Char Siu Pork Strips for Camp
Marinated and roasted at home, sliced thin, eaten cold out of a bag on day one.
- calories
- 190
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 63
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 150 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 150 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.
- Lunch
- Snack
- No cook
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pork tenderloin | 1 lb | trimmed, cut into strips 2 in wide and 6 in long |
|---|---|---|
| Light soy sauce | 3 tbsp | |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | |
| Hoisin sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Ketchup | 2 tbsp | |
| Sherry | 1 tbsp | |
| Dark soy sauce | 1 tsp | |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 1 clove | mashed |
| Chinese hot mustard powder | 2 tsp | carried dry, mixed with water at camp |
| Sesame seeds | 1 tbsp |
Method
- At home, whisk the soy sauces, honey, hoisin, ketchup, sherry, sugar, and garlic together. Pour it over the pork strips and refrigerate at least two hours, overnight if you have it.
- Heat the oven to 425F. Put a shallow pan with an inch of water on the bottom rack. The water keeps the drippings from burning and smoking.
- Hang the strips from the top rack with steel skewers or hooks so they sit over the pan. Roast 20 minutes, basting with the pan drippings every 5 minutes.
- Drop the heat to 325F and give it 5 more minutes. Pull and cool completely.
- Slice each strip against the grain into quarter-inch pieces. Chill, then bag.
- At camp, mix the mustard powder with a spoonful of cold water into a paste. Dip the pork, scatter sesame seeds over it, eat cold.
This is a home-oven job that pays off later. Char siu is one of the few cooked pork preparations meant to be eaten cold, which makes it unusual among camp proteins: no reheating, no pot, no stove. Hanging the strips over a water pan is the part worth doing right. It cooks them from all sides and stops the sugary marinade from scorching into the roasting pan.
The sugar and honey are doing double duty. They lacquer the outside during the roast and they keep the meat from tasting flat once it is cold. This still needs a cooler and it is a day-one or day-two food, not shelf-stable — for a long trip, dry the strips into jerky instead and carry the same flavors at a third of the weight.
Packing
Slice and bag at home in a doubled zip bag, pressed flat so it chills fast in the cooler. Mustard powder and sesame seeds ride in a film canister or small jar. Keep it cold and eat it within two days.
Variations
- Roll the cold slices into tortillas with shredded cabbage for a real lunch.
- Skip the cooler entirely: cut the strips thinner, use the same marinade, and dry them into jerky instead. Shelf-stable, and the sugar and hoisin still come through.
- Chop the leftovers into instant ramen at camp if you have a stove going.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/barbeque-pork-2