Animal Style Camp Fries
Broiled fries under melted cheese, browned onions, and a pickle-relish sauce. Built on a foil pan over coals.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 13 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Frozen french fries | 1 lb | packed frozen in the cooler; they thaw but still crisp |
|---|---|---|
| American cheese slices | 4 slices | processed slices melt evenly and survive a warm cooler |
| Yellow onion | 1 medium | chopped at home |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Mayonnaise | 1/4 cup | single-serve packets if the cooler is unreliable |
| Ketchup | 2 tbsp | |
| Yellow mustard | 1 tsp | |
| Sweet pickle relish | 1 tbsp | |
| White vinegar | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Stir the mayo, ketchup, mustard, relish, and vinegar together in a cup. Set it in the cooler while everything else cooks.
- Burn the fire down to coals and set a grate over it. No flames, or the fries scorch before they cook.
- Melt the butter in a skillet on the grate. Add the onion, salt, and pepper. Stir every minute or two until it is soft and brown, about 12 minutes. Move it to a mug or bowl.
- Spread the fries in a single layer in a foil pan. Set the pan on the grate and cook 12 to 15 minutes, turning them with tongs a few times, until browned and crisp at the edges.
- Lay the cheese slices over the hot fries and cover the pan with foil for a minute. The trapped heat melts them.
- Pile the onions on top, spoon the sauce over, and eat straight out of the pan.
This is a car-camping dish because frozen fries and cheese both need a cooler. The order matters more than anything: the onions take twelve minutes and the fries take about the same, so cook the onions first and let them sit. They are fine lukewarm. The fries are not.
A foil pan replaces the baking sheet and the broiler becomes coals under a grate. There is no broiler heat coming from above, so the cheese gets melted by covering the pan for a minute instead. American slices are the right call here for once, since they melt at a low temperature and do not break into oil the way real cheddar does over a fire. The sauce is cold and acidic on purpose, cutting through the butter and the fat in the cheese.
Packing
Mix the sauce at home into a small screw-top jar and it is one less thing to measure in camp. Chop the onion at home too. Fries stay in their bag at the bottom of the cooler against the ice.
Variations
- No skillet: wrap the buttered onions in a double foil packet and set it at the edge of the coals for 15 minutes.
- A dutch oven with a lid does the whole thing, onions first, then fries, then cheese.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/web-stories/top-secret-in-n-out-animal-style-fries-recipe