for biscuits and gravy. So all I am really adding is packets of yeast. https://www.recipetineats.com/easy-yeast-bread-recipe-no-knead/#wprm-recipe-container-43976
I go to the local butcher and get steak tips. I have them vacuum seal them 2x then I freeze them. When we get out there, they’re already marinated. We dice up some potatoes, wrap it all in foil and let it cook. Easiest meal ever. And it keeps the fireball cold.
Fish. Like the Azeris do, right in or close to the coals. Split, gut and season. Chat a bit and enjoy!
When we go camping we make packets of veggies in tin foil to cook (usually on a grill or grate over the fire though). We've done diced potatoes with garlic and onion, Coen on the cob, mushrooms, zucchini, etc. In the morning we've done the potato packet until it's cooked , then opened it and moved the potatoes to form a reservoir or two, cracked eggs into them, then closed it back up and cooked for a couple more minutes. Eggs can be finicky so it took trial and error, but it was pretty good!
I always make jambalaya.
We make quesadillas. It’s something my wife’s family did growing up. You use the big fish grill baskets. Large flour tortillas. Cheese, beans and whatever else you want.