Camping Recipes

Don’t let Summer sneak by without trying out some of these delicious Ol’ Fashioned Camping Recipes.

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Put a pot of chili on the stove to simmer. Let it simmer. Meanwhile, broil a good steak. Eat the steak. Let the chili simmer. Ignore it.
— Allan Shivers
Camping at the Dalles, St. Louis River, T.W. Ingersoll, 1890

Camping at the Dalles, St. Louis River, T.W. Ingersoll, 1890.

Banana Boats

Ingredients

  • Banana
  • Marshmallows
  • Chocolate Chips

Split a banana lengthwise, leaving the peel on. Fill with three marshmallows and chocolate chips. Wrap in aluminum foil and set on hot coals for two minutes.

Bread on a Stick

Ingredients

  • Frozen bread dough
  • Butter or margarine
  • Garlic (optional)

Thaw some frozen bread dough (you can also make your own dough). Cut off some strips and roll into elongated segments 10-12 inches long. Cut a green stick, fairly stout; wrap the bread in a corkscrew fashion around one end, pinching the dough against the stick tightly so it’ll stay in place. Cook over coals in your firepit. Cook slowly and evenly so the bread doesn’t burn and gets cooked thoroughly. You may brush with butter and garlic if desired.

Burger Boats

Ingredients

  • ground beef
  • barbecue sauce
  • onions, finely chopped
  • potatoes, finely chopped
  • carrots, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Lay out a square of foil. Take a handful of ground beef and shape it into an oval. Make a well, or boat, in the middle. Spread about one tablespoon of barbecue sauce in the hamburger well. Add in vegetables, salt, and pepper. Wrap up and cook until the vegetables are desired tenderness.

Butter Onion Trout

Ingredients

  • fresh trout, any kind
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 small onion, sliced

Clean the fish. Leaving the fish whole, stuff the insides with butter, salt, and pepper, and as many onions as will fit. Place stuffed trout on buttered foil and wrap up. Place over the fire for 7-10 minutes. Open the foil pack, peel the skin off, and enjoy.

California Camping, 1907.

California Camping, 1907.

Campfire Blooming Onions

Ingredients

  • 4 large Vidalia onions
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Peel onions and cut each one into quarters, keeping onions together. Place one tablespoon of butter and one garlic clove in the middle of each onion. Double-wrap each onion in foil and place on hot coals. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes. Carefully remove from coals and unwrap. Season with salt and pepper, then eat. You can also serve it with a Ranch dip or hot sauce.

Campfire Corn on the Cob

Ingredients

  • 1 bag frozen corn on the cob
  • Toni’s Cajun Spices
  • butter
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Place individual ears of corn, still frozen, on a piece of heavy aluminum foil. Top with Toni’s, salt and pepper, and a pat of butter. Wrap each ear of corn with foil and twist the ends. Foil wrap will look like candy wraps. I then place the individual wraps right on an open fire, but I have placed them on the grill too. Takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

Campfire Potatoes

Ingredients

  • large baking potatoes
  • whole onions, red or yellow dill
  • parsley
  • bacon bits

Slice the potato almost all the way through, but leave enough to hold it together. Slice the onion, and put one slice in between each potato slice. Sprinkle with bacon bits and a little dill. Wrap well with heavy aluminum foil and bury in the coals of the fire. Leave untouched for about 45 minutes, and test for doneness by piercing with a fork – the fork should lift out without lifting the potato. Cooking time depends on the size of the potatoes and the strength of the fire. Serve with a pat of butter and a few sprigs of parsley.

Campfire Pot Roast

Ingredients

  • 3 pound boneless roast
  • 2 cups baby carrots
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, sliced in bitesize pieces
  • 1 cup V-8
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 large oven bag

Place roast in bag and surround with all the vegetables. Mix V-8, water, soup mix and flour, then pour over top of roast. Close bag and grill over medium fire for about 1 1/2 hours.

Chicken in a Hole

Ingredients

  • whole chicken, cleaned and gutted
  • chicken spices – your favorite
  • garlic, onion – as you like
  • cabbage leaves (optional)
  • cheesecloth (optional)
  • heavy-duty aluminum foil

Wipe the chicken. Push cloves of garlic (we’ve used up to 20 per chicken) between the skin and the flesh of the chicken. Stuff an onion into the cavity of the chicken. (We don’t like stuffing, so we use an onion – but stuffing is quite acceptable.) Sprinkle your favorite chicken spices inside and outside the chicken.

Wrap cabbage leaves around the chicken. This is optional – they help prevent the burning of the chicken skin if we forget about the meal. If you want the chicken skin to remove easily after cooking, cheesecloth wrapped around the chicken will do that. It also will help prevent the burning to a crisp of a forgotten chicken.

Wrap two or three layers of aluminum foil around the chicken and freeze it for later use at the campsite.

At the Campsite

Take out the chicken to thaw. Meanwhile, prepare the cooking hole. Dig a hole about a meter deep and about a half meter square for one chicken. If you are cooking more than one chicken at a time, then make a proportionally bigger hole. Line the walls of the hole with wood. Put hot coals in the bottom of the hole, or make a fire in the bottom of the hole. The wood along the walls should burn down to coals, leaving hot walls and a pile of hot coals at the bottom of the hole. Sprinkle dry sand lightly over the coals at the bottom of the hole.

Put in the chicken(s). Sprinkle dry sand and hot coals around the chicken. These may come from the pile of coals at the bottom of the hole or from a fire built adjacent to the hole. Cover the chicken with a light layer of dry sand. Put hot coals on top of the chicken. Put dry sand on top of these hot coals. Fill in the hole. Put a marker to indicate where the hole is (sometimes it gets lost). Go away for a game drive or other activity for about 3-4 hours. When you return, find the hole, dig up the chicken, and eat it.

Cook-Out Ice Cream

You’ll need a large coffee can, a small coffee can, your favorite homemade ice cream recipe, ice, and salt. Put all the ice cream ingredients in the small can, put the lid on, and place in the big can. Place ice and salt in between large and small cans. Put a lid on the large can. Sit in a circle or at either end of a picnic table and roll can back and forth. On particularly warm days, you’ll need to add ice frequently. Check occasionally, adding ice as needed until you see ice cream.

Grub Pile Poem Postcard

Grub Pile Poem Postcard from Legends’ General Store

Dead Dog Pie

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds of ground meat
  • 5 medium potatoes
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 large green pepper, sliced
  • 1 dash cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 pound of your favorite cheese

Cook the meat until brown. Drain the grease, add the potatoes, onion, and pepper to the pan, and cook until tender. Season the mixture with the spices, and after 2 minutes, add the cheese, stirring constantly. Serve with some hard leftover bread.  Cheese is the ingredient that makes this recipe work. Do not skimp on the cheese!

Egg Sausage Bake

Ingredients

  • 2 cans sliced potatoes
  • 1 package Brown-n-Serve sausage links
  • 1 4-ounce can of mushrooms
  • 8 eggs
  • pepper
  • seasoned salt
  • onion powder
  • 1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar or Colby

Build fire for using a tripod Dutch Oven. Spray bottom and sides of Dutch oven with non-stick cooking spray. Place sausage links in bottom of pot. Drain potatoes and layer them over the sausage. Sprinkle with pepper and seasoned salt. Whip eggs with 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon of onion powder. Add drained mushrooms to the egg mixture. Pour over potatoes and cover with cheese. Secure lid tightly, or use foil.

Place on tripod at a medium height for 35 minutes. Egg bake is done when a knife inserted comes out clean.

Pocket Wonders

Ingredients

  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Tomatoes
  • Mushrooms
  • Peppers
  • Onions
  • garlic
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive Oil
  • 1 Lemon
  • Cayenne
  • 1/4 cup beer or water

Tear off a 12″ sheet of foil and fold it back over your fist, making a “pocket.” Roll the sides in a few turns so the pocket is only open at the top, and roll a turn or two up from the bottom for extra strength. The pocket must be leak-proof and formed well enough to withstand cooking directly in the coals. If your foil is thin, you may need two layers.

Start by lining the bottom of the pocket with thin slices of lemon. This helps keep the food contents from burning and also imparts flavor to the meal. To prepare your meal, chop potatoes and carrots (cut small enough to cook all the way without overcooking everything else), tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions, green beans, etc., and stuff the pockets. For seasoning, use garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, and a dash of cayenne. Add 1/4 cup of beer or water, fold the top edges of the pocket closed, and set directly into the hot coals….it takes anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how everything’s cut. All the veggies slow roast in their own juices!

Also See:

All About Dutch Ovens

Dutch Oven Recipes

Flavors of the Mother Road

Frontier Recipes

Good Ole’ Fashioned Recipes

The Chuckwagon – Western Recipes

A Hill Of Beans – Baked Beans That Is