chrisx

I guess no one cooks on a fire. Just want to remind people I started a thread on how to cook on a fire. Many a thread has been on stoves and fire bans and .....
Anyone know how to cook on an open fire?

wrldtraveller

Well, at current time, open fire (all forms of campfire/bbq pit fire) are banned here in Alberta due to a out of control wild fire. The only implement they allow for cooking is gas bbq or natural gas camp stove. Anyway, yes I know how to cook over camp fire, get a wooden stick, whittle it sharp, impale a hotdog and cook over the fire.

Kidding...
you could put two stones side by side, with hot coals in the middle, and place a pot on the stones, and boil water so you can cook pasta or whatever you are in the mood for. easy peasy.
P

chrisx

I am going to assume people know regulations and safety requirements. Or hope they start a thread to inquire about fire safety.

Try this,
Cut a carrot into small chunks, boil water and carrot chunks, add pasta and 1 tomatoe, 1 Jalapeño pepper if you like. Set directly on coals. When water returns to boil add 1 egg on top of it all. When pasta is done all is done.

Machka 

We don't cook on open fires any more because of fire bans. It is irresponsible, in many areas, to cook on or have open fires.

Here in Australia, you just wouldn't ... most of the time. Most campgrounds don't have fire pits and things like that for people to use. Instead they've got BBQs and camp kitchens. You could tour here with no stove at all if you planned to stay in campgrounds or cook up your dinner in a nearby park.

BC and Alberta (as mentioned above) are really cracking down on open fires and any sort of flame this year too ... as are many other areas ... because of the dry and flammable conditions.

And those of us who have had some connection to a bushfire may never make use of an open fire for camp cooking purposes again.

Rowan

Actually, just a piece of pedantry for you: Anyone who cooks on a gas or alcohol stove cooks on a fire.

I don't see how your recipe a few posts above this one differs from that except for the heat source.

CliffordK

Governments, however, make a big distinction between camp stoves and wood camp fires. I'm not sure about the wood camp stoves mentioned above.

There are places where I believe that a camp fire is 100% safe any time of the year, under any weather conditions. I don't have the photos of my fire, but here is where my last camp fire was built a couple of years ago.



The camp fire was a few feet from the edge of the water, at water level on a large gravel bar. And, it was just as big as needed to cook on. Not a busy camping area, and the whole area would have flooded a couple of months after I was there.

Unfortunately, it is easier for governments to prohibit all camp fires than to teach people how to be safe and appropriate.

wished

Sound a little defensive there!

Yes, I know how to cook on a open fire, and you even explained how you do it. I did it in the Boy Scouts for years, but now prefer other methods that are cleaner, neater, and much safer . . . which a lot of folks have tried to explain. At the very bottom of your original post you asked for a beans recipe. Lots of those online and coking them is the same on an open fire as it is on a safer camp stove. Is your intent to get a beans recipe or lessons on how to build a fire?

BigAura

I applied your question to bicycle touring because that's what this forum is about. I wouldn't want newbies to think that open fire cooking is normal for bicycle touring and I personally think its a bad idea.

That said, I have done some survival/minimalist backpack/bushwacking back in the late 1960's so I know what entails and thought it best to convey that to others.

You're probably best off going to bushcraft & survivalist forum sites for "how to cook on a fire".

Here's a couple of videos to get you started:

Stanley Adventure Camp Cook Set Cookout

Woodcraft Camping and cooking (jump to 6 min mark for REAL open fire cooking)

Machka 

I'll add that I have done quite a bit of cooking in a very large fireplace ... mostly baking. Pizzas, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. etc. But not something I'd want to do on tour.

revcp 

Will you be touring with a group? I was a canoe guide in MN and Canada for five summers and have done numerous other canoe and backpacking trips. When I cooked over a fire it was because I needed a grate with room for several pots. If it's just you an open fire wastes a lot of wood. Any five-year-old can figure out how to do it, of course. Gather a few rocks in a ring smaller around than your pot or pan or make a wider ring and use a small grate. But please learn where and how to build the fire so you're not burning roots underneath and do it in a way that you can cover it and leave no trace.

Upstream I suggested using a twig stove. I use the steel emberlit (Stainless Lightweight Backpacking Stove). The advantage of a twig stove is that you use very little wood--I rarely use anything as big around as my pinky finger--and the fire is moved off the ground, seriously decreasing the risk of it getting out of control and leaving no scar.

And, no, you didn't ask "how to cook on an open fire." You told us in the post that you know how to cook on an open fire, you explained how you do it, went on to clarify that you cook over coals instead of an open flame because the latter warps your titanium pot, and then you asked whether anyone had a good open fire bean recipe. Bean recipes are probably more easily found on pinterest or cooking sites. I actually offered how I prep beans so that they can be hydrating on the road, because you're just not going to sit long enough around a fire to cook them from dry. To hurry up the hydrating process I would cook them at home and then dehydrate them. But that only makes sense if you're on a short trip and can take the dehydrated beans along with you from the beginning.

T Stew

Yeah a lot of us like to rather talk about our fancy high tech cooking gadgets instead of what the thread is about

And yeah many are in areas where open fires are disallowed. Where I live now in Ohio there is no problem with open fires. And where I often visit in NY (northern, not city), there isn't anywhere I could not have an open fire, except where I hike in the eastern high peaks of the Adirondacks. We have open fires all the time at my folks house there, and at their camp in the Adirondacks. Nothing beats sitting next to an open fire as night falls out in the woods somewhere or beside a lake or river. And it's probably my absolute favorite way to cook. Even at home I sometimes get a nice fire going outside (I live in the country) and throw a marinated venison tenderloin on it, and wow! Of course I also tend to steal the stainless steel cooking grate of my Weber grill when I cook over the fire, makes things much easier, but we're likely not going to be carrying such a grate on bike tours. Similarly, I've often used those long handled sandwich iron thingies over the fire (well, more like on a hot bed of coals) to make pot roast sandwiches and pizza sandwiches. I have to admit that I have not done any over-the-fire cooking without these things in quite a long while though - in situations where I am on a long trip without resupply (hiking, canoeing, soon to be bike touring =) I do resort to simply using alcohol stove and FBC (freezer bag cooking - just rehydrating prepared meals) and things that don't need cooked. I have a long time ago, used the method or wrapping meat, potatoes, carrots, onions up with aluminum foil and letting them bake in the coals. Not that it's pertinent to this thread but I'll throw in a cook at home on my woodstove during the winter often too. For some reason it's very satisfying to me to cook everywhere but in the kitchen! And without using any electricity or other fuels other than a tiny amount I used in the chainsaw to cut the firewood.

My first overnight bike trip will be soon, and I'm planning to stay at primitive camping 2 nights, maybe up to 4. Plenty of restaurants nearby or otherwise on my way but I plan to practice up for more remote trips / hiking where such amenities are not around and bring all my food and gear with me. I'll likely be bringing my alcohol stove though and practicing that since I often only get a trip or two a year hiking in the mountains and rarely get to use it.

I tried to dig up any pic I had of cooking over a fire, thought I had taken one of the various times I've cooked venison over them, but all I could come up with was this trip several years ago at my folks primitive camp near the Adirondacks, using the aforementioned sandwich irons. That is my son there. I believe one of those irons are heavier than my entire hiking stove/pot setup though.

jefnvk

The chances of an ember taking off and flying into dry brush is non-existent with a camp stove. The chance of one, even with a small fire, is far greater when burning wood. That is not to say that one cannot start a fire with a camp stove, but the odds are far less. Of course, there are also the other numerous issues others have listed: firewood collection, "leave no trace", etc. FWIW, the northern two-thirds of Michigan is currently under "High" or "Very High" fire danger.

That said, I cook directly on fires frequently, whilst in a campground with established pits. I've got a cast iron frying pan and kettle I stick right in the embers. Nothing better than some bacon and eggs fried in the grease from a cast iron pan on a campfire in the morning!

skookum

I have cooked on an open fire in the past. It takes al ittle practice to get your particular mode of cooking down pat. but it can be quite effective and has a certain aesthetic and sense of accomplishment that you don't get on a stove.
Nevertheless, I usually use a stove, iso-butane these days.

Last year in September on the GDTMBR, there were a couple of young women on their first bicycle tour, using one of those twig burning wood stoves.
The weather was generally good, but there had been a couple of very rainy days, and it wasn't easy to find really dry wood. These two girls were reduced to burning their toilet paper to try to heat their water for their tea. They were suitably impressed by the power of fossil fuels when we offered to boil some water for them.

Rowan

A trick from scouts a long time ago when looking for dry twigs ... they usually exist on the trunks of trees with a decent leaf canopy. They sprout and grow a little but die off through lack of light. The rain, unless it runs down the trunk, is kept off by the leaves.

boomhauer

I'm one of those stupid people that actually started a brush fire (camping in Nevada).
I will never forget the sense of panic that sets in when attempting to keep it contained.
Never again

Squeezebox

Canister stove for me.