Campfire Cooking Made Easy

A COOKING VIDEO BY ROGER BORGERS.

AS REVIEWED BY BUDDY GOUGH IN TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE, MARCH 1989.

Successful campfire cooking is neither a secret nor an art; rather, it's a simple system. The biggest obstacle people face with campfire cooking is that they are used to cooking on a stove at home where they can control the thermostat. You can do the same thing outdoors. You can learn how to build a cooking fire, test the temperature, regulate, and maintain the heat throughout the cooking time.

Tools. Leather or insulated gloves, small shovel to shift goals, heavy gauge grill, long handle tongs for arranging coals and removing foods cooked directly in the coals, long handle cooking utensils, large roll of extra heavy-duty foil and a 12-inch dutch oven (with three legs and a flat lid with a raised lip around it).

Fuel. Choice of wood is important in building a cooking fire. The best for hot, long-lasting coals are seasoned, i.e., dead hardwoods, such as oak, mesquite, pecan and related species. In addition to imparting a good flavor to foods, the coals of these woods also have the advantage of burning "clean" without a lot of soot buildup to the bottom of pots and pans. Charcoal is an excellent fuel but lacks that hard wood flavor. Kingsford is a very good, dependable charcoal.

You want to avoid softwoods like evergreen willow, elm and basswood that are smoky, poppy, burn fast and have an unpleasant odor. Such woods as cedar (Ash juniper) and pine have resins that make them especially unsuitable for cooking.

Wind. Just as a simple pair of gloves can lessen the pain of campfire cooking, properly situating the fire pit helps too. In selecting the campfire site, savvy campers test the breeze and lay their pits so the wind will be at their backs or blowing across the pit. Either way, the camper can cook without getting smoke in his eyes of feeling the hot blasts emanating from the supply fire.

For fire pits that are to be used for extended periods, experienced campers take into account prevailing winds that may shift from day to day. In much of Texas, for example, the prevailing winds are southerly (80 % of the time) and northerly (19% of the time); thus, a fire pit placed on an east-west axis will assure a crosswind in most conditions (storms normally come from the west and move east 1% of the time).

When possible, very experienced campers consider the prospect of no-wind conditions by placing the fire pit near a large object such as a boulder or tree (not too close to scorch the bark or over hanging limbs). In the absence of wind, a natural vacuum seems to form between a fire and big objects and draws the smoke. This explains the phenomenon campers often notice: no matter where they stand around a fire, the smoke follows them.

Fire Building. Begin with a fire pit or ring in the shape of a keyhole. The rounded end is constructed three to four feet in diameter, while the narrow end is 14-16 inches wide and 16-18 inches long. The large end is used for a feeder fire to supply coals for a flameless cooking fire in the small part of the keyhole. The simple concept works as well with two fire rings, one large and one small. The key to the concept is that actual cooking is done with coals. You want to cook with coals because they are predictable, even-burning, and not erratic like flames.

Temperature. Coals can be controlled and regulated as to temperature, which is the other nifty part of the system. This is accomplished though what Borgers calls the "palm test," and consists of placing your palm about two to three inches above the grill over the coals and counting seconds (1,000, 2,000 etc.) until the heat forces you to pull your hand away.

A five-count palm test is a low temperature of about 200-300 degrees for slow cooking stews and the like. Three to four seconds is a medium temperature of 350 to 400 degrees for roasting and baking. A quick two-count is for grilling and frying meat or poultry or for boiling water.

By making periodic palm tests, the campfire cooker can adjust or maintain proper temperature by adding or removing coals as necessary.

JOHN 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

JOHN 6:47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

Material assembled by Kent Hope for Troop 714. 3-6-2000.