What can you cook on campfires besides hotdogs, corn, marshmellows and beans?!
What can you cook on campfires besides hotdogs, corn, marshmellows and beans?
I live on 3 acres of land with my family, and near the back we have a campsite, which we often use to make campfires. Trouble is, it gets boring after a while, because it seems there's really only 3 things we know how to make, hotdogs and mashmellows roasted on sticks, and corn (for those that don't know, if you throw whole cobs of corn in a campfire, wait a few minutes, take it out with tongs, husk it, and put butter on it, it tastes delicious). Oh, and baked beans, by putting the pot near the fire. So, is there anything else that can be cooked by a campfire? Does it need any special equipment, like a grill or something? And is there anything that can be cooked on a stick besides hotdogs and marshmellows?
Answers:
Hey I don't want to brag, but I can cook anything and I mean anything over a campfire that you can cook in or on your stove at the house. I wrote a cookbook of 670 pages on how to.
If you have a very sturdy grill, a cast iron skillet, and a dutch oven, the you have everything you need.
On the grill you can cook steaks, chicken, pork, fish (with a basket), shrimp (in the basket), veggies (in the basket). The grill can also be used as a support to put your skillet on, Coffee pot, bean pot, boil water, etc.
The skillet can be used just like you do on top of your stove.
The dutch oven is the greatest. Bake bread, biscuits, cakes, roasts, pies, cobblers, just about anything you want to bake or simmer like a good stew or pot of chili.
As a helper if you go to these web pages you can see what is on the market. Cabela's has good sturdy gear, and a good policy on customer service. I do not want to tell you to buy from them, because you can let your "fingers do the walking."
Fire Pit and Grill
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...
Dutch Oven (Only with a lip on the lid, and 3 legs on the bottom.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...
Skillet
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...
Lodge is probably the best brand.
If you do get cast iron, please learn how to clean, and season them. You can use the pots and pans you have in your kitchen. Just watch the plastic handles.
I would also like to say this. Never cook over a fire. (flames)
Just cook over the hot coals. And always use hard wood. Never pine or cedar or other aromatic woods. If you do the food will taste like it. I enjoy throwing a handfull of wet apple tree sawdust/chips that has been soaked in water before I cook my meats.
I've been cookin over fire for over 55 years, and I did it today for dinner. A pot of beans, meat, potato salad, and corn on the cob.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about foil packs. Get some heavy duty aluminum foil, and cut a sheet to a square, more or less. Double the thickness with another piece on top. Thin slice (1/4") a potato and lay it in the center of the foil. Crumble hamburger on top of this. (1/4 -1/3 pound)... Slice bell pepper and onion the same as the potato, and put on top of the meat. Add salt and pepper. Now the trick is to fold the sides together to make as tight a seal along the edges as you can, and leave as much air space as you can inside with the food. Shape it like a tent. Now roll up the one end, and make sure you get a good seal. Now pour about 3-4 tablespoons of water into the open end, and seal it by rolling it up too. Gently place this on your hot coals. Cook about 10-15 minutes, turn it over and cook for about 5 more minutes on the other side. Remove from the fire. Remember it is hot! Carefully open the foil from the top, and check to see if it's done. If not seal it back up and put back on the hot coals again.
It should be done. Carefully open the foil, and watch out for the steam. Eat directly from the foil pack. When you finish, remember to cook the foil, till all the residue burns out, and pack the foil out.
You can bake bread, banana boats, cake, cook chicken, pork, veggies in this same manner. Don't put water in with the cake or bread. Just turn them often, and don't put on really hot coals.
I hope I helped you out. I've cooked for 1 to 350. Including Thanksgiving dinner for my church. I baked the turkeys in clay. Used my dutch ovens to bake bread, and make pies.
One last goodie. You asked if there was anything else you could cook on a stick besides hot dogs. A super treat is make biscuit dough or buy a can of biscuits. Coil one around your stick like a snake climbing it. Hold over the coals (not the blaze) till it gets nice and light brown. Put a little butter and honey on it, and eat it! Yum!
As a note, someone mentioned using rocks as a support or heating water. Friend if you don't use granite then you can get seriously injured. Rocks with the exception of granite have water in them, and heating will cause explosions. A flying hot rock can do serious bodily damage. No granite, no rocks!
i wish there was an answer for this already because we're going camping soon and dread the thought of hot dogs every night.
you can cook little pies . ooh and popcorn
You get a grill from an old BBQ or oven and place it atop flat rocks to obtain the best grilling height over the fire for what you are cooking. This works with skillets as well as placing cuts of meat on the grill. Veggies can be wrapped in foil and placed near the coals. Great way to make baked potatoes.
We put a grill over our fire and cook everything on it!...Shishkabobs are a fave..Prawns...steaks....Grill... peppers...Peppperonis...You can make a cut lengthwise down a banana and stuff it with chocolate chips then wrap in tin foil...Eat them right out of the shell with a spoon...Mmm...You can stick mini marshmallows in em too!
How about a pot of chili? On a stick, how about shish khabobs? Don't forget the smores. :)
Bear, People that get drunk throw in the fire, too. ...................Green peppers are good as well as red and yellow with a little olive oil. You can wrap them in foil. Zuchinni.
you can make anything really, go to your local walmart and get a campstove. we make mack and cheese with it, fry bacon on it and cook eggs, hashbrowns and pancakes! you can make most things over a fire (our family is huge on camping) we make burgers and chicken, once even managed to make spagetti. good luck
Shish Kabobs, anything you can skewer works well. You can also take a large metal can, like a folgers coffee can, cut a small triangle out of the side and make a little fire in it and cook pancakes or eggs on it. We used to do it in girlscouts all the time. Or you can use your mess kit, or put a skillet on a tripod thing, or pot thing and cook eggs, or anything you can fry. We used to make beanie weanie, wich is hot dogs mixed with beans.and turkey legs. Or you can heat up stones and drop them into water and keep doing this until your water boils.
hashpotatoes & baked potatoes
Friends of mine too a rim from a semi truck and knocked out the middle and made a grill for their cookouts. They found a grill to put over it. It worked great. We had all kinds of food on it including baked beans and other veggies made in a saucepan.
Using a skillet and the same setup at a camp ground I made all kinds of food. Cast iron was what I used. I made pancakes for breakfast, scrambled eggs the whole work.
At a camp ground we used bricks to hold a grate up over the fire and made steaks, porkchops, and brats.
Of course you have to watch as with any grilling for flare ups.
An onion sliced with butter in foil packet is really good. Also potatoes with water or broth wrapped in foil is also very good.
There are endless possibilities. Experiment and have fun. Lucky you to have all that available area. Enjoy