Baking potatoes in embers

Question

I have fond (and by now possibly largely inaccurate) memories of eating potatoes that had been wrapped in tin foil and baked outside in the embers of a fire.

I'd quite like to reproduce the experience for my kids, but preferably without my "tada!" being destroyed by a charred lump of organic matter, or a raw potato.

I expect it's mostly guesswork (and borderline 'cooking'), but do you have any tips or tricks for getting this right (or nearly so) first time?

Answer

It's actually pretty straight forward and fairly easy to do.

1. Build a fire. You are building a cooking fire, not a warm hands and look pretty fire. I use a log cabin style fire for this.
2. Wait for it to burn down so there are plenty of white coals. You don't want lots of "fire". Fire is pretty to look at, but more unpredictable to cook in then hot white coals.
3. While the fire is burning down, wash and prep your potatoes to bake as you would normally.
4. Wrap them tightly in tin foil.
5. Once the fire is burned down to hot, white coals, toss the potatoes directly onto the coals.
6. Wait until cooked (roughly 40 minutes for an average sized potato, on an average fire, adjust accordingly).
7. If you have a shovel or something, put some coals on to the actual potato as well, so you're completely surrounding it. It'll speed it up. If you don't have anything handy to handle coals, make sure you flip them half way.
8. Remove carefully and enjoy.

The moisture of a potato, will allow it to cook without burning. Just make sure you wrap them with no exposed areas, in order to trap the steam.

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