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Topic: Campfire Cooking

mjdb

05/9/2011 at 7:36pm
Location: Shropshire
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Hiyas, we have enjoyed our camping trips so far this year & are going to be going to the ' Hopley's ' central meet later in the year. I can imagine camp fires ...lovely food smells etc. I have got hubby to make us a bbq / fire pit ( have used at home & its great ) & wondered what everyone uses to cook in ? Do you all ( that cook on open fires ) use dutch ovens ...do you use pots & pans from your kitchen at home ....would normal pans with lids suffice ? Would enamel kitchen ware be good to use? As you can see i'v got no idea lol ...just want some advice on what is & isn't good for the job.

Thanks ...Madz.

SafariChris

05/9/2011 at 7:59pm
Location: Staffordshire
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Hi Madz,

While we use a dutch oven a lot and highly recommend them they lend themselves better to a longer more relaxed style of cooking. For cooking on an open fire even a tin can will do the job to be honest, basically you can use almost anything but i'm not sure how well enamelware will clean up afterwards.
Also steer clear of pots/pans with plastic handles for obvious reasons. If you have a local Indian or Asian supermarket, you will find really thick aluminium cookware that will do just fine and are cheap as anything, they conduct heat too well and get very hot so use oven gloves.
The best frying pans we found are mild steel pans that can be bought from "Nesbitts" catering supplies, might have spelled that wrong but a google will sort that out, but they're inexpensive and perfect for open fire cooking.

Hope it gives some ideas
Cheers
Chris

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“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money”.

valbarley

05/9/2011 at 8:11pm
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enamel pans are fine to use but they get in a bit of a mess with soot!

74giggles

05/9/2011 at 8:32pm
Location: Suffolk
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Quote: Originally posted by valbarley on 05/9/2011
enamel pans are fine to use but they get in a bit of a mess with soot!

Coat the outside with washing up liquid before you put them on the fire. Trick my old Guide captain Bootsy taught us.

Paper clip

05/9/2011 at 8:32pm
Location: north west
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I have heard that rubbing the outside of the pan with bar soap before using it over an open fire makes cleaning the outside afterward much easier. Havent tried it myself as its not necessary for the cast iron of our dutch ovens.

There have been a couple of threads lately about campfire cooking so try doing a forum search.

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good things come in cookies

mjdb

05/9/2011 at 8:42pm
Location: Shropshire
Outfit: Karsten 3m with sleeping unit Kos 6

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I have done quite a few searches for dutch ovens/ campfire cooking ...most seem to have many photos of food & recipes ...which are very useful ...but needed to know what to use to cook all those lovely things in lol.

Madz.

macjaddie

06/9/2011 at 10:56am
Location: Stratford Upon Avon
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I remember we had some kind of grid over the fire when I was in guides. We would use heavy frying pans for most things.

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Em

RAF35Y

06/9/2011 at 11:26am
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As already mentioned, to keep your pans clean soap them up first.

We used to use a bar of soap and rub it all over the outside of the pan, it still gets black but wipes off once soaked in water.

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As I've told my psychiatrist, you can't have too many tents.

Dippysuz

06/9/2011 at 12:10pm
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Good thread. Have cooked on campfires plenty in past years but never knew how to stop the sooty black yuck. OH is in the process of making a tripod & a raised firepit so next year we can put this tip into practice ourselves. Cheers !

bibsnbots

06/9/2011 at 12:32pm
Location: Blackpool
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A grid like this?

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Carley x

Aug 2011 - Brighouse Bay
Aug 2011 - Wild Rose Park
Sep 2011 - UKCS Meet Skipton
April 2012 - Charity Farm
May 2012 - Primrose Valley (Caravan)
July 2012 - Nantcols

mjdb

29/9/2011 at 8:14pm
Location: Shropshire
Outfit: Karsten 3m with sleeping unit Kos 6

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Hiyas well we have had our first attempt at cooking on the firepit with my new pan/pot. Not quite a dutch oven..after much research & looking .....& more looking i decided that the cast pans would be too heavy for me to use so bought a light weight version...well you can see in the photos. Decided to cook a joint of pork for tonights dinner, below is the result.

768

Finished off with toasted marshmallows yummies. Was a great success & felt alittle bit like camping ....just without the tent lol.

768

Can't wait now to try other stuff......BBQ tomorrow, maybe try pizza in the new pan over the fire on Saturday. No stopping me now lol.Thanks to all who gave advice.

Madz.

smashing69

30/9/2011 at 2:28am
Location: London
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Quote: Originally posted by RAF35Y on 06/9/2011

As already mentioned, to keep your pans clean soap them up first.
We used to use a bar of soap and rub it all over the outside of the pan, it still gets black but wipes off once soaked in water.

Leaving the pans blackened does make a difference with heat absorption.

I plump for a grill over the fire - can grill meat, fish and also plonk pans on there too. Not much beats the flavour of wood grilled venison (though my mate hates the taste - so just me then).

steveiem

30/9/2011 at 2:06pm
Location: Clacton on Sea . Sunshine Coast
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hi madz , i keep seeing pics of lovely roast pork all over the place ,, mmmmmmmmmmm

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Right next to the potatoes and veg ,,,

mjdb

30/9/2011 at 4:01pm
Location: Shropshire
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can you tell im rather proud of my 1st ever pork joint cooked on the fire pit lol.

It was bl**dy lovely too.

Madz.

Spamworm

30/9/2011 at 7:49pm
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Mmm, I'm hungry again now !

tonyjoyce

11/10/2011 at 5:11pm
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make a tripod and suspended the dutch oven oveer the fire .
imade one out of 3 metel road pins [ the thing that keep the netting up around rd works] i tired some wire around the top tokeep them together and boughts some chain and some s hooks from the electrical shop they use them to susped floucent lights ect. or make a tripod out 3 branches like RAY MEARS does. or buy one from dutchovens .co.uk
regards tony

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