A Survivalist’s Secrets for Cooking over a Campfire

In her monthly column, The Survivalist, Jessie Krebs writes about staying alive in dangerous backcountry scenarios. Krebs is a former Air Force S.E.R.E (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) instructor and owner of O.W.L.S. Skills.

Many aspiring campers have romantic visions of meals cooked over a wood-fueled open fire. Then, they try it. The result is often bread with a gooey middle, crunchy rice, charcoal in the pancakes, ash in the cocoa, burnt eggs—heck, burnt everything. Open-fire cooking isn’t advanced mathematics, but it is certainly different from cooking at home, especially if you’re someone with a talent for “burning water.” Here are some pointers to get you started.

Flame is the enemy. Its temperature is well above “high” on a typical stove, and trying to get a pot at just the right height above it is tricky, since a fire fluctuates dramatically depending on when and how you add wood. A thick bed of coals, on the other hand, gives even heat that lasts for an hour or more. Coals are much more forgiving to a burgeoning fire chef. My strategy is to build a fire, burn some wrist-diameter or larger fuel for an hour or so, and then split it into a bed of coals on one side and a small fire on the other. I use the fire itself mostly for light, to create more coals for later, or to keep water warm.

For survival purposes, boiling is the best of all cooking methods. It’s pretty difficult to screw up or burn, the food’s nutrients are reasonably well-retained, and you get some hydration along with your meal. Baking tends to be your next best bet; roasting or grilling over a fire means losing a lot of calorie-rich oil as it drips away. If boiling isn’t feasible or you’re not in survival mode and want to use another method (boiling pancake batter sounds decidedly unappetizing), there are some other options. When cooking over a campfire, always be sure to mind local burn bans, and tend your fire responsibly. 

Boiling over a fire

This requires a container of some kind. There are ways to make water boil without a fireproof container using hot rocks, but a pot comes in very handy. A lid is also helpful to keep inedibles out, hold a steady boil, and keep the inside of the pot moist for easier clean-up. I usually get the water boiling over a flame and then lower things to a simmer by suspending the pot an inch or so above the coals. Add in your ingredients, spices, and more water as needed.

To cook rice, quinoa, pasta, or other grains, get the water boiling as indicated above, then add your starch. Give it a good stir and get it all back to boiling. Then, simmer over coals for two-thirds of the recommended cooking time. Take it off the heat and let it sit, covered and preferably insulated, for the remaining time. The main mistakes folks make with cooking rice in particular is putting in the rice before the water is boiling, keeping the pot over direct flame, and leaving it on the fire for the full recommended cooking time.

Cooking in a Dutch oven over a fire

I’ve made yummy cookies, cakes, lasagna, naan, and more in Dutch ovens. The key to success: Maintain even heat by putting coals on the lid and allowing airflow underneath. Whenever you place a pot directly on coals, you snuff them out. This is why many Dutch ovens have feet to keep them elevated. If your dutch oven doesn’t have feet, hang it or improvise another method to raise it half an inch to an inch above the coals. If your oven is near the fire, rotate it every 5 to 10 minutes so one side doesn’t burn.

Baking with fire

My mom and I used to make “hobo meals” in a fire on the beach when I was a kid. This consisted of at least 2 layers of aluminum foil filled with sliced veggies, meat, spices, and a healthy dollop of butter. We rolled the edges up tight, stabbed the bundle a couple times to let steam escape, and tossed the whole thing into the fire for 30 to 40 minutes. The results were haphazard, sometimes with food half-cooked on one side and burned on the other.

If I’d only known then…. We were doing well until we threw it in the fire. Instead, hollow out a spot in the soil in the middle of the fire about twice the size of the bundle and scrape in some of the hot coals and ash. Place the food in the hole on top of the coals and ash, cover with more coals and ash, and even some hot sand or dirt. Then, build the fire back up on top of it. In 20 to 30 minutes, uncover the foil bundle, flip it over, and re-cover. Wait another 15 to 20 minutes and dinner is served. The insulation of the ash and gentle heat of the coals is conducive to baking. I bake potatoes this way, but skip the aluminum foil. I clean the potatoes well, and then bury them as-is in the dirt or sand an inch or so below the hot fire bed. Then flip them after a half-hour and take them out after a total of an hour or so. Just brush off the ash, sand, and dirt and dig in.

Roasting and grilling over a fire

While visiting with the Hadza, hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, I’ve seen fire used as a primary method for roasting meat. They sharpen some green sticks, weave meat onto it, and then stab the other end in the ground at an angle so the meat roasts just above the coals or a little further from direct flame. As flame licks food, it can deposit a black layer of soot that really isn’t appetizing, so it’s important to maintain distance.

As a S.E.R.E. instructor, I was fond of freaking out students using a roasting technique with one of their few precious tiny steaks they were given for a six-day trip in the woods. I’d throw a steak directly onto coals scraped out from the fire, eliciting gasps of horror. After about three minutes, I’d flip it over and then pull it off the coals after a total of about five minutes. The outside would be perfectly seared, keeping the juices inside and giving the meat a delicious smoky flavor.

Frying over a fire

This is the most similar to cooking at home of any of the methods, though the fire still tends to lend an extra smoky flavor that is really nice. I prep all of my meat and veggies before I head to the woods to make things easier. If you’re car camping or don’t mind packing heavy, a wok is ideal for use over an open fire as it balances easily. Add the items that you want cooked the longest first. I usually start with oil, onion, and whatever meat I’m using, if any, followed a few minutes later by veggies and spices. Stir frequently with a long utensil, keep leather gloves or hotpads handy, keep the handle turned away from any open flames, and adjust the location of the wok and heat of the coals or fire as needed. For pancakes, a griddle or large frying pan will work best; use just the coals to cook over, adjusting your height to get just the right, steady heat for the perfect flapjacks.