Bacon and Blue Cheese Skillet Cornbread
Self-rising cornmeal, precooked bacon, and gorgonzola baked in a dutch oven over coals.
- calories
- 250
- weight
- 2.4 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 300 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Self-rising cornmeal mix | 2 cups | Martha White is the standard; it already has leavening |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | reconstitutes to the 3/4 cup the batter needs |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for 1/4 cup sour cream |
| Powdered whole egg | 6 tbsp | equals 3 eggs |
| Cold water | about 1 1/4 cups | |
| Precooked bacon crumbles | 4 oz | |
| Gorgonzola crumbles | 1 cup | from the cooler; any firm blue works |
| Dried chives | 2 tbsp | replaces sliced scallion tops |
| Bacon fat or oil | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. You want roughly 20 briquettes under a 10-inch dutch oven and 10 on the lid, or an even rake of hardwood coals.
- Put the oil in the oven and set it over the coals to heat while you mix.
- In a bag or bowl, stir the cornmeal, sugar, salt, milk powder, sour cream powder, egg powder, and chives together dry.
- Add the water a little at a time and stir until it is a thick batter, not a pourable one. It should mound on the spoon.
- Fold in the bacon and most of the cheese. Hold back a handful of cheese.
- Pour the batter into the hot oven, scatter the reserved cheese on top, and put the lid on with coals on it.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes. It is done when the center springs back and the edge has pulled from the iron.
- Let it sit five minutes before cutting or it tears.
Cornbread is one of the few real baked goods that survives the trip to camp intact, because self-rising cornmeal carries its own leavening and does not care how long it sat in the bin. The original called for whole milk, sour cream, and three fresh eggs. All three become powders that weigh almost nothing and mix back with cold water in the pan, which is the only change that matters here.
The blue cheese is the one thing still riding in the cooler, and it is worth the space. It melts into pockets rather than blending in, so you get salt in bursts instead of evenly. Bacon crumbles come precooked so you are not rendering fat over a fire before you can start baking; the oil covers what the rendered fat would have done for the crust.
Packing
Combine cornmeal, sugar, salt, and all three powders in one zip bag at home; label it with the water amount. Bacon crumbles ride in the same food box. Cheese goes in the cooler.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use a spoon of smoked paprika for a meatless pan.
- A can of diced green chiles, drained hard, works in place of the chives.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a covered cast iron skillet on a grill grate with the lid down.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/bacon-and-gorgonzola-cornbread-wedges