Campfire Cooking Tips

-Premake and prepackage as much as you can. If you can do most of the prep-work at home, you’ll have an easier time out at camp. 

-One pot cooking isn’t just for ease. It’s also because washing dishes in camp is dirty, difficult, and thankless work.

-For casserole type dishes such as lasagna, or if you are trying to bake something, line the ENTIRE dutch oven with tinfoil. Whoever is doing the dishes will thank you.

-These recipes are mainly meant for car-camping scenarios, but they CAN be altered, and wherever possible I’ve tried to point out how. That being said, my version of car camping is to get as far out into the woods as your vehicle will take you. I still rely on building a decent campfire and cooking over it. While these recipes will work wonderfully on a campstove (I try them out at home as well as in camp, so I say this with at least some authority), I am usually writing them with the assumption that the food is being made over the fire and using cast iron pots and pans whenever possible.

-Cast iron helps you make good food on a campfire. Trust me. Stainless steel (not aluminum) pots and pans can work well for soupier foods, and in a pinch you can use them for whatever you happen to make and it CAN work, but cast iron is the best if you can pack it.

-Some veggies are great to prep before you leave - peppers, carrots, and zucchini are examples. Onions, shallots, and garlic are NOT okay to prep before you leave, unless you don’t mind the overpowering stench of onion every single time you open your cooler. This smell will seep through Rubbermaid containers. It will seep through Ziploc bags. It will seep through Rubbermaid containers enclosed in 3 layers of Ziploc heavy duty freezer bags. Cut your onions onsite.

-It is worth the extra cost to buy things like shredded cheese if you’re like me and don’t have a buttload of time to prep your food before you leave because you didn’t actually decide to go camping until the day before you’ve scheduled yourself to go. Grating cheese might not seem like a difficult task, but when you’re out in the woods and cooking over a fire, ANYTHING you can do to make your job easier is worth it in the end. That being said: grated cheese almost always contains cellulose. If you’re cooking out in the woods, you’ll probably be ingesting enough wood fibers, thanks very much. It’s really up to you. In the case of cheese, the trade off is time and quality.

-Either repackage your meat in something you can wash, or break out the contractor bags. Make sure you’ve brought sturdy garbage bags or containers, regardless of whether or not you remembered to repackage your food, though. If you forgot, it’s not good to be burning your plastic or styrofoam containers in the campfire. You know better. Don’t do it. It’s also not good to leave your meat wrappers and things in a container which a bear would be able to smell through. Garbage bags and ziploc bags in all sizes are camping essentials, especially if you’re camping with kids. Don’t forget them.

-Remember to bring containers to wash dishes in. I use four litre ice cream buckets. They work well. Bring biodegradable dishsoap as well. 

-Cleaning wipes (Method makes nice ones) are great for cleaning off tables at the end of the evening. 

-Remember hand sanitizer and/or antibacterial wipes. And I say this as someone who is most definitely NOT a germaphobe.

-Forgetting important tools and equipment really, really, really sucks. I got out to a campsite once with a bunch of recipes that used canned foods only to discover I had forgotten to bring a can opener. Make a checklist before you go camping, even if you aren’t a list-making type of person, or there WILL be an occasion where you will regret it.

-When making said list, don’t be vague. For instance, don’t say this:

*Sleeping Bags

Say this:

*Spork’s sleeping bag

*Bork’s sleeping bag

*Mork’s sleeping bag

*Gork’s sleeping bag

Include everything individually, or you may end up packing Bork and Mork’s sleeping bags, but not Gork’s. Trust me, Gork will not be impressed. If Gork is a child, Gork will whine pitifully and refuse to make any sort of compromises. Gork will insist you don’t love him, or that you love him less than Mork and Bork. Gork will ruin your trip.

-Don't be scared to cook real meals over a campfire. Even if it's a failure it usually still tastes okay, just because you're out there in the woods and it's an adventure and it's all okay, even when it isn't. Good food and camping make an incredible pair. There's a real sense of satisfaction to the work that accompanies a camping trip, and that includes meals. People will be thankful. A good camp cook is indispensable. And when the zombie apocalypse happens, people are gonna have a vested interest in keeping you alive.