Camp Fire Cooking - Coals are the key

by Steve
(Dallas, Texas)

One of the easiest ways to cook on an outdoor campfire is by using the hot bed of coals you get after a couple hours of a good fire. The coals are a very consistent temperature and when used right can cook anything from a Dutch oven of blueberry muffins to an entire meal in one package.

One of the best and easiest meals to make over a campfire is "Hobo Stew". To have a complete and nutritious meal simply take a piece of aluminum foil about 14 inches long and place your favorite chopped veggies as well as a few potato chunks in the middle of the foil.

Next, place your favorite uncooked meat, this can be beef, pork or chicken in the middle with your veggies. Salt, pepper and flavoring go in next. When you've added all your items, carefully fold the aluminum foil in order to form a pocket around all your ingredients.

Place this entire package in the fire under the coals. Spread coals over the top of the package also. Within a few minutes, you'll hear your lunch sizzling. It generally takes about 45 minutes to cook your stew. Simply take it from the coals, open it up and enjoy. It's an excellent meal and healthy too.

Greased Fire - Camping Story and Tip

by ED Beale
(Baltimore)

I humored my friends the first time we went camping. In all honestly, I didn't really have much of an interest in it.

Luckily, I wound up really enjoying the rustic cabin in the middle of nowhere. I liked it so much that when they decided to drag me along camping in a tent, I more than happily accepted.

That was, of course, before the rain!

It was a horrible first night. It was dark, wet, and cold. We drove for hours from Baltimore out to a spot near Heshey, PA, and wound up in a spot made of gravel. That didn't stop us, of course. We pitched our tent and made the best of what became a pretty long night for me.

Naturally, the next day was gorgeous. We got our things together to start up the ol' camp fire to get breakfast underway. And, of course, all of our wood and our firepit were drenched. We tried for a long time to get a fire started while we munched on some potato chips.

Then we got to thinking: didn't that one guy on the survivor show say something about using chips to help with a fire? Collectively shrugging, we decided to pour them into the pit along with the wood we have.

Man, what a blaze!

Thanks to our greasy treat, we managed to get a fire started so that we could have real food. The chip fire was more than satisfying, unlike the chips themselves.

Grill without the grill!

by Lauren
(Louisiana)

I actually saw this trick on Dual Survival and I tried it and it works! You take 4 Y sticks and put one at every corner of your fire. Then you take two medium sized sticks and put them on top the Ys. After that you take little green sapling sticks (make sure they aren't poisonous, I use Yopine since the wood isn't poisonous) and put the sticks across the two medium sticks to make a grill.
Y-----Y
!!!!!! I'll send you pictures if you don't
Y-----Y understand how :)