One large cast iron skillet, one 5lb. bag of potatoes, one bag of onions, butter, pepper.......slice taters and yuns 1/4" or so, set two parallel 6-10" logs w one end stuck in the fire (hardwood preferably) , rake a bed of coals between them w a stick, lay the pan on the coals, toss in 1/2 stick butter or more and almost fill the skillet w vegeez, add salt and lots of pepper. Add more butter if needed (drying out) and stir alot to keep from sticking/burning. Adjust heat if needed, poking more coals under the pan, or sliding the pan down the logs away from the fire if it's too hot, till it's all browning or you just can't stand it anymore because it smells so good and your Caveman hungry anyway!! It's cheap,simple and it's great w breakfast, lunch or dinner. 5 lbs. is enough for several meals and you can fry bacon first, and drain ( most ) of the fat ofcourse, for even more healthy campfood!
Hell, that was dinner tuesday night at my house! Sometimes I cut a pack of baccon or country ham up in 2 inch slices and just scatter it in there with the taters and yuns.1 pot, 1 meal! Mmmmmm..... All 3 food groups.
Then, for desert, mix up a box of bisquick and open 2 cans of heavy cling peaches. Layer it in a buttered cast iron dutch oven with a little sugar sprinkled in there (caramelizes in the crust). Cover with red hot coals for 30 minutes. Best peach cobbler you ever had! Dont burn your fangers!
Camping on the river -
For dinner: freshly caught fish fillets seasoned and wrapped in tin foil and cooked over hot coals.
For breakfast: bacon or pork jowls cooked in my old trusty Lodge pan.
Camping out of the Jeep -
For dinner: 16 oz Ribeye steak cooked medium rare over a charcoal/hickory mixture with a side of freshly prepared floppy fries cooked in peanut oil.
For breakfast: bacon, and lots of it!
If I had to pick the most awesome thing I've ever cooked in the woods it would have to be venison poppers.
-6" strips of bacon
-sliced pickled jalepenos
-cream cheese
-venison (preferably tenderloin)
Lay the bacon flat, place 2 slices of jalepenos in the middle of the bacon, add a dab of cream cheese and a thumb sized chunk of venison and wrap it in a circle with the bacon facing out. Throw it on the grill!
LA catfish- secret 140 yrs old spice mixture , corn meal, eggs, deep iron skillet cut catfish pref 8lb-12lb cat into medium nugget size portions batter nicely drop into 325 skillet of which ever oil you like and BAMMMMMMMM Peanut oil is what i use!
LA tartur sauce- Mayo which ever brand you like, capers, small shalet, garlic, lil sweet relish, chili powder, cayanne pepper,salt/pepper and parsley all chopped up really fine and mix it up... My family recipe ive been using for 15 yrs now cant beat it!!! for your cornmeal seasoning all i can say is bring on the cayanne and hot mustard rajun cajuns like it warm!
When we were in JH and High School, we had a permanent camp site set up in the middle of the woods. We would stay 2 or 3 days, go home to clean up and raid the pantry, then head right back. It had a huge dryed in lean-to stucture that you could sleep 10 people under. We would hit it at the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. Hunt all day and party all night. Made some unusual stews from the daily hunt. One even had some chipmunks in it! They allways seemed good... if you were starving. Crawdads from the creek for appitizers were allways a hit! One of the guy's Dad managed the English owned duck farm that used to be in Concord. Roasted duck was delicious and free! You never had to worry about the fire getting low with all that grease cooking out of them. We cooked them on a spit and made a tent over them with tin foil to radiate the heat all the way around.
But, breakfast was the meal we all wanted to be good. Most of us were Eagle Scouts, or, on our way to being one, so we had a clue what we were doing around a camp stove. My specialty was cooking the Baccon and making cream gravy. Weasel would make his drop biscuits in a reflector oven made out of cardboard and tin foil. And, you guessed it, Duck eggs scrambled with cheese in some baccon grease! They were always double yokes and sometimes triples. Good eating, right there!
I did the same thing w my buds. We would backpack a mile to our campsite on a bluff overlooking an isolated flood control lake, and camp for 2,3 nights hunting and fishing, eating fish, ducks, squirrels, rabbits etc. We built a leanto, and couch out of pine trees and a heat reflecting pine log wall accross the fire from it. Good times One cold winter night an enubriated friend stood too close to the edge while peeing off the cliff and fell 30' down the bluff and almost into the cold, deep water!! it was funny after we hauled him back up the bluff, a little sore and winey. More recently friends and I used to camp on the Roanoke river near Hamilton and Williamston on permit hunts for deer. A friend shot a young deer one afternoon and I decided to try the fresh heart that evening. I sliced it 1/4", seasoned it w S&P and some seasonsalt and cooked on the fire like a hotdog......on a forked stick, It was awesome. My brother liked it but the other 2 guys wouldn't try it!............ Gonna try the LA sauce
Don't get to enjoy it often, bear is good if you cook it correctly. We have had a few shoulders that cook real slow in a mixture of fluid and spice in a dutch oven. Low and slow is the key.
C.Berry, can you let us in on some of the primary catfish seasoning? Don't give it away but steer us in the right direction!
Sometimes I cut a pack of baccon or country ham up in 2 inch slices and just scatter it in there with the taters and yuns.1 pot, 1 meal! Mmmmmm..... All 3 food groups.
Dont burn your fangers!
One cold winter night an enubriated friend stood too close to the edge while peeing off the cliff and fell 30' down the bluff and almost into the cold, deep water!! it was funny after we hauled him back up the bluff, a little sore and winey. More recently friends and I used to camp on the Roanoke river near Hamilton and Williamston on permit hunts for deer. A friend shot a young deer one afternoon and I decided to try the fresh heart that evening. I sliced it 1/4", seasoned it w S&P and some seasonsalt and cooked on the fire like a hotdog......on a forked stick, It was awesome. My brother liked it but the other 2 guys wouldn't try it!............ Gonna try the LA sauce
