Tips for cooking over a campfire

Food just tastes better cooked over the campfire, don’t you agree? If you haven’t cooked over a fire before, or haven’t had much success in the past, here are our tips, tricks and meal ideas.

Choose the right tools

Cookware. Cast iron cookware is best for cooking over an open flame, standing up to the heat and producing crispy, delicious food. A grill, a skillet and a Dutch oven cover almost everything. Once seasoned, cast iron cleans up with a damp cloth.

Utensils. Metal grill tools and tongs — plastic and rubber melt. Grill gloves save your hands on a hot cast iron handle.

Cooking surface. A grill grate gives you somewhere stable to work. Some fire pits have one built in; portable folding versions are easy to find.

Campfire cooking tips

Build the fire early. Allow at least 30 minutes to an hour before you want to start cooking, so the flames die down and you have coals.

Turn things often. Campfire heat is uneven, so food needs turning and watching. Feed the fire gradually to keep the temperature under control.

Use foil. Vegetables and meat seasoned with oil, wrapped in foil and set in the coals or on the grate is the easiest campfire meal there is.

What to cook

Seven things worth roasting on a stick that aren’t marshmallows; recipes that adapt to a campfire or a grill, from guacamole to eclairs; and foil-packet dinners with big flavour and almost no cleanup. See also Skillet Camping Recipe Favourites.