Campfire Cooking Expansion
Campfires are great for cooking... if all you ever eat is raw meat. Why stop there? The Campfire Cooking Expansion add-on lets you throw anything that makes sense onto a campfire. Most of the transformations you can already do in a furnace now work on a campfire too, plus a handful of fun (and dangerous) extra interactions. Best of all, no new blocks or items are added. It only extends the vanilla campfire, so compatibility risk with other mods is very low.
What Is Campfire Cooking Expansion?
This is a lightweight mod that reworks the humble campfire into a genuine early-game smelting station. Instead of building a furnace the moment you spawn, you can cook ores, glass, and dyes right at your campsite. Because the mod leans entirely on vanilla mechanics, it slots neatly into almost any modpack without creating recipe conflicts or duplicate items.
What Can You Cook?
The recipe list covers the most common furnace transformations, so you rarely need to babysit a furnace again. Here is a quick reference table of the highlights.
- Clay Ball becomes a Brick
- Cactus becomes Green Dye
- Sand or Red Sand becomes Glass
- Iron, Gold, and Copper Ore smelt into matching Ingots
- Coal Ore and Deepslate Coal Ore become Coal
- Ancient Debris becomes Netherite Scrap
- Cobblestone chains into Stone and then Smooth Stone
- Cobbled Deepslate becomes Deepslate
- Stone Bricks and Deepslate Bricks turn into their Cracked variants
- Wet Sponge dries into Sponge
- Clay Block becomes Terracotta
- Netherrack becomes Nether Brick
- Kelp becomes Dried Kelp
- Chorus Fruit becomes Popped Chorus Fruit
- Sea Pickle becomes Lime Dye
- A Milk Bucket leaves behind an Empty Bucket
- Any Log becomes Charcoal
Special Interactions
Beyond simple smelting, the mod adds a few playful reactions that make campfires feel alive. Each one is a small surprise the first time you trigger it.
- TNT: place it on a lit campfire and it explodes.
- Flint and Steel: throw it in and it breaks down into separate Flint and Iron Nugget drops.
- Water Bucket: pour it on a lit campfire to douse the flame, emptying the bucket with a hiss and steam particles.
- Gunpowder: produces a small, block-safe pop, a harmless decorative explosion.
- Firework Rocket: launches out of the campfire and bursts in the air, just like normal.
Config and Data Pack Support
Every special interaction, from TNT to fireworks, can be toggled on or off individually in the config, so you can keep the chaos or turn it down. Adding new cooking recipes is data pack compatible: a single JSON file is all it takes, no coding required. If you want to expand the recipe list yourself, this is one of the friendliest mods to tinker with.
Requirements and Installation
The Campfire Cooking Expansion targets Minecraft 1.20.1 and runs on Forge, so check the file listing for the exact required version. No other mods are needed, and it works standalone. Here is how to install it:
- Install the matching Forge version for Minecraft 1.20.1.
- Download Campfire Cooking Expansion and drop the jar into your mods folder.
- Launch the game once to generate the config, then tweak the toggles as you like.
If you manage several worlds or modpacks, the foxygame.net launcher takes the hassle out of setup, letting you add Campfire Cooking Expansion to a fresh profile with a single click and keeping it updated automatically. That means no more hunting through folders or matching loader versions by hand.
Why It Fits Almost Any Modpack
Because the mod adds nothing new to the item registry, it plays nicely with tech mods, food mods, and overhaul packs alike. There are no duplicate ingots, no orphaned recipes, and no missing textures. You get the convenience of campfire smelting without the compatibility headaches that heavier add-ons often bring.
Final Thoughts
Campfire Cooking Expansion is a small idea executed cleanly. It turns a decorative block into a practical tool, rewards exploration with fun reactions, and stays out of the way when you do not need it. Whether you are speedrunning the early game or just want a cozier survival experience, it is an easy pick for your next Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge playthrough.