Burning Shipwreck

Skip the Chatter — Take Me to the Recipe

You may be thinking you are about to read an epic tale of an horrific naval battle. You are actually about to read a recipe. But a thrilling recipe, nonetheless, from childhood’s outdoor, culinary arsenal. It is a powerful collision of flavors, all made over glowing coals. “Shipwreck” they call it. Although this dish is sometimes — by the pale and timid — made in an oven, we’re going to cook it as nature intended: Over a campfire. In a foil pouch. A campfire casserole of sorts. So, in summary, we are making a casserole, in a pouch, while camping. (It sounds a little more epic if you don’t explain it.)

What You Need

Equipment:

1 Roll Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil. Heavy Duty is better over a fire, though other kinds will work; you may just have to add an extra layer of foil.
Gloves or Long Tongs for removing foil pouches from the fire
A bed of hot coals

Ingredients:

4 ears of sweetcorn, shucked
2 large sweet potatoes
2 medium onions
2 carrots
1 cup of green beans, tipped
1 pound of ground beef
16 oz of your best home-made tomato sauce (or store-bought if you must)
Minced garlic (or garlic powder) to taste
Fresh basil to taste
Fresh oregano to taste
Ground cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Serves Four

What You Do

Step One: Allow your campfire to burn down until it is just a hot bed of coals.

Step Two: Prepare your ingredients. Placing an end of the sweetcorn vertically in a bowl, remove the kernels with a knife. Cut your potatoes into half-inch cubes. Slice the onions into thin strips. Chop the carrots into half-inch chunks. Cut the green beans in half.

Step Three: Rip off four fifteen-inch long sheets of aluminum foil. In the center of each sheet, add your ingredients, onions first, followed by sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, and green beans. Foil dinners don’t need to be exact, so put about one quarter of each ingredient into the separate pouches.

Step Four: For each packet, press a quarter of the ground beef into a patty, and lay this on top of your vegetables. Top with about four ounces of tomato sauce. Finally, add garlic, basil, oregano, and cayenne pepper to taste (and by “to taste” we mean “exceedingly heavily” — a dish associated with the words burning and shipwreck ought not also be associated with the word mild) .

Step Five: Take the long ends of the foil, and crimp them together in a line down the center, directly above the food. Bring up the other two sides and crimp them along the same line, enclosing the food in a pouch. Your pouch should be an oblong football shape with a large ridge down the center. Rip off another fifteen-inch sheet of foil, placing that on top of the crimped ridge. Form the same kind of pouch around the pouch that you already made. Be sure that the ridge on the outer pouch is on the opposite side of the ridge of the inner pouch. Complete this process for each pouch.

Step Six: Take the foil pouches and place them directly into the hot coals, meat-side down. The temperature of coals can vary quite a bit, but it will likely take about forty minutes to cook. You can check on your food after about twenty minutes to see how it is progressing. It is a good sign if you hear a slight sizzling noise.

Step Seven: After about forty minutes, carefully remove your foil packs with a tongs or thick gloves. Foil cools down very quickly, but allow it to cool for a minute or two before opening. When opening, be careful because there will be lots of hot steam in there. The contents will be very hot! Double check that each packet is done by poking a thick sweet potato. If the sweet potato is tender, the packet is done.

Step Eight: Sprinkle with salt and pepper and distribute the foil packs. Then, most importantly, tell your friends that you have witnessed and consumed a burning shipwreck.