Cooking over a campfire is a wonderful way to get creative and enjoy your outdoor experience. It doesn’t have to be boring, and it can bring your family and friends closer together as you enjoy a simple meal together.
You can easily cook a meal over a campfire using some basic ingredients and a few essential campfire cooking tools. Before you head out on your next camping trip, make sure to pick up these essential items:
The Right Fire
Before you can start to cook over a fire, you need to have a good fire going. This means you will need dry, seasoned wood. This will allow it to burn hot and cleanly, making it easier for you to cook.
It also gives you a steady supply of hot coals to heat up food and boil water. Having the right fire is important to ensuring your safety and preventing accidents from happening, so you need to know how to build one.
The first step is to create a tinder bed with a layer of twigs or small branches in a vertical conical shape, then add paper or crumpled newspaper on top of this. As the small twigs catch fire, you can add larger pieces of wood. You want to let the tinder bed burn until you have white coals, which may take 45 minutes or more.
Another tool you can use is a coal shovel, which makes scooping up hot coals much easier. These can be found in most home improvement stores for under $30.
A good pair of fire-resistant leather gloves are also a great investment for your camping trip. They protect your hands from the hot flames, and you will need them for handling any pots and pans that you might have to use over a fire.
Your camping pot and utensils should be made from cast iron, as they will not damage from the direct flames of a campfire. They should have metal handles, not plastic or rubber ones, as these can melt in the heat.
Aluminum foil is also an excellent option for cooking over a campfire. It is inexpensive, easy to transport and can be used to wrap up food in.
The best thing about aluminum foil is that it doesn’t take up a lot of room and is super cheap, which means you can pack plenty of this handy tool for your next camping adventure.
Keeping your food warm is an important part of any campsite, especially during the colder months. A campfire is a wonderful place to warm up your food with hot embers, but this method will take longer than cooking in your kitchen at home. You’ll also need to turn your food regularly for even cooking.
It’s also a good idea to prepare your food ahead of time, so it can be ready for when you get back to camp. This can save you a lot of hassle and ensure that you don’t have to waste precious fuel trying to keep your food warm as you go.