Foil Packet Hobo Dinner
Ground beef, potato, and carrot sealed in foil and buried in coals. Twenty minutes, no pot.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 37
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 1/4 lb | kept cold until it goes in the foil |
|---|---|---|
| Potato | 1 medium | dice small or it will still be raw |
| Carrot | 1 medium | |
| Onion | 1/4, optional | |
| Ketchup or barbecue sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Heavy-duty aluminum foil | 2 squares per person | about 12 inches each |
| Paper towel | 1 per person |
Method
- Build the fire early. You want a bed of coals, not flames, so start it at least 40 minutes before you plan to eat.
- Wet a paper towel and lay it between two squares of foil. That sandwich is the cooking surface.
- Peel and dice the potato and carrot small. Slice the onion thin.
- Pull the beef apart into loose pieces on the foil, season it, then pile the vegetables on and spoon the sauce over.
- Fold the foil into a flat sealed package. Flat matters more than tidy: thickness is what leaves you with raw potato.
- Set the packet directly on the coals. Ten minutes, flip it with tongs, ten more.
- Open one packet and check the potato. If it resists the fork, seal it back up and give it another five.
This is the classic scout foil dinner, and the only real technique in it is the wet paper towel between two layers of foil. Steam from the towel spreads the heat and buys you a buffer against the hot spots in a coal bed. Without it the side facing the embers scorches before the potato gives up.
The rest is geometry. Raw beef and raw root vegetables need roughly the same twenty minutes, so dice the potato and carrot small and keep the packet flat and thin. Breaking the beef into pieces rather than leaving a patty cooks it faster and makes it easier to eat off foil with one fork. This one wants a cooler, so it is a car-camping or basecamp meal, not something to carry.
Packing
Dice the vegetables at home and bag them with the seasoning. Beef rides in the cooler, sauce in a squeeze bottle. Cut and stack the foil squares before you leave so you are not wrestling a roll in the dark.
Variations
- A squirt of mustard written on the outside of the foil labels whose packet is whose and darkens as it cooks.
- Canned baked beans poured in add calories and keep the packet from drying out.
- Pineapple rings on top cook down sweet and turn the last bites into dessert.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hobo_dinner-193.asp