Read all the steps and tips before you start. Trust us! You’ll be more familiar with the steps and cooking the dish will be a stroll in the park. Before you begin, make sure you have a good fire going with a lot of hot embers, wash your hands and give all vegetables a rinse!
Prep work
- Build a big, roaring, fire, then let it die down. Hard wood like beech make hotter and longer lasting coals than soft pine wood.
- You want to have a large bed of good embers, but no flames whatsoever. This can take up to an hour!
- Give all vegetables a rinse.
- Let everyone cut and peel their own veggies to their liking and make their own foil packs.
- Have an experienced scout show you how to make a good tin foil pack
Foil Packet Cooking Tips
- Double up the sheets of foil. You don’t want the foil to rip, or your food to burn, or your dinner leaking out
- Generously season with salt and pepper.
- Don’t make the packs bigger than your hand, and fill them with as much as fits in your hand.
- Adding some high moisture veggies (like tomatoes, bell peppers or onions), or a bit of oil, will prevent your food from burning and drying out.
- Fold the creases multiple times to seal tight.
- Mark your packs with a special fold so you can tell who's is who's.
- Cook the you foil packet on the embers, not the fire itself.
- Flip the packs over from time to time, but make sure to not puncture them.
- Cooking times will depend on the kind of food and how hot your fire is. Hard, raw vegetables like carrots or potatoes take longer.
- Open one sample pack after 15 minutes to check and poke a potato or carrot with a fork to see if they're soft yet.
- Open your pack carefully as it’s full of hot steam!
- Remember to leave no trace.
Shopping List for 8 Scouts
You decide what to include, but here is a classic combination:
- 1 bag of baby potatoes
- 4 carrots
- 2 bell peppers or tomatoes
- 16 rashers
- 2 onions
- You’ll also need: Salt, pepper, 2 rolls of tin foil
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