Campfire Cooking Basics From Setup To Cleanup

Before summer camping season winds down, try a new type of cooking experience that's fun for the whole family. If firing up your gas or charcoal grill at home is your ultimate cooking experience, you haven't tried cooking over a campfire yet!  Cooking over a true open flame is similar to grilling out, but more authentic and thrilling.  Imagine roasting marshmallows and making S'mores as the fire roars. Then, as the flame slows down and forms glowing embers, it's time to throw your meal on. The smoke and flavor from the wood you use acts like a giant hug to whatever food you are about to enjoy. You can almost taste it already, can't you?

Campfire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But, before you get started, there are a few basic things you need to know about how to cook over an open campfire. Once you learn the basics you'll be ready to throw a feast of delectable campfire delights together in no time.

Fire Up, Burn Down

In order to have a great campfire cooking experience, it is important to let your wood or coals get as hot as possible before you try to cook on them. The importance of waiting for the fire to burn down and the embers to start glowing is all of the kindling and starter have burned away.  This means you don't get the nasty newspaper smoke or pine needles smoke on your food while cooking.  If you want to eat sooner, use less material or cleaner kindling to get your fire going initially. The sooner it burns off, the sooner you can begin cooking.

Methods of Cooking

There are a few different methods to cooking over an open fire. Let's take a look at four of the most common ways:

1. Direct heat and aluminum foil - Wrap food such as meat and vegetables in a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place the foil package on a bed of slow embers or coals. You can surround the package with a few more embers for more even cooking.  Allow to cook for 15 to 20 minutes, more or less depending on the food in the packages, and you have a delicious meal in a pouch.

2. Direct heat and long skewers - Place food such as hot dogs on skewers or prongs and roast them over the fire. This can work well with kebabs as long as the pieces are cut in appropriate sizes so they all cook at the same time.  Meat would have to be smaller than a piece of pineapple, for instance.

3. Metal grate - Place a metal grate, such as you have on your grill at home, over the campfire and cook as you would over your grill.  Adjust the height of the grate and the distance from the embers by arranging large rocks or logs to hold the grate up. Then the embers are glowing underneath the grate so you can perfectly cook that dinner.

4. Hanging racks - Construct, or buy, a tripod or rack and put it over the fire. Now you can hang pots from it or even hang a grate.  Many are adjustable so you can arrange the food to cook at the time and temperature you desire.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cleanup

When cooking on a campfire in the great outdoors, the option of leaving the dishes go until the morning is just not available.  Bears and other predators can smell food and will come exploring to find it.  In order to keep your campsite safe, it is important to keep your fire and food at least fifty yards from your tent and to keep your cookware and dishes clean.  You can clean cookware by placing a grate over the fire and filling two metal pots with water. When one is warm, remove it from the fire, add soap and wash dishes. When the other pot of water is hot, place soapy dishes in a mesh bag and dip into the hot water several times. Dry with towels, paper towels, or hang to air dry.  Put ALL the food into closed containers and store safely away from your tents.  Save your dishwashing water for the next step.

When you are ready to turn in for the night, don't just kick a little dirt on the fire and go to bed.  Instead, take your dishwashing water and extinguish the fire with it when you are through. Stir the fire around and add more water if necessary, until you see every ember go out.  Now, shovel dirt over the top and stir again.  Remember:  “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.” - Smokey The Bear.

With a little preparation and the right tools, you can have a wonderful cookout at your campsite while enjoying the great outdoors!