Camp Dutch Oven Pulled Pork
A pork shoulder, a spice rub, and four hours of low coals while everyone else is out walking.
- calories
- 470
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 67
- protein
- 36 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 300 min
- total time
- 315 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.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pork shoulder | 3.5 lb | bone-in is fine, it cooks the same |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| White onion | 1 large | sliced thick |
| Garlic | 4 cloves | smashed |
| Apple cider vinegar | 1/2 cup | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 2 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 2 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 2 tsp | |
| Ground cumin | 2 tsp | |
| Mustard powder | 1 tsp | |
| Coarse sea salt | 1 tbsp | |
| Cracked black pepper | 1 tsp |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals an hour before you want to start. You need a steady bed, not flames.
- Mix the rub and press it into the pork on all sides. Do this at the truck, not over the pot.
- Heat the oil in the dutch oven over a few coals and brown the shoulder on two or three faces. Five minutes a side.
- Pull the meat out. Lay the onion and garlic across the bottom, set the pork back on top, and pour the vinegar and Worcestershire down the side of the pot.
- Lid on. Bank about eight coals under the oven and fifteen on the lid. Aim low and steady, around 275F.
- Refresh the coals roughly every 45 minutes. Check at four hours: the bone should wiggle and a fork should turn the meat without effort. If it fights you, give it another hour.
- Lift the pork onto a board, pull it apart with two forks, then stir it back into the juices in the pot.
This started as a slow cooker recipe, which is a machine most camps do not have. A dutch oven does the same job for the same reason: low, even, enclosed heat over hours, so the collagen in a shoulder has time to turn to gelatin instead of squeezing water out of the muscle. The trade is that you have to feed it coals. Set a rough timer and stop opening the lid.
The vinegar is not there for flavor alone. Half a cup is enough liquid to keep the bottom of the pot from scorching once the onion collapses, and the pork releases plenty more fat and juice as it goes. No added water, so the sauce reduces to something worth eating instead of pale broth. Browning first is optional if you are short on coals, but the crust is where most of the smoked paprika ends up.
Packing
Combine the six dry spices and salt in one jar at home. Vinegar and Worcestershire go into a small leakproof bottle together. Pork stays in the cooler, bagged, on the bottom next to the ice.
Variations
- Stir a squeeze of the pot juices into instant mashed potatoes for a second meal off the same fire.
- Leftovers keep a day in a cold cooler and go straight into tortillas cold or crisped in a skillet.
https://www.baldhiker.com/keto-slow-cooker-pulled-pork-recipe