Admittingly, it’s challenging to have a successful meal every try, because cooking over a campfire requires a lot of experimentation–it’s not an exact science because you aren’t dealing with exact temperatures. You’re going to burn some food, and your tinfoil dinner might turn out a little bland. With some practice, you’ll be a master in no time, and everyone will want to tag along with your camping group if you’re the one cooking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gather Materials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Before you can start cooking over a campfire (or over coals), you need the proper gear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Fuel (wood or charcoal)<\/li>
- Cookware (pots or pans)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The first thing you need to decide is which fuel (wood or charcoal) you are going to cook with. <\/strong>The fuel you choose will impact how your cooking will go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I highly recommend reading this section of the article<\/strong>, down below<\/a>, so you can decide if you want to cook with charcoal or wood.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which Type of Pot or Pan is Best For Cooking Over a Campfire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Most pots or pans you use in your kitchen will work over a campfire<\/strong>, but you may run into issues. Some pots and pans are not suited to very high temperatures or will get scorch marks if you use them in a fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cast iron is the most ideal for car camping <\/strong>(camping in sight of your car), but there are other options for campers who are in the wilderness where you can’t bring your heavy cast iron pots and pans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, we’ve gone car camping with old scratched Teflon pans and they worked alright. Use what you have, preferably something you don’t mind ruining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to learn more about what types of pots and pans are suited for camping<\/strong> as well as comparisons between different materials, check out my post here<\/a> where I wrote more about his subject in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to Cook Over a Wood Fire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Enough talk, let’s go through the steps on how to cook over a campfire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 1: Build Your Fire The Right Way<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Before you can cook with your fire, you have to build your fire. This may seem obvious, but the type of wood <\/strong>matters, as well as the wood arrangement you are using to start your fire. Different wood arrangements make the wood more or less dense, and thus creating different amounts of airflow. Since wood needs air to burn, this can impact how your fire goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Type of Wood Is Best for Cooking Campfires?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
When it comes down to it, you can get any wood to work. The most important aspect of wood relating to starting a fire is whether it is dry or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, softwoods (trees that are generally less dense) burn faster than hardwoods (trees that are generally denser). This makes sense because softwoods have more oxygen and other gasses within the wood than do hardwoods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you only<\/em> build your fire with softwood, your fire will flare up quickly and intensely, and then die out. Therefore, if you only have softwood, then you need to bring more of it (volume) to make sure you do not exhaust your fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you only<\/em> build your fire with hardwood, you’ll find that it will take longer for your wood to ignite, which can be a real killjoy for your dinner plans if everyone is waiting for you to start the fire. The upside is, that when your fire is going, hardwoods will burn slower, meaning you will not have to replace the wood as often. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ideal is to use a combination of softwood and hardwood. Softwood to start the fire, and hardwood to keep the fire going.<\/strong> This isn’t always possible, so just be prepared to have plenty of wood if you have softwood, and lots of good tinder and kindling if you are using hardwood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember, hardwood and softwood has a technical definition, and it doesn’t always mean that the trees are literally softer or harder. Generally, that is the case, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Examples of hardwoods: cherry, oak, alder, birch, walnut, maple, mesquite<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Example of softwoods: cedar, most fir trees (pine, spruce, etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, some trees when smoked leave a pungent and intense flavor behind in the food. Mesquite or Hickory trees, for example, have a strong scent when burned, which may make your meal taste amazing! Or not, depending on what you’re cooking. Because you aren’t smoking your food, though, it’s not going to be as intense of a taste as it would in a BBQ smoker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which Wood Arrangement Works Best<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
An easy fire configuration to make and use for cooking is the log cabin arrangement. Here’s an example:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t![\"log-cabin-fire-arrangement-with-sets-of-two-parallel-logs-stacked-perpendicularly-for-3-layers](\"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/campfire-log-cabin-1024x768.jpg\")
The “log cabin” fire arrangement. I admit, when I built this fire, I was pretty proud of how beautiful it looked.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\n There are undoubtedly hundreds of ways to start a fire. The end goal is to create a flame, and so the means to get there isn’t as crucial. When you’re cooking over a campfire, though, the type of wood arrangement can make a huge difference in convenience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this depends on what you are trying to cook, as well. If you are just trying to boil water then you want to get your pot or pan to the hottest spot in the fire and you don’t have to worry about burning your food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are trying to cook a meal, such as stir fry vegetables, you don’t necessarily want to cook on the hottest part of the fire, but instead, want to cook over the coals of your wood fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Campfire-Cooking-Guide-1-512x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\nA couple of fast-starting fires are not great for cooking over but do create coals that you can pull away from the main fire so you can use them to cook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The teepee<\/strong> fire<\/strong> is essentially made up of sticks propping each other up, with tinder and kindling in the center of the teepee shape, and the larger sticks on the outside. The teepee fire brings up flames very quickly because of the good airflow design. You’re going to have to scoot the coals away from the teepee to cook with since you can’t rest a pan effectively on the teepee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lean-to fire<\/strong> is another fire ignition where a large log on one side has sticks under it forming a base and sticks lying on top of the large log. The large log acts as a funnel for the wind making the fire ignite very quickly. This design is not for cooking directly on, but can be easily modified to turn into a log-cabin fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The log cabin fire<\/strong> is essentially made up of perpendicularly stacked logs arranged 2 by 2 and is ignited from below. This can easily be made into a surface made for cooking, but coals may not come as quickly from a log cabin fire. To me, this is an easy and straightforward option for cooking over a fire, as it’s easy to make a platform to cook on.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The platform fire <\/strong>(also known as an upside-down fire, or a pyramid fire) is ignited from the top, and the logs are placed closely together. This provides a huge amount of heat over a long period of time. Because of its design, it is a natural platform and can be used as a heating surface directly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A trench fire<\/strong>. Trench fires are basically made up from a small trench that slopes gradually so that one side of the trench is less shallow than the other. This allows for a long fire, which supports multiple pots and pans, and allows for varying heat. The coals can be shoved to the shallow end and the fire can be in the deep end (or vice versa, depending on your needs) so that different foods can utilize both ends of the trench at the same time. Teepee fires or lean-to fires will work great for being the fuel for this type of cooking fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Ignite Your Fire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Phew! After all that work putting together your fire, you finally can light it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tips For Starting a Fire<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
So… in all reality, sometimes lighting your fire is no joke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember the size of your wood counts immeasurably, and it helps to know their names: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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