camping
What are the advantages/disadvantages of cooking over an open campfire made with firewood as opposed to cooking on a propane gas stove? And which should one use for which occasion?
EDIT: Thanks everybody for the answers. For a propane stove, if we are carrying it to cook in wet weather, how does this help? We cannot light it inside the tent and if we take outside, the stove will surely go out in case of rain. No?
The key is mostly to cook over coals rather than open flame if you want decent control. This is a principle you find all over slow smoking/BBQ. You start the fire with plenty of wood and let it burn down to a pile of red coals, which you then can cook over with nice control.
Personally, when I want to cook over an open fire, I treat the fire pit as 2 zones: fire and coals. I use the "fire" side for anything where I want an open flame, like roasting marshmallows or hot dogs. As a chunk of wood on that side of the pit burns down to coals, I move it over to the other side, for more controlled cooking.
Another way to handle the variability in campfires is to cook with things with a lot of thermal mass to even the heat out. In practical terms, that boils down to cast iron and clay/ceramics. Whether it's a dutch oven or a little "cave" of fire bricks, these materials spread the heat out so nicely you can often just bury them in the coals and "bake" or "roast" a lot of options that you might not have considered as "camping foods".
The same is true of other cast iron pans and much of the stoneware from places like Pampered Chef, meaning you can pan fry, saute, and do many of the other more typical "kitchen" tasks over a campfire.
One word of warning regarding this principle though is that it might seem like collecting rocks from a nearby stream to use as the thermal mass is a good idea. It is not. Rocks that have spent long periods under water can crack and/or explode when suddenly heated up.
You have two delicious choices. Both require a bed of coals, so I'll start with that.
You'll need to build a fire with the logs stacked 'log cabin' style, and let the fire burn down to coals. You want a deep red coal, just starting to darken on top. The coals should look something like this.
You can bake, or bbq the chicken and asparagus. Both are delicious methods.
To bake, wrap the chicken, asparagus and a starch like potato gratin style in layers of tinfoil. Use the starch around the outside, you'll sacrifice a layer of it as some of it sticks/burns to the tinfoil. Put the most delicate item in the middle, in this case the asparagus, and the chicken around the asparagus. Add a generous amount of butter, salt and pepper and bake for about an hour buried in the coals. Corn or green beans are also very good, and can be sacrificed a little around the outside to preserve your meat and vegetables.
I would layer it this way.
1.Coals
2. Tinfoil
2. Potatoes
2. Generous dollop of butter
3. Salt & Pepper
4. Green Beans
5. Asparagus
6. Chicken
7. Potatoes
3. Tinfoil
4. Coals
Now, BBQ. You'll do it very much like a charcoal BBQ. Keep the grate close to the coals, you can generally test the heat by holding your hand above the grate, you should only be able to keep your hand there for a second or two at most.
Grill the chicken like you would on a bbq, and roast the asparagus on a cooler part of the grill. I'd marinate both before putting them on the grill. I'd also try to get an aromatic wood like hickory or mesquite, pine will impart a resinous taste.
Best Answer
Campfire
Advantages: Less equipment to bring, you can do everything from grilling to roasting to steaming to baking, makes you feel more awesome for having cooked over a fire.
Disadvantages: Longer to set up, can darken pots, harder to control and regulate heat, more prone to burning food/hands.
My Usage: BBQing/Grilling (Steaks, burgers), roasting (anything that can be skewered), no dish steaming/baking of foods (Tin Foil wrapping), anything else that benefits from direct heat.
Stove
Advantages: Quick to set up, It's just like cooking on the stove at home. Much better control of heat.
Disadvantages: More equipment, you're limited to what you can do on a stove (which admittedly is quite a bit).
My Usage: Anything cooked in water (soups, noodles, hot drinks), Stuff that is really better done on a pan (eggs, french toast)