Fireside Advice for your Camping Cuisine

When Troy Lymburner, a culinary arts instructor at NAIT, and his wife were first dating, they went on a camping trip. All these years later, she still remembers the meal he packed for their first night under the stars.

“Once we got to our campsite and set up, I pulled ceviche out of the cooler,” Lymburner says, talking about the raw, marinated fish spread he had prepared. “That’s what we had for our dinner. She always gives me a hard time about that. She’s like, ‘Who in their right mind…’ But that’s as creative as I’ve ever gotten, I guess you could say.”

Many years after serving that ceviche on a picnic table, Lymburner has honed his camp cooking — and has some advice to share.

Keep it simple

It might seem counterintuitive coming from a chef, but Lymburner encourages campers to lean into packaged vegetables. Bagged baby carrots, potatoes or salad? They’re easy, nutritious, and cut out a lot of prep. Save your effort for the meat of the meal.

“I would definitely cut all the meat ahead of time, put it into a Ziploc bag and either freeze it or, if I’m going to be cooking it in the next day or two, I would leave it,” he adds. “You can even pre-marinate it. But the last thing I want to be doing is cutting meat while camping.”

Forgo flames on food

While Lymburner has counted on his trusty Coleman stove for front-country camping trips over many years, there’s also an art to cooking over a campfire.

“I think the biggest mistake people make is not waiting for the fire to die down into coals,” he says. “Open fire with flames is not really the best. It leaves a char, black soot, on your food and it’s not really tasty at all. The best thing to do is have patience. Start with a good amount of wood, let it die down to a nice bed of coals before you start cooking, then you can always add to the fire, as long as it’s on the opposite side of where you’re cooking.”

Fun for kids

For Lymburner, the humble bush pie makes more of a mess than it’s worth, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone under 12 who agrees. Here are two kid-friendly snacks that make campfire cooking fun for everyone.

Fireside Pizza Pockets Recipe

Equipment

• a pie iron or two cast iron plates that work to seal bread shut

Ingredients

• two slices of bread
• butter
• pizza sauce
• pepperoni slices
• mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Add a generous amount of butter to one side of both slices of bread (to prevent it from sticking)
2. On the non-buttered side of one piece of bread, add pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese
3. Sandwich the two slices together, with the buttered sides on the outside and pop it into your pie iron
4. Cook over the campfire for up to 5 minutes.

For a sweet tooth: instead of pizza toppings, add apple pie filling with a sprinkle of cinnamon

Campfire Fruit Cone Recipe

Equipment

• aluminium foil
• campfire with grill

Ingredients

• mini marshmallows
• waffle cone
• sliced fruit of your choice (strawberries and bananas are top picks)
• chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Fill ⅓ of a waffle cone with mini marshmallows
2. Add the sliced fruit and chocolate chips until the cone is full
3. Wrap the cone tightly in aluminium foil and grill it for a few minutes over the campfire
4. Remove from the campfire, wait one minute and carefully unwrap the foil for a gooey (but contained) treat