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.

Ready to Cook

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1) Mix the dry stuff together: 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Step 2) Cut the 8 tablespoons of butter into the dry mixture. You’ll end up with a dry, oatmeal consistency. 

Step 3) Pour in your cup of half and half. But you could use buttermilk, kefir, spoiled milk,  vinegar-ed milk, or even just plain old milk. You’ll need a cup or more depending on the liquid’s consistency and how packed your cups of flour ended up being. You could even use plain yogurt but you’ll usually need much more than a cup of yogurt due to the thickness of the yogurt.

Step 4) Mix around with a rubber or silicone spatula big enough to handle the load. A big bamboo wooden spoon would work too.

Step 5) “Flour” or dust the top of your table or working surface and plop out the dough onto the floured surface. Then, dust the top of the sticky dough with a bit more flour.

Step 6) Flattened and fold over the dough a few times; don’t knead the dough like bread. Make a single, large, round circle from the all of the dough about as big around as the diameter of the bottom of the pot or pan you’ll be baking these biscuits in.

Step 7) Cut the individual biscuits out from the dough. A biscuit cutter works best but a coffee cup, paper cup, or even a knife to cut square biscuits. But don’t worry about being perfectly round or even on each and every one. It’s okay to have weird shapes and odd sizes.

Step 8) Place the cut biscuits in a 10-inch cast iron camp Dutch oven that has been buttered up real nice. Trust me when I say “buttered up.” Butter is the key to keep these biscuits both flavorful as well as keeping them from sticking. Butter is the key here.

Step 9) Scramble an egg up real good and using one of those kitchen paint brushes (basing brush), paint the top of those dudes with a thin layer of scrambled egg.

Step 10) Put the lid back on your camp cast iron Dutch oven and place the oven over 6 or 7 briquettes. Place 13 or 14 briquettes on top of the lid.

Step 11) Let the biscuits bake for about 10 minutes. Then, give the Dutch oven and the lid a ⅓ turn. Lift the lid just a bit and take a peek. Note not only the tops but also the bottoms of the biscuits (as well as you can visualize). Are the bottoms toasting well? If not, close in those bottom briquettes a bit closer to the center of the circle toward the middle of the Dutch oven. 

Step 12) Wait another 10 minutes and take another look-see. They are likely done at this point. Cook longer if you plan to eat right away. But, if you have other things to cook or that are still cooking, remember this: that hot pot will continue baking those biscuits even after you remove the heat from the pot.

Once they’re done, get the jelly out, and start munching.

Enjoy

Chef Tip: Note the time you will keep those biscuits in that pot as you cook the other ingredients. As they cool, they will steam and condensation will form. If they sit in the pot too long, they will get soggy from their collected steam moisture.

Ready to Cook

Home Preparation:

Step 1: This step is optional: 1-2 days before you are planning to cook this recipe, Brine and prep 4 thick-cut pork loin, bone-in rib chops or 4-6 thick, boneless pork loin chops.

Step 2: Remove the pork chops / loin chops from the brine and pat dry. Pour the remaining brine out. Add a few paper towels to the bag. Return the meat to the bag. This is how we’re going to pack it to camp. 

Step 3: Gather your 3-4 medium russet potatoes, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, can of beer, butter, breadcrumbs, and the salt and pepper.

Step 4: Prepare two Green Bell Peppers. We chop them and store them in a zipper bag with a couple of paper towels. You could also just pack them whole and prepare them in camp (this is how the video presents this recipe).

At Camp:

We need a very hot cast iron Dutch oven to sear our pork. Before we go any farther, let me stop and give you a bit of a chef tip. We need to take in consideration that the meat itself will cool that pot down considerably as soon as the meat hits that pot’s surface. If the pot cools too fast, the meat will not sear. We really can only tell if the meat is properly seared by look; how does the meat look? If we flip the pork and it’s still that cream-white color and not that golden or deep red, toasted color, we’ll let it sit there on the heat longer. The longer it sits there the more time for the meat’s “juices” to “flow” from the meat and pool up. If the juices do not evaporate quickly enough, the meat will start to simmer in its own juices and essentially boil. We will need to sear the meat in a pot at about 450°F / 235°C (later, we’ll bake at about 350°F / 175°C).

I’m going to present this recipe in a 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven and prepare it with four boneless pork loin chops. The pork can be seared in any number of ways. 

1. You can heat your cast Iron Dutch oven to a wicked hot temperature of 450°F−500°F / 235°C-260°C and add all the meat at one time. My suggestion is to consider the size of the cuts of meat. If they are too large and touching each other, the cool meat will “win” over the hot pot and the sear is likely not going to happen.
2. Another option is to sear the meat in batches. You can sear 2-3 pieces at a time and keep a warming pot nearby (a 2nd Dutch oven near the fire) to keep the first batch of meat in and warm while you sear the second batch.
3. You can sear the meat over an open fire. This is perfectly A-OK. You can go straight from searing the meat over the fire to in-the-pot baking with the potatoes and other ingredients. 

One more tip: When you are ready to sear the pork, just make sure it’s pat-dry.

The following steps will reference searing right in the cast iron Dutch oven. 

Step 5: Set 30-35 (or more) charcoal briquettes to fire in a pile or in the charcoal chimney. Set your cast iron Dutch oven near that burning pile of briquettes and start to warm it up.

Step 6: Heat the Dutch oven for frying. Place the 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven over those 30-35 (or more) briquettes and really heat it up well. Don’t add your butter yet. Once the pot starts to show wisps of smoke, add the 2 tablespoons of butter, and let it heat up and “toast.” You’ll see the butter melt with some of the butter solids starting to separate and brown. Don’t burn the butter. If you do, wipe it out (a paper towel works well) and start over.

Note: You can use whatever oil you’d like.

Step 7: When the butter and the pot are wicked hot (don’t burn that butter), add your pork and a sprig or three of rosemary. Leave the rosemary to the side and not under the pork. The pork should be in direct contact with that hot pot. Sear the first side very well. Then, turn the pieces of meat and sear the other side. Keep the cast iron Dutch oven’s lid nearby and inside up (upside down) to receive the meat after both sides are seared to that golden color. You can use a warming pot as mentioned above.

While you are searing the meat, take the time to prepare the rest of the ingredients. Keep an eye on that meat though.

1. Wash and cube the potatoes. Skin on or skin off: that’s up to you.
2. Chop your bell peppers (unless already chopped)
3. Open and have ready the cans of cream of mushroom soup.
4. Have the breadcrumbs ready for pouring and your cooking beer opened.

OPTIONAL: We are first searing (frying) and later we will bake this recipe. If you feel you need a fresh set of briquettes, then set 25-30 briquettes to fire (a 12-inch camp Dutch oven needs about 24 briquettes to bake at the goal of 350°F / 175°C).

Things are going to speed up from here and then we’ll have the baking time to enjoy visiting, drinking beer, and just enjoying the day or the evening. You can leave the pot over the hot coals for the next steps or, remove the pot from the heat. It’s up to you. Use your good judgment and don’t burn anything. 

Me? I remove the pot from the fire and that way I can go quick but not too quick. No stress; no worries.

Step 8: After you have seared your pork, place the hot meat nearby on the upside-down lid or in another Dutch oven to keep warm. Remove the stem of rosemary but just leave the bits of rosemary that broke free from the stem. And no, I don’t break off or add anymore. Whatever rosemary is in the pot is all I use.

Step 9: Pour in about 1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs over whatever bits and pieces are left from searing the pork and butter is left in that pot. You can measure this out or eyeball-it. Pour in about ½ cup of beer at a time (there are three half cups in a 12-ounce bottle or can of beer). Mix the beer in with the breadcrumbs and create a batter-like mixture about the consistency of thick pancake batter. If you need to add more beer, then do so (Expect to use about 12-16 ounces…to be safe).

Step 10: Return the seared pork to the pot. You can turn the pork in the batter or just lay the pork right on top of the breadcrumb batter and call it good.

Step 11: Top the pork with the potatoes. WATCH THE HEAD ROOM. Leave enough room to add the bell peppers and later some more breadcrumbs. 

Step 12: Pour over the cans of cream of mushroom soup and roughly spread about the top of the potatoes. KEEP THE CANS…

Step 13: Add about ½ cup of beer to one of the empty cans of cream of mushroom soup. Mix it about and try to get the rest of the soup out. Now, pour the can over and into the other can. Mix it about. We are trying to wash out some of the remaining cream of mushroom soup.

Pour all that into the pot.

Step 13: Add the chopped green bell peppers to the top of the entire recipe/mixture.

Step 14: Cover the pot and set the Dutch oven to bake. Place 8 hot briquettes around the circumference of the bottom and place 16 hot briquettes on the top. Set your windshield and let the dish bake for about 45 minutes. Turn the pot and lid about every 10-15 minutes.

Pork is considered done at 145°F / 65°C. And your pork may well be done to 145°F / 65°C before the potatoes are done. After about 30-45 minutes, check the potatoes first by “sneaking in” under the lid and getting a bit of potato. If it’s not done, keep cooking. If the potatoes are done, then check the pork for temperature. This is where that meat thermometer comes in handy!!

CONSIDERATION: This recipe may take an hour or more to fully cook. I ask that you check on the meal after 30-45 minutes to see the progress with the idea that you can continue cooking underdone food, but you can’t unburn food. Be prepared for about an hour or more (give or take) for this recipe to fully cook. Think “baked potato.”

Step 15: Once the dish is done, remove the lid and pour a thin layer of breadcrumbs over the mixture. Remove all of the heat from the bottom of the Dutch oven and place any remaining briquettes over the top of the Dutch oven (including any that you did not use. Just get the top hot!

Once the breadcrumbs on the top are toasted, remove the pot from the heat and ENJOY!! 

I just stick a fork in there and pull out a chop. Then, I spoon over some potatoes. Sour Cream goes a long way with this one (and an optional ingredient when cooking this meal).