The hobo is a very simple yet filling meal that can be prepared when you're doing some car camping. There are two main parts to making a successful hobo: getting a fire going and making the thing itself. This node doesn't focus on how to build a fire. You should figure that out first. The hobo is cheap, tasty, and quite filling. Cleanup is simple too since everything's encased in aluminum foil.
Ingredients
Preparation
- Get a nice big fire going, then let it burn down to very hot coals. These are what you cook on so make sure to have enough coals to fit everyone's food on.
- Wash and cut up the potatoes, carrots, and onions.
- Tear off a piece of aluminum foil about 2 feet square and lay it down flat.
- Tear off a few pieces of cabbage and lay them down in the center of the foil. This serves as a bed to hold all the other ingredients.
- Spread out as many chunks of the vegetables as you'd like inside the cabbage.
- Add the ground beef. I prefer several little balls of beef though a patty may work nicely as well. Remember that the smaller the chunks, the less time they'll need to cook.
- Season to taste.
- Wrap the sides of the foil up over the food in the middle. Make sure to enclose it tightly. What you've got now is an aluminum foil pouch with all the food on the inside and the cabbage on the bottom.
- Pick a nice hot place on the coals and set your hobo down there. That's right, put it right down on the coals. It'll be fine; trust me.
- After about 45 minutes, check one by removing it from the fire, opening it up, and seeing if the meat is well cooked. If not, seal it back up and let it cook a while longer. If so, enjoy!
Several of these can be cooking at one time. The only limit is the surface area of coal you've got to work with. Don't spread them too thinly.
Now then, what else can we wrap in aluminum foil?