Braised Pork Roast with Paprika, Capers, and Caraway
A Dutch oven pork roast braised in stock, finished with a shelf-stable sour cream sauce.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 105 min
- total time
- 130 min
- water
- 250 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Boneless pork loin | 3 lb | frozen solid at home, thaws in the cooler over day one |
|---|---|---|
| Lard or shortening | 4 tbsp | shelf-stable, no butter to keep cold |
| Dried chopped onion | 1/3 cup | rehydrates in the braise |
| Dried diced carrot | 1/3 cup | |
| Sweet Hungarian paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Bouillon | enough for 1 cup | chicken or beef |
| Flour | 2 tbsp | |
| Sour cream powder | 1/4 cup | plus 3/4 cup water; buttermilk powder also works |
| Capers | 1 tbsp | drained and chopped, from a jar |
| Caraway seed | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. You want steady moderate heat, roughly 12 coals under the oven and 14 on the lid once it goes on.
- Melt the lard in the Dutch oven over the coals. Brown the pork hard on every side, 10 to 15 minutes total. Pull it out onto a plate.
- Pour off most of the fat, leaving a slick. Add the dried onion and carrot with a splash of water and cook 8 minutes, until the onion softens and picks up color.
- Take the oven off the heat and stir in the paprika. Paprika scorches over direct heat and turns bitter, so do this off the coals.
- Pour in 250 ml of hot water with the bouillon dissolved in it. Scrape the bottom until the browned bits let go.
- Return the pork fat side up, salt and pepper it, and bring the liquid back to a boil. Lid on, coals on top, and braise 90 minutes. Baste every 20 minutes or so.
- Move the pork to a plate and tent it with foil. Whisk the flour into the sour cream powder dry, then whisk in 3/4 cup water until smooth.
- Bring the pan liquid to a simmer and whisk in the sour cream mixture. Simmer until it coats a spoon, then stir in the capers, caraway, and parsley.
- Slice the pork about half an inch thick and spoon the sauce over.
This started as a home oven recipe and mostly survives the move to coals, because a Dutch oven is an oven. The real problem was the dairy. A cup of sour cream will not last a weekend in a cooler, so it becomes sour cream powder reconstituted at the end. Whisk the flour into the powder while both are dry or you will be chasing lumps around the pot.
The onion and carrot get thrown out after the braise anyway, so dried versions do the job fine and save cooler space. Paprika, capers, and caraway all go in late for the same reason: long heat flattens them, and the sauce is the only part of this dish that has anything sharp in it. The pork itself is just protein and fat.
Packing
Pork goes into the cooler frozen and stays on the bottom. Everything else lives in one bag: dried vegetables, bouillon, flour, sour cream powder, and the spices in small jars. Capers ride in their jar.
Variations
- Skip the flour and use a tablespoon of cornstarch instead for a gluten-free sauce.
- Pork shoulder handles a longer, sloppier braise better if your coals are uneven.
- Leftover sliced pork and sauce reheats into the next morning's hash.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/braised-pork-roast-with-paprika-capers-and-caraway