I go camping a lot and I'm always in charge of the food. It's amazing how many people are completely clueless when it comes to cooking on an open fire.

There's many ways to cook on a fire, a lot are survivalist ways but I'll be going over methods for people who want to have a hearty meal while camping with some friends.

If you have meats that are still frozen or drinks that need to be cooled, find a spot in a river that has a decent current(you don't want stagnant water filled with bacteria on your beer cans) and create a barrier of rocks to keep it contained. The river is now your refrigerator and sometimes in the early morning and it can be a freezer.

For grilling I suggest getting a portable grilling screen preferably with legs.

I have one like this but it's more light weight and more portable.

If you don't have one with legs yank the screen from your grill or go buy one from walmart or your local grocery store, they have specials ones at my Martins that has a lip on it so food doesn't roll off. They're very cheap, no more than 5-6 bucks.

When I camp I have a large campfire pit that I use through out the night for light, heat and smoke to keep bugs away, next to it I create a smaller circle of rocks solely for cooking. It should be small enough to fit under your grill screens legs, if you have a normal legless grill screen, set the screen on the rocks and make sure it's 100 percent sturdy, you don't want to get 90 percent through your meal and then lose it. With this screen you can cook nearly anything you put your mind too, boil water and dry out wet clothing.

Don't set the screen on the logs, logs roll and most importantly they burn!

Now the reason why I don't like to cook on the main fire is you can't control your hot spots and you're always blowing on the base and a larger fire pit generates a lot more soot and dust than a small one which can fly up on the bottom of your food.

When it comes time to cook make sure your main fire has a nice set of embers going and by that I mean some thicker logs that are bright solid orange and look like they'll stay that way for a while. Transfer your choice embers to your smaller fire pit and place them under your screen. With some blowing and placement of some sticks you'll have a nice grilling temp in minutes.

Don't bring spices and things like that in the container, you should know how much spice is needed for whatever you're cooking so have all that stuff measured out and in plastic zip block bags, remember less shit you have to haul equals less effort and less of a chance of losing it. Any veggies or meat that need to be cut as prep work should be done at home. Potatoes brown without skin or when they aren't in water so a good trick is to cut them up and put them in large opening juice bottle filled with water.

Cooking spray is much needed not only for the screen but for foil packets. Any veggies, stews or anything like that should be cooked in foil. Don't get cheap foil, it burns, dish out the extra 50 cents for some Reynolds heavy duty. Some people coat their screens with foil before grilling, I think it's too messy and doesn't cook as evenly.

Foil packets are easy and if use them on your grill at home you'll pick this part right up. Remember don't layer the foil, one solid wrap should be more than enough and make one end easy to open so you can check on it to make sure it's cooked. Potatoes are harder to do in foil wraps especially in large amounts, I generally cook 2-3 potatoes a packet and no more, other wise you'll be there all night. Foil packets can be placed right on top of the embers of your large fire but make sure to check them often, it's easy to burn parts of your meal by doing this. If you have room on your screen I suggest cooking it on the screen.

As every cook knows timing is key. Unlike grilling at home you can't just slap your meat on and go inside the AC and drink a beer, you have to constantly monitor it because the heat on a fire isn't always even, hot spots are created and you have to maneuver your thickest cuts along with the hot spots while keeping your thinner cuts on the cooler spots to avoid burning. Always blow on the weakest parts of your fire, try to keep it even.