An Honest Discussion About Campfire Cooking

One of the best parts of camping is the food. Amiright?

Of course there's the question of where to go and what to take and how long to stay and what to do, but the most important and exciting question is what are we going to eat? My personal definition for "camping" is "going to the mountains overnight to eat."

Someday I'm going to go backpacking with Scotty, and imma need to take a pack goat. For my foods. Because my foods aren't gonna be cans of tuna and MRE's.

When we went camping last week, we made a meal plan that utilized the campfire quite a bit. We ate some tried and true campfire meals. Like hot dogs and smores.

You can roast hot dogs and marshmallows with confidence. I mean, sure they mostly end up charred, but somehow it works. They're hot dogs, after all. Just slather them in jDawgs sauce, and it will hide all their flaws.  

(I will add here that when it comes to smores, I am a traditionalist. Graham crackers, mallows, Hershey's chocolate bars).

We also tried campfire cheese fries. I don't care what the People of Pinterest and the Mighty Internets say - I didn't believe the cheese fries would turn out. Scotty wanted to give them the test, though. 

Scotty and the kids gave them a thumbs up and even made another batch. I only ate one fry, so I don't feel like I can adequately assess the dish, but the one fry I ate was like unto a frozen fry from the grocery store that was baked in the oven (which is kind of what it was except... campfire). I much prefer my cheese fries deep fried, like fries are meant to be. 

For one of our dinners, we tried campfire pork nachos. 

We decided to heat the meat on our camp stove first, which was wise because the chips would've been charred if we'd left them in the coals long enough to heat the meat. Many of them were charred anyway, and they tasted like smoke. 

In my opinion, after trying it out, there's no reason for nachos to go in the fire. Yet, this idea is all over the Pinterest, and no one says, "By the way, your chips will taste the same way your hair smells after it's absorbed five minutes' worth of camp smoke." Let this be a reminder to one and all that Pinterest is chock full of lies. LIES! 

(And there was no way I was gonna fall for campfire French toast. I took one look at those photos and said, "Nope. Uh-uh. Ain't no loaf of bread comin' out of a campfire lookin' like that!" LIES!)

Our final campfire meal was one that we tried for the first time last year: breakfast burritos!

I pre-make the burritos at home (scrambled eggs, sausage, and cheese in a tortilla) and wrap them in foil. Then we just put then in the coals and turn them a few times until they are heated through. They are pretty yummy, especially since the tortilla crisps up, but they are also easy to burn. It's hard to heat them through without getting the tortilla too charred. I like to put Herdez Guacamole Salsa and sour cream on mine.

My thoughts on campfire cooking after last weekend are: some things are okay cooked over the fire, but I think most things are better NOT. Next time we camp, we'll take more advantage of our favorite Goodwill purchase: our two-burner camp stove ($25).