Campfire Grilling

RDOwens · Jun 13, 2009

My mother is coming to visit soon. She e-mailed me this evening stating she dined at Cracker Barrel and had something called Campfire Grill. Looking at their web site I find:

If you remember meals cooked around the campfire, you'll enjoy our Campfire Chicken and Campfire Beef. Featuring your choice of seasoned half chicken or USDA Choice chuck roast, slow-cooked in foil until fork-tender with corn on the cob, whole-cut carrots, fresh red skin potatoes, chopped onions and tomato wedges.

The dish is prepared in heavy duty foil. Spices are left to the cook.

Of course my mother is expecting me to make this for her when she visits.

Has anyone made something like this? Do the meat and vegetables cook in the pouch the same amount of time? What kind of time are we looking at to cook this? It sounds like it steams, much like the fish I do in parchment. What spices would you use?

I would be appreciative of any comments/suggestions you can offer.

thirdeye · Jun 13, 2009

You're talking about the basic campfire dinners, also called hobo dinners or hunters dinners, or cowboy dinners out west :biggrin:. The bonus when you are in a hunting camp is that you have no prep and way less garbage to haul back out. You can make individual ones with meat, potatoes and veggies or you can make separate pouches. We make them and freeze them flat so they stack in a cooler. My favorite ones are cowboy potatoes (like the picture above) or veggie ones that are cut up like a stir fry, with the same seasonings....a little soy and chile oil.

Some butter or oil needs to go in the pouch, and for meat pouches things like a couple of green onions, a sliced tomato or cabbage helps add moisture. The smaller you portion (or cut the meat) the less time they cook. Mrs ~t~ makes some oriental chicken/onion pouches that are really good, the chicken is in 1" strips. Potato, onion and sausage ones are good for breakfast. The basic hamburger steak with a sliced onion will cook in 30 minutes to an hour depending on where it is in the fire pit. Add some catsup or BBQ sauce and it will come out like a little meatloaf. Cooking on the edge or the fire pit with a few coals around it is the easiest. Don't try to cook then in the main bed of coals, they have to be turned a lot, and can scorch easily. Raw meat comes out with a bland color, so you might want to brown it first before going into the pouches.

For mixed veggie pouches, just cut your harder veggies into smaller pieces, then they will all cook in the same time. For example, carrots need to be sliced thin but onions can be quartered, or mushrooms put in whole. Corn on the cob is best sliced into rounds. Green beans or sugar peas can be left whole.

The Boy Scouts have a whole cookbook about them. Here is a link to some Boy Scout basics. Just google pouch cooking or hobo recipes, you should get hundreds of ideas.

Wampus · Jun 13, 2009

thirdeye said:
You're talking about the basic campfire dinners, also called hobo dinners or hunters dinners, or cowboy dinners out west :biggrin:. The bonus when you are in a hunting camp is that you have no prep and way less garbage to haul back out. You can make individual ones with meat, potatoes and veggies or you can make separate pouches. We make them and freeze them flat so they stack in a cooler. My favorite ones are cowboy potatoes (like the picture above) or veggie ones that are cut up like a stir fry, with the same seasonings....a little soy and chile oil.

Some butter or oil needs to go in the pouch, and for meat pouches things like a couple of green onions, a sliced tomato or cabbage helps add moisture. The smaller you portion (or cut the meat) the less time they cook. Mrs ~t~ makes some oriental chicken/onion pouches that are really good, the chicken is in 1" strips. Potato, onion and sausage ones are good for breakfast. The basic hamburger steak with a sliced onion will cook in 30 minutes to an hour depending on where it is in the fire pit. Add some catsup or BBQ sauce and it will come out like a little meatloaf. Cooking on the edge or the fire pit with a few coals around it is the easiest. Don't try to cook then in the main bed of coals, they have to be turned a lot, and can scorch easily. Raw meat comes out with a bland color, so you might want to brown it first before going into the pouches.

For mixed veggie pouches, just cut your harder veggies into smaller pieces, then they will all cook in the same time. For example, carrots need to be sliced thin but onions can be quartered, or mushrooms put in whole. Corn on the cob is best sliced into rounds. Green beans or sugar peas can be left whole.

The Boy Scouts have a whole cookbook about them. Here is a link to some Boy Scout basics. Just google pouch cooking or hobo recipes, you should get hundreds of ideas.

^^^^^^What he said^^^^^^

DOH!!! I didn't even think about that last night when I saw this thread. Yeah, I'm a Cubmaster for a Cub Scout Pack and we do these all the time. When we've done it, they were OK, SO SO, but the kids always LOVED them.

I've also made foil packs with potatoes and onions to throw on the grill to keep the heat out of the house too (just like Thirdeye's photo above). Just about anything yo can dream up can go in there. Lots of combos.

But, yes, I'd think it's basically a "steam cook". Can't imagine much smoke flavor will get into the foil, since you have to wrap the stuff up so tight to prevent leakage.

Good luck man!

MOS95B · Jun 13, 2009

The Missus and I still do those. Never done chicken, but we've done hamburger pattys and cheap steak. Or just the potatoes and veggies if we have good meat

They're awesome! With the onions and the right spices, everything usually comes out great!!

Kevin · Jun 13, 2009

Yes sir. The first steak I ever cooked by myself ((9 or 10 years old) was done in foil at the edge of a campfire. Learned about hobo pies at the same time.

thirdeye · Jun 13, 2009

Kevin said:
Yes sir. The first steak I ever cooked by myself ((9 or 10 years old) was done in foil at the edge of a campfire. Learned about hobo pies at the same time.

Man, I had all but forgotten about pie irons. :biggrin: If there were kids on camping trips, someone allways brought one along and turned them loose with a loaf of bread and a bunch of different fillings. Some of them would be kind of gross, but since they cooked them, they loved them.

I did a search and found THIS pie iron site. Sure enough a little girl is shown on the home page. But, check out their designs.......Wow, things have sure changed. There are some really nice ones

Wampus · Jun 13, 2009

Kevin said:
Yes sir. The first steak I ever cooked by myself ((9 or 10 years old) was done in foil at the edge of a campfire. Learned about hobo pies at the same time.

Oh, yeeeaaaaah! Hobo pies are the chit!
Saw some irons at a local "man" store yesterday.
Ahhhhhhhhh..........memories.......

ssbbqguy · Jun 13, 2009

pies and pouches, wow does that bring back some great memories. yum, Steve.

Redwingsfn31 · Jun 13, 2009

Pie irons are great. I still have some really old cast iron ones. Alot of the ones I see now are not cast iron. Seems quality gets sacrificed for price.

Campfire Grilling

RDOwens

Knows what a fatty is.

thirdeye

somebody shut me the fark up.

Wampus

somebody shut me the fark up.

MOS95B

is one Smokin' Farker

Kevin

Quintessential Chatty Farker

thirdeye

somebody shut me the fark up.

Wampus

somebody shut me the fark up.

ssbbqguy

is one Smokin' Farker

Redwingsfn31

Full Fledged Farker

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