Campfire Cooking: How to Make a Foil Pouch

Many of our campfire recipes require cooking in a foil pouch. We love using foil pouches to cook – it’s simple and there are no dishes to deal with after the meal.

General Tips:

• Minimum length to make a proper foil pouch – 12 inches. The key to making a good foil pouch is to have lots of extra foil. First off, you need it to properly construct the foil pouch. Secondly, there needs to be extra room around the contents of the pouch so heat can build up inside the pouch creating a mini-oven condition. The worst thing that can happen is the foil pouch is too tight or overfilled and it falls open as you are handling it. Don’t be responsible for ruining dinner!
• Splurge and buy the heavy-duty tin foil. It’s worth it!
• We highly recommend having a pair of tongs with long-handles to take foil pouches in and out of the fire.

Step 1:

Make sure you have a flat surface to work on and pull out a sheet of tin foil at least 12 inches long.

Step 2:

Place your food directly in the center of the foil pouch. Add oil and and seasonings at this point if you haven’t already done so.

Step 3:

Hold the two long edges of foil and bring together in the center above the food. If there is no apparent long edge and your piece of foil is more like a square – choose the side that is facing you to keep things simple.

Step 4:

Fold edges down creating a small lip – about 1/2 inch along the entire length of the foil. Make to sure there is room between the food and the foil so heat can build up inside the packet.

Step 5:

Fold lip over once more so it lays flat on top of the foil pouch. The top of the foil pouch should be nicely sealed now leaving two open “short” edges.

Step 6:

Press short edges together and fold over once to create another 1/2 inch lip. Make sure there is plenty of extra room from the edge of the foil to the contents of the foil packet (1 ½ to 2 inches).

Step 7:

Fold lip over once more so it lays flat on top of the foil pouch. Your foil packet should be tightly sealed on all sides and stay closed when you handle it.

Take a look at our Campfire Flatbread Pizza or Sloppy Joe Baked Potatoes for meal ideas.