Citadel Spread
Peanut butter cut with bacon fat, honey, and milk powder until it holds a spoon up.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 160
- protein
- 10 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 15 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.
- Snack
- Lunch
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Basecamp
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Creamy peanut butter | 18 oz jar | |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon grease | 2-4 oz | the rendered fat from 6-8 slices, strained |
| Honey | 1/2 cup | |
| Powdered milk | 2-4 cups | add it gradually, the amount decides the texture |
Method
- At home, warm the bacon grease just enough to pour and strain out any browned bits. Bits are what go rancid first.
- Stir the peanut butter, grease, and honey together in a bowl until the color is even.
- Work in the powdered milk a half cup at a time. Stop when a spoon stands up in it and it still spreads.
- Keep going past that point if you want something closer to fudge you can cut into squares.
- Pack into small containers or a wide-mouth jar and let it firm up before it goes in a pack.
This is a fat delivery system with enough structure to eat off a tortilla or a cracker without dripping. Peanut butter alone is already dense, but the bacon grease pushes the fat fraction higher and the honey keeps it from tasting flat. Milk powder is the part doing the engineering: it soaks up free oil and turns a loose mix into something that holds shape in a warm pack.
The texture is entirely up to how much powder goes in, so add it slowly and stop where you like it. Two cups gives a thick spread; four gives a dense block you can slice. Nothing here needs refrigeration, but strain the grease well and keep the container closed, since browned bacon solids are the one ingredient that will turn on you.
Packing
Split it across two or three small screw-top containers rather than one large one. Open a fresh container every few days and the rest stays clean. In hot weather it softens and separates a little; stir it back together with the spoon.
Variations
- Leave the bacon grease out and use coconut oil instead. Different flavor, same structure, and it keeps longer.
- Add a heavy pinch of salt if the bacon grease was unsalted.
- Cocoa powder in place of half a cup of the milk powder makes it read as dessert.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/citadel-spread