Camp Cooking

Food seems to taste better when you're camp cooking, probably because of the pleasant outdoor environment. And if you're cooking on a wood-fueled cooking fire, then the added smoky taste seems to get those taste buds all trembling with anticipation.

Cooking on a wood fire is something you should try a few times, because it is really quite different from camp cooking on a portable camping stove or at home.

It takes some experience to get the flames of the fire "just right", but once you master the skills there'll be no looking back. It is a real feeling of accomplishment to be able to use nature's own natural fuel — just like our ancestors must have done many centuries ago... cooking around a primitive camp fire or at the kitchen fireplace hearth.

The pots and kettles you use for cooking on wood will be blackened forever by the wood smoke, so use a cheap billy can or cook pot — like the one in this photo - and not the good one from your kitchen at home. When packing your sooty cook pots to carry home, you will need to wrap them in newspapers or have a cloth bag to cover them. Otherwise the dirty black soot will get over everything else.

When I used to cook this way on a regular basis, my billy cans and frying pan were always cleaned on the outside with wire wool soap scouring pads; but only on the insides, and for the top two or three inches down from the top on the outside. The lid was kept clean and shiny, too. That way you could see the cooking utensils had been cleaned thoroughly. Yet I didn't waste time removing all of the black, for there was point to it. The soot would only be burned back on again at the next camp!

If you are car camping, and can lug along the weight, then there are great advantages to using a cast-iron (or modern alloy) fry pan or kettle. The best example would be a Dutch oven. The heavier metal helps protect the food from burning to a crisp if you make a small mistake when regulating the flames.

One simple rule when cooking on wood is to boil things over a quick flame, and keep the fire small and contained — like between the two bricks in this picture. That's efficient. For frying and baking, use hard wood species if available (like oak) and wait for the flames to die down so you can cook over a bed of hot glowing coals. Commercial BBQ briquettes are manufactured to give you hot cooking coals like this very quickly.

Be warned though... Nothing will save your dinner from any big mistake when cooking on a campfire. If you let your attention wander too long, your food will be "magically" turned into charcoal. So learn to keep at least one eye on the cooking fire at all times!