How do I build a campfire for cooking?

[J-rap]

We're going camping for a few days this weekend, and I'm never really sure about how to build a campfire for cooking.  There'll be a grate over the open fire I assume.  We plan to cook some meals on top of the grate in a skillet -- mostly breakfasts.  Others we'll cook in foil packets directly in the coals.  But that's the part I don't really understand.  Do I use a mix of actual store-bought coals mixed with wood?  Is one method easier?  When I cook on the grate, is the flame supposed to be high, but not quite touching the skillet?  I assume when I cook food in foil packets I put them down into the fire, but more at the edge, after it dies down a bit.

 

Should I have paper along to use to help start the fire?

 

I obviously don't do this enough to know what I'm doing.  :)

 

 

 

 

[stephanier.1765]

I don't know but I'm glad you asked because I've been wondering the same thing.

[Maus]

Taking paper is good idea. DH likes to use bark to feel all authentic, but it takes more work to find it.

 

No, you don't need coal or charcoal from the store. You start the fire 45 minutes or so before you want to cook and then let it die down (or move the logs on fire to one side with a poker if you need the fire for the rest of the evening.) You should find very hot white coals and ashes. Just drop the packets in there. Tongs are good!

 

You may or may not find a grate there in the fire pit. Depends on the campground. In my area, there would generally not be one, unless there is a separate raised grill box, away from the fire pit. Charcoal briquettes from the store best in those.

[J-rap]

Taking paper is good idea. DH likes to use bark to feel all authentic, but it takes more work to find it.

 

No, you don't need coal or charcoal from the store. You start the fire 45 minutes or so before you want to cook and then let it die down (or move the logs on fire to one side with a poker if you need the fire for the rest of the evening.) You should find very hot white coals and ashes. Just drop the packets in there. Tongs are good!

 

You may or may not find a grate there in the fire pit. Depends on the campground. In my area, there would generally not be one, unless there is a separate raised grill box, away from the fire pit. Charcoal briquettes from the store best in those.

 

This is very helpful -- thanks!  Good to know that I should plan 45 minutes before cooking.  Hmmm... I'll have to find out if a grate will be on the pit.

Edited May 24, 2017 by J-rap

[Arcadia]

A guide from the girl guides http://www.bc-girlguides.org/WEB/Documents/BC/camping/Campcookingtechniques.pdf

 

Also campfire recipes http://www.bc-girlguides.org/web/Documents/BC/camping/Camprecipes.pdf

 

When I was a girl guide, we cheated by bringing some fire starters and a cigarette lighter to start the fire. We have cooked lots of interesting stuff.

 

ETA:

We used the tepee fire method most often. 3 troops so more than 120 of us.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Arcadia

[bettyandbob]

I'm camping this weekend.

 

The state park requires I purchase firewood there (prevents people inadvertently bringing in outside insects, diseases and fungi). So I'm not bringing that.

 

I start with drier lint and shredded paper, then newspaper, then cardboard, then sticks, then logs. You kind of pile it in tent fashion and light the small stuff (lint and paper shreds). As the fire passes to larger stuff it will get hot enough for the logs. Once it's going you should be able to start cooking. You can wrap stuff in heavy duty foil and put it right in the fire or you can cook on the grate.

[Maus]

Really, in campfire cooking, the only thing that goes over direct flames is a pot of water, for cocoa, or coffee, or soup, or whatever. Everything else you use coals for.

[Wheres Toto]

We are camping right now and dh does it the way Maus said. He's been camping his entire life and cooks all kinds of stuff.

[J-rap]

A guide from the girl guides http://www.bc-girlguides.org/WEB/Documents/BC/camping/Campcookingtechniques.pdf

 

Also campfire recipes http://www.bc-girlguides.org/web/Documents/BC/camping/Camprecipes.pdf

 

When I was a girl guide, we cheated by bringing some fire starters and a cigarette lighter to start the fire. We have cooked lots of interesting stuff.

 

ETA:

We used the tepee fire method most often. 3 troops so more than 120 of us.

 

Thanks!  I was proud to know that I remembered putting soap on the bottom of the pan to make it easier to clean.  :)  Though I wonder why it calls for yellow soap??

[J-rap]

Really, in campfire cooking, the only thing that goes over direct flames is a pot of water, for cocoa, or coffee, or soup, or whatever. Everything else you use coals for.

 

Okay, so I should bring my own charcoal then...?

[Petrichor]

We bought a grate for camping, since many campgrounds around here don't have a grate. 

 

Purchasing a camp stove is not a bad idea if you want to be able to cook quicker than cooking over a campfire. (mentioning that because I didn't realize that there are camping stoves until I saw someone using one.)

[wintermom]

We bought a grate for camping, since many campgrounds around here don't have a grate. 

 

Purchasing a camp stove is not a bad idea if you want to be able to cook quicker than cooking over a campfire. (mentioning that because I didn't realize that there are camping stoves until I saw someone using one.)

 

:iagree:   Not all sites have grates. The weather may be such that campfires aren't great (rain, too dry so fire ban). Having your own stove is a good idea. You can get small, inexpensive butane gas ones at hardware stores and shop meets. 

[Arcadia]

Though I wonder why it calls for yellow soap??

The PDF is dated 1985 so my guess is that yellow soap was industrial strength bar soap for stubborn stains.

 

My campmates had also just rub the bottom of blackened metal pots against sand before washing and that helps too.

[Arctic Bunny]

Okay, so I should bring my own charcoal then...?

When the wood burns down, so you don't see flames leaping anymore, mostly just glowing, those are the coals you cook over ;)

[KungFuPanda]

There is a bit of a learning curve with cooking on an open fire with a pan.  If you must do it, bring a shovel so you can move the hot coals about the way you want them and remember it takes a little longer than you expect, so build that fire an hour before you plan to start cooking.  If you can buy or borrow a camp stove life will be sooo much easier.  You can still do packets, hot dogs, and s'mores on the fire, but pan frying and boiling water are easier on a stove.  

 

I have this one.  https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2000020943NP-Classic-Propane-Stove/dp/B00005OU9D/ref=sr_1_2?s=outdoor-recreation&ie=UTF8&qid=1495679598&sr=1-2&keywords=camp+stove You hook a little propane bottle to it and it's just like cooking on a gas range. You probably have a few friends who will lend you theirs and then you just need to buy propane.

[mom of 2 boys]

We bring a mini charcoal grill and some charcoal. For pots and pans we use a propane burner. I wouldn't camp without a grill and burner, personally. I cooked a steak using the coals from the fire once by digging a hole, dumping the fire coals in it (with a shovel) and laying a grate over the hole. Worked just fine, but we did have to burn the fire for awhile first. You can cook hot dogs on a stick over the fire flames, that's always easy.

[ktgrok]

coals means the wood after it has burned down and is no longer flaming, but rather glowing. 

 

For a cooking fire I put a bigger log on one side, then put my paper/lint/whatever next to that, then as that burns gradually add smaller sticks then bigger sticks over that, with one end leaning on the bigger log. Like a lean to. That is an easy way to do it and still get good airflow. You don't want a tall fire, like a bonfire, but a hot fire. 

 

Oh, here are the types..I do lean to partly because it's how I learned first, and because it is easy, and because it is windy here in Florida and the big log acts as a wind break. http://gizmodo.com/how-to-build-the-only-five-campfires-you-ll-ever-need-1705895804

[Nan in Mass]

I usually use a camp stove on the picnic table for pots, and the fire for anything we want to toast or grill or cook on skewers or foil. A kelty kettle is great, if you can afford one. You can boil water as fast as on a stove with few sticks. Our general strategy is to cook breakfast on the stove, eat pbj or cheese sandwiches for lunch, and chop whatever we are eating for supper up in chunks and cook them one or two chunks at a time on skewers. This takes awhile but is the evening's entertainment. I guess it wouldn't be very relaxing if you had 6 small children unfamiliar waving hot pointy things in each other's faces, but I did it with 3 small boys who were used to open fires without a problem. I drizzle olive oil over any vegetables before cooking. You can cook chunks of cheese, apples, and lumps of dough on skewers, too. Pita bread quarters toast well on skewers. When I have a choice, I prefer to make the fire out of sticks rather than logs. It is much faster and it is easier to control the heat. I gather everything ahead of time, then start the fire with some twist s of unshiny scrap paper under a pile of little dry twigs between a v of two big sticks. (Shiny paper doesn't want to burn.) Then I carefully add pencil sized sticks to the pile. Then finger sized. Then "big " stuff, which is anything I can break with a foot or over my knee. Keep in mind that fire likes to burn where two sticks are touching and stack accordingly. I blow gently to get things going. With this method, I can have a fire ready for cooking in a few minutes. It also goes out quickly when I am done with it. We call these cooking fires and the log fires we make for sitting around in the evening camp fires. Either way, the trick is to make a small fire. You can't get close enough to a big fire to do anything with it. It is surprisingly hard to keep people from drowning your nice cooking coals with lots of big cold wood. : )

 

Nan

 

Ps you can lay down a layer of sticks and build on that if the ground is damp. Bring a bucket for water in case of accidents. We bring 5 gal. buckets to sit on around the fire while cooking, too. We can reach the fire better from a stool that from one of those canvas chairs.

 

Nan

 

Eta Making tight twists of paper works better than just crunching it in balls. It fits with the sticks better. For a first trip, you might consider buying some fire starters- waxy sticks that burn well. For log fires, I do it like Ktgrok. : )

Edited May 25, 2017 by Nan in Mass

[J-rap]

There is a bit of a learning curve with cooking on an open fire with a pan.  If you must do it, bring a shovel so you can move the hot coals about the way you want them and remember it takes a little longer than you expect, so build that fire an hour before you plan to start cooking.  If you can buy or borrow a camp stove life will be sooo much easier.  You can still do packets, hot dogs, and s'mores on the fire, but pan frying and boiling water are easier on a stove.  

 

I have this one.  https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2000020943NP-Classic-Propane-Stove/dp/B00005OU9D/ref=sr_1_2?s=outdoor-recreation&ie=UTF8&qid=1495679598&sr=1-2&keywords=camp+stove You hook a little propane bottle to it and it's just like cooking on a gas range. You probably have a few friends who will lend you theirs and then you just need to buy propane.

 

Yeah, maybe I should invest in one of these.  We have enough people in our family now who enjoy camping that this might come in handy over the years.

[J-rap]

coals means the wood after it has burned down and is no longer flaming, but rather glowing. 

 

For a cooking fire I put a bigger log on one side, then put my paper/lint/whatever next to that, then as that burns gradually add smaller sticks then bigger sticks over that, with one end leaning on the bigger log. Like a lean to. That is an easy way to do it and still get good airflow. You don't want a tall fire, like a bonfire, but a hot fire. 

 

Oh, here are the types..I do lean to partly because it's how I learned first, and because it is easy, and because it is windy here in Florida and the big log acts as a wind break. http://gizmodo.com/how-to-build-the-only-five-campfires-you-ll-ever-need-1705895804

 

Thanks!  These are just the examples I need!

[J-rap]

I usually use a camp stove on the picnic table for pots, and the fire for anything we want to toast or grill or cook on skewers or foil. A kelty kettle is great, if you can afford one. You can boil water as fast as on a stove with few sticks. Our general strategy is to cook breakfast on the stove, eat pbj or cheese sandwiches for lunch, and chop whatever we are eating for supper up in chunks and cook them one or two chunks at a time on skewers. This takes awhile but is the evening's entertainment. I guess it wouldn't be very relaxing if you had 6 small children unfamiliar waving hot pointy things in each other's faces, but I did it with 3 small boys who were used to open fires without a problem. I drizzle olive oil over any vegetables before cooking. You can cook chunks of cheese, apples, and lumps of dough on skewers, too. Pita bread quarters toast well on skewers. When I have a choice, I prefer to make the fire out of sticks rather than logs. It is much faster and it is easier to control the heat. I gather everything ahead of time, then start the fire with some twist s of unshiny scrap paper under a pile of little dry twigs between a v of two big sticks. (Shiny paper doesn't want to burn.) Then I carefully add pencil sized sticks to the pile. Then finger sized. Then "big " stuff, which is anything I can break with a foot or over my knee. Keep in mind that fire likes to burn where two sticks are touching and stack accordingly. I blow gently to get things going. With this method, I can have a fire ready for cooking in a few minutes. It also goes out quickly when I am done with it. We call these cooking fires and the log fires we make for sitting around in the evening camp fires. Either way, the trick is to make a small fire. You can't get close enough to a big fire to do anything with it. It is surprisingly hard to keep people from drowning your nice cooking coals with lots of big cold wood. : )

 

Nan

 

Ps you can lay down a layer of sticks and build on that if the ground is damp. Bring a bucket for water in case of accidents. We bring 5 gal. buckets to sit on around the fire while cooking, too. We can reach the fire better from a stool that from one of those canvas chairs.

 

Nan

 

Eta Making tight twists of paper works better than just crunching it in balls. It fits with the sticks better. For a first trip, you might consider buying some fire starters- waxy sticks that burn well. For log fires, I do it like Ktgrok. : )

 

Thanks!  Lots of good suggestions here.  Also, I love the dough on skewers idea!