Open Fire Camp Cooking

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Substitue the frying pan for the grill and you're good to go.
The 'store bought' wood hardly burned at all by the time the sausages (cheese & parsley...yum) were done.
The coals were made from a big pile of skinny branches that burned down.
The key here is keeping the food close to the coals and having the wood sides direct and contain the heat.

Just get out and do it. Don't over think it and keep the coleman nearby if the kiddies can't wait :D

The worst part of cooking like this is all the bending over ;)
 
Thanks for the tips Ebbtide that helps out alot! That sausage looks goood! Codger thanks again for the bisquit tip-will give that a try never thought about roasting the store bought ones like marshmellows but it makes a lot of sense plus the kids may like doing this too! I think I will take a short day trip to the mountains and make lunch trying this grate cooking out, practice makes perfect!
 
You're welcome! The kids can also wrap the dough from crescent rolls around a half roasted hot dog to make "pig-in-a-blanket"! Yummy! Also, I forgot to mention that with wire cutters, you can shorten a tall grille.
 
You're more than welcome DD.
I should have mentioned that the 2 pieces of 'SBW' were added after the branch wood burnt down & that I shoveled/pushed the coals into a pile as well.

Codger, good one on the pigs in a blanket!
I'm going to try that :D
 
I have a grill from the bottom of a gas BBQ, the one the lava rocks set on. It is heavier than a store bought grill.
I do the same as the others, raking the coals off and cooking over them, you can judge the heat by holding your hand over it and counting to 6 or 8 before you have to pul it away.
I also put 2 logs parallel to each other, start a fire at one end, feeding smaller limbs in to regulate it and set a grill across the logs, you can move the grill closer to or farther from the fire to regulate. Just get out and do it, you will burn some food, but that is how to learn.
I started my fire cooking by putting a chicken on a spit and eating the cooked parts, then putting it back to cook more.
 
Very Nessmuk of you Ebb - nice setup. Angle the logs to a blunt V and you have a range of heat - from very hot (cooking) to warm (for the coffee):

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Working as a guide in Northern Manitoba, I've cooked a LOT of food over an open fire. My favorite set-up is two logs laid parallel with the fire built between. You just lay your grill over top. If you need more heat, then you can push fuel from either end, or remove if too hot. The previous post had a picture of a grill with sausage on it. Notice the two chunks of wood? That's basically it. Cooking over an open fire is all about experience. The more you do it, the better it gets. If you can, experiment at home in your backyard. Pretty easy to do. Best of luck and enjoy!
 
Diamond Dog said:
I usually use a coleman's 2 burner propane stove when camping. I like it and it gets hot in a hurry. But I recently bought a medium size fire grate for cooking on the open fire along with a large cast iron skillet. I have never used the grate or cast iron pan on the open fire and I have a few questions on some approaches to doing this.

Is there any special or different way in arranging the fire, sticks etc to efficiently cook? Or is just a regular fire sufficient?

When I camp with the family I usually bring 2-3 bundles of the store bought firewood to use for the campfire for an overnighter, but if I were to use the bundled wood for cooking and for a cozy campfire how much of these store bought bundles do you think I will need for a 2day 1night campout? I have small children and I always bring xtra wood for ease and preparededness etc. I scavenge wood and stuff when I camp but I like having the piece of mind of having dried/ready wood just in case.

Lastly if you guys can give me any advice on camp fire cooking, the skillet or any advice at all it would sure be greatly appreciated. By the way the skillet is already preseasoned. Thanks guys!
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When I was a kid , we first lived in a house with an old wood fired stove , then moved to another house with a gas stove , and finaly to the farm where lived in a shed till we built the house , and the cooking was all done over open fire

for the usual stuff , cooking is cooking , just the heat source varies .
The easiest way of cooking I use is just a slab of steel , ( car camping anyway ) as a hot plate , good for cooking most stuff on directly and it saves washing up pots and pans .

a dutch oven is invaluable if you can get one , great for baking bread / damper , for making stews , roasting .. excellent tool for cooking with .

THese days , we have a house with an electric stove , when the girls need a break , the boys and I sit a steel plate on a couple rocks in the back yard and light a fire under it , all the cooking is done out there till the girls are sick of it and get motivated in the kitchen again .

Its almost like camping :)
 
Yeah the Nessmuk range is cool.

When we overhaul our kitchen we want to add a wood cookstove. I love to cook on them.:thumbup:
 
I've done quite a bit of camping over wood fires.

My first advice, if it's worth anything, is to start off by rubbing dishwashing detergent over the bottom and outside of your cookwear. It goes on surprisingly well. This acts as a barrier to the soot. If you are staying a couple of days in that location, wipe out your pots carefully after cooking, so as not to disturb this. When you are moving on, simply wash it off. Anyone who laughs at me for posting about doing the dishes in this forum hasn't spent half-an-hour trying to scrub the soot off a pan - believe me, if you think you can live with them filthy, you end up with one hell of a mess over the inside of your backpack.

A general point about cooking on an open fire: the nearer the centre of the fire, the hotter it is. The trick is to move pans around a bit. Get them boiling in the centre and move them progressively outwards so as not to turn your dinner into charcoal.

Oh, and be attentive. I once turned my back on an aluminum kettle. The water boiled out and the bottom just melted away, leaving a few strands.
 
In case it has not been beaten to death... coal is good, flame is not nearly as good for even cooking.
 
Grebo Guru said:
Anyone who laughs at me for posting about doing the dishes in this forum hasn't spent half-an-hour trying to scrub the soot off a pan - believe me, if you think you can live with them filthy, you end up with one hell of a mess over the inside of your backpack.

.
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I have a bag for the pots to go inside before they go in the pack , keeps them together , and keeps my pack clean
 
Myal said:
I have a bag for the pots to go inside before they go in the pack , keeps them together , and keeps my pack clean
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Me too. An old canvas mil-surp bag with a drawstring that my kit all fits in. I usually leave the base layer of glazed soot on, but wipe off the loose powder stuff when I wash up. Whether the black glaze hurts or helps the pots cook, I dunno. I just know it doesn't bother me to see them that way.
 
Everyone here pretty much covered the cooking over the coals/fire aspect pretty well...so, I'm going to make a suggestion that has not been made yet.

De-season the pan and re-season it yourself using a good vegetable, soy, or peanut oil. A chef friend of mine told me to do this because some of the "seasoning" that companies use is a chemical seasoning and call it paranoia call it what you will but I try to minimize the amount of chemicals that get into my body (same reason I don't microwave stuff in plastic or stirafoam.)

If you do want to strip off the "seasoning" just wash it they way they say not to and give it a good scrubbing with some steal wool (I find the coarser stuff works better for this.)

My $.02
Cheers
 
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