The 10 Commandments of Campfire Cooking

I was over at Outdoor Life and they had an article called the The 10 Commandments of Campfire Cooking It is a nice easy list but I figured the members here would have other helpful hints and tips to add to the list. Hoping our experienced members will have other knowledge to share.

1. Your fire should be producing flames to boil and fry foods
2. A bed of coals are needed to roast, bake, and broil food
3. Food is much less likely to burn at gradually decreasing temperatures
4. Food is much more likely to burn if temperatures are increasing
5. Most hard woods are good fire woods, but there are a few that burn poorly
6. A bed of hard wood coals will keep a fire burning steadily
7. Learn which foods have parasites, and which foods need to be cooked until well-done.
8. Split wood burns better than whole chunks.
9. Bark is not usually very flammable, remove it before burning.
10. Never walk away from food cooking over an open fire!
Borrowed from- The 10 Commandments of Campfire Cooking


Any others we should add to the list?

 

When broiling or grilling, avoid pine, fir, walnut and other toxic woods.

 

Anyone know the hard woods that burn poorly?

 

11. Don't sit in the smoke.

 

One that comes to mind is cottonwood.

 

A guide to which wood burns best in your wood burning stove

 

12. Always soap your cookware, make cleanup a breeze.

 

• Clear any flammable material 2 metres around the fire....no need to start a wildfire with your camp fire.
• Don't use river rock to build a fireplace....saturated river rock will turn the trapped water to steam and may cause the rock to explode.
• Keep enough tinder and kindling set aside to start the next fire.

 

All to often I see people showing off their fire making skills with out clearing the area.
Please folks, be smarter then your teachers, and clear the area and realize to that fires can even continue under ground and smolder for months and start wild land fires.
If your going to make fires, have the responsibility to know how to use the equipment to put them out as well.

 

Very true, I always thought that freezing resulted in the most breaking of the rock, resulting in breaking down of the rock into soil.
Until we had a wild fire roar thru here, more broken rocks than you can imagine.

Rancher

 

I think they forgot one

have pleanty of wood on hand =)

 

Ahh - my old motto...

If its smoking, it's cooking. When its black, it's done....

 

I always sit in the smoke a bit to help keep the skeeters away.

 

We camp a lot and we like to eat when camping.

My favorite type fire for cooking and a campfire is the keyhole fire. In the round part is a regular campfire; coals are scraped into the rectangular area for cooking. A keyhole fire works great for grilling, dutch ovens etc.


Did a search:
http://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/2012-05-19_18-37-12_208-jpg.105170/

 

Good posts all.

arleigh makes a good point:Root fires can be disastrous.

A lot of people do Dakota pit fires without stopping to think that it's a fire most often used in the plains States, where tree roots aren't a problem.

If flat rocks aren't available, sifting a few inches of loose dirt on your fireplace can do wonders for insulating any underlying vegetation. Even a very small root can do a slow burn.

And just about the only places you can safely bury live coals is in a sand desert, on the beach, and (maybe) out where the buffalo roam.

 

Bring an ax, and know how to use it.

Be sure you have something you can cook in, that doesn't require a grill or tripod to cook over.

 

Axes are seriously good stuff; I have 2 singles and double bit. However, for splitting 2-2.5' diameter oak; I use a 6 or 8 pound maul and a couple of wedges.

 

I shouldn't even have to say this...but cooking on a fire or anything else makes your cook pot/cup/pan HOT! Another good reason why gloves should always be part of your kit.