Duck and Ham Cheese Fries, Camp Version
Dehydrated hash browns crisped in fat, buried under a mustard-gruyere sauce and shredded duck.
- calories
- 880
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 98
- protein
- 36 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 600 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dehydrated shredded hash brown potatoes | 2 cups dry | the carton kind, rehydrates in ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Canned or pouched duck confit | 12 oz | pull the meat off before you leave home |
| Country ham | 3 oz, diced | salt-cured, keeps without a cooler |
| Rendered duck fat or lard | 1/4 cup | a small screw-top jar; lard is the backup |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | ghee if it will be warm out |
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | makes about 2 cups of milk |
| Gruyere | 6 oz, grated at home | |
| Whole-grain mustard | 1 tsp | single-serve packets work |
| Cayenne | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Cover the hash browns with cold water in your pot and let them sit ten minutes. Drain hard and squeeze out what you can. Wet potatoes will not brown.
- Set a skillet on the grate over a bed of coals, not open flame. Melt the duck fat and spread the potatoes in a thin layer. Leave them alone four or five minutes, then flip in sections. Repeat until they are brown and stiff at the edges.
- Push the potatoes to one side, drop in the ham, and cook it until the fat renders and the edges darken. Add the duck long enough to heat through. Slide it all onto plates or keep it in the pan.
- Wipe the skillet, melt the butter, and stir in the flour. Cook it a minute so it stops smelling raw.
- Whisk the milk powder into 2 cups of cold water in a bottle, then pour it into the roux in stages, stirring the whole time. Let it thicken to the consistency of gravy.
- Off the heat, stir in the gruyere a handful at a time, then the mustard and cayenne. Salt and pepper it.
- Pour the sauce over the potatoes and meat. Eat it standing up.
Cheese fries are a two-problem dish on the trail: frozen fries and cold milk. Dehydrated hash browns solve the first, and they crisp better than frozen shoestrings ever will over coals, because you control how much water goes back into them. Whole milk powder solves the second. Reconstituted at full strength it makes a bechamel that behaves like the real thing, and the fat in it keeps the gruyere from breaking.
Country ham and duck confit are both preserved by design, so neither needs a cooler for a weekend. The mustard is not a garnish. Cheese sauce without acid reads flat and heavy after a mile of walking, and a teaspoon of whole-grain cuts through the whole thing.
Packing
Grate the cheese and pull the duck at home; both go in a zip bag. Flour, milk powder, and cayenne premix in one bag so the sauce is two pours instead of four measurements. Fat in a jar with a taped lid.
Variations
- Canned chicken or a foil pouch of pulled pork stands in for the duck without changing the method.
- No duck fat: bacon grease or oil browns the potatoes fine, you just lose the flavor.
- Skip the roux and use a shelf-stable cheese sauce pouch if you would rather cook one pan than two.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/pulled-duck-and-country-ham-cheese-fries