Camp Stew with Small Game and Garden Vegetables
One dressed rabbit or woodchuck, a Dutch oven, and whatever the garden gave up that week.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 120 min
- total time
- 145 min
- water
- 900 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
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Woodchuck or rabbit, dressed and jointed | about 2 lb | trim the small glands near the armpits, hind legs, and tail on older animals |
|---|---|---|
| Kosher salt and coarse black pepper | to taste | |
| Dried thyme or rosemary | 1 tsp | |
| Lard or cooking oil | 3 tbsp | |
| All-purpose flour | 1/3 cup | for dredging |
| Yellow onion | 1 large, diced | |
| Garlic | 3 cloves, or 1 tbsp chopped | |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not can, so leftovers keep |
| Dry red wine | 1 cup | |
| Water or stock | 3 to 4 cups | |
| Garden vegetables | 3 cups | carrots, young squash and blossoms, tomatoes, amaranth or other greens |
| Good finishing oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Season the joints with salt, pepper, and the dried herb. Toss them in the flour and shake off what does not stick.
- Set the Dutch oven over a bed of coals or a low fire. Melt the fat and brown the pieces in batches. Crowd the pot and they steam instead.
- Pull the meat out. Cook the onion in the same fat until it slumps, then the garlic and tomato paste for a minute more.
- Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom clean. Return the meat, add water or stock to cover, and put the lid on.
- Hold it at a bare simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours. Small game runs to a lot of small bones, and long heat is what gets the meat off them.
- Lift the meat out, pick it off the bones, and put it back in the pot. Cut the carrots in and give them 10 minutes in the broth.
- Cook the tender vegetables fast at the very end, or scatter squash blossoms, greens, and raw tomato over each bowl. Finish with the oil.
This is a hunting camp dish, not a backpacking one. The point is the bones. Small game carries a lot of them, and a slow simmer turns that into a broth with real body, which is the only reason the stew tastes like anything before the vegetables show up. Pick the meat off after cooking rather than serving joints, and nobody spends dinner spitting bone fragments into the fire.
The vegetables get split in two on purpose. Carrots and anything dense go in with enough time to soften. Squash blossoms, greens, and ripe tomato go on top at the last second, off the heat, so they stay separate from the long-cooked broth instead of dissolving into it. A Dutch oven on coals holds a steadier low simmer than a stove ever will, which is what this needs for two hours.
Packing
Salt, pepper, herb, and flour go in one bag at home so dredging is one step in camp. Wine and stock travel in bottles; the meat and vegetables ride in the cooler on ice.
Variations
- Rabbit, hare, or squirrel behave the same way and cook in the same time.
- No wine: use another cup of stock and a splash of cider vinegar at the end.
- Save the offal. It is mild, and it goes in the pot with the joints.
https://foragerchef.com/woodchuck-stew-with-garden-vegetables