genuinegirly

Vegetarian Times recently had an article on what they call "packet entrees." It's a meal wrapped up in aluminum foil, which you toss on the campfire / in the oven / on the grill to cook. It reminded me of the tasty meals we had when we went camping with Girl Scouts. We called them Foil Dinners. Another name I've heard for them is Hobo Dinners.

Have you ever made these?
Have you had much success?
Do you have any good recipes?
Any tips for making them delicious?

We have a road / tenting trip coming up, and I'm working out meals. We'd rather keep it frugal. Since we'll be exhausted from driving, it'd be nice to have as little prep time as possible. I plan to make up a bunch of foil dinners ahead of time, transport them in an ice chest, then throw them on the fire after we've set up camp each night. Do you think it will work?

A Typical Foil Dinner Recipe:
- aluminum foil
- cabbage
- hamburger patty
- carrots
- corn
- sliced potatoes

Place hamburger patty on cabbage leaf on square of tin foil. Top with corn, potatoes, and carrots. Wrap up. Throw on grill for an hour.

A Vegetarian Foil Dinner Recipe:

- aluminum foil
- whole grain bread
- mushrooms
- onion
- potatoes
- green beans

Place whole grain bread on square of tin foil. Top with mushrooms, onions, potatoes, and green beans. Wrap up. Thrown on grill for a half hour.

Ideas for Other Foil Dinners:


Curry Dinner
- aluminum foil
- cooked rice
- canned chickpeas
- tomato sauce
- powdered milk
- curry seasoning

Place rice and chickpeas on square of tin foil. Mix tomato sauce, powdered milk, and curry seasoning. Top rice and chickpeas with mixture. Wrap up and warm on grill.

Mexican Foil Dinner
- aluminum foil
- corn tortilla
- cooked rice
- canned pinto or black beans
- tomato
- salsa

Place tortilla on square of aluminum foil. Place rice, beans, tomato and salsa on top. Wrap up and warm on grill.

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"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

LordEden

I've never made meals in them before but I love making my veggies/starches in them. I like my sides to be contained and portable. I'll see if I can dig up some recipes.

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PonyPotato

How about rice, lentils, onion, and seasoning sauce (curry) of your choice?

I have never really liked hobo dinners that much, but that's likely because I'm not a potatoes kind of girl. Sounds better when you change that to rice, but I've never cooked/reheated that in a foil packet over the fire before.. you might want to test a couple recipes out at Hueston Woods beforehand.

I do like summer veggies cooked in foil on the grill, though. Yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes.. I would probably cook these in a packet on their own and another packet for rice/lentils/beans.

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genuinegirly

The squashes sound pretty tasty. I'll have to try those.

Here's some fairly precise instructions on wrapping the food in foil that my mom dug up from an old camp manual:
To cook with aluminum foil, place the food on the shiny side of the foil. Allow enough foil to bring around the food crosswise, plus 3 inches extra. Bring the two long edges together on top of the food and fold down in several small, continuous folds. Then flatten both ends and roll them up in small folds. Place the package on the coals to cook, using fireproof gloves or tongs to turn it. Be careful not to puncture the foil. When the coals are very hot, and you are concerned about food burning, you can either cut two or three strips of newspaper the width of the package, roll the package in newspaper, and wrap it in another piece of foil. Or place vegetables which contain a high amount of moisture around the food (onion slices or cabbage leaves for hamburgers or meat loaf).

And here are a bunch of camping-friendly recipes involving aluminum foil that she found from various cookbooks:

Frying eggs: the foil is folded into a frying pan and placed on the coals.

Steaming cocoa, make a pot from two thicknesses of foil by folding the way you fold a square of paper into a drinking cup, then flattening the bottom. The pot goes into the coals.


Hamburger a la foil: Cut up a potato into small pieces, as for french fries. Cut a carrot or two into "sticks". Pat 1/4 pound hamburger into a 3/4 inch thick cake. Place ingredients side by side on a piece of foil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, use mustard, dry onion soup mix or butter (all optional). Wrap in foil, place in coals, cook 15 minutes.

Cub scout hike dinner: Skinless boneless chicken breast, carrots, bell peppers, and potatoes in foil.

Kebabs in foil: Thread meat, onion, green pepper, and tomato cubes on a skewer or a thin stick. Wrap in double thickness of foil, place on coals, and cook for about 14 minutes.

Pigs in sleeping bags: Use biscuit dough. Pat into 1/4 inch layer as long as the frankfurter and slighter wider than the frank's circumference. Put catsup, mustard, cheese, onions, etc. on the dough as desired and wrap dough around frankfurter Wrap foil around both, twisting the ends. Bake in medium-hot coals for 15 minutes.

Foil vegetables: Prepare vegetables exactly as you wish them served. For example, before cooking diced carrots and peas, the peas should be shelled, the carrots scraped and diced or sliced, and the whole washed just prior to wrapping. It doesn't hurt to add a small amount of water for steam, a dab of butter and seasoning. Corn on the cob, whole baked potatoes or yams require little preparation other than washing.

Mushrooms in foil: Drain juice off one can of large mushrooms. Place on sheet of foil. Top with butter or margarine, salt, pepper. Wrap securely. Place on coals for about 10-15 minutes.

Corn: Corn is delicious if first wrapped in a wet brown paper bag, then in wet newspaper, and cooked directly over hot coals.

Biscuits: Cut or form the dough into rounds or squares that are about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap each biscuit separately in a square of aluminum foil, leaving enough room for the dough to rise. Bake 10 minutes.

Baked apple: core apple. Fill the cored apple with walnut, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, raisins, and marshmallow. Place in middle of a piece of aluminum foil. Bring corners up over apple; then twist them together. Cook about 20 minutes, 10 minutes each side.

Banana boat: Cut and remove a lengthwise wedge from the inner curve of a banana. Fill with chocolate and marshmallows or raisins and marshmallows. Place banana skin over the top. Wrap in aluminum foil, place in hot coals for 5 minutes.

Cupcake or Muffin inside orange: Cut top off orange and remove insides. Pour cake or muffin batter into the shell until it is about 2/3 full. Replace the lid of the orange. Wrap it in foil and bake on the coals about 20/30 minutes. The cake or muffin will have an orange flavor.

Peach yums: Place half a canned or fresh peach on a sheet of aluminum foil. Put large marshmallow in center. Fold and wrap foil, sealing tightly. Bake on grill over coals or low fire for 5-10 minutes, turning several times.

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

telekinetic

I have tons of success with these, and make them often.

DOUBLE WRAP DOUBLE WRAP DOUBLE WRAP. Always wrap two layers of foil. Follow these instructions:
and then flip it over seam-down on another piece of foil and do it again. I've never had a 'leaker' using this method, and keeping the juices in is the secret to these not burning, since they're right on the coals.

Backpacking tip: If you put these in the freezer once you make them, and then stick them in the center of your sleeping bag roll, you don't need a cooler if you're going to eat them the first night.

I made them for a camping trip recently just like you're suggesting. I put a pad of butter under a hamburger patty, surrounded it with carrots, onion, and potato, and applied a liberal dash of season salt and garlic salt (Mrs Dash works great for this, too). Stuck them in ziplock bags (three to a gallon bag) and put them in the bottom of the cooler and ate them the second night. I usually make a couple extras with the extra vegetables, so a vegetarian option is perfectly reasonable. I do 20 minutes on either side in a hot coal bed.

Also, a great desert is a cored apple with carmel candies in the center where the core was, wrapped in foil (double as always) and rolled around in the coals...kind of an inside-out carmel apple.

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remy1492

I like the idea of wrapping food over a fire. Its a good way to avoid carcinogens and other strange things that get released with heat and carbon reactions,

ahhhh corn, tasty. I will have to try the other stuff you listed.

---------- Post added at 01:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 AM ----------

edit
wow tele, that apple idea is excellent.

Lindy

I know it's a little off topic, but my uncle used to use one of these 12-volt crockpots.
12 Volt Slow Cooker Crock Pot - Gadgets
He would pre heat the mix and let it cook while he drove all day.
Not authentic camp style, though.

Lindy