Tips and recipes serve up tasty campfire meals

Few things can turn a great camping trip sour faster than lousy campfire meals.

And there’s no need to rely on “just add water” dehydrated packets, or slack off by heating a can of beef stew over the fire. It’s possible to cook out, use “real” ingredients and have a feast under the stars.

Over the campfire

Lisa Sanchez has organized innumerable cookouts, campfires and outdoor meals. A naturalist with the Lancaster County Department of Parks & Recreation, Sanchez says there’s a lot to be said for “just relaxing at a campsite and having a fire going. You don’t always have to be ‘doing something’ when you’re camping.”

But what it is helpful to do, she says, is plan ahead. Don’t think you’re going to set up camp at 5 p.m., build your campfire and eat at 5:30.

Here’s her process:

— It’s a common misconception that cooking over a campfire means big flames. Instead, you’ll need lots of hot coals, and that means having the wood fire burning “long enough to burn down to a good bed of coals. You’d better make sure you have several hours, and start ahead.”

— Use the right kind of wood. Some soft woods will turn right to ash — not what you need for cooking. Hardwoods go to coals before ash, Sanchez says. Use those.

— Build a fire ring out of rocks to contain the fire. Stack the kindling, start the fire and slowly add ever-larger pieces of wood. The idea is not to use up all the wood in a bonfire that will quickly flame out, but to create that nice, glowing base.

— When you have a good supply of coals, move them to one side and use that as a base where you can nestle a Dutch oven or foil-wrapped packets of food. A separate cooking area, with coals and, at most, a low flame, is a good place for an elevated grate where you can boil water or grill.

— And be patient, Sanchez advises — not only when getting your fire to the right stage, but also with learning how to cook over a campfire.

“There’s a little bit of a learning curve, just like if you were going from electric to gas to flat-top” stove, she says. “The more you do it, the more you can gauge temperature and time. ... Wood, wind, it all affects how the fire burns.”

When it comes to the actual cooking tools, Sanchez often depends on aluminum foil or a cast-iron Dutch oven.

One of the easiest food-prep methods is the “hobo pack,” a sealed foil packet that holds all the ingredients together for cooking over the campfire. “Be cautious with (ingredients) like chicken,” Sanchez warns. Dice it into small pieces to help ensure it cooks thoroughly.

Try wrapping an apple in foil, she suggests, and cooking it among the coals for about 15 minutes. Add a little chocolate, maple syrup or butter.

Cast iron, meanwhile, is good for baking, and for long, slow cooks over the fire.

“Just something as simple as a pot of chili over the fire all day,” Sanchez says, doesn’t take constant tending and gets better the longer it cooks.

And there’s always the technique of using no special equipment at all.

Try cooking in an orange rind. It’s perfect for backpackers, because there’s no equipment to carry. Carefully peel an orange so the rind remains as whole as possible, and then add the food — cupcake batter works great, Sanchez says, and you’ll get a little boost of citrus flavoring. Carefully place in the midst of coals.

“And in the middle of summer,” she says, “there’s nothing better than cooking corn on the cob over a bed of coals.”

Don’t husk the corn first. Instead, soak the corn inside its husk in water for about an hour or two, then place on the campfire or the grill over coals. Turn occasionally to prevent burning, and it’ll be done in 20 or 30 minutes.

A camping weekend

On a recent soggy weekend, Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 56 in Strasburg were busy over a fire at Susquehannock State Park in Drumore. They were introducing boys from Cub Scout Packs 19 and 286 to the joys of camping, and, even if everything was slightly damp and muddy, they were sure of one thing:

They still would eat well.

“Almost anything you can cook at home, you can cook camping,” says Richard Thompson, a leader with Troop 56.

Of course, there are some adjustments to be made.

The troop used charcoal on its recent outing, setting up a bed of coals on an elevated cooking table as well as rigging up a long campfire pit out of metal barrel halves.

As with wood, says Eagle Scout Caleb Bruner, 17, the idea is to pile up the charcoal, light it and then, when it has turned into coals, spread them out to create a bed of heat.

Manning the campfire pit with fellow Scout Mitchell Livengood, Bruner rested foil-covered grates over the pit to heat up for hamburgers. The foil, they pointed out, provided a flat, hot surface and kept burger grease from dripping down on the hot coals.

At the cooking table, Thompson oversaw a routine of Dutch oven cooking, placing coals on the cast-iron lids to surround the food with heat, and rotating both pot and lid at regular intervals to even out the temperatures.

With a little practice, Thompson says, campfire cooks can learn to gauge how hot the cooking surface is by how long they can hold their hand next to the heat. (For one chart, visit bit.ly/CampfireHeat.)

That makes dishes like pineapple upside-down cake or Troop 56 favorite shepherd’s pie possible (see recipe below).

Camping breakfasts, Troop 56 Scouts advised, should be simple.

“Who hash,” 14-year-old Logan Thompson recommends. “Eggs and whatever vegetables you have. Spam sometimes, or bacon, all in one pot or pan.”

“Or, if we’re feeling lazy and no one wants to do KP duty, we’ll make tortilla cones and put the eggs inside,” Kyler Guisbert says. “No dishes; nothing to have to wash.”

Other camp meal recommendations: bacon burgers (“though we once had a grease fire by accident,” one Scout cautions), sausage gravy and biscuits and spaghetti.

Troop 56 tips for campfire cooking success:

— A Dutch oven for cooking outdoors is supported by short metal legs, and its lid is flat and rimmed, to hold coals. If you find a Dutch oven without legs, it’s meant for indoor cooking.

— Prep as much as you can beforehand. If you’re making biscuits, for instance, don’t bring the whole bag of flour. Just measure out all your dry ingredients into a single container.

— If you’re going to be cooking meat, make sure your cooler is keeping it cold enough beforehand.

— Don’t go straight from working on the campfire to handling raw food. Clean your hands.

— Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning is a never-fail staple for doctoring up your campfire meals.