Cooking Breakfast in a Bag
An Experiment in Campfire Cooking
We recently went on a school outing, camping with my daughter’s class, a little something we do a few times a year. We decided to try “breakfast in a bag,” a crazy idea I first read about over at the now-defunct Lakeland Gear Blog.
It works like this.
- Line the bottom and sides of a standard paper lunch bag with thick-cut bacon.
- Crack two (or more) eggs on top of the bag.
- Put over the campfire and let it slowly cook until the grease is about halfway up the bag.
- Eat your breakfast.
Some thoughts on cooking breakfast in a bag.
It was a mixed success.
First, it took longer than I thought, and it was challenging to maintain a cooking surface in the Goldilocks zone (you know, just right), but that was largely due to the participation of too many (young) cooks. Turns out kids like big flames, and I wasn’t always able to dissuade them from tossing more logs on the fire, so it was difficult trying to maintain a nice bed of coals.
Second, and the question everyone asks, wouldn’t the bag just catch on fire? Answer: Yes, if you’re not careful. We lost one bag to fire. As the bacon grease dripped into the fire, flames flared up and engulfed it in an all-consuming inferno. There was much excitement about this.
We replaced it with bag number three.
So, how did it turn out?
Pretty darn good!
The first bag we cooked was a bit crispy on the bottom because we let it cook too long, but our third bag was just about right.
Like any experiment, we learned a lot. We have another camping trip coming up, and we’re looking forward to trying it again. And yes, it would be faster to cook this breakfast on the camp stove, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
And for another fun camp cooking adventure, try Baking Chocolate Cake in an Orange.
Brought here via boing boing.
Remember doing this in Boy Scouts.
Other ideas for cool campsite cooking:
Baked apples in foil. Core an apple, smear inside with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon. Wrap entire thing in foil. Set in fire for 5-7 minutes. Eat and enjoy.
You can also make orange cake in an orange peel. Same concept as the apple basically.
Those both sound pretty great. We’re going to give them a try. Thanks for the comment!