When you thinking of camping and eating food prepared by a campfire, do you envision people sitting around a fire with food impaled on sticks? Sure that’s one method of cooking around a fire, but using a pudgy pie iron can add a lot of variety to your normal hot dog and marshmallow camping experience.
The pudgy pie iron is usually made of 2 cast iron sticks that usually have a flat circular or flat square end on it. These ends are hollow on one side and can be brought together to form an enclosed area. Some pudgy pie makers have hooks to fasten the irons shut during the cooking process. I highly recommend having these on any camping event; however I usually do not recommend using the fasteners. During the cooking process you put whatever you are making in the end of the irons and bring them together. As the food is heat the clasps can become very hot and a person cannot directly touch them to unclamp them to check on the progress of their food. Sometimes when trying to use the clamps and open them they have been known to unfasten and then slide back to the end of the rods where the person is holding on a burn people despite the usually wood handle.
Now that the warning is out of the way, what can you make with a pudgy (or hobo) pie maker, which is what they are also sometimes called? Almost everything in the pudgy pie makers are created using two slices of bread, buttered on the outside of the bread that is with the butter touching the iron itself. This is important as it ensures your bread will not stick to the iron and that it will get a nice golden brown. Inside the bread you can put whatever you want, be it normal sandwich toppings, cheese, or pizza toppings. A traditional pudgy pie is often made with some sort of pie filling.
So to elaborate, simply butter piece of bread, set face down in pudgy pie maker half. Place toppings on top of said bread. Butter second piece of bread, butter side up on top of toppings. Gently clasp pudgy pie maker end together and being heating.
No matter what you choose to make inside the pudgy pie iron make sure to flip the iron over once in a while. Remember cooking over a fire often heats very quickly so you don’t want to burn whatever is in there. Another important thing to remember is not to generally put the iron directly in the flame. Usually they are set on the ground next to the fire in the hot coals. If there are not many hot coals sometimes it can be held over flames or perched on the side of a propped up log, but be very aware of how long you leave it there and check often by gently opening up the pudgy pie maker a crack.
Sometimes, despite the camper’s best buttering efforts, the bread becomes stuck to the iron anyway. In this case simply close up the iron and bang the iron on something, while holding firmly closed, with the stuck side on the top to loosen it. This way you do not burn yourself or melt something trying to get it pried off. It also can help to prevent ripping of the bread.
Remember at all times after heating the irons they become very hot. Do not wave them around. Do not set them where someone will accidentally touch them before they are cooled. Also be careful of setting them on bread wrappers or anything meltable. This includes some picnic tables that are painted. Sometimes the paint will come off onto your pudgy pie maker. It can make a person very sick to each something that dried paint got into.
Other then your tradition pudgy pies that can be made with these irons, they can also be used for melting things such as butter. In this case just use half the iron and put your almost frozen cooler butter on the end and let it warm a little for easy toast spreading.
The uses of the pudgy pie iron are quite profuse. They are small and allow a lot of flexibility in your campfire cooking, I highly recommend them.
