Camp Bacon, Done Once
Cook the whole pack in the morning, keep the fat, and use both all weekend.
- calories
- 380
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 95
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bacon | 1 lb | thick cut holds up better over uneven fire heat |
|---|---|---|
| Salt and pepper | to taste | optional, most bacon is salty enough |
Method
- Build the fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals and a grate, not flames licking the pan.
- Lay the strips in a cold cast iron skillet without overlapping. Cook a half pound at a time if the pan is crowded.
- Set the pan over the coals. Let the fat render slowly for six or seven minutes before you touch anything.
- Turn each strip once. Pull them when the edges firm up but the middle still bends, another five minutes or so.
- Move the finished bacon to a plate. Pour the hot fat into a small metal tin or jar and keep it.
- Cook eggs, potatoes, or tomorrow's hash in the same pan without washing it.
Bacon over a campfire fails the same two ways every time: flames instead of coals, and a pan the cook keeps poking. Coals give steady heat that renders the fat out before the meat scorches. Leaving the strips alone lets that fat pool and fry them properly, which is what a stovetop pan does for you at home.
The rendered fat is the actual point. A pound of bacon yields most of a cup, and that carries the rest of the weekend’s cooking: potatoes, eggs, a skillet cornbread. This one needs a cooler and ice, so it is a car camping or basecamp breakfast. On foot, carry precooked crumbles instead and accept that you get no fat out of them.
Packing
Keep the pack sealed and flat on the bottom of the cooler on ice. Opened bacon goes in a zip bag and gets used within a day. Bring a small tin with a tight lid for the rendered fat.
Variations
- Precooked shelf-stable bacon crumbles cover the same job on a backpacking trip with no cooler.
- Lay the strips over a folded foil sheet on the grate if you did not bring a skillet.
- Save the fat for potatoes, cornbread, or greasing a dutch oven lid.
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