Food, Gear - Pie Irons

Ah, the campfire. Cooking over the campfire usually falls into three categories: stuff on a grill, stuff in a pot like a dutch oven (and we'll cover that soon), and stuff on a stick. Stick cooking can include hot dogs, hot dogs, and if you're daring, bread. Unless you use the Pie Iron.

The pie iron is made up of two cupped pieces of metal on the end of longish sticks or poles and they clamp together, clamshell fasion. These shells can be square or round and made of cast iron or aluminum. The aluminum ones typically have no stick material on the inside and can be found at most discount department stores. The cast iron models will form that nice cast iron crust and come in a wider variety of shapes. The iron models are typically found at outdoor specialty stores and mail order houses, such as Wisemen Trading company.

The uses of these nifty tools are endless but follow theme: Some bread or batter product is place in the shell. This is topped with a filling and then another bread product is put on top. The shells are closed and put onto hot coals for a minute or two and then flipped for another minute or two. What comes out is like a little pie.

The most common recipe is to take buttered bread, put one slice in each shell, scoop apple pie filling onto the bread and then close it up. What comes out is a tasty apple pie. Other recipes include a large number of breakfast meals, such as an egg and sausage muffin, hash browns with egg and even pancakes and waffles. Dinner recipes include sandwiches such as grilled cheese and reubens and more extravegent ideas such as tacos using tortillas, and pizzas using ready made crescent rolls or pizza dough. More recipes can be found at the following websites:

Chuckwagon Diner
Great Camps

Irons can be had at the sources above, and also check out Rome Industries.

Gear - Origami Tableware

Cool Tools has a nice little write up on these nifty origami style tableware from Orikaso. The bowls and plates fold into shape and snap together and when stored unfold into flat sheets. They can also be used as chopping boards, coffee filters, dog bowls and I bet they work in a pinch as a gold panning. You can get a dish, a cup and a rice bowl. They appear to come in blue and red, but you may have to shop around to find both colors.

The Orikaso website has online sources for purchase.