Simple is as simple does.

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Longstrider

Native
Sep 6, 2005
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South Northants
So much talk of titanium this and unonbtainium that as cooking gear makes me wonder how many here still enjoy the simplicity of a green stick ?

Bangers and cheesy dough cooked on green sticks is one of my own favourite things to do with a camp fire.
Make the dough up at home and take it in a zip-lock bag. (Flour, water, a pinch of salt and a handful of grated mature cheddar, you know, like we did as kids)

Once the coals are good use 2 sticks, a thin one and a thick one (choose carefully ;) ) the sausage goes on the thinner one, The thicker one must be very slightly larger in diameter than the sausage. Cook your dough on that, but NOT as a cheesy twist like we did in Cubs, but as a whole round with a 'stop end' Solid lump beyond the end of the stick)

Once both are done and have cooled to edible levels slip the 'bread' off the stick and slide the banger in the hole straight from it's stick. Precede the banger with a squirt of sauce if you like)

Voila ! a "Sausage Sandwich" that you can eat without getting greasy fingers, and no pots, pans or Dutch ovens required :)
 
Sadly my youth did not include these joys, once a sausage with a bonfire - it caught light and dropped off,...but several foiled wrapped charcoaled potatoes in bonfires.
 
Old fashioned campfire cooking makes delicious food though.
It's not about a fire as hot as you can make it, it's about managing the fire to best suit what you're cooking.
If you pull embers and cook on them beside the bed of the fire, it's often a more stable heat. Simmer pots (even home made clay ones) safely. Roast roots, orwrap fish in grass and cover it in clay to make a parcel. Bake that in the ashes and the fish more or less steams inside. Falls apart and off the bones when you open it up. Baked spuds are best done beside the fire, not in it. Slow and they'll soften up beautifully, and the skins will be delicious with the Maillard reaction.

Just as well it's lunchtime; I'm hungry now :)
 
One of the best campfire feasts for me was a huge (14 or 15 lbs) joint of gammon provided by our host for a group of about a dozen of us. We had an excess of oak cut-offs like wooden house bricks from a sawmill to use so we had a slow fire about 3ft diameter and 18" high burning 24/7. The gammon was placed near the fire early morning with the rule that if anyone walked past the fire they had to turn the gammon (in several layers of foil). The random turning for about 15 or 16 hours did the whole joint to absolute perfection. Served in baps with sauce or mustard at about 01:30 as the snow started falling it was like manna from the Gods !
 
One of the best campfire feasts for me was a huge (14 or 15 lbs) joint of gammon provided by our host for a group of about a dozen of us. We had an excess of oak cut-offs like wooden house bricks from a sawmill to use so we had a slow fire about 3ft diameter and 18" high burning 24/7. The gammon was placed near the fire early morning with the rule that if anyone walked past the fire they had to turn the gammon (in several layers of foil). The random turning for about 15 or 16 hours did the whole joint to absolute perfection. Served in baps with sauce or mustard at about 01:30 as the snow started falling it was like manna from the Gods !

Yes, cook it right, don't just give it a sunburn.
 
That's a clever set-up. Do-able where I go to play but it would be a whole lot easier if I had hazel available there.
I guess the trick is making sure there's no "residue" in the bits of jerry can before you light up !
 

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