One of the best parts of camping involves eating those delicious meals prepared over campfires. Cooking outdoors brings out distinctive flavors in foods and creates a deluge of aromas for the senses. By the time the food is ready to eat, campers are usually starving. Enjoying a scrumptious breakfast will start the day out right, and ending the day with a delicious supper will ensure a restful slumber is sure to follow.
Easy Meals Prepared Over Campfires
The following meals are simple to make and delicious to eat. Feel free to add your favorite ingredients and seasonings as well.
Cheesy Potatoes and Onions
This recipe is so simple and so delicious that you may want to cook it for breakfast and supper!
- Slice potatoes, and cut up onions into bite-sized pieces.
- Add cooking oil to a large pan, and heat the pan on the grill over the campfire.
- When the oil gets hot enough, add the potatoes and onions.
- Sprinkle with seasonings as you cook.
- Continue stirring the potato and onion mixture to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the potatoes and onions are cooked, remove the pan from the campfire, and add sliced, cubed, or grated cheese in whatever flavor you prefer.
- Stir the cheese, add salt and pepper as needed, and you're done!
Canned Biscuits
Canned biscuits are easy foods to cook over a campfire. While you're cooking the biscuits, put on a pot of coffee, and fry some bacon or sausage. To cook canned biscuits over a campfire, do the following:
- Grease a pan with a small amount of cooking oil or spray the pan lightly with cooking spray.
- Heat the pan slightly.
- Add the biscuits to the pan, but be sure the pan isn't directly over a tall burning flame.
- Periodically, flip the biscuits so that they won't scorch and until they are done.
Keep in mind that biscuits cooked in this manner will not be as tall and fluffy as they are when cooked in an oven. However, they taste even better!
Foil-Wrapped Suppers
Aluminum foil is a must-have on your camp food supply list. Create foil wrapped suppers that are individually designed to please even the fussiest camper. Cut up potatoes, onions, carrots, corn on the cob, and add chicken, small cuts of meat, etc. Add your seasonings and a pat of butter, and fold everything into aluminum foil. Wrap completely, and place the foil-wrapped dinners into the coals of the campfire. Periodically check your food to see if it is done.
Skillet Breakfasts
Use a large, cast iron skillet to cook a breakfast for champions. Cook sausage, bacon, and onions until done. Then, add eggs and hash browns. Once everything has cooked completely, add cheese if desired as well as preferred seasonings. You'll need to continue stirring until the cheese has completely melted. Your breakfast is ready to serve!
Other Alternatives
Finally, other campfire meal alternatives can be cooked on long sticks. Hot dogs and marshmallows are campfire favorites, but you can also create shish kabobs out of vegetables and small cubes of meat.
Tips for Campfire Cooking
Cooking over a campfire could be considered an art. You have to get the fire just right, and know just how to strategically place the pots and pans you are cooking with. If you're a novice camper, don't be surprised if the first foods you prepare, cook too quickly. On the other hand, if you aren't adept at making and keeping a campfire burning, you may end up with foods that are undercooked.
Here is a simple explanation on how to build a campfire. Once you have your campfire burning correctly, you can begin cooking all of those delicious campfire meals.
- Gather small twigs and branches.
- Tear newspapers into strips.
- Place the twigs in the fire pit, stacking them so that air can curl up between them.
- Stuff the newspaper strips in and around the twigs. You should have a nice pile of the twigs and strips.
- Add small pieces of dried wood, stacking these as well so that air can come up between them. If you stack twigs or wood too tightly, you'll smother the fire before it can really start burning.
- Add your largest pieces of wood on top.
- Light the newspaper strips, and watch the fire begin.
Once the fire has died down a bit but is still burning with hot, red coals, you're ready to place your pots and pans on the grill. Keep in mind that you'll probably have to stoke the fire to keep the flames burning continuously, and you may need to move your pots to different areas on the grill to keep them cooking evenly.
Cooking over an open campfire does present some challenges, but the food is absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
