Dutch Oven Burger, Beans, and Biscuits
Ground beef and baked beans under a lid of biscuit, cooked over coals.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 51
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 250 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Lean ground beef | 2 lb | rides in the cooler, cook it the first night |
|---|---|---|
| Canned baked beans | two 2 lb cans | |
| BBQ sauce | 1 cup | |
| Ketchup | 1/2 cup | |
| Yellow mustard | 1/2 cup | |
| Onion | 1 small | chopped fine at home, bagged |
| Biscuit mix | enough for 12 biscuits | premeasured; add water at camp |
| Shredded cheddar | 1 cup |
Method
- Build a coal bed and set the 12-inch dutch oven over it hot, around 325F, most coals underneath.
- Brown the beef in the bottom of the oven, breaking it up. Pour off the grease if there is much.
- Stir in the beans, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, and onion. Lid on, coals pulled back to a low 275F, 15 minutes.
- While that goes, mix the biscuit dough with about 250 ml of cold water. Stiff, not runny.
- Stir the beans, then drop the dough across the whole surface so no beans show through.
- Move most of the coals to the lid and bake covered 30 minutes, until a biscuit splits dry in the middle.
- Scatter the cheese over the top, lid back on for two minutes to melt, then serve out of the pot.
This is a car-camping meal, not a pack meal. Two pounds of beef and two large cans are heavy and wet, so it stays where a vehicle goes. What it buys is one pot feeding eight with no side dishes.
The biscuit lid is the part that needs attention. Dough dropped on hot beans steams from below and bakes from above, so the coals have to move to the lid or the middle stays raw. Cheese goes on at the end, after the biscuits set, otherwise it burns against the lid instead of melting.
Packing
Beef and cheese live in the cooler. Beans, sauces, and the premeasured biscuit mix are shelf-stable and can be packed weeks ahead. Chop the onion at home so camp is only stirring.
Variations
- Swap the beef for a pound of dehydrated ground beef rehydrated in hot water, and the whole thing goes cooler-free.
- Canned chili beans in place of one can of baked beans cuts the sweetness.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/burger_beans_biscuits-582.asp