Dutch Oven Camp Stew
Beef, potatoes, and root vegetables in one heavy pot over coals. Long, slow, unattended.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 37
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 75 min
- total time
- 90 min
- water
- 1000 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.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Stew beef | 2 lb | cubed and trimmed at home, kept cold |
|---|---|---|
| Baby potatoes | 1.5 lb | halved, skin on |
| Carrots | 3 large | diced thick so they survive the simmer |
| Celery stalks | 3 | diced |
| Yellow onion | 1 large | diced |
| Garlic | 4 cloves | minced |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | |
| Rosemary | 1 stalk fresh, or 1 tsp dried | |
| Beef stock | 4 cups | boxed, or bouillon and water |
| Bisto or other gravy granules | 3 tbsp | mixed with a little cold water first |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build the fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flames. Set the Dutch oven on the grate.
- Brown the beef with the onion and garlic in the dry pot. Work in two batches if the pot is crowded. Scrape the stuck bits up as you go; that is most of the flavor.
- Add the potatoes, carrots, celery, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper.
- Pour in the stock. Stir the gravy granules into a few tablespoons of cold water until smooth, then add that too.
- Lid on, hold a low simmer over the coals for at least an hour. Stir every fifteen minutes and check the coals. Rake a few more under the pot if it stops bubbling.
- Done when a knife slides into a potato with no resistance. Thin with extra stock if it tightened up too far.
This is a low-and-slow pot meal, which makes it a camp recipe rather than a trail recipe. The point of the Dutch oven is thermal mass: once the cast iron is hot, coals hold it at a steady simmer for an hour without anyone watching. That is what breaks down the connective tissue in cheap stew beef. Rush it on a high flame and you get gray cubes that fight back.
The gravy granules do the thickening. Slurry them in cold water first or you will spend the next ten minutes chasing lumps around the pot. Everything else is standard: brown the meat for the fond, add the hard vegetables early, and pull it when the potatoes give. It reheats well the next morning, which is the real argument for making six servings.
Packing
Cube and trim the beef at home and freeze it flat in a bag; it thaws in the cooler over the drive and doubles as ice. Chop the vegetables at home too and pack them in one bag. Herbs, salt, pepper, and gravy granules go in a small tin so you are not hunting for four containers by the fire.
Variations
- Swap the beef for a can of chunked chicken or a pouch of tuna if you did not bring a cooler, but add it at the end so it does not shred.
- A splash of red wine or dark beer in place of a cup of the stock deepens it.
- Dried onion, dried carrot, and freeze-dried ground beef turn this into a backpacking version. Rehydrate 20 minutes before cooking.
https://campfirefoodie.com/dutch-oven-camp-stew-recipe