Campfire Tips To Get You Cooking
Having a campfire is one of the best things about camping and glamping, and although not all sites allow open fires, many do. Usually, a fire pit raised off the ground will be provided, but some wilder sites allow fires on the proviso that they are only built on patches already used for fires. Some sites may allow you to take your own raised fire pit, so check the rules of your intended site. Sites which allow fires sell kindling, wood and firelighters so there’s no need to lug the fuel with you, although taking your own matches and firelighters can save a bit of money.
If you prefer not to use firelighters because of the smell, or the worry a child might eat one, newspaper and other non-shiny paper is best. Egg cartons, toilet roll tubes and even toilet roll can be used to start a fire quickly and cleanly. When building a fire you have many options for the shape and style to use, and the first style people think of is the teepee shape; a fire built in a pyramid shape with the logs stacked vertically. This style does provide even heat on all sides, but needs a lot of attention and burns the wood much faster than other styles. It’s great for ambience, but not ideal if you’re camping with children, as the logs can roll out with no notice and it’s also not great for cooking over, as it’s hard to build a bed of embers.
The best way to start a fire with a glowing heart is to start with a criss-cross layers of kindling, adding more logs horizontally as the fire gets going. This will quickly produce a bed of glowing embers you can cook over. If you only need heat on one side of the fire (for couples or small groups) build a linear style fire, starting with the criss-cross lay and building it up so you have a larger log at the back of the fire and smaller ones fanned out from it. This is ideal for cooking as it gives you a lot of control over the heat.
For a fire you can use for cooking as well as heat and light, build a longer fire with one end in a fanned out style, and the other end using a teepee style. This provides heat and light at one end, and a cooking area at the other. You can move embers from one side to another as needed, and then build up the cooking end once you’ve finished dinner. This takes some practice, but in time you’ll be a regular ‘Ray Mears’.
It’s important to let a fire go out before going to bed, as lit logs could roll out and set fire to a tent. Let the fire die down over the course of the evening by moving the logs to the centre, making the fire smaller but more efficient. If you need to put the fire out more quickly, pull the logs away from the centre to avoid wasting the wood (you can re-light it in the morning for a cuppa and a fry up) and ensure the logs are stable. Dousing the embers with water is a good idea, as it prevents them from sending out sparks that could cause an unwanted fire – this is especially important in windy weather.
If you’re going to be lighting fires and cooking over them please take tongs or fireproof gloves with you for safety. In a pinch you can manipulate a fire with a sturdy stick, but it takes experience to be able to do this safely. Any pots and pans you use over a fire will get soot marks on them, so don’t take your best Le Creuset for fire cooking unless you’re happy for it to get quite dirty! Tripods can be a great way of suspending a pot over a fire but again, it takes practice and experience to get these techniques right. The fun part, however, is the practice – no two fires are the same, so you’ll build up experience quite quickly once you get started.
