The Father's Day Ribeye: Teaching My Kids to Eat with Fire

Ribeye, Fire, and Fatherhood: A Father's Day at Desert of Maine

The smoke is rising through the pines. I'm standing over a fire pit at Desert of Maine campground, watching two massive ribeyes sear over charcoal and wood. My daughter is asking when dinner will be ready for the third time in five minutes. My son is trying to grab the tongs.

This is perfect.

The Setup

We drove up to Freeport, Maine for Father's Day weekend. Not to some fancy restaurant. Not to a hotel. To the woods. To a campsite with a fire pit, picnic tables, and pine trees everywhere. Desert of Maine - this weird, beautiful place where a glacier left sand dunes in the middle of a forest.

I packed the essentials: cast iron pans, grilling grates, good knives, and two thick-cut ribeyes from a local butcher. The steaks were probably 1.5 inches thick, beautifully marbled. When you're cooking over open fire, you need FAT. The marbling keeps everything juicy while that fire does its work.

By the time the sun started dropping, the coals were PERFECT. That deep orange glow. Not too hot. Not too cool. Just right for a slow, smoky sear.

Cooking Over Real Fire

Here's what people forget about grilling over wood and charcoal: you're not just cooking meat. You're adding FLAVOR. The smoke from the wood, the char from the direct heat, the way the fat drips and flares up - you can't replicate this with a gas grill.

I placed both steaks directly on the grate. Immediate sizzle. That sound that makes you hungry before you even taste anything.

The smell hit me first - wood smoke, rendering beef fat, that char forming on the outside. My daughter came running over. "Papa, it smells SO good."

I flipped them once. Just once. Let each side develop that crust. No poking. No pressing. Just patience.

The fat was rendering beautifully, creating these little puddles of flavor. Some of it dripped into the coals, causing small flare-ups that added even more char. This is what cooking SHOULD be. Fire. Meat. Time.

After cooking with my intuition from years of steak experience, I pulled them off. Let them rest on a cutting board while I grilled some broccolini and roasted garlic in the coals.

The Plating Moment

Even at a campsite, I can't help myself. I plated it properly on our camping dishes - ribeye sliced against the grain, that broccolini still crisp and smoky, roasted garlic cloves on the side, fresh herbs on top that I brought from home.

The ribeye had this PERFECT medium-rare center. That deep pink, almost ruby color. The outside? Dark, caramelized crust. When I cut into it, juice ran across the plate.

My wife looked at the plate and laughed. "You really did this at a campsite."

Yeah. I did.

Because good food doesn't require a restaurant. It requires care. And fire. And time.

The Technical Stuff (For Those Who Want It)

If you're going to do this at your campsite:

Get thick-cut steaks with good marbling (ribeye, NY strip, or even a good sirloin)
Build your fire early - you need time for coals to develop (30-45 minutes)
Don't overthink it - salt, pepper, maybe garlic. That's it.
Use a grill grate over the fire pit if your campground allows it
Let the steak rest after cooking - this matters MORE over open fire because the heat is intense
Bring cast iron if you want to cook sides - roasted vegetables in cast iron over coals are INCREDIBLE

But more than technique? Just do it. Take your family camping. Build a fire. Cook something real.