Camp Skillet Venison Salisbury Steak
Venison patties browned in a skillet and drowned in mushroom gravy, built from shelf-stable parts.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 600 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
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground venison | 2 lb | frozen solid at home, packed at the bottom of the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Panko bread crumbs | 1/2 cup | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | mixed with 1/4 cup water to replace fresh milk |
| Dried minced onion | 3 tbsp | covers both the patties and the gravy |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Dried mushrooms | 1.5 oz | any kind; sliced shiitake rehydrates fastest |
| Brown gravy mix | 2 packets | |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes | |
| Ketchup | 4 tbsp | single-serve packets |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tbsp | packets again |
| Dried parsley and chives | 1 tbsp total | |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Pour 500 ml of boiling water over the dried mushrooms in a mug or bowl. Leave them 15 minutes. Keep the soaking liquid.
- Stir the milk powder into 1/4 cup of water. Mix it with the panko, 1 tbsp of the dried onion, the garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Let it sit two minutes so the crumbs go soft.
- Work that mixture into the venison with your hands and form four thick patties. Do not overwork it or they turn rubbery.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over the fire or a burner. Brown the patties hard on both sides, about three minutes a side. They do not need to be cooked through yet. Move them to a plate.
- Drop the rehydrated mushrooms and the rest of the dried onion into the same skillet. Cook until the water is gone and the edges catch color.
- Pour in the mushroom soaking liquid plus 100 ml more water, crumbling in the bouillon. Whisk in the gravy mix, ketchup, mustard, parsley, and chives.
- Set the patties back in the gravy, cover, and hold at a low simmer 15 minutes. Turn them once, gently. They fall apart if you fight them.
The original is a slow cooker recipe, which is fine at home and useless at a campsite. This version keeps the parts that matter — the browned crust, the mushroom gravy, the ketchup and mustard doing the sweet-and-sharp work — and compresses five hours into thirty minutes in one skillet. A covered simmer finishes the patties the same way the slow cooker did, just faster.
The binder is where the trail substitutions happen. Egg yolks and fresh milk are cooler liabilities, so the panko gets soaked in reconstituted milk powder instead and holds the patties together on its own. Dried mushrooms replace 16 oz of fresh, and their soaking liquid becomes most of the gravy, so nothing is wasted. Venison itself is the one item that needs a cold cooler; freeze it solid and cook it the first night out.
Packing
Panko, milk powder, dried onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper go in one bag as the binder mix. Gravy mix, bouillon, mushrooms, and herbs go in another. Condiment packets ride in the same bag so nothing leaks into the cooler.
Variations
- Ground beef works the same way if the freezer has no venison. Venison is lean, so beef needs less oil.
- Instant mashed potato flakes on the side turn the extra gravy into a second dish.
- No skillet: brown the patties in a foil pan on a grill grate, then add the gravy to the same pan and tent it with foil.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/slow-cooker-venison-salisbury-steak