Dutch Oven Breakfast Cornbread
A spiced cornmeal batter baked over coals. Sweet, dense, and it feeds a whole patrol.
- calories
- 270
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 77
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 65 min
- water
- 950 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.
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Cornmeal | 1/2 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered milk | enough for 4 cups | |
| Water | 4 cups | |
| Sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Nutmeg | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Raisins | 1/2 cup | |
| Eggs | 2 | the only cooler item; powdered egg works |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp | plus more for the oven |
| Pancake syrup | 1/2 cup |
Method
- At home or in camp, shake the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt together in a zip bag.
- Heat 4 cups of water in a pot. Whisk in the powdered milk and bring it to steaming, not boiling.
- Rain in the cornmeal while stirring. Drop the heat to a bare simmer and stir about 10 minutes, until it thickens to porridge.
- Pull the pot off the fire. Beat the eggs with the oil in a cup and stir that into the cornmeal.
- Stir in the spice mix, the raisins, and the syrup.
- Oil the dutch oven well and pour the batter in. Level it.
- Bake about 40 minutes at roughly 350°F: a ring of coals covering the lid, half that many underneath.
- Check with a twig or toothpick in the center. Clean means done. Let it sit five minutes before cutting.
This is a mush-then-bake, not a batter. Cooking the cornmeal in milk first gelatinizes the starch, which is why the finished cake holds together without flour or leavening. Skip the simmer and you get grit suspended in egg.
Everything here travels dry except the eggs, and powdered egg covers that if you would rather not run a cooler. The syrup does double duty as sweetener and moisture, so do not cut it and the sugar both. Coal count matters more than time: too many underneath and the bottom sets into a crust before the middle cooks.
Packing
Premix the spices and sugar in one bag, cornmeal and powdered milk in another. Raisins in a third. Syrup in a leakproof bottle. Eggs are the only thing needing a cooler.
Variations
- Powdered whole egg rehydrated with 1/4 cup water drops the cooler requirement entirely.
- Swap raisins for chopped dried apple and cut the sugar to 2 tbsp.
- Leftover squares wrap in foil and reheat on a grill grate the next morning.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/breakfast_cornbread-1950.asp