Outdoor Cooking With Fire

OUTDOOR COOKING WITH FIRE

Written by : Jeffrey R Hilton

So you've decided to go camping again this summer and you will probably take all the things you usually habitually take to prepare food with and most likely,  there will be a propane cook stove involved and maybe you'll use the fire to boil water and toast marshmallows and wieners on.  Too many people go camping and tailor their food around being only able to cook it on a a few burners of a stove.

Don't overlook the versatility of your camp fire.  With a few minute modifications and a few rocks,  you can turn that campfire into an oven worthy of cooking almost any dish. It's also a project that's fun for the whole family to partake in,  and something different to try,  whether you are camped in a tent or a trailer.  The oven in the picture above was constructed from flat pieces of rock slabs and contains a roast pan  full of stuffed turkey,  slowly roasting to a golden brown as dying embers from a smaller fire on the perimeter of the pit are being shoved beneath the oven.  The turkey is periodically taken out and basted with beer.  It turned out as good as any I've had indoors,  if not better.

You can prepare a roast beef or a ham,  or even a casserole much the same way.  Build up the fire well before you want to use it for an oven and when most of the wood has burned down,  construct an oven on one side,  out of flat rocks or river stone.  Make sure the stones are balanced enough that they won't topple easily.

If there are no rocks available,  you can cut 1/4 " in diameter,  strips of green wood and lash them together at one end,  essentially building a frame and drape them over the oven base you are building.  Use a grate for the base if you have one,  otherwise use a few smaller rocks to build a bed  Cover the structure with mud or clay from a stream or river bank.  You can cover the oven door by using some tinfoil or another flat rock,  whatever you can find that's suitable.

This method below was used on a canoe trip where any sizable rocks were scarce,  and clay from the river bank was used to cover the frame.

So the next time you go camping,  think about building an oven and eating a great meal cooked fireside.

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Do Have A Good Day
 And A Fired Up Meal Outdoors Style.

Jeffrey R Hilton