Cast iron

A real Swiss half-and-half cheese fondue, made the way our camping friends taught us — melted low and slow over campfire embers, with the wine, garlic, and figure-eight stir that keep it silky.

Black beans simmered in a smoky tomato base, buried in melting cheese, and torched to a golden crust — all cooked in one cast iron pan over the fire.

A camping shortcut for real cassoulet: Toulouse sausage, confit duck, and cannellini beans simmered in one pot over the fire in about 35 minutes.

A three-ingredient camp pizza cooked low and slow under a lid in a cast iron pan or dutch oven — crisp on the bottom, no oven required, ready in about twenty minutes over the fire.

A cast iron Dutch oven cornbread with a golden, crackling crust — the camp bread I make for chili nights, wherever the fire happens to be.

A three-hour campfire chili built the way Manon insists it should be: seared sirloin and ground beef, a dried ancho-and-cumin spice mix ground at home, and a long, slow simmer over the coals.

A slow-fermented, no-knead bread mixed days ahead and baked in a cast iron dutch oven buried in charcoal briquettes — the crust cracks, the crumb is open, and the method works over a campfire, a backyard fire pit, or your kitchen oven.

Fire grilled fish five ways, plus the cast iron trout with bacon and caramelized onions I have eaten for breakfast since childhood.

From-scratch pancake batter cooked in a cast iron pan over the fire, plus the rules that keep pancakes from sticking — and rather more pancake history than you asked for.

Crispy corned beef, potato grated straight into the pan and a fried egg on top. A fifteen-minute cast iron breakfast that works with a tin of beef.