When you’re enjoying the great outdoors, your favorite take-out isn’t exactly around the corner. It becomes more important than ever that you find a way to feed yourself and your loved ones. But you’re in the middle of nowhere without a stove or oven—and certainly no sign of a microwave—so the only real way to cook food is over a campfire.
There are several ways to prepare food using only a campfire as a heat source—skewer, aluminum foil, and paper sack. Below are some basic recipes for each.
Aluminum foil:
- Wrap meal in heavy duty aluminum foil and cook over heat until done. Cooking time depends on the level of heat, as well as the type of meat used. Ingredients can include chicken, ribs, pork, potatoes, peppers, onions, and much more. Foil packet meals work better over hot coals or a small fire rather than a roaring blaze.
Paper sack:
- Bacon and eggs are ideal for paper sack cooking. Place raw bacon in the bottom of the bag, crack an egg over the bacon, and fold the top of the bag down. Moisten the bag to keep it from burning and use a non-flammable stick like a wire hanger to hold the bag over the fire. Be sure you keep the bag far enough away to keep the flame from touching it but close enough that it gets the full force of the heat. Cooking takes about ten minutes.
Skewer:
- This is one of the best-known campfire cooking methods and many say it’s the easiest. Marshmallows and hot dogs are the obvious choices, but sausages, potatoes, and zucchini are ideal for skewering, as well. You can even chop up pieces of poultry, pork, fish, lamb…and any other kind of meat to cook over the campfire.
Cooking around a campfire is not only a way to have great food while enjoying the great outdoors, it’s also a fun experience that can help bring everyone together. Once you’ve found your favorite way of campfire cooking, you can experiment with seasonings and new recipes to add variety to your experience.