A hot dog on a stick is the single most overrated campfire food. You came all the way out here. Cook something worth the drive.
There's nothing actually wrong with a hot dog. But somewhere along the way, American camping culture decided that the fire was for dogs and marshmallows, and that anything more ambitious belonged on a grill at home. This is a tragedy. Fire cooking is one of the oldest forms of cooking and one of the best, and most of what you need you can buy on your way through Logan.
Here are ten recipes that work over a cabin fire, in order from easiest to most ambitious. None of them require special equipment beyond aluminum foil and a cast iron pan (most cabins have one; check before you leave home).
The essentials (before you start)
Get these from the grocery store on your way in. If you have them, you can improvise most campfire meals with no prep:
- Heavy-duty aluminum foil. Not the thin stuff. Reynolds heavy-duty or store-brand equivalent.
- Butter (a full stick). This is about half of campfire cooking.
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder. Small containers, kitchen staples.
- Olive oil or vegetable oil. A small bottle.
- A long-handled tongs and a long-handled spatula. The cabin probably has one of these.
You need a bed of coals to cook over, not open flame. About thirty minutes into a well-built fire, rake some coals to one side — that's your cooking zone. Keep the active fire on the other side for warmth and for adding more coals as you need them.
The recipes
Foil-Packet Potatoes
Cube a potato, a quarter onion, and half a bell pepper per person. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a lot of butter. Wrap tightly in two layers of heavy-duty foil. Set on coals for 25–30 minutes, flipping halfway. Open carefully — steam. The best camping side dish ever invented. Works with sweet potatoes too.
Foil-Packet Fish
One fillet of salmon or trout per person. Lay on foil with lemon slices, butter, fresh dill if you have it, salt and pepper. Seal tight. On coals for 12–15 minutes. Perfect every time. The fish steams in its own juices. If you're fishing at Rose Lake or Clear Creek, this is the recipe for the trout you catch.
Bacon-Wrapped Everything
Take anything — a jalapeño stuffed with cream cheese, a scallop, a chunk of sweet potato, a small sausage — and wrap it in a slice of bacon. Skewer. Roast over coals, turning often, until the bacon is crisp and the inside is cooked through. Works with shrimp, with chicken thighs, with tofu. The bacon is a self-basting wrapper. Universal.
Pudgy Pies (Midwest Classic)
A pudgy pie iron is a pair of long-handled cast iron clamshells — you can buy one at Walmart for about $20 and they last a lifetime. Butter two slices of bread on the outside. Place one slice in the iron, butter-side down. Fill with anything: pizza toppings, leftover chili, apple pie filling, a s'mores combo. Cap with the second slice, butter-side up. Close the iron. Cook over coals 3–4 minutes per side. You just made a toasted, sealed, stuffed sandwich. Infinite variations. Cornerstone of Ohio camping culture.
Cast Iron Campfire Nachos
Layer tortilla chips, shredded cheese, black beans, diced onion, jalapeños, and pre-cooked shredded chicken (from a rotisserie you bought on the way) in a cast iron pan. Cover with foil. Set on a grate over the coals, or directly on coals for 8–12 minutes until the cheese is molten. Uncover, top with sour cream and salsa. Serves 4. The gold standard of fire cooking.
Breakfast Burritos in the Morning Coals
If your fire is still warm in the morning (add a small log before bed to keep a coal bed), breakfast is easy. Scramble eggs in a cast iron pan on the grate. Add cooked breakfast sausage, shredded cheese, and salsa. Wrap in large flour tortillas. Wrap each burrito in foil. Lay directly on the warm coals for 5 minutes per side to toast the tortilla. Best breakfast of the year.
Skillet Cornbread
A box of Jiffy cornbread mix, one egg, a third of a cup of milk. Mix, pour into a well-buttered cast iron skillet, cover with foil. Set on a grate over the coals, rotating the skillet every 5 minutes for even cooking. Ready in about 25 minutes when a toothpick comes out clean. Serve with butter and honey, or alongside chili. Costs about $2.50 in ingredients. Tastes like $20 in outcome.
Dutch Oven Chili
If the cabin has a Dutch oven (a lot do — ask in advance). Brown 1 lb ground beef in the Dutch oven over coals. Add one chopped onion, one bell pepper, one can each of kidney beans, black beans, and diced tomatoes. Add chili powder, cumin, salt, a can of beer. Cover. Nestle the Dutch oven into the coals with a few coals on top of the lid. Simmer 45 minutes. Serves 6. Best chili you've had in a year.
Cast Iron Apple Cobbler
Slice 4 apples (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, whatever). Toss with 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp flour. Spread in a buttered cast iron pan. Top with a yellow cake mix (dry, just dumped on top). Cut a full stick of butter into thin pats and arrange on top of the cake mix. Cover with foil. Cook over medium coals, rotating every 7 minutes, for about 40 minutes until bubbling. This is the dump cake, and it is the single most requested cabin dessert. Serves 8. Works with peaches, cherries, mixed berries.
Campfire Orange Brownies
Cut the top off an orange, scoop out the flesh (save for breakfast). Mix a boxed brownie batter. Fill each hollowed-out orange about 3/4 full with batter. Replace the top. Wrap in foil. Nest in the coals for 25–30 minutes. You've baked brownies inside oranges. The orange flavor infuses the brownie. Kids cannot believe you did this. Works with chocolate cake mix, muffin batter, anything.
The one rule of campfire cooking
Heat is easier to add than subtract. Start with a small coal bed and build up. If the heat feels too low, wait five minutes before adding more — you're probably closer than you think. If the heat is too high, something will burn before you can move it.
The fire-tender's job, during cooking, is actually the opposite of what most people think: not to make the fire bigger, but to keep the cooking zone stable. A steady bed of red-hot coals that barely changes over thirty minutes. This is the zen of campfire cooking.
Softwoods (pine, cedar) put resin into your food. You can taste it. For cooking, you want hardwood coals — oak, hickory, maple, cherry, apple, walnut. All produce clean, hot, long-lasting coals with no off-flavors. Hickory adds a subtle smoke. Oak is neutral. Cherry and apple are subtly sweet. None will ruin your food the way pine will.
A meal plan for a long weekend
Friday dinner: Bacon-wrapped jalapeños as an appetizer, Dutch oven chili, skillet cornbread.
Saturday breakfast: Breakfast burritos in the coals, coffee.
Saturday dinner: Foil-packet trout, foil-packet potatoes, cast iron apple cobbler.
Sunday breakfast: Pudgy pies (Nutella-banana; ham-cheese; apple pie filling) while packing up.
Everything on this list cooks in a fire, with gear most cabins already have. Total grocery bill: about $60 for four people for a weekend. The food will be better than most restaurant meals.
The coals that cook clean
Seasoned hardwood — oak, hickory, cherry — delivered to your cabin. The right fuel for every recipe above.
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