Robin's Outdoors

Cooking over a campfire has the same effect as having someone else cook a meal for you – the food tastes better. That little bit of change is nice. The combination of cast iron, wood smoke in the air and the great outdoors naturally go together.

Photo courtesy of Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

Everyone can learn to cook on a campfire. Start simple and add new dishes as you get comfortable. Can’t build a campfire in your yard at home? That’s ok! You can cook in your driveway using charcoal briquettes.

Hints & Tips

You can duplicate the oven temperature called for in recipes by using the proper number of charcoal briquettes on top of and beneath your Dutch oven. Each briquette adds 15* to 25* of heat. If the breeze is blowing you’ll need a few extra briquettes.

It’s better to cook with lower heat for a longer time than to use too much heat and burn your food.

This chart gives you the number of briquettes needed on top and under the Dutch oven to hold the temperature for approximately an hour. Warm/hot days will extend the time, cool/windy days will decrease the time.

Have hot briquettes ready to add at the right time if necessary, or add cold self-igniting briquettes to the hot briquettes at the 45 minute mark.

Baking the frittata on charcoal.

This chart includes temperatures and methods for using charcoal with a Dutch oven.

For roasting, use half on bottom, half on top.

For stewing, use one-quarter on bottom, three-quarters on top.

For boiling, all heat on bottom.

8” Dutch oven

350* – 10 on top, 6 on bottom
375* – 11 on top, 6 on bottom
400* – 12 on top, 6 on bottom
450* – 14 on top, 6 on bottom

10″ DUTCH OVEN:

350* – 14 on top, 7 on bottom
375* – 16 on top, 7 on bottom
400* – 17 on top, 8 on bottom
450* – 19 on top, 10 on bottom

12″ DUTCH OVEN:

350* – 17 on top, 8 on bottom
375* – 18 on top, 9 on bottom
400* – 19 on top, 10 on bottom
450* – 22 on top, 11 on bottom

Moist meals are usually the easiest for beginners. Before you bake bread in your Dutch oven, try a soup, stew or chili.

Hot coals are easier to cook over than an open flame.

Choose Dutch ovens with legs. They’re stackable. Legs allow air flow below the oven so that the coals don’t suffocate.

When cooking over an open flame, use a grate supported on rocks or bricks, or a tripod. The tripod allows the pot to hang over the flames.

Unless you’re searing or sauteing, start with a cold pan or oven. Food is less likely to stick and will warm up evenly.

When stacking, put the meal that needs the least heat on the bottom. Desserts are usually fine cooking longer at lower heat. Use your center oven for roasts. Place soups and stews that can take extra heat without burning on top. Get used to cooking with one oven, and then add a second. Got that figured out? Add a third. If necessary, move your ovens around half way through.  I add two or three extra briquettes or coals to the top of an oven before adding the next oven. It takes extra heat to warm the cool cast iron before cooking starts.

For messy meals like sticky desserts or breads that might not lift out well, line the oven with foil. Use one large sheet of foil so that liquids don’t get lost between the foil and cast iron.

Flip the lid over and you have a skillet.

Use heavy duty foil for foil packs.

If you don’t have a gravel driveway or safe ground surface for charcoal briquettes, burn the briquettes on an old cookie sheet. Raise the cookie sheet up on bricks to avoid charring wood or leaving marks on concrete. Convenient, and cleanup is easy.

Want to grill but don’t have a frame? Build a stone frame that is narrower than your grill. Build the fire inside the stones. When the coals are ready, place your grill on the rocks. No need to carry extra equipment when nature will provide it for you. I prefer perking coffee on the grill so that I don’t let it boil over and put out coals.

SAFETY:  If the wind is blowing enough to blow a spark, get out the Coleman stove.

Easy Fruit Cake

2 cans of sliced fruit with juice
1 cake mix, your choice of flavors

To ease cleanup, line the Dutch oven with foil.

Pour both cans of fruit and all of the juice into a cold 10” to 12” Dutch oven. Evenly pour the dry cake mix over the fruit. Smooth out, pushing a little more cake mix to the edges than the middle for even cooking.

Place the lid on the oven, the oven on the coals, more coals on top, and bake for 30-45 minutes.

Vegetable, Beef & Barley Soup

Choose and prepare your vegetables. Solid vegetables such as carrots should be cut into bite sized pieces to ensure thorough cooking.

Brown beef in a hot Dutch oven. Drain the fat. Be sure to put the fat in a safe place to avoid attracting bears and other wildlife. If you’re using lean meat like venison or moose, there’s no need to brown first. Cooking the meat with the other ingredients helps add flavor you’d lose to browning.

Mix ingredients the same as when you’re cooking on the stove at home. Preparation is the same; the cooking method is the only difference.