Campfire & Camp Oven Cooking For Beginners

There’s something about food cooked over fire that no stovetop can replicate. The smoky flavour, the ritual of tending coals, the social magnet of a campfire with food on it. Camp oven cooking and campfire grilling are Big Lap traditions for good reason, and they’re far easier to learn than most people think. If you can build a fire and follow a recipe, you can produce meals that’ll have your campsite neighbours wandering over.

Campfire Basics

Before you cook, you need to know the rules. Not every campsite allows fires. National parks, total fire ban days, and many caravan parks restrict or prohibit open fires. Always check before lighting up: look for fire rings or designated fire pits, check the local fire danger rating (CFA/RFS/DFES apps), and ask the park manager or read the camp signage.

For cooking, you want coals, not flames. A roaring fire looks impressive but it’s useless for cooking; it’s too hot, too unpredictable, and it’ll burn everything. Light your fire 45-60 minutes before you want to cook. Let it burn down until you have a thick bed of glowing coals with minimal flame. Hardwood (ironbark, red gum, mulga) produces the best cooking coals. Softwood burns fast and doesn’t hold heat.

Getting Started With A Camp Oven

A camp oven is a heavy cast-iron pot with a flat lid, designed to sit on coals with more coals piled on top. The result is even, all-around heat, essentially a portable oven. They’re perfect for roasts, stews, bread, damper, casseroles, and even cakes.

Choosing a camp oven: A 10-quart (9.5-litre) camp oven suits most Big Lappers. It feeds 4-6 people comfortably. A 12-quart is better for larger groups. Pre-seasoned cast iron saves the hassle of seasoning it yourself. Brands like Oz Pig, Campfire, and Lodge are solid choices. Expect to pay $80-150 for a good one. It’ll last decades.

Seasoning: If your camp oven isn’t pre-seasoned, coat the inside with vegetable oil and heat it upside down over coals for an hour. Repeat 2-3 times. This creates a non-stick surface that improves with every cook.

Camp Oven Cooking Techniques

Stews and casseroles: The easiest place to start. Brown your meat in the camp oven over coals, add vegetables, liquid (stock, canned tomatoes, beer, wine), put the lid on, and pile coals on top. Cook for 1.5-2 hours, checking occasionally and adding coals as needed. The result is fall-apart tender meat with deep flavour.

Roasts: Season your meat, sear it on all sides in the camp oven, add root vegetables around it, pour in a cup of liquid, lid on, coals on top. A chicken takes about 1.5 hours, a lamb shoulder 2-3 hours. Use a meat thermometer if you’re unsure.

Damper and bread: Mix 3 cups self-raising flour, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of butter, and enough water or milk to form a soft dough. Shape into a round, place in the camp oven (on baking paper or a light dusting of flour), lid on, coals on top. 30-40 minutes for a golden loaf. Serve hot with butter.

The coal ratio: For stews and slow cooking, use more coals underneath than on top (roughly 2:1). For baking (damper, cakes), reverse it: more coals on the lid than underneath (roughly 1:2), which creates top heat without burning the base.

Direct Campfire Cooking

Not everything needs a camp oven. A campfire grill grate (or even a piece of expanded steel mesh) placed over coals turns your fire into a BBQ. Steaks, sausages, fish in foil, corn on the cob, and vegetables all cook beautifully directly over coals.

Foil packets are the lazy genius of campfire cooking. Place fish, vegetables, butter, and herbs on a double layer of heavy-duty foil. Fold into a sealed packet and place directly on coals for 15-20 minutes. The steam inside cooks everything perfectly, and cleanup is throwing the foil in the bin.

Jaffle irons deserve a mention because they’re a campfire icon. Two slices of bread, a filling (baked beans and cheese is the classic), clamped together in a jaffle iron and held over coals for 2-3 minutes per side. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert (try Nutella and banana) all work in a jaffle iron.

Essential Campfire Cooking Gear

You don’t need much: a camp oven (10-quart cast iron, $80-150), a camp oven lid lifter ($15-25, essential for safely handling hot lids), heat-proof gloves ($15-30), a grill grate or tripod ($30-60), a jaffle iron ($20-40), long-handled tongs ($10-15), and a bag of quality hardwood or heat beads for when local firewood isn’t available ($10-15 per bag). Total investment under $250 for a setup that’ll feed you brilliantly for the entire trip.