Canned Venison and Mushroom Soup
A jar of pressure-canned deer meat, dried mushrooms, and broth. Heat and eat.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 47
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 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
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Pressure-canned venison | 1 pint jar | cubed, with the liquid in the jar |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1 oz | about 2 cups before rehydrating |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | the squeeze tube keeps without a fridge |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tbsp | decanted into a small dropper bottle |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes or 2 tsp powder | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tsp | |
| Dried rosemary | 1/2 tsp | crush it between your fingers |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/2 tsp each |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the mushrooms, onion flakes, and bouillon and let them sit off the heat for five minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste until it dissolves. It will clump if you dump it in cold water first.
- Add the whole jar of venison, liquid included. That liquid is most of the flavor.
- Add the Worcestershire, garlic powder, thyme, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
- Simmer eight to ten minutes, low flame, stirring now and then so the paste does not scorch on the bottom.
- Taste before adding more salt. The bouillon and the canned meat both bring their own.
Pressure-canned venison is already cooked through, which is the whole point. All the heat here is doing is rehydrating mushrooms and pulling the herbs together, so it goes from cold pot to bowl in about fifteen minutes even with a stiff wind on the stove.
The original is a home-canned soup with fresh onion and mushroom sealed into the jar. Dried mushrooms and onion flakes do the same job at a fraction of the weight, and tomato paste from a tube replaces the can that would otherwise rattle around half-used in your bin. The jar of meat is the one heavy item, which is why this stays at the truck or the wall tent.
Packing
Everything but the jar and the tomato paste goes in one bag: mushrooms, onion, bouillon, and all the herbs premixed. The jar is glass and heavy, so this is a drive-in or a short walk from the truck.
Variations
- Stir in a cup of instant mashed potato flakes at the end to turn it into a stew you can eat with a spoon standing up.
- Boil egg noodles separately and ladle the soup over them. Cook them fresh; noodles packed in the jar go to mush.
- Canned beef or chicken works the same way if you did not fill a tag this year.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/easy-canned-venison-and-mushroom-soup