Campfire cooking

"How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?" ~Author Unknown

The oldest form of cooking known to humanity is by means of a campfire. Yet despite being so old, campfire cooking can be amazingly complex and sophisticated.

1. The first step is gathering wood, building a fire pit, and laying the wood properly.
2. Next you must light it. This is easy if you have matches. If not, here are two with sites with ways to create fire using ancient and modern methods.
3. Now on to the cooking. There's a lot more then hot dogs and s'mores. Campfires can be used to cook food by a number of techniques.

• Roasting - Meat and large vegetables can be cooked on a rotating spit either over the fire or next to it. Roasting also includes hot dogs and marshmallows on a stick.
• Grilling - Food is placed on a wire frame directly over the fire. This method picks up a smoky flavor and allows grease to drip away. Watch out for grease flare ups and burnt food!
• Frying - Food is placed on a flat, hot surface. Typically a an open frying pan, but variations include wood plank cooking and cooking directly upon heated stones.
• Boiling - Food is cooked in boiling water over a fire.
• Dutch ovens and other pots. Pot variants include scouting favorites like cooking inside a scooped out orange, a banana skin, egg shell or paper cup.
• Wrapped food - Food can be wrapped in foil, clay, or leaves and cooked on the coals. A variant of this is putting hot coals or hot stones inside the wrapper with the food. Mongolians would wrap hot stones and food inside an animal hide for cooking away from the fire.
• Directly on coals - potatoes and ash cakes can be cooked directly on the hot embers.

Bottom Line

All cooking is an art and improves with practice. Campfire cooking is no exception. While the recipes may be simple the trick with campfires is finding the right heat and neither undercooking nor burning your food (or even both at the same time with burnt flesh and a raw center!)

To get you started here are some campfire recipes from KOA.