Ember Cooking w/Recipies

How To

A cook who wants to foil toil in her outdoor kitchen could use the same product that's popular in home kitchens - aluminum foil - but she had better get the heavy weight that's usually designated for freezer use. The thinner type works fine for wrapping sandwiches or leftovers but doesn't provide enough protection against punctures or extreme heat.

When foil is wrapped as an airtight package around food, finishing off with a drugstore or sandwich fold, it becomes a small-scale pressure cooker. When placed in a bed of hot coals with some heat on top, diced vegetables and meat cook in 10 to 15 minutes in this package, and whole potatoes in 40 to 50 minutes. Be sure to allow some space for expansion in the package by not wrapping the raw food too tightly. If you want food to brown or to broil as in a skillet, leave the package open at the top (or fashion like a folded drinking cup with a flat bottem). This allows the steam to escape and makes it possible for you to watch the progress too.

Drug Store Fold

1. Place foil on flat surface. Place food in center.
2. Fold sides up to make a "tent". Hold top edges together and foldtogether.
3. On each open end, bring togther and fold

Recipies

All Recipes Serve 12 People Unless Otherwise Noted (NOTE: I have not tried any of the shrimp or fish recipes, I don't like fish!)

BANANA BOATS

For One Boat

• 1 Banana
• 12 Small Marshmallows
• Chocolate Chips (small handfull)

1. Peel back a long strip of banana peel on the inside of the curve, leaving one end attached to the banana
2. Scoop out some of the banana and fill with marshmallow, chocolate (and raisins if you like)
3. Replace the strip of peeling and wrap in foil
4. Bake in the embers (about 15 to 20 minutes) until banana, chocolate and marshmallows are melted and blended.

SHRIMP BARBECUE

• 4 lbs Large Green Shrimp
• 1 Cup Butter or Margarine
• 1 Large Clove Garlic, Minced
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup parsley, minced

1. Peel and clean shrimp
2. Cream butter; add remaining ingredients to the butter and mix well
3. Cut 6 9-in strips of heavy duty aluminum foil. Then cut each strip in half.
4. Divide shrimp equally on each piece of foil.
5. Top each with 1/12 of the butter mixture, bring foil up around shrimp; twist tightly to seal
6. Place shrimp packet on embers
7. Cook 5 minutes

STUFFED TROUT

• 12 Medium Trout
• 3 Medium Onions, chopped fine
• 1/4 lb butter or margarine

1. Clean the fish thoroughly; salt and pepper the insides
2. Fill each fish about 3/4 full with onion and put a pat of butter on the top of the onion
3. Wrap each fish separately in aluminum foil
4. Bury in hot embers. Bake 20 to 25 minutes

HAMBURGER DINNER

• 12 Potatoes
• 12 Carrots
• 1 Large Onion
• 3 lbs Hamburger
• salt, pepper

1. Cut up potato in small pieces
2. Cut carrot into sticks
3. Dice onion
4. Make a pat of 1/4 lb hamburger, 3/4 of an inch thick
5. Place the ingredients side by side on a piece of aluminum foil
6. Season; wrap in foil and put packet in the embers
7. Cook 10 to 20 minutes

Other combinations can be used, such as: Ham, pineapple, and sweet-potatoes, Chicken, onions, and potatoes, Hot Dogs and onions, Hot Dogs with cheese and bacon, Hot Dogs with apples and cheese

BEEF STEW

• 3 lbs beef cut in 1-in. chunks
• 12 bacon slices (about 3/4 lb.)
• 12 tomatoes
• 6 onions

1. Place 1/4 lb. Of beef, 1 slice of bacon cut in pieces, slices of onion and quarters of 1 tomato in aluminum foil packet
2. Cook in embers 30 to 40 minutes

PIGS IN BLANKETS

• 4 Cups Flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 6 Tbsp shortening
• Water or milk for desired consistency
• 24 link pork sausages (or, canned vienna sausages, little polskies, etc)

1. Mix dough as for biscuits
2. Pinch off small pieces of dough and flatten into strips or elongated patties
3. Wrap each sausage link (which has been seared in a hot skillet) in a strip of dough
4. Knead the sides of the dough together so that the sausage is completely covered
5. Wrap in foil and cook for 15 minutes

POTATO-ONIONS

• 12 Medium Potatoes
• 12 Medium Onion, sliced in rounds
• salt, pepper
• 1/4 cup Butter or Margarine

1. Cut potato into 4 crosswise slices
2. Spread butter on each side of the slices
3. Cut ½ onion in rounds and place between potato slices; salt and pepper them
4. Secure slices with toothpicks or skewers
5. Wrap these potato-onions tightly in foil
6. Bake in embers 30 to 40 minutes

APPLE DELIGHT

• 12 Large Apples
• 4 Tbsp Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Biscuit Mix
• Raisins
• 3 Tbsp cinnamon (or to taste)

1. Core and chop 1 apple in fairly large pieces. Peeling if desired
2. Mix 1 tsp. Sugar, a few raisins and cinnamon to taste with 1 Tbsp. Biscuit mix; stir into chopped apple
3. Wrap in a piece of greased aluminum foil, leaving sufficient space for steam
4. Cook in the embers approximately 30 to 45 minutes (The juice of the apple moistens the dough sufficiently.)

BAKED APPLES

• 12 Large Ripe Apples
• 1 Cup Nuts
• 1 Cup Coconut, shredded
• 12 dates
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 12 Marshmallows

1. Remove the core from the apples. Be sure not to cut through the skin at one end
2. Fill the hole with nuts, dates, and coconut.
3. Sprinkle well with brown sugar
4. Wrap with foil and place in coals
5. When tender, toast a marshmallo and put it on top of the apple

APPLE COBBLER

• 4 Cups apples, sliced
• 1 1/3 Cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Cups biscuit mix (or pie crust mix)
• 2 8-in pie pans

1. Mix sugar and cinnamon with sliced apples and cook in saucepan until apples are tender. (Canned apple slices can be used instead)
2. Put cooked apples in shallow pie pans
3. Prepare dough from biscuit or pie crust mix and roll it with a round jar or small log between two pieces of wax paper.
4. Place a circle of dough on the pie filling
5. Set on a sheet of foil, leaving half of foil exposed
6. Fold exposed portion on three edges up and over the pie pan to form a small oven
7. Set either on the ground or on rocks before a hot blazing fire. The portion of the pie under the foil will brown first from reflected heat
8. Turn pie within the foil oven to brown evenly
9. Bake 15 to 20 minutes

This information was taken from Cooking Out-of-doors copyright 1960 by Girl Scouts of the United States of America and was contributed by:

Patti Scanlan (stmpspaz@gmail.com)
First Class Girl Scout
Leader, Girl Scout Troop 343
Advisor, Venturing Crew 2861
Glasgow, Montana
Girl Scouts of Montana & Wyoming
Boy Scouts, Montana Council