Always remember to be safe when using a campfire and put your campfire OUT when you are done.Remember that uncooked food will look like a lot, but will lose about a third its volume in the cooking process.

Use plenty of “sauce” to keep moisture in the stew to prevent scalding.Use a quiet cooking fire (if fire conditions permit).Slice potatoes and things that take longer to cook thinly.Double wrap with heavy-duty aluminum foil.You can eat it right from the foil!ĭeliciously cooked Campfire Stew using pork, yams, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and lemon. When it is done, pull the packet out of the coals, set it on a plate, and carefully (hot!!) unwrap the packets to open up the stew. If it needs more time, simply re-wrap the packet and put it back in the fire. When you think it is done, you can take the packet out of the fire (careful so you don’t poke a hole in it) and unwrap a corner to check the doneness of your stew. Using tongs or sticks (to keep kids a safe distance from the fire), the packet are placed carefully in the coals, keeping in mind that if the foil gets poked the sauce will leak out and your dinner will burn.Īfter 10-15 minutes (thicker packets will take longer), you can flip the packet to cook on the other side for 10-15 minutes. A second layer of foil is used, placing the folded seam of the first foil packet in the middle and folding opposite to make the seam of the second packet on the other side to further prevent leaks and spills. Once the ingredients are added, the foil is carefully folded over to completely enclose the meal. Tomato sauce went over the top to provide moisture to create the stew. Things that need to cook more go toward the bottom and outside, things that just needed to be heated up go on the inside. We would line a bowl with the foil, using the depression of the bowl to create a pocket for the ingredients. Mom would have everything cut up and ready to go for us, and we could put in whatever we wanted. The trick is to dice the potatoes small enough that they cook through. In our family, the traditional campfire stew ingredients included ground beef, diced potatoes, onions, peppers, corn, carrots, mushrooms, and tomato sauce. The key is to use heavy-duty aluminum foil and to include enough moisture in each packet to prevent burning or scalding while it cooks. If campfires are not permitted due to fire restrictions, you can also cook them over fire pits, propane grills, or even in the oven at about 350F. You want to use what my dad would call a “quiet fire” – one that has been going long enough to have some good glowing coals, but not a raging inferno with tall flames. The basics involve creating individual meals that are wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked slowly over hot coals. With a little prep time, a campfire stew can be a fun way to spend time together no matter what age you are. Plus, we got to be in charge of cooking our own dinner right on the campfire whether it was burned and dry, not cooked fully, or perfection was our own discovery! As it turns out, there are nearly unlimited options of variations on this fun family-friendly way to cook a meal. It was an easy way to get us kids involved in meals and gave us the glorious ability to choose what (and how much) of each ingredient to include in our dinner. Gather Around the Campfire for Meals Anyone Can MakeĬampfire stew (also known as Hobo Stew, Scout Stew, or Foil Packet Stew) is one of my favorite childhood camping meal memories.

Pocket campfire recipes