CAMPFIRE COOKING

        & WOOD

When I was growing up in the 50’s, I never thought twice about taking a long hike or canoe trip, stopping at lunchtime, and starting a campfire to heat up some soup, coffee, or to cook a couple of hot dogs on a stick.

I learned how to use a fire in the woods from scouting, my father, and from watching other outdoorsman who I met during my childhood. I traveled on state land, private property, and company owned land. A campfire was a given at some point during the day or night. I never needed permission. I knew what to do and how to do it. Never once did I burn down anyone’s forest, or had the custom of building a campfire challenged. Today is a very different story as we are forced into a controlled environment with very few freedoms when it comes to a campfire in the woods.

During the early years here where I reside in Maine, you were allowed to take a canoe trip or hunting trip, pick a nice place in the woods or on the lakeshore to camp, gather some wood, construct a fire ring out of stones, start a fire, cook your meal, and enjoy the evening watching a flickering fire until bedtime. Today, the Maine woods and rivers are owned and controlled by either the State of Maine, paper companies, or private consortiums. Gated toll roads into the wilderness is the norm, designated campsites for nightly fees control our movement, and designated fire rings at campsites are the only place a fire can be built. If a person chooses to go off into a wilderness area, they must first have the landowner’s permission, which is rarely given, and a daily campfire permit provided by the Forestry Service, which is also rarely given even to Reg. Maine Guides. The controlled campsites have been used so much over the years that any available dead firewood that could be found in the nearby woods has long been used up. This makes wood very hard to find for an evening campfire, never mind a cooking fire.

So, where do we stand today? Over the past 20 years, I have found myself forced to innovate when it comes to camp cooking. I cannot say it has been all-bad, but I really like doing things the traditional way when it comes to camping and cooking in the outdoors. First, I started with the Coleman stoves and Coleman fuel, but soon learned that when used on a daily basis, they were unreliable. Cold weather, nozzle clogging, and loss of air pressure were deciding factors on giving up on liquid fuel stoves.

The next attempt in successful cooking involved bringing along charcoal briquettes in 5-gallon plastic containers with lids, and using my cast iron Dutch ovens for cooking all of my food. Dutch ovens are great and served the pioneers well as they headed west. However, the weight and the time involved getting the briquettes to the proper cooking stage made it difficult for group cooking in a timely manner. Cool and rainy weather plays havoc on cooking a great meal in your Dutch oven.

Expert cooking on a wood fire requires a good bed of red-hot coals, which can only be achieved burning dried hardwoods such as oak, maple, fruitwoods, or ash. Unfortunately, these species are not found along the Allagash. So, I would carry bundles of split, dry, hard wood from home for my cooking fires. I could find some dry softwoods that burned hot and fast for reflector oven baking. Between the two, we had great meals.

Fast forward to today. Today, the magic fuel is propane gas. It burns hot and clean, weather does not affect its heating, and pots and pans do not end up black. The fuel is easily carried either in a 20-pound tank, or in those small green cylinders purchased at Wal-Mart or sporting good stores. Cooking time has been cut in half, and I find that now I can have an abundance of hot water available at all times for washing and cleaning. I like the versatility of propane and have found many stoves and cookers that adapt well to propane for group cooking on canoe trips.  Even the Coleman Company makes great propane cook stoves for todays campers.

I have added collapsible baking ovens to my arsenal of equipment that fit directly on stove burners, allowing for all kinds of fresh baked goods. My favorite piece of kitchen equipment is my homemade propane-fired steam table. This allows me to keep cooked foods piping hot in any weather until everything is done, and everyone is seated ready to eat.

I can say that I have evolved with the evolution of camp cooking over the years. However, I will still always have my evening campfire even though it has to be in a designated campfire ring.

If the time ever comes that the right to have a campfire in the Maine woods is lost completely, I will become only a memory of a Maine Guide who passed through the Maine Wilderness once upon a time.

See You Down River; I’ll Have The Coffee Ready

Wannigan Willey.