My Son’s First True “Open-Fire” Meal

Last summer my youngest son, who is usually my most enthusiastic helper when cooking indoors or out, told us that he “had never cooked over a campfire” and really wanted to do so.

My first reaction, as you might expect, was “that can’t be,” but when I stopped and thought about it, I had to realize that aside from warming a hot dog on a stick he was probably right. 

• We’ve cooked dozens of tin-foil dinners and hundreds of meals in my Dutch ovens, but the vast majority of those were cooked using charcoal briquettes. To the extent that I’ve used wood coals from the campfire on my Dutch ovens it’s usually been because it was a windy day and my briquettes burned out before dinner was done.
• We’d grilled more times than I could count, but most of the time I used (gasp!) a gas grill.
• We’ve used pie irons and sticks to cook things over the open fire, but most of the time these were snacks, not meals.
• I’d had tons of experience cooking over the open fire in scouts as a youth, but my boys’ troops cook with a propane stove for nearly every meal, unless I happen to bring my Dutch ovens along. 

This was a situation my wife and I decided we had to fix, and so we bought a freestanding grill for my son’s birthday and I resolved to cook a complete meal over the fire with him, using absolutely no gas, no charcoal, and no pots or pans.

Step 1: Build the fire 

My son has this one quite well nailed. His fires aren’t so much campfires as they are towering infernos. We have a large enough fire ring that it’s safe, so we let him run with it. Let one of his giant fires of oak cut from our yard burn down for about an hour, and you have a beautiful bed of coals for cooking. If you’re not as brave (or foolhardy) as we are, a more modest log-cabin style fire lay will do the trick, although you may want to start it earlier for optimum heat.

 

 

Step 2: Baked potatoes

Wash one nice russet potato per person with water and a stiff brush and wrap them, still wet, in two layers of aluminum foil.  Bury these in the coals of your fire.

 

Baking potatoes partially buried in wood coals.

 

Step 3:  Grilled corn

Remove the outer layers of the husk of each ear of corn, leaving 3-4 of the inner layers.  Peel the inner layers back, remove the silk and replace the husks.  Then, soak the corn for 10 minutes or so in lightly salted water.  Reopen the remaining husk, spread some butter on the corn, close the husks and wrap each ear in a couple of layers of aluminum foil.  Place these on the hottest part of the grill, turning occasionally for 15-20 minutes.  For the best flavor, you want to caramelize the sugars in the corn, so don’t be afraid of getting them hot!  

Corn grilling on the wood fire with baked potatoes in the coals.

 

Step 4: Steaks

When the corn has been on the grill for 10 minutes or so, move it to a cooler spot on the grill to free up the hot spot. Wet 2 small sticks of split dry oak (the splinters left over from splitting are perfect for this) and set them on the coals for an extra smoky flavor. Then add your favorite cut of steak. We used rib-eyes seasoned with Penzey’s Chicago Steak Seasoning. Depending upon how hot your coals are, about 5 minutes on each side should get a good steak to a medium temp.  You’ll want to monitor this closely, because wood heat is unpredictable, and you don’t want to burn dinner.

Finishing up our wood-grilled summer feast!

If you’re not a big fan of steaks, we’ve subsequently done boneless pork ribs pretty effectively this way as well, using our favorite dry BBQ rub on the grill. If you’re going to try cooking chicken, leave the corn on the hottest part of the grill and cook your chicken longer in cooler parts of the grill to avoid burning it and ensure that it cooks thoroughly.

 

Dinner Time!

Remove the steaks and corn from the grill, then use tongs or a small shovel to remove the potatoes from the coals. Potatoes should be unwrapped from the foil, cut in half, and scooped out of the skins, which are usually pretty black, but the potato inside is deliciously baked. Also, use caution when removing corn husks, which will be very hot and can scald you – use gloves or wet your hands first with cold water and use a knife to cut off the husks, rather than ripping them off.   

Enjoy!  We liked this meal we did it a couple more times before summer was over. After a really cold, snowy February, I can hardly wait for the snow to melt so we can have it again!