Every piece of camp cooking equipment made before 1950 was designed around the open fire. The Dutch oven with a flanged lid was designed so that coals could be laid on top as well as below, giving the cook control over top heat and bottom heat independently. The camp pie iron was designed to seal bread around a filling and hold it in direct contact with the coals. The tin cup with a wire handle was designed to hang from a pot hook over the fire. The logic of fire cooking was built into the shape of the tools.
The open fire is a variable heat source. It is hotter in some places than others, the heat changes as the wood burns down, and wind affects both the temperature and the direction of heat. Cooking on an open fire well requires reading the fire rather than setting a thermostat. The experienced camp cook learns to hold their hand above the coals to judge temperature, to shift the pot position as the fire changes, and to understand that camp cooking takes longer than stovetop cooking because the heat is less concentrated.
Cast iron is the correct material for open fire cooking because it does not care about the fire's variability. A thin stainless pan over an uneven fire develops hot spots that burn food. Cast iron, with its mass, averages out the unevenness. A cast iron Dutch oven sitting in a bed of coals will cook a stew evenly for two hours without attention because the thermal mass of the iron stabilizes the temperature against the fluctuations of the fire below it.
The Dutch oven is the most versatile piece of camp cooking equipment because it can do the job of a pot (stew, soup, beans), an oven (biscuits, cornbread, cobbler), and a frying pan (sausage, eggs, fish). The flanged lid is the key: it creates a seal that allows steam to build up inside, and the ability to pile coals on the flat lid surface provides top heat for baking. A 12-inch Dutch oven is the standard camp size, large enough to feed four to six people.
The pie iron is the other piece of camp cooking equipment with no equivalent at home. It seals two pieces of bread around any filling -- eggs and cheese, apple and cinnamon, pizza sauce and mozzarella -- and presses them against the coals for two to three minutes per side. The result is a toasted, sealed pocket with a hot filling, cooked in direct contact with fire. No oven produces this texture. The pie iron requires nothing but the fire, the iron, and whatever is in the camp cooler.
Building the right fire for cooking is different from building a fire for warmth. A cooking fire wants a bed of coals, not leaping flames. Start with larger fuel to build a hot fire, then let it burn down for forty-five minutes to an hour before cooking. Good cooking coals are red to orange in the center with a thin gray ash on the surface. Flames over the pot cause uneven heat and can scorch the exterior of the food. Patience is the technique.
One rule that applies to all open fire cooking: season the cast iron before the trip and re-season after. A well-seasoned Dutch oven is the difference between food that releases and food that welds itself to the bottom. Clean cast iron camp cookware with hot water and a brush immediately after use -- the residual heat of the fire makes this easier. Dry it over the remaining heat or over the stove. Apply a thin film of oil before storing. The oven will be better seasoned next trip than it was on this one.