Any campfire cooks here?

[Parrothead]

I have an event in August that I need to feed myself during. It's a primitive camp, there's water, and that's it, and I have no idea what to bring. I need dinner and breakfast for one person. I'm trying to get a gas grill, but otherwise we have a firepit.

Help?

[Mytical]

Here are somethings I'd take (besides things like a Knife, etc). Hotdogs, marshmellows (roasting these is a tradition). Hamburgers if you have a skillet or such to protect them, else no go. Other then that *shrugs* (oh hotdog buns and toppings of your choice)

[evilprogrammer]

It's been quite a few years since my last outing, but I've cooked a fair amount in the outdoors. Even in locations without running water, you can eat well. Here are a few ideas:

Dutch Oven Cooking
I won't lie; a decent dutch oven can be fairly expensive. However, if treated well, it'll be in service for at least a decade - probably more. Make sure to get one with feet, unless you intend to take along a tripod too.

In the past, I've made various casseroles, peach cobbler, and cherry pie over the campfire using a dutch oven. If you're used to cooking in a gas or electric powered home oven, the principals are similar - except the large cast iron container gets it's heat from the outside. You'll want to burn the fire down a bit, then nestle your oven in the coals and stack extra wood around, so it will eventually burn down to coals as well.

Simpler Options
The easiest route is to forgo any pot or utensils at all, and make hobos. Make a seasoned patty of ground beef, cut up and lightly salt carrots, potatoes, or chunks of cabbage and wrap the whole thing in heavy duty foil. Make sure to fold the edges tightly, and roll to prevent leakage. Place on a bed of hot coals, and check after 20 minutes.

Of course, Wal Mart stocks Coleman grills, and your more serious outdoor shops stock the MSR "Pocket Rocket" stove (I see it online for $39. I used to have the latter, and it's worth every penny). With a good stove, a decent stock of supplies and some fairly inexpensive camp cookware you can make just about anything. In fact, except for the beautiful scenery, it's almost like you never left home.

The final option is camp rations, which have come a long way in recent years. Mountain House is the king of all dehydrated foods, so I wouldn't really look at anything else (I've tried other companies, but they always have a weird taste). All you do is add boiling water, and let it sit.

I know this probably won't satisfy all of your needs, but maybe you can concoct a few ideas from what I've posted here. Enjoy the trip!

[ArcticChicken]

I don't know any recipes, but there are several things that can be cooked by burying them in the coals at night, and they're ready for breakfast the next day.

I google some things and get back to you on that.

[csquared]

Where is all my old Boy Scout stuff when I need it...

First off, how remote is it? Are you going to have to hike stuff 10 miles in or just unload the car?

If you are hiking in, you will want to minimize what you carry. You should probably talk to the people you are going with for ideas and info.

If you are just unloading the car, then you are pretty wide open. Anything that doesn't require a microwave, freezing or baking (I actually did bake a cake once. It wasn't TOO bad. ). Get a good cooler and lots of ice.

Soup and sandwiches are the easiest. You can make the sandwiches in advance or pack the fixings. A can of Progresso (pop top. No can opener needed) can go right on the fire. Make sure you have something to pick it up with (Vice grips and grab the lip). Pour it in a mug.

Hot dogs and other sausages are also easy. On the cooking grate, pan fried or boiled is usually easier than finding a stick small enough to spear them with. Or, bring your own screwer.

Hamburgers can be a little messy if you don't make the patties in advance.

Chicken breast, steaks, pork loins are all good.

Corn on the cobb, baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, baked beans...

For breakfast:
Cereal is easy, except you have to pack the milk and keep it cool.
Donuts and pastries are easy.
Eggs, sausage, bacon are time honored traditions.
If you want pancakes, make the batter in advance. Put it in a sealed bottle. Don't fill it. Leave room so you can shake it.

DO NOT FORGET THE GRAHAM CRACKERS, MARSH MELLOWS AND CHOCOLATE BARS! S'mores are a MUST! The Gods of Camping are harsh Gods. You must appease them with burnt offerings of marsh mellows.

Don't forget your cleaning supplies. You have dishes to wash. Smear dishsoap on the outside of pans before placing them over a fire. It will make it easier to clean the soot off.

Also, talk with the other people. It will be easier to cook as a group vs cooking on your own.

[ArcticChicken]

OK, this site seems to have a few good recipes.

[Parrothead]

It's drive up and unload the car type camping. It's also for a LARP, so I'll ask around and see if we can all agree on something.

Thanks, all!

[protege]

Simpler Options
The easiest route is to forgo any pot or utensils at all, and make hobos. Make a seasoned patty of ground beef, cut up and lightly salt carrots, potatoes, or chunks of cabbage and wrap the whole thing in heavy duty foil. Make sure to fold the edges tightly, and roll to prevent leakage. Place on a bed of hot coals, and check after 20 minutes.

Foil packs are awesome! Simple to make, and you don't really have to do much. Throw in the ingredients in foil, wrap them up, and put the pack on the coals. My troop usually did that on canoe trips...since we didn't want to carry utensils. We'd put the packs in the fire about 20-30 minutes, usually flipping them over halfway through.

Except for canoeing most of our camping was done with an easy walk to vehicles. The sky was the limit, in other words. Most of what we'd make, was very similar to what you'd find in a kitchen. The exception, was Philmont. Because much of the camp is remote, many food items are dehydrated, but can easily be cooked over a fire. Provided, that you're not at a dry camp

[fireheart]

A tip on the fire front:

if you dig out a fire pit, put the "sheets" of grass to one side. When it's time to leave, you just put them down and walk all over them to cement them down. Generally it means you're more likely to be allowed to use said site next year

[Barracuda]

You can actually build a "stovetop" out of rocks. To do so, set two decent sized, flat topped rocks either side of the campfire. Find a long slab of shale or similar long, thin, flat rock. Place the long thin rock over the firepit, supported by the rocks on either side. Build the fire underneath and use the rock as a stovetop. You can place pots or pans on it like a regular stovetop, although you will have to get the fire hot! Another option is to simply buy MREs, or get a metal tripod capable of supporting a free swinging pot or metal grill on chains above the fire. You also might see if you can get a "spider", or old fashioned pan designed for cooking above a fire (it has metal legs attached to stand it directly above the fire.) As for recipes, you can do creek fries in foil packets...sliced potatoes (any kind works, russets, baby reds or Yukon Golds,) sliced raw bacon, diced onions (and peppers if you like) with salt, pepper and butter. Make sure your ingredients are cut to bite size pieces so they cook faster. Simply place on the hot coals as was indicated above, and it will cook right in the fire. Instead of bacon, you can use sliced hot dogs or kielbasa instead. Makes a great breakfast.

[kpzra]

For breakfast I've scrambled eggs before we left, wrapped them up in foil with hash browns/sliced cooked potato on the bottom, pre-cooked sausage (don't eat bacon/pork) eggs then cheese on top. Everything just needs to heat through so it's quick and easy. You can also throw a tortilla in there is you want a breakfast burrito.

I bring my cast iron cooking set for the fire and a stove so I can make regular food if iI want. We also camp for ~2 weeks at a time though.

[42_42_42]

Instant oatmeal makes a good camping breakfast along with some fresh fruit as all you need is to add hot water.

Beans and rice are also easy to fix over a fire as, again, all you need is water (oh, and a pot).

We used to make these things called "hobo dinners" when I was a Girl Scout, although I doubt any hobos out there actually eat this well. Basically it was a hamburger patty with onions, green beans, sliced potato, and sliced carrot all wrapped up in foil and baked in the coals of the fire. Pretty decent, really.

If you have a good cast iron dutch oven, you can fix just about anything, soups and stews and even chili. You put the oven in the hot coals and put more on the lid. You can bake corn bread and biscuits this way, too.

Oh, and don't forget the smores!

[crazyofficeclerk]

Make the smores with peanut buttercups instead of chocolate bars.

[bhskittykatt]

If you have a skillet, then pancakes are easy to make. We always did pancakes, eggs, and sausage and/or bacon.

Dinner was often hot dogs, since that's what stores liked to donate to our Girl Scout troop. We used to do this thing where we'd wrap a hot dog in dough and cook it over the fire...unfortunately I've lost the recipe for the dough, but I bet you could do it with a simple Bisquick biscuit dough...I will have to experiment a bit with this now. We've also done various soups and tacos. One of my first camping meals was "fractured tacos", which was basically a taco salad where we lined a bowl with broken tortilla chips and put the filling on top.

For s'mores, I recommend using cinnamon graham crackers rather than regular. They are fantastic. I also recently read that vanilla-bean-marshmallows are an actual thing. I have yet to see these mythical marshmallows in person, but they sound divine and I hear they are fantastic on s'mores as well!

[Geek King]

There uses to be canned bacon available that could travel without being kept cold. though you have to cook it all when opened. Also, I highly recommend the foil pouches, but you can also look up one-pot meals on the web. All you need is one pot (natch!) and a good spoon. Also, you might look into a campfire sandwich maker like this. Tasty goodness can be had from recipies on the web. My favorite was always buttered white bread with pie filling roasted over the fire.

Also, if you'll be staying overnight, take some thin rope and a sack to make a bear bag. You put all food in it, opened or not, and hang it 12-15' up from a tree limb. You also have to hang it a few feet below the tree limb to keep raccooons, squirrels, and other agile critters out of it. Hang it away from the campsite some so you don't have frustrated critters too near you.