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Trail Cooking
The Ghetto Gourmet A guide to old style cooking (when pre-mix is unavailable) BigLoki Big Mike's, former owner of the Oak Rose, Baleview Lodge Seasonal Kitchen Manager
A few basics. If you don't have one already, a “Dutch Oven” is an invaluable item, you can do mostly everything in it. From stews, soups, roasts, sauces, even baking. It is the multi-tool of the kitchen. Some die-hards, or people who are not directing their writing to improvised cooking will tell you that it has to be “this” size, and mad of cast iron. While that is ideal, it's not required for what I intend to tell you. It will yield better results, but in a pinch, any heavy pot with a lid can be used for anything I'm suggesting a dutch oven for in this article. It may not be perfect, but it will be better than just trying to eat a handfull of flour for sustenence.
While I will list the recipes with all the optimal ingredients, if one or more are unavailable, simply skip them. If it is absolutely crucial to the recipe, I will let you know. Again, skipping things will bring down the taste a bit, but this is for hard times, or broke people, so you do what you can with what you have. Enjoy!
Section 1, Trail Cooking: This is for when a proper kitchen is unavailable, cooking times are approximate, and describing how the fire should look is about the best I will be able to do as far as temperatures. Know your smells... if it smells like it's burning...stop cooking it! Most of these recipes will be “bulletproof” though. Nothing overly fancy, or extremely sensitive.
Sour Biscuits: These are probably not your grandmother's biscuits. They are “trail food”, and are easy to make, will fill you up, and will travel with you for around a week or so if wrapped in a towel or rag. When put into a soup or stew, or chilli, they are awesome though!
Ingredients
-Roughly 2 cups flour (white AP if handy, any will do)
-2 teaspoons baking powder (necessary)
-4 tablespoons butter (margerine, shortening, any fat you have, oil even if that's what you have)
-3/4 cup milk (water will work, but biscuits will be a bit flat)
Combine ingredients right in the dutch oven, and kneed into a firm dough. After dough is formed and lice and incorporated, kneed for another minute or so. This forms gluten in the dough, and keeps it from being a rock. Flatten the dough out till it's roughly ½ inch thick. Form into circles around 3 ½ – 4 inches around. Place in the bottom of the dutch oven in a single layer. You should get around 20 biscuits.
Have the fire in a state of just coals. Place some wet sticks or anything you may have handy with you that can go into a fire to prop the bottom of the dutch oven up off of the coals, and not burst into flames right away. Put the lid on the oven, and place on the structure just above the coals. They should be done in around 10-12 minutes, but trust your nose...fire cooking isn't a perfect science, the times are approximate.
Pancakes: Everybody loves pancakes, these will be better if you have all the ingredients, but if not...still better than a handfull of flour.
Ingredients
-2 cups flour (white AP if handy, any will do)
-2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
-½ teaspoon salt (not 100% necessary, but noticed when left out)
-1 ½ cups milk (can use water, but milk is better...be stiffer flatter pancakes with water)
-1 egg (can be ommitted if necessary, but be VERY carefull flipping them, they will be fragile)
-2 tablespoons melted butter ( oil could work, butter is better)
-Some sort of fat or oil (coat cooking surface)
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt (if present). I just throw them in the dutch oven, put the lid on and shake the hell out of it. In a separate container combine milk (or water), butter, and egg (if present). Then mix them together in the container with the egg/milk/butter mixture. Flip the dutch oven over and place it on the coals from the fire. Wait around 3-4 minutes until it's hot. You can test it by dripping water onto it, if the drop hops around and evaporates, that's where you want it to be. Rub a bit of oil on the cooking surface. Pour about ¼ cup of the mixture onto the middle of the bottom of the dutch oven. When you see small bubbles form in the mix on the side facing you, flip the pancake, and let it cook on the other side around a minute and a half, you have a pancake. Re-apply oil, and repeat.
That's the basics for doughs, from there many things can be done, but I won't go into them unless there is some interest for the page. I already know how to do this, and so I have no need to type it out for myself...hahaha.
More Dutch Oven, more ingredients
For the rest of these recipes, you can omit or substitute as you need to. Whatever you don't have, leave out, whatever you think you want to add, feel free. Trail cooking is about sustenance, taste is a bonus, and a morale issue, not a nutritional one. If you can follow my recipes, I assure you they are very good. If you have to adjust, well then, you have to... at least you ate something.
Chilli: This is a tried and true trail dish if ever there was one. This is my own personal recipe, there are others like it, but this one is mine...oh sorry, back to cooking. For the purposes of this writing, beef is a relative term. By beef I mean redmeat. Venison, moose, cow, buffalo, elk, bear, hell if you can find a camel cook that up too, any red meat will do...may taste a bit different, but it'll work.
Ingredients
2 pounds ground “beef”
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1 onion
4 jalapeno peppers
1 green pepper
2 fresh tomatoes
1 pound dried kidney beans
3 gloves garlic
2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup chilli powder
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon white suga
r 3 tablespoons white vinegar
Soak the beans overnight, and pick out everything that doesn't look like you want to eat it.
Drain beans, boil for around an hour, making sure you keep the beans covered in water.
Remove beans, and brown the meat. Re-add the beans, and the stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and all seasonings. Dice onion, garlic, and peppers, asnd ass them also.
Allow to simmer for at least 3 hours suspended over a small to medium sized fire. If the upper edges of the liquid are starting to burn to the dutch oven before that you are using way too much heat. Back it down or raise the dutch oven. If you had the problem with too much heat, add a cup of water, and just continue. Stir every half hour or so. Bam! You got chilli. Really good chilli if you scrounged at least most of that.
All of the ingredients I list, I can make from scratch (save for baking powder, sugars, and flour obviously) This is a work in progress, and if there is enough of an interest to warrant it, I will go into those also.
A few basics. If you don't have one already, a “Dutch Oven” is an invaluable item, you can do mostly everything in it. From stews, soups, roasts, sauces, even baking. It is the multi-tool of the kitchen. Some die-hards, or people who are not directing their writing to improvised cooking will tell you that it has to be “this” size, and mad of cast iron. While that is ideal, it's not required for what I intend to tell you. It will yield better results, but in a pinch, any heavy pot with a lid can be used for anything I'm suggesting a dutch oven for in this article. It may not be perfect, but it will be better than just trying to eat a handfull of flour for sustenence.
While I will list the recipes with all the optimal ingredients, if one or more are unavailable, simply skip them. If it is absolutely crucial to the recipe, I will let you know. Again, skipping things will bring down the taste a bit, but this is for hard times, or broke people, so you do what you can with what you have. Enjoy!
Section 1, Trail Cooking: This is for when a proper kitchen is unavailable, cooking times are approximate, and describing how the fire should look is about the best I will be able to do as far as temperatures. Know your smells... if it smells like it's burning...stop cooking it! Most of these recipes will be “bulletproof” though. Nothing overly fancy, or extremely sensitive.
- Dutch oven Recipes:
Sour Biscuits: These are probably not your grandmother's biscuits. They are “trail food”, and are easy to make, will fill you up, and will travel with you for around a week or so if wrapped in a towel or rag. When put into a soup or stew, or chilli, they are awesome though!
Ingredients
-Roughly 2 cups flour (white AP if handy, any will do)
-2 teaspoons baking powder (necessary)
-4 tablespoons butter (margerine, shortening, any fat you have, oil even if that's what you have)
-3/4 cup milk (water will work, but biscuits will be a bit flat)
Combine ingredients right in the dutch oven, and kneed into a firm dough. After dough is formed and lice and incorporated, kneed for another minute or so. This forms gluten in the dough, and keeps it from being a rock. Flatten the dough out till it's roughly ½ inch thick. Form into circles around 3 ½ – 4 inches around. Place in the bottom of the dutch oven in a single layer. You should get around 20 biscuits.
Have the fire in a state of just coals. Place some wet sticks or anything you may have handy with you that can go into a fire to prop the bottom of the dutch oven up off of the coals, and not burst into flames right away. Put the lid on the oven, and place on the structure just above the coals. They should be done in around 10-12 minutes, but trust your nose...fire cooking isn't a perfect science, the times are approximate.
Pancakes: Everybody loves pancakes, these will be better if you have all the ingredients, but if not...still better than a handfull of flour.
Ingredients
-2 cups flour (white AP if handy, any will do)
-2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
-½ teaspoon salt (not 100% necessary, but noticed when left out)
-1 ½ cups milk (can use water, but milk is better...be stiffer flatter pancakes with water)
-1 egg (can be ommitted if necessary, but be VERY carefull flipping them, they will be fragile)
-2 tablespoons melted butter ( oil could work, butter is better)
-Some sort of fat or oil (coat cooking surface)
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt (if present). I just throw them in the dutch oven, put the lid on and shake the hell out of it. In a separate container combine milk (or water), butter, and egg (if present). Then mix them together in the container with the egg/milk/butter mixture. Flip the dutch oven over and place it on the coals from the fire. Wait around 3-4 minutes until it's hot. You can test it by dripping water onto it, if the drop hops around and evaporates, that's where you want it to be. Rub a bit of oil on the cooking surface. Pour about ¼ cup of the mixture onto the middle of the bottom of the dutch oven. When you see small bubbles form in the mix on the side facing you, flip the pancake, and let it cook on the other side around a minute and a half, you have a pancake. Re-apply oil, and repeat.
That's the basics for doughs, from there many things can be done, but I won't go into them unless there is some interest for the page. I already know how to do this, and so I have no need to type it out for myself...hahaha.
More Dutch Oven, more ingredients
For the rest of these recipes, you can omit or substitute as you need to. Whatever you don't have, leave out, whatever you think you want to add, feel free. Trail cooking is about sustenance, taste is a bonus, and a morale issue, not a nutritional one. If you can follow my recipes, I assure you they are very good. If you have to adjust, well then, you have to... at least you ate something.
Chilli: This is a tried and true trail dish if ever there was one. This is my own personal recipe, there are others like it, but this one is mine...oh sorry, back to cooking. For the purposes of this writing, beef is a relative term. By beef I mean redmeat. Venison, moose, cow, buffalo, elk, bear, hell if you can find a camel cook that up too, any red meat will do...may taste a bit different, but it'll work.
Ingredients
2 pounds ground “beef”
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1 onion
4 jalapeno peppers
1 green pepper
2 fresh tomatoes
1 pound dried kidney beans
3 gloves garlic
2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup chilli powder
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon white suga
r 3 tablespoons white vinegar
Soak the beans overnight, and pick out everything that doesn't look like you want to eat it.
Drain beans, boil for around an hour, making sure you keep the beans covered in water.
Remove beans, and brown the meat. Re-add the beans, and the stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and all seasonings. Dice onion, garlic, and peppers, asnd ass them also.
Allow to simmer for at least 3 hours suspended over a small to medium sized fire. If the upper edges of the liquid are starting to burn to the dutch oven before that you are using way too much heat. Back it down or raise the dutch oven. If you had the problem with too much heat, add a cup of water, and just continue. Stir every half hour or so. Bam! You got chilli. Really good chilli if you scrounged at least most of that.
All of the ingredients I list, I can make from scratch (save for baking powder, sugars, and flour obviously) This is a work in progress, and if there is enough of an interest to warrant it, I will go into those also.
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