Aluminum Foil Dinners

[Basementdweller]

It specifically says smudge pots.....

[KC9DDI]

I thought smudge pots were a roll of toilet paper and some kind of liquid fuel (citronella, kerosene, etc) in a #10 can. That's the local definition in my area, anyway. I seem to remember my council suggesting the cardboard and paraffin method as an approved replacement for liquid-fueled smudge pots, which leads me to think that method would be permitted. I think card/paraffin is clearly safer than any kind of liquid fuel....

[perdidochas]

Smudge pots are liquid fuel--oil instead of paraffin.

 

G2ss defines chemical fuels as:

 

Chemical fuelsLiquid, gaseous, or gelled fuels.

 

Paraffin is a solid (at least at room temperature).

[Basementdweller]

I stand corrected.....

[AnnLaurelB]

We had good luck with the wet paper towel in between layers of foil, but the heat burned off the Sharpie we'd used to write everyone's names on the foil. No one remembered which one was theirs, so we had a few people open theirs and say, "Hey, mine didn't have onion!"

 

I WAS a little tough for that many people, but we laid everything out assembly-line style, and it was alright. I really encouraged the families in charge of each meal to choose something that got COOKED in SOME way.

 

This was because I had one parent say she wanted to bring stuff for pbj's for supper. If you want a sammich go on a picnic, but we want hot food.

[5yearscouter]

I vaguely remember that if you write the name on the outside of the aluminum foil with mustard or ketchup from a squirt bottle it will survive the charcoal. anyone remember?

 

you could do ham, butter, brown sugar and pineapple in alum foil, they don't take long at all to get warm, just gotta melt the butter, even if the pineapple isn't baked, it will still be tasty.

 

dessert we've done a stale plain donut placed in the foil, butter and brown sugar and pineapple wrap it up and put in the coals and you make a mini pineapple upside down cake.

 

 

[ScoutLass]

In Girl Scouts as a kid we did foil dinners but in a coffee can. We'd assemble our meals, wrap in foil, and stick them in the bottom of our coffee can. We usually made hobo stew this way, but sometimes we did other things like pizza or beenie-weenies. The can kept the foil from burning, was easier to fish out of the fire and we wrote our names inside so they didn't char off.

 

Coffee cans were considered a required part of our mess kit for camp.

[qwazse]

Nostalgia rises as I stare at an empty but probably quite useless plastic coffee container.

[Scoutfish]

The only time I have done foil diners is at POW WOW and BALOO classes.

 

In BALOO, it also covered LNT campfires. The instructor brought a 4X6 canvas tarp with him and laid it on the ground over some nice thick green grass. Then dumped and spread around five, 5 gallon buckets of dirt onto the tarps. He then dumped 2 bags of charcoal onto the dirt in a nice pile. Lit them up and when they were ready, spread them around.

 

WE did the tin foil dinners with a couple pieces of cabbage between the food and foil. Pretty much, we had frozen hamburger patties, sliced potatoe, carrots, green beans, slices of onion, and some baby corn cob thingys.

 

We rolled them in a tent design to leave expansion room, and wrote our names with a sharpie which did not burn off in the fire.

 

Umm...those little packs of salt and pepper from fast food restaurants really come in handy here!

 

So anyways, after the coals and ash had completely cooled down, the instructor scattered the ash over a very wide area. Then shoveled the dirt back into his buckets and put them back in his truck, shook the tarp off and the grass was barely mashed down from the weight of the dirt.

 

After about 5 minutes, all the blades of grass were standing back up straight again.

 

Now, at an actuall campsite, you wouldn't bring the dirt with you, but could transfer it from a dead or no grass area, then put it back, The ash could actually help the soil become fertalized as it does after a woods fire. Just don't dump it all in one spot - scatter it out thinly.