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Campfire Cooking Gear I Wish I Had My First Camping Trip
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items My first camping trip, I tried to cook eggs in a flimsy aluminum pan over an open fire. The handle melted. The eggs were half raw, half charcoal. If you're planning your first few trips and don't want to eat granola bars for every meal, this is the g...
Sections
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Cast Iron Skillets That Handle Open Flames
Campfire Grates and Cooking Surfaces
Fire Starting and Heat Control
Cleanup Gear That Actually Works at a Campsite
Breakfast Ingredients Worth Packing
Cast Iron Skillets That Handle Open Flames
I ruined two nonstick pans before accepting that cast iron is the only thing that belongs near a campfire. These hold heat like nothing else and the food tastes completely different.
Keep this one at camp permanently. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, it handles all of them without flinching. Before this, I was scraping burnt egg off a warped pan every morning. Anyone car camping needs one of these before their next trip.
Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet 12"
Grab the smaller size if you're cooking for one or two people. Lighter to pack and heats up faster over coals. I use this when it's just me and my partner on weekend trips. Fits perfectly on most portable grates.
Lodge - 10.25 in. Cast Iron Skillet in Black with Pour Spout
Try this if you want cast iron without spending a lot. Showed up already seasoned and I've cooked maybe 30 meals on it without re-seasoning. Great for someone testing whether cast iron camping is their thing before going all in.
Ozark Trail 10.5 inch Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet
Pair this with any Lodge skillet because grabbing a 400 degree handle with a wet towel is how you get a trip to urgent care. Learned that one the hard way at Joshua Tree. The silicone stays on snug and doesn't slide off mid-flip.
Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet
Campfire Grates and Cooking Surfaces
Balancing a skillet on two logs sounds rugged until it tips over and dumps your dinner into the dirt. A solid grate changed everything about how I cook outside.
Use this over a fire pit and it gives you a flat, stable surface for any pan. Before I had one, my skillet kept wobbling and sliding. For anyone who camps at sites with basic fire rings, this drops right on top and you're cooking in minutes.
Free Shipping! Stansport Heavy Duty Steel Camp Grill
Toss this in the truck bed and forget about it until you need it. Folds flat, weighs almost nothing, holds up a full 12 inch skillet no problem. Wish I'd bought it two years earlier instead of stacking rocks like some kind of caveman.
Texsport Heavy Duty Camp Grill Folding 24 in. x16 in. SKU
Snag this one if your fire pit is uneven or oddly shaped. The legs adjust so you can level it out on rough ground. Perfect for people who camp at dispersed sites where nothing is flat or predictable.
Qczoyp 13 Inch Round Grill Grate
Get this if you cook for a group. The surface area is big enough for two skillets side by side, so you can do eggs and sausage at the same time. Weekend trips with friends got way less chaotic once I stopped cooking in batches.
Camp Chef Lumberjack Over Fire Grill 18"x36"
Fire Starting and Heat Control
Spending 45 minutes trying to light damp wood while everyone stares at you hungry is a specific kind of humiliation. These made starting and managing a cooking fire way less stressful.
Tuck a box of these in your camp bin and stop messing with newspaper that blows away. Light one square, stack kindling on top, done. For anyone who's been fanning smoke for 20 minutes while their kids ask when breakfast is ready.
RUTLAND Safe Lite® Fire Starter Squares, 144 count
Bring this along if you use charcoal at camp. Fill it, light the bottom, and in 15 minutes you have even coals ready for cooking. Way more consistent heat than an open wood fire when you actually want to control temperature.
Weber, Charcoal Chimney Starter
Switch to these when you need reliable, steady heat under a skillet. Wood fires are romantic but the temperature swings are brutal for cooking. Stock up before your trip so you're not hunting for charcoal at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
Kingsford Original Charcoal Briquettes, 16 lbs
Throw a tin of these in every bag, jacket, and glove box you own. Regular matches turn to mush if your pack gets rained on. Found that out at 6 AM in Oregon trying to make coffee with soggy matchsticks.
Coghlan's Storm Matches, Windproof and Waterproof
Cleanup Gear That Actually Works at a Campsite
No running water, no dish soap, no sponge. That was me after my first campfire meal, scrubbing a skillet with a pinecone. Never again.
Use this on your cast iron instead of soap and water. Scrapes off stuck food in seconds and won't strip the seasoning you've been building. For anyone who's been told to never use soap on cast iron but had no idea what to use instead.
Customer reviews for Cast Iron Chainmail Scrubber
Spray a light coat on your skillet after cleaning and it stays protected until next time. Packed mine away wet once and opened it to a rust disaster a month later. This prevents that entirely. Takes five seconds.
Camp Chef, Cast Iron Care, 8oz Spray Conditioner
Grab a small bottle for dishes, hands, and basically everything at camp. Biodegradable so you're not dumping chemicals near a creek. Perfect for people who camp in backcountry areas where leave-no-trace rules matter.
Sea to Summit Wilderness Wash Soap | REI Co-op
Toss one in your camp kitchen box for plates, cups, and anything that isn't cast iron. Gets firm in cold water so it actually scrubs. I keep a dedicated one that lives in my camping gear and swap it out every few trips.
Scrub Daddy, Scrub Sponge, Scratch-Free, Model 1-COUNT
Breakfast Ingredients Worth Packing
Cold cereal at a campsite is depressing. Once I started packing the right shelf-stable ingredients, mornings went from sad to genuinely the best part of the trip.
Bring this mix, add water, pour into a hot cast iron skillet. That's it. Fluffy pancakes with actual protein so you're not crashing by 10 AM on a hike. For anyone tired of the rubbery instant pancakes from a squeeze bottle.
Kodiak, Protein-Packed Power Cakes Pancake Mix
Slice it thin, fry it in cast iron until the edges crisp up. Tastes like bacon's weird cousin but honestly hits different at 7 AM in the woods. No refrigeration needed, which is the whole point when your cooler ice melted overnight.
SPAM, Classic Canned Meats, 7 G protein
Keep these in your cooler for the first morning when the ice is still solid. Crisp them up in cast iron and the smell alone will wake up the entire campsite. Worth the cooler space every single time.
Bob Evans Original Pork Sausage Links, 12 oz, 14 Ct Fresh
Ditch those tiny paper packets. A real pepper grinder at camp makes your eggs taste like actual food. Sounds small but after three days of bland campfire meals, fresh cracked pepper feels like a luxury. Weighs nothing, lasts forever.
McCormick Black Pepper Grinder, 1.0 oz Bottle