Camp Skills
Campfire cooking
Cooking over fire is a heat-management skill, not a recipe skill. Learn to read coals and build zones and everything from eggs to cobbler becomes straightforward — here are the numbers, the methods and the meals.
Rule one
You cook on coals, not on flames
Flame is unpredictable, sooty and hotter on the outside of food than it is useful. Coals radiate steady, controllable heat. Everything below assumes a deep, grey-coated ember bed.
2 seconds — high heat
Palm five inches above the bed. Pull it away inside two seconds and you have searing heat: steaks, burgers, smash sandwiches, anything that wants a crust.
4–5 seconds — medium
The workhorse zone. Cast iron cooking, sausages, bone-in chicken, pancakes, anything that has to cook through without burning.
6–8 seconds — medium-low
Foil packets, fish, delicate veg and simmering. Most people cook everything too hot and end up here only by accident.
8+ seconds — low
Holding food warm, long braises, cobblers and bread in a Dutch oven that needs 40 minutes without scorching.
Grey ash on top = ready
Coals should glow orange under a light grey coat. Black chunks aren't ready yet; a bed that's gone white and powdery is spent and fading fast.
Flames are for warmth, not food
Open flame gives you soot, burnt outsides and raw middles. Wait for the coals — it is the single biggest upgrade to camp food.
The hand test is the only thermometer that never breaks
Interactive
Heat-zone planner
Tell it what's for dinner and it lays out how to rake the bed before you start cooking.
What are you cooking tonight?
Family night — several things at once
- 1Three zones left to right: hot pile, medium single layer, ash-only warming shelf.
- 2Grate over the hot and medium zones only.
- 3Packets and roasting potatoes go in the ash margin at the back.
Cook in order of finishing time: potatoes first, then protein, then anything that takes five minutes.
Six methods
Ways to cook over a fire
Direct on the grate
Grate over the bed, food straight on. Best for burgers, steaks, sausages and veg. Needs hot, even coals and your full attention for the whole cook.
Cast iron on coals
Skillet or griddle set into a raked-flat bed. The most versatile method at camp — eggs, hash, fajitas, cornbread, pan sauces, all of it.
Foil packets
Sealed packets at the coal edge. Nearly foolproof, no dishes, ideal for veg, fish and potatoes. Heavy-duty foil, double-wrapped, seam up.
Dutch oven
Coals below and on the lid turns a pot into a real oven. Chilli, cobbler, bread, braises — the method that makes camp food feel like a kitchen.
Stick and skewer
Sausages, kebabs, s'mores and twist bread on green sticks. Fast and fun, but needs a flame-free bed or everything chars before it cooks.
Ash roasting
Whole potatoes, onions, sweetcorn and squash pushed straight into the ash with a few coals raked on top. Zero equipment, genuinely excellent.
Interactive
Dutch oven coal calculator
Coal counts for any oven size, temperature and cooking style — the difference between camp bread and camp charcoal.
On the lid
16
briquettes
Underneath
8
briquettes
Total
24
light a few spare
Based on the 3-up / 3-down rule with a ±2 coal adjustment per 25°F, then split by cooking style. Rotate the oven a third of a turn one way and the lid a third the other way every 15 minutes, and expect briquettes to fade after 45 minutes.
Reference
Timing and heat chart
Times are for a settled bed at the stated heat. Always confirm with a thermometer rather than the clock.
| Food | Heat | Time | Doneness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burgers (¾in) | High, direct | 4–5 min per side | 160°F internal |
| Steak (1in) | High, direct | 4–6 min per side | 130–135°F for medium-rare, rest 5 min |
| Sausages | Medium, direct | 12–15 min, turning | 165°F, prick nothing — you lose the fat |
| Chicken thighs, bone-in | Medium, lid on | 25–35 min | 175°F reads best on thighs |
| Fish fillet, foil | Medium-low, coal edge | 15–20 min | Flakes at the thickest point |
| Eggs / pancakes | Medium-low, cast iron | 3–6 min | Pan must be preheated and greased |
| Potatoes, foil-wrapped | Buried in ash + coals | 40–50 min | Knife slides in with no resistance |
| Corn in husk | Medium, direct | 15–20 min, turning | Soak 15 min first |
| Dutch oven chilli | 9 under / 6 on lid | 45–60 min | Stir every 15 min |
| Dutch oven cobbler | 8 under / 17 on lid | 30–40 min | Rotate a third turn every 15 min |
| Skillet cornbread | Medium + coals on lid | 20–25 min | Centre springs back |
| Bacon | Medium, cast iron | 8–12 min | Start in a cold pan, save the fat |
Interactive
How much food to bring
Portions, ice, fuel and coffee for the whole trip, sized to your group.
Protein
2.9 lb
Carbs / grains
2.3 lb
Fresh veg
1.9 lb
Ice
28 lb
Stove fuel
3 canisters
Coffee
4 oz
Planning figures, not gospel. Buy protein to the nearest sensible pack size and always carry one extra no-cook dinner for the night the fire refuses to cooperate.
The workflow
How a camp dinner actually runs
- 1
Prep at home
Chop, marinate, mix dry ingredients and portion into labelled bags. Camp cooking is 80% easier when you are only assembling and heating.
- 2
Light the fire 60 minutes before you eat
Coals take 30–45 minutes to form from wood, 15–20 from a charcoal chimney. Work backwards from the time you want to eat.
- 3
Feed it hard, then stop
Burn a big fire down rather than trying to cook on a small one. You want a deep bed of embers, not a lively flame at dinner time.
- 4
Rake your zones
Hot pile at one end, thin layer at the other, an empty margin for resting pans. Moving the skillet two feet is your temperature dial.
- 5
Set up a real station
Table, board, trash bag, wash tub and every ingredient within arm's reach before the first thing hits the pan. You cannot go and find the salt mid-sear.
- 6
Cook in one pan where you can
Fewer dishes, less water, less time. Hash, skillet pasta and foil dinners all collapse the whole meal into a single vessel.
- 7
Use a thermometer
Coal heat is uneven and colour lies. 165°F poultry, 160°F ground meat, 145°F whole cuts and fish, then rest.
- 8
Clean while the coals are hot
Deglaze cast iron with hot water immediately, scrape, dry it over the heat, wipe a thin film of oil. Two minutes now, no scrubbing later.
Start here
Eight camp meals that always work
Free starter set. Each one is forgiving, uses one vessel and scales up without changing the method.
Breakfast hash
Diced potato, onion, pepper and sausage in cast iron over medium coals, 20 minutes. Crack eggs on top for the last five and cover.
Foil packet fish
Fillet, lemon slices, butter, dill and thin-sliced potato. Double-wrapped, 15–20 minutes at the coal edge, flipped once.
Coal-roasted potatoes
Pierce, wrap in foil, bury in ash with coals raked on top. 40–50 minutes. Split, butter, salt heavily.
Dutch oven chilli
Brown the meat, add everything else, 9 coals under and 6 on the lid, simmer 45 minutes, stir occasionally.
Skillet cornbread
Preheat a greased skillet, pour the batter, lid on with coals above. 20–25 minutes until the centre springs back.
Dump cobbler
Canned fruit, dry cake mix, cubed butter on top. 12in oven, 17 coals on the lid and 8 below, 35 minutes. Never fails.
Campfire quesadillas
Dry skillet over medium coals, cheese and whatever is left from last night, two minutes a side. The best use of leftovers at camp.
Banana boats
Split a banana in its skin, stuff with chocolate and marshmallow, foil-wrap, eight minutes in the coals. Kid-proof dessert.
Afterwards
Cleanup and cast iron care
Deglaze hot, never soak
Splash hot water into the pan while it is still warm and scrape with a wooden spatula or chain mail. Soaking cast iron overnight is how you get rust.
Dry over the fire
Put the pan back on the dying coals for a minute so every drop flashes off. Air-drying leaves moisture in the pores.
Oil to a shine, not a slick
A teaspoon of neutral oil, buffed until it looks dry. A greasy pan goes sticky in the tub and picks up grit.
Three-tub system
Hot soapy wash, warm rinse, cold sanitising rinse. Strain the greywater and scatter it 200ft from water, or pack it out.
Never scour the seasoning off
Steel wool and dishwasher soap strip years of patina. If food is welded on, boil an inch of water in the pan for two minutes.
Store with a paper towel
One sheet in the pan absorbs condensation in the bin between trips and stops the lid sweating onto the surface.
Non-negotiable
Food safety at camp
The cooler rules
The two-hour rule
Gear
Camp kitchen checklist
Cook vessels
Fire control
Tools
Clean & store
Questions
Campfire cooking FAQ
+How long before dinner should I light the fire?
About an hour. Wood takes 30–45 minutes to burn down into usable coals, and you want to feed it hard for the first half of that so the bed is deep enough to last the whole cook.
+Can I use charcoal instead of wood?
Yes, and for Dutch oven baking you should. Briquettes burn at a predictable, repeatable temperature, which is exactly what coal-count recipes assume. A chimney gives you a ready bed in 15–20 minutes.
+Why does my food always burn on the outside and stay raw inside?
You are cooking over flame instead of coals, or your bed is too hot for the cut. Move to a 4–5 second zone, use a lid to trap heat, and check the internal temperature rather than the colour.
+How do I stop cast iron sticking?
Preheat the pan properly before anything touches it, use enough fat, and leave protein alone until it releases on its own. Food that sticks is usually food that was moved too early.
+What is the safest way to keep food cold for a long weekend?
Pre-chill the cooler, block ice rather than cubes, raw meat sealed at the bottom, drinks in a separate cooler, and a thermometer inside reading 40°F or below.
+How many coals for 350°F in a Dutch oven?
Take the oven diameter in inches, add three coals for the lid and subtract three for underneath. A 12in oven is 15 on top and 9 below. Adjust roughly two coals per 25°F.