Instructions

Step 1: Chop the onions, garlic, and chives. Baton cut your bacon and keep it at the ready.

Step 2: Mix the Herbs and Spices

2 tsp salt (to taste)

2 tsp pepper (to taste)

2 tsp dry rosemary

2 tsp dry thyme

Step 3: Create the Sauce

1 oz package of brown or beef gravy mix

1/3rd cup of white flour

1-2 Tbsp smoked paprika

12-ounces of beer

3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

2-3 ounces of tomato paste

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

Use a whisk to blend all of the Sauce ingredients. Let the sauce rest under a towel or other cover to keep the bugs out of the sauce.

Don’t fret about getting the tomato paste and the Dijon mustard measurements just right. Just use a regular spoon to scoop out ½ of the tomato paste from a 6-ounce can and just a couple of spoonful of the Dijon will work A-OK.

Step 4: Over a very high heat (24-30 briquettes or the equivalent), add the bacon batons and render the fat. If you are using oil instead of bacon, add a tablespoon or two of oil to the pot and let it heat up.

Step 5: Brown your beef but don’t cook it all the way. Just let it brown. Leave the juices and fat in the pot. Dab up any excess oil if your meats produce too much. 

Step 6: Move the browning beef to one side of the Dutch oven. Use the oil and broth from the browning beef to sauté the onions and garlic.

Step 7: Once the onions and garlic are to your liking, add the herbs to the pot and stir up everything very well. Level out the ingredients over the surface of the Dutch oven’s bottom.

Step 8: Add the two bags of peas and carrots and the cauliflower rice to the top of the ingredients already in the Dutch oven. Then add the sauce mixture. Let it sit for a bit and then stir everything up very well. Smooth out the ingredients.

Step 9: Return the lid to the pot and set your heat for a goal temperature of 350°F / 175°C. Place 8 briquettes under the Dutch oven and 16 briquettes on the lid. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Step 10: After 15-20 minutes of bake-time, pull the lid from the pot and stir the ingredients to rotate them all about. Level off the ingredients. Return the lid to the pot and bake for another 15 minutes.

Step 11: After a total of 30-35 minutes of bake time, test the peas and carrots for doneness. If the peas and carrots are done, then move to step 12. If you are using mixed vegetables with green beans, use the green beans’ texture as a test of doneness.

Step 12: After leveling off the ingredients, add your toppings of tater tots and cheese. You can add the cheese before the tater tots (my favorite way). Or, you can add the cheese to the top of the tater tots. It’s up to you.

Step 13: After all the toppings are in place, return the lid to the pot and remove the bottom heat. Load that lid up with 24-30 hot briquettes and broil for about 10 minutes. Then take a peek. Keep broiling and checking until the cheese or the tots are toasted and cooked to your liking.

Note: If you are using a shallow or regular 12-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven, your broiling times will be different. With a shallow Dutch, remember: less is more. Less briquettes on the top will allow for more cooking time of the tater tots and let them toast slower. Too much heat will cause the tots to toast too fast with the centers likely not cooking through.

Instructions

Steps to Create the Cobbler

My suggestion is to pre-prepare your ingredients and have them ready when it’s time to bake. It’s almost like having a homemade cake-in-a-box that is ready to go for easy baking in camp. The entire recipe can be prepared and created in camp if you like. I am going to present the recipe in two parts:

1. Pre-Prepared Ingredients
2. Ready to Bake

Pre-Prepare Your Ingredients

Step 1: Set out a 1-gallon zipper bag or other container and add all of the wet ingredients; mix thoroughly. Store in the ice chest, cooler, or refrigerator until ready to bake.

Chef’s Tip: Keep the zipper bag of wet ingredients either double-bagged or stored in a second container to reduce the risk of leakage or spillage in the ice chest or cooler.

Step 2: Set out a 1-gallon zipper bag or other container and add all of the dry ingredients; mix thoroughly. Store this until you are ready to bake.

Step 3: Pack the milk and butter in the ice chest or cooler until you are ready to bake.

Chef’s Tip: I just bring an unopened container of milk with me to camp. Two cups of milk is all we will need but having milk in camp is pretty okie-dokie come sun rise or even used as an ingredient to soups or stews.

Ready to Bake Steps

Step 4: Set 24-30 charcoal briquettes to fire. Let them heat until they are hot and ready.

Step 5: Set a 12-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven over 24-30 hot-and-ready charcoal briquettes.

Step 6: Add the stick of butter to the Dutch oven. We need this to be fry-ready. Careful!! DON’T BURN THE BUTTER.

Chef’s Tip: If you burn the butter…no worries. You brought an extra stick, right? Pull the Dutch oven from the fire and wipe out the burned butter. If you use some paper towels, these butter-soaked paper towels make great fire starter.

Step 7: As soon as you put the butter in the Dutch oven, mix the dry ingredients with 2 cups of milk. Use a mixing bowl to stir them together very well. This is our cobbler batter.

Step 8: Once the butter is hot and fry-ready, pour the batter into the Dutch oven and over the butter. It’ll be bubbling around the edges.

Chef’s Tip: Very hot and melted butter is the key here! That batter will start cooking as soon as it hits the butter. We want the batter to cook on the butter and not on the cast iron (in a manner of speaking). This is how we keep it from sticking.

Step 9: Once the batter is in the Dutch oven, add the wet ingredients to the top of the batter. DO NOT MIX the wet ingredients in with the batter; just evenly add, drop, or spread the berry mixture to the top of the batter.

Step 10: Return the lid to the Dutch oven and remove the Dutch oven from the hot charcoal briquettes. Add 16 hot briquettes to the top of the Dutch oven and set the Dutch oven over 8 hot briquettes. (24 total briquettes: 16 on the lid and 8 under the oven).

Step 11: Let this bake for 10-minutes. Then, turn the Dutch oven: Turn the lid 1/3^rd turn in one direction and the whole pot 1/3^rd of a turn in the other direction.

Step 12: Let this bake for another 10-minutes (20-minutes) total. Visually check the cobbler. We want our cobbler to be baked and “dry” but not “dry.” Cobblers have fruit; some bubbling is expected. The key here is to make sure the batter is baked. It should be spongy.

Chef’s Tip: This is a forgiving recipe. A little under-done or a little over-done…it’s going to be delicious.

Step 13: If you feel the cobbler needs more time, return the lid to the pot and give the pot another turn. Wait five minutes and check again. Do this every five minutes until the cobbler is done.

Instructions

Set Up

Step 1: Add the Dry Ingredients: flour, sugar, yeast, and salt to the bread maker’s basket and turn the machine to the dough cycle.

Step 2: Measure your beer and make sure you are not measuring foam. Let the beer settle and ensure you have a cup of beer.

Step 3: Turn on the bread machine and let the dry ingredients start mixing. 

Step 4: Pour in the beer and then the oil.

Chef Tip: Not all cups of flour are created equal. If the cups of flour were on the “heavy” side, you may need to add more beer to the forming dough. What does the ball of dough look like as it is being kneaded by the bread machine? Do you need to add any beer? If you have a 12-ounce can or bottle that you removed the cup of beer from, use some of the remaining 4-ounces but only a tablespoon at a time. It’ll go from too dry to too wet if you add just a tablespoon too much.

Step 5: Pull out about two tablespoons of butter and place it in the bottom of the 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven to warm to room temperature. About 5-10 minutes before the dough cycle is done on the bread machine, smear the soft-room temperature butter all upon the insides of that Dutch oven and up the sides (the rolls will rise higher). 

BUTTER IS THE KEY TO NON-STICK ROLLS: Smearing butter (BUTTER and not oil or grease) all upon the bottom and sides of that cast iron Dutch oven.

Step 6: Once the bread machine is done, remove the dough from the bread machine basket and lay it on a lightly floured surface.

Step 7: Stretch the dough out and into a long, French-bread like loaf about as big around as a normal man’s forearm.

Step 8: Cut the dough into 2-inch to 3-inch sections. No need to be perfect here; not at all. Some rolls may be bigger; some may be smaller. No worries.

Step 9: Lay each cut, section on the floured surface and form a ball by pulling the edges to the center and pinching it closed. 

Step 10: Turn the formed round dough over to where the pinched section is the bottom and place the small ball of dough into the deep cast iron Dutch oven. 

Step 11: Continue to form the rolls and place them in the Dutch oven and evenly space with room for them to rise in the Dutch oven.

Step 12: Let them rise in the Dutch oven as you travel to camp or the picnic area.

Ready to Bake

Step 13: When you are ready to bake your rolls, set 24 briquettes to fire. When they are red hot and ready, place 8 briquettes in a wide circle just about equal to the diameter of the bottom of the Dutch oven but not right under the Dutch oven.

Step 14: Evenly cover the top of the Dutch oven with the other 16 briquettes and let the rolls bake for about 10 minutes.

Step 15: After 10 minutes, turn the lid ⅓ of a turn in one direction and the whole pot ⅓ of a turn in the other direction. If you “take a peek,” you will see some light toasting of the tops of the rolls. 

Step 16: After another 10 minutes, they are likely done or very close to being done. Take a peek (only a peek) at the rolls. Is the bottom toasting? “Seeing” the bottom of the rolls is not really possible. But, what do the edges near the cast iron pot’s edge look like? This is where this recipe will help teach you how to bake bread. We really can’t “see” if our bottoms are burning or not cooking as fast as the tops. We get a “feel” for how the rolls are “looking.” 

Chef Tip: How do the bottoms of the rolls look? “Study” the way they look. If they look perfect, then your bottom briquette arrangement is perfect. Do the same thing every time from now on. Too light? Next time make a tighter circle of briquettes. Too dark? Next time spread the circle out a little wider. 

Also, does it seem the tops are cooking faster than the bottoms? This is common if you are baking in a shallow cast iron Dutch oven; the briquette-covered lid is “closer” to the top of the rolls and sometimes the tops will cook faster than the bottoms.

Step 17: When the rolls “look” done, remove the briquettes from the top of the Dutch oven and then remove the oven from the bottom heat. 

Chef Tip: That cast iron is HOT! Those rolls will continue to cook in that pot and may “toast” a bit more if you don’t plan to eat them right away. Leaving the lid off and covering them with a dry dish towel is perfect.

Chef Tip: If you are not planning to eat the rolls right away and are leaving them in a covered, cast iron Dutch oven, they may create condensation in that pot while they rest. This is a no-go! That dry dish towel is perfect for this as well.

If you really want to know if your bread is baked all the way through, you could use a temperature probe to check one of the roll centers. Though raw bread dough is not like raw meat, I still don’t want doughy rolls. 

Bread is baked when the internal temperature is 190°F / 88°C. And, sometimes I may pull the pot from the fire when the bread has reached 180°F / 82°C and let it keep baking from the residual heat of that cast iron Dutch oven.

Chef Tip: If you feel your bottoms not cooking during the bake, move the bottom briquette circle in closer (smaller circle and more “under” the pot). 

And there you go! BREAD IN CAMP.