Campfire cuisine

Outdoor enthusiasts needn't sacrifice variety when cooking over open flame

** FOR USE WITH AP LIFESTYLES ** Sticky Chicken, shown in this June 12, 2007 photo, is an easy campfire meal. Its peanut butter and cayenne based coating gives the chicken a memorable flavor. (AP Photo/Larry Crowe)

Cooking on a campfire.

Marilyn Rohrer once prepared an entire traditional Thanksgiving dinner at a campsite, complete with turkey, dressing and pie.

So she has some experience when she says: “I’m a firm believer there’s absolutely nothing you can’t do on a campfire. It’s just finding a way to do it.”

Rohrer is a Topeka resident who teaches cooking classes to Girl Scouts in northeast Kansas, including Lawrence. She says a weekend trip to the lake doesn’t mean your taste buds have to make a sacrifice, or that you just have to eat hot dogs cooked on sticks.

“We always like to encourage (Girls Scouts) to try new things, and to experiment, and to improvise,” Rohrer says.

She divides camping foods into four general categories:

¢ One-pot meals

These are multi-ingredient meals that are all cooked together, usually in a big aluminum pot.

One of Rohrer’s favorites is squaw corn. It’s a hamburger-based meal that also has tomato sauce, green pepper, onion and a can of corn. Or you can add spaghetti to end up with what she calls campfire spaghetti.

¢ Foil packets

Long a staple of the campfire, foil packets are meat and vegetables cooked inside aluminum foil.

She suggests chicken, hamburger or pork, with potatoes and carrots sliced. You might have to cook the potatoes and carrots a little longer than the meat, to make sure they are done all the way through.

Rohrer offers this tip: Line the inside of the foil with cabbage leaves. If the foil gets too hot, the cabbage – and not your meat and vegetables – will burn.

¢ Cooking in skillets

Rohrer says skillets are especially good on the last day of a campout. You can throw all your extra ingredients into one pan with some eggs and end up with a great omelet.

¢ Cooking in Dutch ovens or box oven

Dutch ovens can serve as a griddle, cooking pot or oven.

The box oven is a makeshift version, made from a heavy-duty cardboard box. The inside is lined with foil, and wire strips are put across it to put food on. Underneath, a pan of charcoal is lit to provide the heat. That option is especially good for cooking pizzas.

“I haven’t found anything (that’s impossible),” Rohrer says. “But then again, I’m not doing gourmet cooking. It’s pretty basic.”

Learn your foods

Don Jacobson, author of “The One Pan Gourmet,” says camping stoves offer another option. Single-burner stoves can weigh less than a pound. Most run on white gas (sometimes called camp fuel) or butane and can handle anything from pasta to stir-fry to stew.

The menu will depend, in part, on the type of camping you plan to do. Staying put at a state park allows you to lug more and heavier gear (including coolers) and food than a backcountry trek from tent site to tent site.

Emily Mitchell, an education program coordinator for the Appalachian Mountain Club, says learning which foods pack and keep well under camping conditions is essential – as is learning the correct order in which to eat them.

Fresh peppers and spinach, for example, are delicate and should be eaten early in the trip. Hard cheese, carrots and potatoes will keep longer and can be saved for later.

She also suggests foods that do double-duty, such as pita bread. Mitchell says pita rounds can be used for both sandwiches and pizza dough.

For longer trips, freeze-dried foods are a must, though Jacobson admits they’re not the ideal menu.

“There is an absolute reason for freeze-dried meals to exist,” he says. “They are called day four, day five and day six.”

‘Wonderful experience’

Other suggestions from Mitchell and Jacobson:

¢ Take only what you need for each menu, which means transferring spices and oils into smaller containers. Also, use restaurant-style condiment packets.

¢ If ingredients can be mixed ahead at home, do it. Soups, for example, could be made in zip-close plastic bags and frozen.

¢ Use dried salad mixes to spice up a lot of different foods and weigh almost nothing.

¢ If you have a sweet tooth, bake some simple desserts at home, wrap them well in plastic wrap and freeze. They’ll satisfy your cravings and keep other foods cold.

The bottom line, Jacobson says, is food standards shouldn’t have to lower just because you’re heading out for the weekend.

“Why are we going out in the first place? Because it’s better than being at home,” Jacobson says. “Why would you take that wonderful experience and ruin it by having a bad meal?”