When foil is wrapped as an airtight package around food, finishing off with a drugstore or sandwich fold, it becomes a small-scale pressure cooker. Be sure to allow some space for expansion in the package by not wrapping the raw food too tightly. If the ingredients of your foil dinner do not have much moisture in them, it may be helpful to add a very small amount of water to the foil dinner. You will need a shallow bed of glowing coals that will last the length of cooking time. A good brand of charcoal works well, but you can make your own by building a fire. If you use charcoal, a charcoal starter or chimney is a handy tool to have. They are available at hardware stores and discount stores. Make sure the bed of coals is big enough so all the boys and adults can put their dinners on at the same time. You may want to have two beds of coals, depending on the number of people.

Cooking Times:

• Hamburger: 8-12 minutes,
• Chicken pieces: 20-30 minutes
• Hotdogs: 5-10 minutes
• Diced vegetables: 10-15 minutes
• Sliced potatoes 10-15 minutes
• Carrots: 15-20 minutes
• Whole potatoes:  40-45 minutes
• Whole Apples: 20-30 minutes

Helpful Tips:

• Try to always use "Heavy Duty", Industrial Strength Tin Foil. If you don't have any then double up the thickness of what you are using.
• If you noticed there is two sides to aluminum foil, a shiny (mirror) side and a dull side. To help food cook faster and more evenly, place the shiny side of the tin foil in toward the food being cooked and the dull side of the foil toward the heat source. Why? Because the shiny mirror side reflects heat away from it toward the food being cooked!
• Foil dinners should be marked with the scout's name (a permanent marker can be used) before going on the coals or fold the edges in a certain way to help identify the dinners.
• Make sure you have pot holders or heavy leather gloves for turning the foil dinners and handling them once the dinners are removed from the fire. They will be hot. Burnt fingers are no fun. Tongs are not recomended because they can puncture the aluminum.
• Foil dinners should be turned about 10 minutes into cooking (depends on what you are cooking). Be careful not to break foil pouch when turning.
• Be creative. The worse that could happen is you throw out one dinner and redo it again.

Click here for more tips from the experts at Reynolds Wrap^®

The Basic Foil Dinner

Lay slices of potatoes, onion, and carrots on a sheet of heavy-duty foil then place hamburger patty on top. Cover with slices of potato, onion, and carrots. Season with butter, salt and pepper. Make the drugstore wrap and cook 20-30 minutes over hot coals, turning twice during cooking.

This is the 'classic' hobo or foil dinner, but there are many other possibilites. Check TROOP 23 ONLINE'S   recipes for a few suggestions.

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