Flames look good on camera, but they scorch dinner. In this episode we talk about cooking on a steady bed of campfire coals—steak, fish, potatoes, beans, and breakfast—tie it to John 21 where Jesus cooked breakfast on coals, and give you a simple system you can use on your next trip.
When most folks picture campfire cooking, they think of flames licking the pan and sparks flying into the night sky. Looks good, doesn’t it? Problem is, flames lie to you. They burn hot, fast, and uneven. You end up with food that’s black on the outside and raw in the middle. I’ve been there—trust me, I’ve ruined enough meals to learn the hard way.
In this episode, I talk about learning to cook over coals instead of chasing flames. It’s slower, steadier, and a whole lot better once you figure it out. Coals hold their heat, they cook evenly, and they give you control. That means you can fry your eggs without burning them, slow-cook your beans, or even throw a fish right on the embers without worrying about it turning into charcoal.
I’ll walk you through how I build a two-part fire: one for flames and one for cooking. I talk about using cast iron, Dutch ovens, and the old “scales down” trick for fish. I even get into why I don’t like the so-called “dirty steak” method—it’s not about being picky; I just can’t stand grit between my teeth.
We’ll also open up John 21, where Jesus cooked breakfast for His disciples after the resurrection—on a fire of coals. He didn’t rush. He didn’t bark orders. He met them with patience, warmth, and steady heat. That’s the picture I keep in mind every time I cook outdoors. It’s not just about the meal—it’s about slowing down enough to let the fire, and the moment, do what it’s supposed to.
By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to manage your heat, build a coal bed that works like a stove, and cook a solid meal without the frustration. More than that, you’ll walk away remembering that steady coals, like steady faith, always bring the best results. Flames flash, but coals endure—and so should we.
So pull up a chair, pour a cup of coffee, and let’s talk about how to cook without burning everything you love.
Grab the book, Primitive Camping & Bushcraft, and the Primitive Camping Rations and coffee.
If this helped, share it with someone who keeps burning dinner at camp.
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6)
(upbeat music) Welcome to the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Speir. So here we're gonna talk about gear, grit and the kind of stories you only get around a fire. It's all about learning, adapting and keeping your faith strong. So whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman or just looking to unplug and reconnect, you're in the right place. So pull up a chair by the fire and let's get into it. (upbeat music) All right, welcome back to the podcast. And today we're gonna be discussing a few things about cooking over coals. And it's one of those things that I don't necessarily like doing it, but it can be done. So we're gonna look at page in the book, Primitive Camping and Bushcraft page 217. We're talking about cooking over open coals. I got a little excerpt here. It says, for quick cooking, you can rake some coals to the side of your fire and place your pot or pan directly on the coals. This will begin to choke the coals, but keep them hot enough to cook eggs and sausage or whatnot. You can also nestle your water bottle directly against the edge of the coals to boil water for coffee or to boil water to drink. Open coals paired with a stainless steel or cast iron skillet is an easy way to cook fish or meats. Now, there is actually another thing to do here and I've seen it time and time again. And I just watched a post in the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft group on Facebook, where someone took a steak and they raked the coals to the side and they threw the steak onto the actual coals and cooked it that way. Personally, if I have a different way to do it, I'm gonna do it a different way. I've watched, I keep saying with these examples where people I'm like, I don't think I do it that way. I don't do it. It's not because I'm picky. It is, it's just, I don't like eating the grit. This is something about the grit that just drives me insane. I cannot stand grit. I don't like grit in my water and I don't like grit on my food. And those two things, like whenever I chew a piece of grit, it's kind of like for some people, the nails on the chalkboard or the wrestling of styrofoam or something to that effect just, ugh, you know, it just grit, when I chew a piece of grit, it just drives me mad insane. And I don't understand, I guess it's a psychological thing, because there's really nothing to it. It's just grit. You just chomp, throw it and go on, swallow it and you're done. But it's just, it drives me insane whenever I get a piece of grit in anything. I cannot stand it. I don't know. All right, so, but anyway, that's either here or there. That's a Chris Spear defect, I guess. (laughs) Have you ever sat by the fire and you got a growling stomach and you realize that, hey, your food is either still raw in the middle or you turned it into a piece of charcoal, black, through and through. I've been there. In fact, one of my early camping trips was a disaster when it came to cooking. My boys still remember, (laughs) still remember me on this meal, that it was ruined. It was ruined. And we had to cook something else because it was bad. I tried cooking over the coals and I burnt everything. Not cooking over the coals, I cooked over the fire and I burnt everything. It was pretty bad. So, one of the beautiful things about open fire cooking is you have to do it over and over. Open fire cooking is nothing different than practicing with a tool. When you get out into the great outdoors and you have your tool or your piece of gear, your equipment, and we talked about this in the last episode, we talked about it in every episode, is repetitious of practicing with the tools. And practicing with your gear. And cooking is no different. Cooking is the same thing. It takes practice. You have to practice to be able to do it. Do you think that you're gonna be able to walk into a kitchen and follow a recipe 100% and get it right the first time? No, you'll get it close. It may taste good, but it's not gonna be perfect. It's not. Recipes are guides. This is a recipe book. This is a guide. This is something to show you along the way how to do things. This, you know, the primitive camp in the Bushcraft book. And I don't know why I do that. Every time, if you notice that on the video, every time I talk about the book, I always shut it to look at the cover. (laughs) That's weird. But it is a recipe book. It has the recipes in there for you to have a successful camping trip. And it will guide you through how to have a successful camping trip, but it does not ensure the fact that you will. That's up to you about how you're learning what you're learning, you know, or how you're learning what you need to do. The skill, how do you apply the skill? You have to learn that. I can't teach you that. You have to be able to apply it to your own, your own trips, your own outdoor adventures, your own primitive camping in Bushcraft setups. So cooking over open flames, it always looks good in a movie. You ever notice that? Like there, they got this big old roast and this over to open flames and you got the sparks flying, the meat sizzling, but the flames are deceptive. They burn hot. They will fry your food. They will completely char your food. It cooks uneven. It cooks very fast. And your food ends up scorched outside, but still raw inside. Case in point. Recently this past week, my son and I decided that we were gonna fry some chicken. Chicken leg quarters are, or chicken legs actually, are very, very sometimes difficult to fry. Especially if you double batter them, all right? So don't ever double batter your chicken. All right, so don't ever double batter your chicken. What we learned was you cooking around 350 to 375 in the grease. And then I threw it in there and immediately, because it was double battered, the outside burned. It was dark, dark, dark. It looked like some of these leaves laying on the ground. But whenever the chicken was finally done, it was good on the inside, you know? And that's deceptive because if you wasn't paying attention, I was using a thermometer and I was sticking it in there to making sure the chicken was 265 or higher, you know, to make sure it was done. But had I not done that, I would have said, oh, okay, this is done. And the inside of that chicken would have been completely raw. And it's the same thing with your campfire. You get out there with your fish or you get out there with your whatever, your snake or whatever, and you throw it on there and you charred the outside of it, but the inside of it is still completely raw. That's where this open coals cooking comes into play. It's not very difficult to master. You just have to remember to slow down. If you need more heat, you rake on more coals. If you need less heat, you take away some coals and it's just like a stove. It operates like a stove. Now, I don't know, you probably have seen this. Woodbounds Outdoors did a video where he made a fire ring and then he made a separate fire ring off the side of that and he scraped the coals into it. Now I've done this before as well. And he cooked over those coals and that separate ring and it allows him to have his fire over here. And then it allows him to rake as many coals as he needs. And that's not necessary for his cooking. I've done that and it's great. And his video was the first one. I haven't done a video of the such, but his video is the first one that came to mind. Now that is a great way to actually cook over your fire because you can control the temperature of what you want. You can actually lay some sort of grate or grill over the top of it. And use that as your stove where you're freely allowing the coals to rake in and out. You can turn it up, turn it down. If you need a little more heat, throw a couple more sticks in there. If you're cooking over the coals like this, you can put the pot and pan on there. You can put your food directly on the coals. And like I was mentioning a while ago, I don't care for that because of the grit. It is easy to do, it's easy to cook, and it will cook your food through and through. And you just have to remember that the coals are hot as well. And you want to rake some to the side and put them on there and then flip your steak or flip your food. If you don't have a stick to do it, this is one way to do it. If you don't have the time or the patience, that's one way to do it. You can just go ahead and throw your food directly on there, those coals, and cook your food that way. It's fine. I just prefer not to eat charcoal. After a while, it makes grooves in your teeth. Charcoal will actually damage your teeth more than help you. And don't ever breathe. Charcoal does stand a little tidbit of the day. It does not absorb in your body and it causes all kinds of nasties. So one trip I took, I started with high flames and the potatoes went into fire and the fish went over the flames. Within minutes, it was charred. The potatoes were still cooking, but the fish were so charred that it was unable to eat on the outside. I mean, on the inside, it was still nice and good, but the outside was just charred. I'm like, man, this isn't working. Then over time, like we were just talking about, taking your time to use as a skill, doing this is a skill. It's just like any other piece of gear. You have to learn how to do it. Throughout time, I learned to scrape the coals to the side and cook over those coals. One of my recent trips, I took Dave, he and I went on a kayaking trip and we went down the river and we stayed the night and I cooked steaks. I threw the steaks over the top of a grill over the open coals. I cooked mushrooms and onions. I threw the potatoes in the fire. I put them in a Dutch oven and wrapped the coals all around them to cook the potatoes. And boy, was that good. That was a great camping meal. That had a squeezable, golly, that had a squeezable garlic butter. If you haven't seen that video, it's on my Spear Outdoors channel. I'll try to remember to link it into the show notes here, but it was a long overnight camping out trip. Was testing out some hammocks, various hammocks. And that steak was amazing. It was great. It was a big old T-bone steak. It was awesome. Matter of fact, it's making me hungry right now. So once I made the shift from cooking over the direct flames to cooking on the open coals, everything changed. I started making better. I started cooking better. I knew when to actually put my potatoes in to where they would be done, about the same time the rest of the stuff was done. And then word to the wise, one of the things is I know your eyeballs get big when you're hungry. And I know you have these grandioso ideas of what to cook. When it comes to potatoes, don't worry about cooking these football-sized potatoes with your steak. Go ahead and cook a bunch of smaller ones. That way they get done a lot faster. So you're not sitting there waiting on the potato to get done. So in this instance, when Dave and I went, I put the potatoes in the Dutch oven, it would have been a lot easier if I'd have cooked some smaller ones. But these potatoes, two potatoes filled up the entire Dutch oven. Now, I mean, they were that big. They were huge. You could have used them as a daygum football for Pee Wee football. I mean, these things were huge. So it took forever for the potatoes to get done. But we still, we ended up getting the potatoes done. We ended up eating. Once I made this shift, like I was saying a while ago, everything changed. I started making better decisions with the potatoes. I started making, you know, wrapping those and throwing them in a fire and making different sized potatoes cook at different times. And then, you know, I was able to wrap them, throw them in there with full into the direct coals. And then I was able to take the fish and, you know, if you have a fish with scales on it, you could fillet at one side of that fish and throw the scales down onto the flames and cook it directly that way. You don't have to flip it or anything. Fish only has to come up to 145 degrees and it's done. 145 degrees, done. And that way it stays moist and tender and good. And you could cook it directly on the coals that way. You don't have to scale them. You don't have to scan them and that meat will pop right off of that skin. And you're able to eat it directly that way. Even, you can even slow cook, you know, some beans or whatever. You have to consistently, consistently, you have to constantly be adding different coals to it to keep the temperature, the temperature that you want. But you can cook beans. Dry beans take three to four hours. I've done it before. I've cooked three, I've cooked dry beans, a pound of dry beans. I talk about it all the time. Talk about it in my book. Talk about it all the time. Dry beans in the woods is a very, very, very filling and very nutrient rich food that you can have while you're in the woods. And you compare it, not compare, but you compliment that with some dehydrated vegetables, which you took all the moisture out of, made it real lightweight. You just throw it in there with the beans and they rehydrate. Freeze dry is even better if you don't have access to a freeze dryer. Hey, if you would like some stuff freeze dried, and you want some vegetables freeze dried, get in touch with me. I can freeze dry some stuff and ship it to you. Well, we'll talk about that. Send me an email at menatspareoutdoors.com. But I learned that even the spam and even eggs, if your fire's too hot with your eggs, you burn them to the bottom of the skillet and nobody likes burnt eggs. That burnt egg smell is horrendous. Even spam sticks, and spam's full of grease. But golden brown, not blackened is the goal. Golden brown, beautiful, not blackened. Redfish is blackened. You can blacken that redfish and it tastes good. I don't know. Blackened redfish down here in Louisiana, South Mississippi, Louisiana is a big deal. Now I don't know where it is, if it is everywhere else, but blackened redfish is good. So from burnt meals to the best campfire suppers you've ever eaten, all this is because I have learned how to regulate the temperature of my cooking, my coals, my fire. And I quit cooking over the open flames. Now obviously, if I'm trying to get some water to boil in a hurry, I'm gonna throw it up there next to the open flames and get the fire going. You know, boil my water. And get it really going, really cooking, really boiling, really out there. But if I'm cooking my dinner, I'm gonna take my time, no matter how hungry I am. Cooking over the coals gives you some control. It's kinda like using the knob on your stove. Flames flare up, but coals hold steady. And you can spread them evenly. You can build your bed of coals and cook with patience. And that's how you have a less frustrating camping trip, so to speak, is that you don't have to worry about these food, the foods getting burnt and ruined. Now it's not all the time you're gonna ruin your food. You can cook over some open flames. If you're cooking a pot, you got a pot of soup or something like that, you got a tripod. You can throw that puppy up in there and do it over open flames. I'm not saying you can't do it that way. You could do it that way. You could do it anyway. There's no wrong way to do it. But what I am saying is that slow down. Foods that is burnable, or can burn, any food can burn, but foods that are more apt to burn, like your steaks or your fish or your pancakes or your breakfast or stuff to that nature, slow down, rake you some coals to the side, cook over them coals, because one of the things that you don't want is charred food. I read an article a while back where they were talking about how charred food is a carcinogen. And enough of it, most everything that you come in contact with is a cumulative thing where, from my understanding, that once you reach a certain accumulative amount, then adverse effects happen. Poison ivy, case in point. It is a tolerance. It's a cumulative tolerance. You have to build up your allergy to it. Some people are allergic to it right out the gate. Some people can touch it several times, several times, several times before it breaks them out. And so that's an accumulative thing. And not everybody is allergic to poison ivy. Not everybody has the rash at first, but that's neither case nor there. That was just an example of the carcinogens that are in burnt foods. That burnt food does have a carcinogen in it. From this article I read, I wish I could remember where that article was. I read a lot of stuff, and sometimes it's hard to remember. And it's hard to flag everything and throw it into every episode, because I've read this many, many years ago. It was a study done by one of these big universities or something to that effect, but who knows if it's true? Who knows if it's not? Cooking over open flames reminds me of John chapter 21. So John chapter 21 verse nine, and this is pretty cool. I'm gonna read a little bit further. I like reading a little bit further. I wrote down verse nine because it applied, but Jesus gave us the first example of cooking over coals. That it says, "Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bred." And Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught." You keep on reading down through verse 12. And Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there was so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." Yet none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" knowing that it was the Lord. So obviously this was when Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, and all of them went fishing. And they all went back to what they knew. We always go back to our comforts. After something happens, we always go back to our comforts. So there's many examples inside this. And I use the New King James version, so the verbiage is probably a little bit different than the version that you use in the translation that you're using. But what he was talking about here is that when they come ashore, they saw a fire there, and the fish were laid onto the coals. So Jesus himself started a fire, and laid his fish on the coals. And this is an example for us whenever we head out into the great outdoors, that we can lay our food directly onto the coals and eat it. And I just thought that that was pretty cool. So, (birds chirping) Jesus himself cooked breakfast for his disciples, not over raging flames, but over coals. The risen savior of the world chose to meet his friends with steady warmth, with simple food, and with patient presence. I can't speak all these things that I've jotted now. So, he was just resurrected, and he met his disciples that went back to the comforts of their old lifestyles, because they didn't know what or where. They were being impatient, and they just ran. Saw them out of fear. Saw them out of, "What do I do now?" And he taught them that, "Hey, here you go." And this lesson is for us today. You can cook over an open flames. He's showing us there that you can cook over open coals. So, you know, don't run back. If something doesn't go the way you expect it, don't run back to something that, you know, just because, and the case in point with this is, I love saying case in point. You ever notice that? (laughs) So, one thing that I recently quit and put down tobacco. I used smokeless tobacco for years, since I was 14, 15 years old. And recently, last year, last June, I laid down smokeless tobacco, cold turkey. But I used a crutch. I used this non-tobacco, non-nicotine, but herbal made out of corn husk. And it had the same flavor as the tobacco, you know, wintergreen flavor. And I, man, I went a long time without it. And then I was like, "Ah, something didn't go my way." I got aggravated. I got upset or disappointed or something. And I went right back to it. I didn't go back to the tobacco, but I went right back to the fake stuff. Just something to ease my nerves instead of abiding in Jesus, instead of trusting in him to walk me through what I was going through. I went back to what was comfortable for me. And that's a picture of what this is. This is a two-fold devotion in this thing, where these disciples, after Jesus was crucified, and they just scattered. And they went back to what was comfortable to them. And that's what we as humans do. We always go back to something that we know. We always go back to something that's comfortable. And when something doesn't go our way. And not only was he teaching us how we can cook over an open fire in this scene, but he was also demonstrating how the disciples went their own way as well. So I just want you to take away that right there. Cooking over open coals teaches us patience. It's not about rushing. It's not about being in a hurry. It teaches us to trust the process. Flames are fast. Flames are hot. Flames are unpredictable. But we want slow and steady. We want something that is going to be able to cook our food in a steady, even manner. Steady heat is heat that lasts. Steady heat is something that our food is going to be cooked thoroughly and all the way across. And so that's true for campfire cooking. It's true as you follow Christ. Sometimes he burns away the fast, flashy things so that what remains is the steady and the sustaining. So the next time you're out in the woods, cook over a fire. Remember, coals bring out the best in the food and waiting on Jesus brings out the best in us. So what we're going to do is if you got an opportunity, you could do it in a barbecue pit, start your fire and cook some food over the grill. Rake you some coals to the side and cook over those coals. If you have charcoal grill, you've done this. This is how you cook over charcoal. And everybody knows that you wait till the flames die down and they go all the way to the coals and they turn white. And then they're just steadily hot. They burn hot for hours and you're able to cook all you want. And that's how a charcoal grill operates. So essentially what you're doing is you're without charcoal, you're just raking all the coals to the side for you to cook over. You can use pots and pans. You can cook directly on the coals. You can cook on a grill over the coals. It doesn't matter how you do it. You can even use a tripod and cook slow simmer over the top of those coals. That works as well. So the next time you're out in the woods, the next time you're able to cook something, if you can do it on your back porch in any barbecue pit or whatnot, pay attention to how fast things cook with the flames and how slow and thorough and evenly things cook on over the coals. Just do it that way. And then remember John 21, verse nine is where this starts. And I read a little bit past that. I went all the way up to verse 11. But remember that Jesus gave us the example of cooking over open coals. And so if he can do it and he can show the patience that way with that, then we should have the patience to do that in our everyday adventures in the great outdoors. So anyway, hey, I hope you enjoyed this. Don't forget, swing by Amazon, pick up a copy of the book, Primitive Camping in Bushcraft or PrimitiveCamping.com is coming very soon. And I'm working on it as faithfully as I can and steadfast as I can. And I'm gonna be offering the Primitive Camping in Bushcraft meals, which we got red beans and rice. We're gonna have shepherd's pie. We're gonna have chicken stew and we got breakfast. And we got the coffee, Primitive Camping in Bushcraft blend coffee. So you're gonna have everything you need to head out into the great outdoors and enjoy your stay. So I hope this was useful. I hope this was interesting. If you enjoyed this, please hit the like button, go ahead and leave a comment, press all the buttons on the keyboards, send it to somebody who might enjoy it, who you may think finds this helpful, send it to them. Give them a great adventure in the great outdoors. And remember, in everything you do, and in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. I'll see you next time. God bless you. Thanks for sitting around the fire with me today. If this episode gave you something to think about, if it helped you feel a little bit more prepared or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit, go ahead and share it with someone else who might need it as well. We don't go camping to run away from life. We come out here to slow down and recharge. So grab another law, throw it on the fire, and remember this, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. I'll see you next time. God bless you.