How to cook over a campfire: Stop burning your camp food

Roasting Quail and making coffee

Cooking over coals:

Cooking over a campfire looks easy until you ruin a meal or two. The movies make it look simple. Meat sizzling. Sparks flying. Smiles all around. But in the real world, cooking over an open flame can turn a perfect steak into a blackened mess before the inside ever gets warm.

I learned this the hard way.

When you’re hungry and the fire looks right, it’s easy to toss food straight over the flames. The problem is that flames are fast, uneven, and unpredictable. They scorch the outside while leaving the inside raw. I’ve done it with fish, potatoes, eggs, and everything in between. One of my early camping trips ended with my boys laughing because I turned dinner into charcoal.

That’s how you learn, though. Primitive cooking takes practice. Just like any other outdoor skill, it’s about patience, rhythm, and repetition.

The truth about open flames

Big flames lie to you. They look powerful, but they’re hard to control. When I first started, I’d get the fire roaring, drop a pan on it, and think I was cooking like a pro. Five minutes later, I was scraping burnt food off the bottom of the pan and trying again.

It’s the same mistake I made recently frying chicken at home. My son and I double-battered some legs, dropped them into hot oil, and watched the outside go dark instantly. It looked done. It wasn’t. The inside was still raw. Flames and high heat will fool you every time.

Why coals are better

Coals are steady. They don’t flare up. They hold heat evenly. When you rake coals to the side of your fire, you’ve just built yourself a primitive stove. You can add more coals for more heat or spread them out to cool things down.

I usually place my pot or skillet right on the coals. Cast iron works perfectly here. If I’m boiling water for coffee, I just nestle the bottle near the edge of the coals until it’s rolling. You don’t need flames licking the sides of your cookware to get results.

Some folks like to throw a steak right on the coals. It works, but I can’t stand grit in my food. Something about that crunch of sand in your teeth drives me insane. So I usually cook on a grate or in a skillet.

A setup that always works

Woodsbound Outdoors once showed a great system. Build your main fire in one spot and another small ring beside it. As the fire burns down, rake your coals into the second ring. That’s your cooking zone. Your main fire keeps producing coals while you control the heat next to it. It’s simple and smart.

Cooking T-Bones over coals

One of my best meals ever

On a kayak trip with my friend Dave, we camped by the river and cooked steaks over a bed of glowing coals. I set up a grill across the fire ring, threw on onions and mushrooms, and buried a Dutch oven full of potatoes in the coals. When everything was done, I topped the steaks with squeezable garlic butter. I still remember that meal. Simple food. Perfect timing.

It took practice to get there. Cooking over coals isn’t flashy, but it’s reliable. Once you learn it, you stop ruining meals. You start timing your food better. You learn how to read the fire.

Some tips for better camp cooking

• Don’t use giant potatoes. Cut them smaller so they cook faster and evenly. • Fish only needs to reach 145°F. If it has scales, cook it scale-side down on the heat. The skin acts like a natural pan.

• Eggs burn fast. If your pan is too hot, you’ll smell it before you see it. Ease off and let coals do the work.

• Beans take patience. Let them simmer on low heat and keep adding coals when needed.

• Spam, pancakes, and bannock all like golden brown, not black.

Also, don’t breathe charcoal dust or chew pieces of it. It’s not good for you.

Patience pays off

Learning to cook this way changed everything for me. I stopped rushing, started paying attention, and meals got better. Coals let you cook food through and through without the frustration.

And then there’s something about coals that reminds me of calm.

At the end of John chapter 21, when the disciples came back from fishing, they found Jesus waiting for them with breakfast already cooking on a fire of coals. That detail always stuck with me. He didn’t build a bonfire. He built something steady, quiet, and controlled.

That moment says a lot. When everything feels out of control, sometimes the answer isn’t to make a bigger fire, it’s to slow down and tend the coals.

So next time you’re out there, don’t rush it. Let the flames die down. Rake your coals to the side and cook steady. You’ll make better food, and you might even find a bit of peace sitting there in the quiet heat, watching your meal cook the way it was meant to.

Coals bring out the best in the food. And waiting on the right heat brings out the best in you You can grab the book on Primitive-Camping.com where I am building everything in one place. I am working hard to get our Primitive Camping and Bushcraft meals available there. Red beans and rice. Shepherds pie. Chicken stew. Breakfast meals. Plus our coffee so you can sit by the fire and do this right.

Share this with somebody who keeps burning their fish. Leave a comment. Hit like. All that stuff helps more than you know.

Most important

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths

See you out there. God bless you.