What Exactly is a Hobo Pie?


What Exactly is a Hobo Pie?



    
 In my previous post, I talked about cooking hobo pies, but I never mentioned what they were. Hobo pies are one of my favorite childhood dishes, but not everyone knows what they are. My version of hobo pies are a meal of hamburger and vegetables that are cooked in aluminum foil over a fire. Upon research, there are many variations of this dish.

     The National Park Service describes many ways to make hobo pies and different names for them. Their version is like a campfire sandwich. There are both savory and dessert versions of this interpretation of a hobo pie. Other sources also make sandwich versions of the dish, and they call for an iron to hold over the fire to warm the sandwich the National Park Service compares this tool to a panini press (visually).
Camping Iron Example


     For sandwich filling options visit https://www.nps.gov/articles/hobopies.htm.

Other sources provide descriptions like the one I usually make. The Cracker Barrel restaurant seasonally offers a Campfire Menu, which features a dish resembling the foil wrapped version. Rather than calling them a pie, many of these sources refer to them as “hobo dinners”.


Cracker Barrel's Promotional Image
Here’s a list of these “hobo dinner” recipes:





     All you really need to know about a hobo pie is that it is an easy dish no matter how you prepare it. As a sandwich, it barely differs from that of a grilled cheese. As the “dinner”, it is a mixture of meat and vegetables cooked in an aluminum foil packet.

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