Camp Tamale Pie
Masa dough and shredded pork over venison, cooked flat in one pot instead of tied up in husks.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 65 min
- water
- 700 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
| Cooked, shredded venison and pork | 3 lb total | slow-cooked at home, vacuum sealed, frozen flat |
|---|---|---|
| Masa harina for tamales | 3 1/2 cups | |
| Lard | 8 oz | shelf-stable, no cooler needed |
| Chicken stock | 2 cups | bouillon plus water works |
| Very hot water | 2 cups | |
| Baking powder | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Chipotle peppers in adobo | 2 | minced, from a small can |
| Dried onion and garlic | 2 tbsp | |
| Green chiles | 1 cup | canned, drained |
| Oil or lard for the pot | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. You want steady low heat, not flame.
- Whip the lard in the dutch oven with a spoon until it loosens, then work in the masa, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
- Add the hot water and stock a little at a time until the dough is soft and spreadable, like thick frosting. Scrape it into a bowl or onto foil.
- Grease the pot. Press half the dough across the bottom and an inch up the sides.
- Stir the shredded meat with the chiles, chipotles, dried onion and garlic, and a splash of stock. Spread it over the dough.
- Drop the rest of the dough over the top in patches and smooth it flat. It will not be pretty.
- Lid on. Coals underneath, more on the lid. Bake 45 minutes, rotating the pot and lid a quarter turn every ten minutes.
- Done when the top is set and pulls away from the wall. Let it sit ten minutes or it will run.
Tamales are a two-day project and a lot of folding. The dough and the filling are the parts that matter; the husk is a wrapper. Layered in a dutch oven, you get the same masa and the same meat with none of the assembly line, and it feeds six off one lid of coals.
The braising happens at home, where a slow cooker can run twelve hours and a freezer can hold the result. In camp you are only doing two things: beating air into the lard so the dough stays light, and holding the oven at a steady moderate heat. Too many coals underneath scorches the bottom crust before the middle sets, so keep most of the heat on the lid.
Packing
Meat goes in the cooler frozen and thaws over the drive. Masa, baking powder, salt, pepper, and dried onion and garlic get premixed into one bag at home. Lard travels in a screw-top tub.
Variations
- Wrap portions in soaked corn husks and steam them on a rack over an inch of water if you want real tamales and have two hours.
- Leftovers reheat in a pan with a lid and a splash of water.
- Beef chuck stands in for the venison one for one.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/pork-and-venison-tamale-recipe