Foil Cooking: Camping Recipes, Tips and Techniques

Foil cooking is familiar to anyone who was ever a scout.
It’s one of the first camping skills learned. But this
camp cooking style can be much more sophisticated, mimicking
the French method of cooking in parchment paper called
“en papillote.” Even if you keep your camping recipes
simple, however, cooking in foil offers many advantages.

Cooking in foil is one of the first campfire methods many of us learn.

When I was in the scouts, more years ago than I care to remember, I won the cooking merit badge with my foil cooking skills. I took it primarily on the strength of a pineapple upside-down cake I made in a foil pouch and baked in the hot coals.

It was a simple recipe. I laid out canned pineapple rings on a sheet of greased foil with its edges bent up to form a tub. Into the center of each ring went a spoonful of raspberry jam. Then I poured Bisquick batter over the whole thing, sealed the packet, and put it in the coals to bake while I played catch with the other guys.

That recipe would still work today. And demonstrates many of the benefits campers get from foil cooking. Foil packets are quick to put together. You can walk away from them while they cook and enjoy other camping activities. And there are no dishes to clean up. You merely serve the dish the same way parchment-cooked food is served in upscale restaurants. Perhaps most of all, it shows that virtually anything can be cooked in foil over an open fire.

Despite what many campers seem to think, foil cooking recipes are virtually unlimited. Just about anything you can cook at home can, in one form or another, be done by wrapping it in foil and tossing it over the fire. But, as with anything else, there are several nuances.

First is the matter of sealing when foil cooking. To do this properly you want to learn the “drugstore wrap.” It sounds complicated but is actually simple.

Start with a rectangle of greased foil significantly larger than the amount of food going in it. This can be either shiny side up or down as you prefer, because, according to the folks at Reynolds, which side goes in has no effect on cooking times or end results. But you should always use heavy-duty foil for camp cooking.

Put your food centered on the rectangle. Then draw the long edges up and hold them together. Simultaneously fold both sides down so that the edge is even with the food level. Crimp the fold. Repeat this move, crimping the final fold so it lies flat over the food.

Seal the sides in a similar way. Fold the excess foil so the edge slightly overlaps the food. Then fold it again, right at the food line, crimping it well, and pressing the overlap down to conform to the shape of the package. Repeat on the other side.

What you’ve created is a leak-proof packet.

If a recipe requires adding extra liquid wait until you’ve almost finished the wrap. Do the top and one side. Then add the additional liquid through the opening in the second side and seal it.

Foil cooking recipes almost always require starting with greased foil to prevent sticking. The easiest way of doing this is with a can of spray oil, rather than fooling around trying to spread butter or shortening.

One of the real joys of foil camping recipes is that you can put the packets together ahead of time. All the prep work is done at home, giving you even more time to enjoy the camping trip. An on-going argument, among camping families, is how far to carry this idea.

I recently read one suggestion, for instance, that says to only pre-make the first night’s meals. Otherwise, claimed this blog writer, the packets take up too much room in the cooler. To my mind, that’s nonsense. Completed foil packs take up much less room than whole pieces of protein, veggies, and so forth. Think not? Measure for yourself.

How much advance work we do depends on the length of the trip. For two-three day outings we’re likely to pre-make every meal. On long trips, however, we like to shop locally for the freshest ingredients we can find. So we’ll pre-make the first couple of meals, then cook everything else while in camp. But there’s no reason not to pre-make all your meals for a week in camp, if that’s you’re preference. Just be sure to label everything so you know what’s what when it’s time to cook.

A decided benefit to making packets ahead is that you can offer choices. Let’s say the adults are up for salmon, but the kids hate fish. You merely mix and match the packets, putting salmon on the grill for the adults, maybe chicken or franks & beans for the kids.

Although you can get away with cooking in flames---another benefit to foil cookery---it’s better to work over hot coals, as you would with most campfire cooking. Some foods work well laying right in the coals. But by and large you’ll be better off with a grate of some kind to hold the foil packs a few inches over the heat. Just think in terms of your backyard grill.

One thing to keep firmly in mind: Foil cooking is essentially a steaming technique. So be careful, when opening the packets, not to get scalded.

Here are some recipes to get you started. Cooking times, because of the variables of heat source, size of packets, and foodstuffs, are at best approximate. But once you’ve played around with foil cooking a little, it becomes second nature to figure out the timing.

Salty Sweet Salmon

For about ten years I played on the steelhead and salmon streams of the Great Lakes. We often made this dish using a complete filet from a fresh-caught fish . But it works just as well with individual portions. It’s a strange sounding combination, but the salt and sugar act as foils for each other, with a delicious result. Any of the trout or salmon work with this dish:

1 serving trout or salmon per person
Large quantity salt
Large quantity brown sugar
Onion slices
Butter

Center the fish on a piece of greased foil. Cover it thickly with salt; using a layer at least a quarter-inch thick completely blanketing the fish. Cover the salt with a layer of brown sugar about twice as thick as the salt. Lay onion rings over the sugar. Dot with butter. Seal package.

Cook over coals, ten minutes per inch of thickness, turning packet about halfway through the cooking.

Garlic Rosemary Potatoes

4 med baking potatoes
8 cloves garlic
Fresh parsley sprigs
Fresh rosemary sprigs
2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Potatoes may be peeled or not. Slice them into ¼” x ¼” x 2” sticks. Peel garlic and slice thinly.

Divide the potatoes evenly on four rectangles of greased foil. Divide the garlic equally over each mound of potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay parsley and rosemary sprigs on top of potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and dot with butter. Seal packages.

Put packet on grate over hot coals. Let cook 15 minutes, turn packet and cook another 15 minutes.

Banana ‘Smores

1 ripe banana per person
Chocolate sauce
Chopped peanuts
Mini-marshmallows

Being careful to not go through the ends, cut a slice down the length of an unpeeled banana, cutting to, but not through, the bottom skin. Spoon some chocolate sauce into the opening, sprinkle with the peanuts, and top with a few mini-marshmallows.

Wrap in a foil package and cook over hot coals 3-4 minutes or until the marshmallows are melted.

You can bring all sorts of changes on this idea. Try butterscotch sauce and almonds, for instance, or hazelnut topping and chopped hazelnuts.



For more Foil Cooking techniques and recipes, visit our friends at Cheftalk.