-
- Species
- Whitetails
- Big Game
- Small Game
- Birds
- Special Methods
- Bow Hunting
-
- Species
- Bass
- Trout
- More Freshwater
- Saltwater
- Special Methods
- Fly Fishing
Print
Email
Share
Four Campfire Cooking Techniques for Hunters and Fishermen
Four Campfire Cooking Techniques for Hunters and Fishermen
Digging a bean hole has long been a storied tradition in the North Woods, but there’s no reason it can’t be done at a deer or fish camp anywhere. The combination of woodsmoke and molasses flavors in this bean dish can’t be duplicated any other way.
Ingredients:
10 cups dried great Northern or yellow-eye beans
1 lb. salt pork, cut into 2-inch strips
2 large onions, diced
21⁄2 cups molasses
2 tsp. black pepper
4 tsp. dry hot mustard
1⁄2 cup butter
Step 1: Dig a hole that’s twice as deep as and 1 foot in diameter larger than your Dutch oven. Toss a few rocks or a length of chain in the bottom. Fill the hole with hardwood, and burn it down until the hole is three-quarters full of hot coals.
Step 2: Precook the beans by slow-boiling them for about 30 minutes. Drain.
Step 3: Place salt pork in the Dutch oven, layer onions on top, and pour in beans, molasses, black pepper, and mustard. Slice butter and place on top. Add enough boiling water to cover beans by 1⁄2 to 1 inch. Cover the pot with aluminum foil and then the lid.
Step 4: Shovel out about a third of the coals, and put the bean pot in the hole. Replace the coals around the sides of the oven and on top, and fill the rest of the hole with dirt. Cooking time varies, but give it a good 8 hours.
Photo by Dan Marsiglio
Additional Info
Used to be, a meal in the woods involved a marriage of basic elements: wood and flame, meat and fire-blackened iron. We’re not saying that today’s campfire gourmands are lesser outdoorsmen than, say, a French voyageur who could make a meal out of a hunk of beaver rump and a little seasoning scraped from a salt lick. But there’s something about the basic application of heat to grub that transcends a backcountry meal dolled up with polenta and chervil.
Here are four ways to use fire to soothe the ravenous ogre that’s set up shop in your belly. Some harken back to days of leather-fringed yore. A few involve ingredients slightly more basic than cream of mushroom soup. But not a one requires that you flash-sauté or prepare a demi-glace or—for the love of jerky—wet-roast a squab. Just fire up the coal bed, brother, and dig in.
Advertisement
RELATED PHOTOS
ADVERTISEMENT
Today on Field & Stream
Visit Our Sister Sites at Bonnier Corporation
| Enthusiast | Kiteboarding | QUAD | SKI | Skiing | Scuba Diving | Sport Diver | TransWorld Ride BMX | TransWorld Business | TransWorld Motocross | TransWorld SKATEboarding, | TransWorld SNOWboarding | TransWorld SURF | WakeBoarding | WaterSki | Warren Miller Entertainment | WindSurfing |
|---|---|
| Travel | Caribbean Travel & Life | Destination Weddings & Honeymoon | Islands | Meeting Traveler | Resorts & Great Hotels |
| Lifestyle & Shelter | Florida Travel & Life | Garden Design | Home Ft. Lauderdale | Home Miami |
| Luxury | SNOW | Spa |
| Marine | Boating Life | Cruising World | Fly Fishing in Salt Waters | Power Cruising | Marlin | Motor Boating | Sailing World | Salt Water Sportsman | Sport Fishing | Yachting | NewBoats.com | UsedBoats.com | YachtBroker.com |
| Outdoor | Field & Stream | Outdoor Life | SHOT Business |
| Parenting | Babytalk | Parenting |
| Science | Popular Science | Science Illustrated |
| Saveur | Saveur |
| Working Mother Media | Working Mother |
| Entertainment / Events | World Entertainment Services | World Sports & Marketing |
FieldandStream.com is part of the Bonnier Outdoor Group Network
Copyright © 2009 Bonnier Corp. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Photo Gallery Comments (12)
Makes me hungry. When's dinner?
We would use all of these methods on a regular basis when I was in the Boy Scouts except for the bean pot, but it sounds like somehting I would like to try. I still use my dutch oven and foils packs while camping, but I dont mess around with the reflector oven any more.
Good tips
thanks for the tips I'll use these on my trip to the boundary waters this year.
I'm going to the BWCAW this year too. I LOVE my Dutch Ovens but I'm NOT hauling one - even by canoe! Nor am I going to pack out a roll of (used) aluminum foil either. One year, in the BWCAW back-country, we found a wrecked canoe and, using the metal-cutting blade of my What-A-Saw, cut it into an reflector/chimney.
At summer camp as a kid, the one thing we did differently (or in addition) to the Drugstore Wrap was to put the outside leaves from a head of letuce on the top and bottom. Added moisture and helped prevent burning on the outer layers of goodies.
While reading the "Additional Info" box I started to get concerned when I read the words "polenta and chervil". But you redeemed yourself with the second paragraph. ;-)
10 cups of beans! What kid of dutch oven do you have? Do not make the bean hole recipe as directed-this is insane-does anyone field test your directions?
Outstanding tips......I definitely used some of this when I go camping with my family!!!!!!!!!
MAKES ME WANT TO GO CAMPING JUST SO I CAN TRY THE CROWD PLEASER. I WILL TRY IT A DEER CAMP THIS FALL IF NOT BEFORE WITH THE FAMILY.
Nice tips, I'll have to try'em
"Tips" - Sending it here can't locate it anywhere else: Please forward
What to do with that old Boot / Shoe Box ?
After I purchase a pair of boots or shoes I recycle the box by taking old issues of Field d and Stream magazines. Cut out the photos, glue them on the box, inside & out as well as the cover. Water seal the box all over after the glue drys.
They make great looking storage boxes. Fishing photos on the end hold fishing items, knives hold knives, etc.
Great place to store those darned sockes you can never locate too... Sock photo glued on the end of the box.
Great project to help keep the grand kids busy and they make great gift for that fishing buddy that can never find his...
Amazes freinds that you can find your " Gotta have It items" as well...Sure beats the desk drawer storage system all to hell.
Happy Hunting
Ron Wilson
2066 Field drive
Noblesville, IN 46060
317 773 1655
Post a Comment
We would use all of these methods on a regular basis when I was in the Boy Scouts except for the bean pot, but it sounds like somehting I would like to try. I still use my dutch oven and foils packs while camping, but I dont mess around with the reflector oven any more.
Good tips
Makes me hungry. When's dinner?
I'm going to the BWCAW this year too. I LOVE my Dutch Ovens but I'm NOT hauling one - even by canoe! Nor am I going to pack out a roll of (used) aluminum foil either. One year, in the BWCAW back-country, we found a wrecked canoe and, using the metal-cutting blade of my What-A-Saw, cut it into an reflector/chimney.
MAKES ME WANT TO GO CAMPING JUST SO I CAN TRY THE CROWD PLEASER. I WILL TRY IT A DEER CAMP THIS FALL IF NOT BEFORE WITH THE FAMILY.
thanks for the tips I'll use these on my trip to the boundary waters this year.
At summer camp as a kid, the one thing we did differently (or in addition) to the Drugstore Wrap was to put the outside leaves from a head of letuce on the top and bottom. Added moisture and helped prevent burning on the outer layers of goodies.
While reading the "Additional Info" box I started to get concerned when I read the words "polenta and chervil". But you redeemed yourself with the second paragraph. ;-)
10 cups of beans! What kid of dutch oven do you have? Do not make the bean hole recipe as directed-this is insane-does anyone field test your directions?
Outstanding tips......I definitely used some of this when I go camping with my family!!!!!!!!!
"Tips" - Sending it here can't locate it anywhere else: Please forward
What to do with that old Boot / Shoe Box ?
After I purchase a pair of boots or shoes I recycle the box by taking old issues of Field d and Stream magazines. Cut out the photos, glue them on the box, inside & out as well as the cover. Water seal the box all over after the glue drys.
They make great looking storage boxes. Fishing photos on the end hold fishing items, knives hold knives, etc.
Great place to store those darned sockes you can never locate too... Sock photo glued on the end of the box.
Great project to help keep the grand kids busy and they make great gift for that fishing buddy that can never find his...
Amazes freinds that you can find your " Gotta have It items" as well...Sure beats the desk drawer storage system all to hell.
Happy Hunting
Ron Wilson
2066 Field drive
Noblesville, IN 46060
317 773 1655
Nice tips, I'll have to try'em
Post a Comment