Beef and Potato Hand Pies in a Pie Iron
Ground beef, spuds, and onion sealed in dough and cooked over coals in a pie iron.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 120 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground beef chuck | 1 lb | cook and cool at home, then carry it in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Russet potatoes | 1 lb | peeled and diced 1/4 inch, parboiled at home |
| Onion | 2 medium | finely chopped; keeps for days without a cooler |
| All-purpose flour | 4 cups | premeasured with the salt at home |
| Shortening or cold butter | 1 1/4 cups | shortening does not need a cooler |
| Salt | 2 tsp | 1 tsp in the dough, 1 tsp in the filling |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Cold water | about 2/3 cup |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flame.
- Cut the shortening into the flour and salt in a pot or large bag until it looks like gravel with a few larger lumps left.
- Add cold water a splash at a time, working it with your hands until it holds together. Stop as soon as it does. Rest it ten minutes.
- Mix the beef, potatoes, onion, remaining salt, and pepper in the pot.
- Press a piece of dough into each greased half of the pie iron. Load one side with filling, close it, and pinch off the overhang.
- Set the iron in the coals. Four minutes a side, then check. Repeat until the crust is browned through and the onion has gone soft.
- Let each one sit a minute before biting in. The filling holds heat longer than the crust does.
The original is a two-hour oven project with raw meat and raw potato baking inside the crust. That does not work over a fire, where the outside browns long before the middle is safe. So the filling goes in already cooked: beef browned and cooled at home, potatoes parboiled and diced small. At camp the fire only has to crisp the crust and heat what is inside.
The dough is worth cutting at home too. Flour, salt, and fat combined in advance travel as a single bag and need nothing but cold water in camp, which spares you a pastry blender and a work surface you do not have. Shortening in place of butter means the bag can sit in the pack instead of the cooler. Keep the pies small. Full-size ones will not close in a pie iron and will not cook through if they do.
Packing
Flour, salt, and shortening get cut together at home and carried as one bag of crumb; at camp it only needs water. Cooked beef and parboiled potatoes ride in the cooler in a sealed container. Onions travel loose.
Variations
- Skip the pie iron and bake them in a dutch oven with coals on the lid, 35 to 40 minutes.
- Swap the beef for a pouch of shelf-stable chicken and drop the cooler entirely.
- Ketchup or a packet of brown gravy on the side is traditional and worth carrying.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/meat-and-potato-pasties