Cooking with Foil Packs on an Open Fire
Hey guys! My name is Logan. I’m an avid outdoorsman. I love everything about the outdoors. The sights, sounds, smells, and tranquility is just so captivating and relaxes me. One of my favorite things to do out in the woods is cook!
One of my favorite things to cook while outside is the “Foil Pack”. They’re super easy and you can pack it with whatever you want! I tend to throw veggies, potatoes, and sausage in mine; but my wife likes a less adventurous, more veggie based foil pack, where as my kids prefer to make desserts in their foil packs. The great thing about foil packs is they’re quick, easy, fun, and super diverse. They’re a fun thing to do with kids, friends, or to throw in your bag for a solo trip to the woods.
I think foil packs are severely underrated as a food choice in the outdoor community. They’re as big or as small as you want. They’re lightweight enough to throw into a backpack and easy enough to cook that a child could do it (provided they’re supervised around fire 😅). You can put whatever you want in a foil pack, and then all you have to do is throw it directly in the fire and let it sit until it’s ready. No plates or utensils are needed, which makes cleanup a breeze. You either wad your empty foil up and throw it away, or fold it neatly and tuck it away for some other use in the woods. The foil pack is a great option for any outdoorsman who might encounter hunger in the woods.
A few years ago some guys from my church asked if I wanted to go hiking. It was just a two day event. We were to hike into camp the first day, and then hike out the next. The biggest problem these guys seemed to have was food. They finally decided that they were going to buy a big thing of powdered soup to feed the group. You know, one of those packages of powder where you “just add water”. I just couldn’t do it. I like to eat. I hate being hungry and “powdered soup” wouldn’t stay with me too long, if you know what I mean. I had to figure something out that I could pack for myself to satisfy the hunger I would develop after an 8 mile hike…. But what? I finally landed on the idea of a “Foil
So we hiked all day and got to base camp. The first thing we did was start a fire, and then we each went about pitching our tents or hanging our hammocks. Before I went to pitch camp however, I dug my foil pack out and laid it on the fire. Inside of my foil pack was a ribeye steak. (Yes, I took a steak on a hike). I had laid out my foil at home, and then cut up potatoes, carrots, some broccoli, and some kielbasa sausage. I threw all of this in the foil and then slapped my raw steak on top. Then I wrapped it all up in foil, vacuum sealed it to prevent leaking in my backpack during the hike, and I threw my foil pack in the freezer until the morning of the hike.
I had figured that I could freeze my foil pack and then during the hike it would thaw enough to cook by the time we reached camp, but not so much that I’d have to worry about e.coli or something. I was right. As I pulled my foil pack out of my backpack, it was still ice cold. My steak was getting soft, but was still frigid. I laid the pack in the fire and pretty soon I was getting looks from my friends because “what in the world is that smell?!” Within minutes the aroma of a perfectly cooked steak soon filled the camp. A little bit of planning ahead allowed me to have a wonderful meal.
Foil packs are a great way to get the family involved in the outdoors. They’re a great way to bring friends together. They’re a great option for someone going on a solo adventure. The possibilities of what you can do with foil packs are endless, and so are the options of what you can put inside of your foil packs. Whether it be a basic meat and potatoes pack, a veggie pack, a dessert pack loaded with s’mores or some more exotic pack; the foil pack is a great, easy option for an outdoors adventure.
Article written by none other then Logan Wilburn.
Check him out on Instagram here!