Brunswick Camp Stew
Squirrel or any small game, simmered with potatoes, corn, and limas over a fire.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 75 min
- total time
- 85 min
- water
- 1200 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
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Squirrel | 2, quartered | rabbit or any small game works the same way |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | 2 tsp | for the simmering water |
| Canned tomatoes | 1 cup | or a can of condensed tomato soup |
| Onions | 2 small, sliced thin | they keep for days without a cooler |
| Potatoes | 4, sliced | |
| Canned green lima beans | 1 can (16 oz) | |
| Canned whole kernel corn | 1 can (8 oz) | |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Butter or ghee | 4 tbsp | ghee holds up unrefrigerated |
| Sherry | 1/2 cup | optional, but it does something |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Cover the quartered squirrel with water in the pot, add 2 tsp salt, and simmer until the meat pulls off the bone. An hour is normal. Keep the fire low and steady.
- Lift the meat out and leave the water in the pot. That water is your stock now, so do not dump it.
- Pull the meat off the bones, tear it into bite-size pieces, and put it back in.
- Add the tomatoes, onions, potatoes, limas, and sugar. Salt and pepper. Simmer until a knife goes through the potatoes without argument.
- Stir in the corn, butter, and sherry. Five more minutes, off the hard flame.
This is a game stew, so the long simmer is not optional. Squirrel is lean and worked hard for a living. The only thing that makes it tender is time in water, and that same water becomes the stock the rest of the stew is built on. Boil it, cool it, boil it again if you have to, but do not pour it out.
The canned vegetables are doing double duty: they are shelf-stable, and the packing liquid adds body without extra fuel. Corn and butter go in last because both are already cooked and long heat just flattens them. Sugar sounds odd but it pulls the acid out of the tomatoes, which otherwise dominate a pot this size.
Packing
Cans and butter ride in a bin or the bottom of the boat. Onions and potatoes go in a paper bag, not plastic, or they sweat and rot. Cut the meat up before it goes in the pot and you save yourself a fishing expedition later.
Variations
- No game? Two cans of chicken get you to the same place and cut an hour off the cook.
- Trade the potatoes for instant potato flakes stirred in at the end if you want the weight down.
- A splash of vinegar in place of the sherry brightens it if you would rather not carry booze.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/squirrel-recipes.1354