Forget The Beanie-Weenies, Upgrade Your Campfire Cuisine

[fgoodwin]

Forget The Beanie-Weenies, Upgrade Your Campfire Cuisine

 

http://www.rocktownweekly.com/flavor_details.php?AID=5718

 

Posted 2006-08-09

By Martin Cizmar

 

Editors note: This is the first story in a three-part series about campfire cooking.

 

Long metal forks, suitable for skewering hotdogs or marshmallows, are the top selling camping item at Stover Mill Spring General Store in Mount Solon.

 

For most of the folks camping at nearby Natural Chimeys, a fork is the only cooking gear needed for a weekend in the woods, says the stores owner, Charles Evins.

 

"I cant keep marshmallows in and Ive got one graham cracker [package] left," said Evins.

 

Of course if you went camping once a month, 12 months a year, like Boy Scouts do, youd probably get sick of weenies and smores. Thats why Dan Dreelin prefers to make pan-seared oysters with wild rice pilaf when hes spending the night under canvas.

 

Dreelin, a leader with Troop 28 in Penn Laird, says theres no reason you cant do the same thing the next [time] you wake up in a sleeping bag.

 

"Anything you can cook at home you can cook at camp," he says. "You just might need to do a little adjusting."

 

There are, of course, a few tricks to the trade, which Dreelin and fellow Scouter Mickey Moore, a leader with Boy Scout Venture Crew 83 in Mount Clinton, are happy to share.

 

This week, youll get the basics: how to cook a quality meal in tin foil. Tune in next week, youll get the low-down on the Dutch oven, the secret to going gourmet on a weekend in the woods.

 

A Meal Fit For A Hobo

 

Most methods of cooking on an open fire are obvious: you can use a griddle, frying pan or pot the same way youd use it on your stove at home.

 

Thatll get you pancakes or chili but for things that need to be baked or broiled youre out of luck.

 

Thank God for aluminum foil: when it comes to camp cooking, its a miracle-on-a-roll.

 

Dreelin and Moore say the scouts they work with are fond of Hobo Dinners, foil-wrapped meals that arent too much different than moms pot roast.

 

"If you dont want to carry a bunch of gear, you can carry a roll of aluminum foil and be done with it," Dreelin said.

 

To make a Hobo Dinner you wrap seasoned meat and vegetables together in a double layer of heavy-duty foil, then set it in a bed of coals for 45 minutes.

 

Its as easy as it sounds, says Dreelin. The biggest challenge is making sure everything cooks at the same speed so nothings over or under done.

 

Dreelin makes both beef and chicken Hobo Dinners, using a chicken half or a half-pound hamburger patty along with potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, green peppers and a half ear of corn.

 

Sometimes, the boys Dreelin works with shy away from the veggies.

 

"You have to talk them into using the vegetables but thats where the flavor comes from," he said. "A wad of ground beef tastes like a wad of ground beef."

 

Getting the right flavor isnt difficult though, Dreelin says. Although he brings a bag of spices with him on campouts, he says a few shakes of Montreal Steak Seasoning are all you need for a flavorful foil dinner.

 

The toughest thing to get right is the potatoes, he says, since they take the longest to cook. He uses small red potatoes, halved with chicken or cut into quarters with the quicker-cooking beef.

 

Meal In A Roll

 

Once hes got the veggies cut and the patty packed, Dreelin rolls up the edges of the foil. Rolling, rather than crushing, the edges is important, he says, because it makes it easy to check the meal. If a rolled meal isnt done, you can put it back in the fire without tearing holes that let the juices out and the fire in.

 

"When you go to camp youll see people mangle these things," he said.

 

Moore takes his foil dinners to the next level, substituting salmon for hamburger and rice for potatoes.

 

Youve got to pre-soak the rice in water for 15 minutes before cooking it, which doubles the cleanup: you have to throw away a ball of foil and a plastic bag.

 

"And its a fairly balanced meal," he said.

 

Of course no meals complete without dessert, and Dreelin says theres an easy way to do that in foil too.

 

He just cores an apple, stuffs it with raisins, sugar, cinnamon and butter, then wraps it in foil. After a half-hour, youll have a golden brown dessert.

 

It tastes a lot like apple pie, which is good, says Moore. "Kids wont eat it if it doesnt taste like something."

 

And if a foil apple isnt good enough for you, you could always bake a real apple pie over an open fire. Find out how next week. And for the most hard-core back-packers, we tell you how to dry your own fruits the following week.

 

Contact Martin Cizmar at 574-6277 or mcizmar@dnronline.com

[Trevorum]

This weekend, we're doing an "Iron Chef" competition. The patrols bring grub fixin's as usual, but the PLC will provide the meat - what kind of meat is a tightly guarded mystery - and the patrols will then compete to see who can whip up the tastiest dinner. I'll be one of the judges!

[CalicoPenn]

Trevorum,

 

I'm guessing...Hamhocks. Just because that's exactly the kind of thing I'd throw at the scouts. I have to say I'm envious of you - sounds like a lot of fun. Please follow up after this weekend and tell us the mystery meat and how things went!

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the meat doesn't turn out to be Spam or Deviled Ham.

 

CalicoPenn

[scoutldr]

We did an "Aluminum Chef" competition at a camporee...the mystery ingredient was.....SPAM!

[John-in-KC]

Spam

Spam and Eggs

Spam Eggs Sausage and Spam

Spam Spam Eggs Spam Sausage and Spam

Spam Spam Spam Spam ...

Spam Spam Spam Spam

Lovely Spam, wonderful Spam...

[evmori]

SPAM = Stinky Putrid Animal Mess

 

I always enjoy a good meatloaf or Cornish game hens!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

 

A No Spam Zone

 

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Ed,

 

Are you stating that SPAM is a stinky putrid mess made

FROM animals, or BY animals?

 

I've never been convinced that SPAM is of animal origin.

At least any native Earth animals.

 

Save me a slice of the meatloaf.

 

NC

[SR540Beaver]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with SPAM. If sliced correctly, you can shingle a house with the stuff. Eamonn might want to carry some on the boat to plug holes. My understanding is that you don't need to hang a bear bag in bear country if you'll just rub everything with SPAM as the bears won't touch the stuff.

[evmori]

Novice_Cubmaster,

 

Either gets you the same thing!

 

I'll even save you some smashed potatoes & gravy!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

 

A No Spam Zone

[Eamonn]

Back when I was a little Lad one of the menu items at Holy Cross School was Spam Fritters.

The quality of the spiced Ham remains very questionable?

I think maybe it should have been called Spfa (Spiced Fat)

It was dipped in a batter similar to that used for Fish and Chips, deep fried in the lard that had been used to cook the fish and chips.

Stacked up so it got really greasy and served in a pool of grease.

I suppose spam with fish over-tones is an acquired taste? I seem to remember that the day we had Spam fritters we also had prunes and custard for dessert.

I'm unsure if this was some sort of penance?

Maybe it was part of my Catholic education?

Eamonn.(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

[OldGreyEagle]

Way back in the Troop of my youth we went to the Grand Canyon, from the Chicago suburbs I'll have you know (about 1967) we subsisted almost exclusively on rudimentary dehydrated food (usually eggs and something called vega-rice and for lunch, spam and crackers. Beleive me, lunch was the best meal of the day.

 

Fast forward to a back packing trip with the troop I currently serve. It was a few years back, when I was a fledgling leader. I had a dinner of fried spam and rice planned (ok it was minute rice ) When the scouts saw I had Spam, they all most to a one wanted to "have a taste" the problem was, if they hall got a taste, I would be dining on rice only. The kids had heard about spam, most knew the Monty Python SPam skit by heart, but none had actually tasted it . For a brief time, and I emphasize "brief" Spam was the meat of choice at campouts as the scouts experienced the spiced ham concoction. Most moved on, but a few developed a real attachement to it. I consider one of the things I am most proud/unsure of at the same time

[GernBlansten]

We had Klik for breakfast one morning whilst up at Northern Tiers. Klik is the canadian version of Spam although they claim it wasn't as greasy. Still left a pool of oil behind. Gotta admit, after a few days of dehydrated breakfasts, the Klik really hit the spot.

[Eamonn]

As you might have noticed I'm not a Spam lover.

I somehow managed to avoid it for about 16 years (I left Holy Cross at the ripe old age of 11 -No thanks to the diet!!)

Her Who Must Be Obeyed is not a good cook.

One night just after we were first married I came home and she announced that she had cooked dinner.

There it was Roast Spam with cloves stuck in it, cooked in ginger ale!!

At the time I thought it was some kind of American specialty.

Eamonn.

[emb021]

If kids (and adults) want to have a good meal on campouts, there are a lot of good resources out there ("Roughing it Easy" springs to mind).

 

We did a lot of creative (and tasty) meals when I was a scout.

 

On my first camporee, my patrol had spaghetti, made our own sauce, had a salad and garlic bread. It was great. This was all planned and carried out by the kids in my patrol. (another patrol tried to do the same, but they overcooked the pasta until it was paste, and their sauce was ragu. Ugh.)

 

Have done pizza on campouts, egg & bacon in a paper sack, etc.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Had a campout where a kid said he wanted to make an egg mcmuffin for breakfast. The other kids in the patrol laughed and said it was way to complicated. One of the troop adults overheard the conversation and for breakfast cooked an egg and canadian bacon, placed them on an english muffin and topped it with a slice of cheese and showed it to the patrol. Its a staple now